Okay, name of tonight's message
is Life from Death. And tonight we'll be in the final
message on the series of Elijah. This is it. We'll be finishing
up this series. Hasn't it been wonderful? Oh,
it's been so wonderful, so profitable. So blessed, yeah, to have went
through this. And we've watched as we went
through this study. We've watched and seen on display
the wonder-working power of our great God, haven't we? Through
these miracles that were wrought by God through Elijah. And always
remember that these miracles were wrought by God. Elijah was
just a vehicle, that's all. He was just a vehicle used by
God, just as a preacher's just a vehicle used by God to proclaim
the gospel. And it's amazing that God uses
sinners to preach to sinners. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my,
save sinners to preach to sinners. And then the Lord uses those
words and uses a preaching of the gospel to save his people
from their sins. To let them know that Christ
has already accomplished the work. And then God sends the
spirit of his son into our hearts. And what do we cry now? Abba
Father. Abba Father. Oh my. Let's get
into our text tonight. 2nd Kings chapter 13. We'll be
looking at the death of Elijah. 2nd Kings chapter 13. We're going
to read verses 14 to 21. And we see here in verse 14,
Now Elijah was fallen sick of his sickness, whereof he died.
And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept
over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot
of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And Elijah said unto him, Take
bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and
arrows. And he said to the king of Israel,
put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it.
And Elijah put his hand upon the king's hands. And he said,
open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elijah
said, shoot. And he shot. And he said, the
arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance
from Syria. For thou shalt smite the Syrians
in Epekek till thou have consumed them. And he said, take the arrows. And he took them. And he said
unto the king of Israel, smite upon the ground. And he smote
thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth.
And said, thou shouldest smitten five or six times. Then hadst
thou smitten Israel till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now
thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. So he said, take the rest of
the arrows out of your quiver and smite the ground. Well, you
think that he had to smite until Elijah told him to stop, right?
But he didn't. He didn't. He only smoked three
times. My oh my. And Elijah died. Elijah's a man just like you
and I. And the soul that sinneth it shall die, right? This is
the end of all men. We have a birth date and we have
an appointment with death. And this is Elijah's appointed
time to die. And the bands of the Moabites
invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to
pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band
of men, this being the Moabites, the Israelites, where they were
bringing, there was pallbearers, I guess, carrying this guy to
a grave, and they spied the Moabites. Thankfully, the Moabites didn't
spy them, because they would have killed them all. But they
spied him. So what they did, they dropped
the body into a tomb, the closest tomb. They rolled the stone away
and threw that body into a tomb. They didn't know it was Elijah's
grave. They just pitched it into the nearest tomb. And it came
to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied
a band of men, and they cast the man into the sepulcher of
Elijah. And when the man was let down
and touched the bones of Elijah, he revived and stood up on his
feet." Oh, my. My, oh, my. What a miracle we
have here before us. A dead man is rolled into a tomb
And when he touches the bones of Elijah, he rises up. He rises up and is alive and
stands on his feet. My oh my. Could you imagine that
if we were carrying a guy, if all us guys were carrying a guy
and we saw those Mobites and we threw our buddy into the tomb?
And then took off and next thing you know he's coming into town. But notice this, too. Notice
this, though. There's no more talk about the men, and there's
no more talk about the men who rose from the dead. You know
why? Because they're not important. What's important here is that
this man touched the bones of Elijah, and God rose him up from
the dead. Raised this man from the dead.
Just like us. We have a touch of the Savior,
don't we? Right? come back from the dead, born
dead spiritually, you got it brother, born dead spiritually,
raised up in resurrection and life in Christ. And then our
bodies will be put in the ground and they'll be raised up too.
Because our King Rose, see, life from death. Right? Oh my, you
hit, you hit, you hit right on the head there Dave. The whole
theme of the message right there. So what a journey we've seen.
We journeyed with Elijah through many miracles that God performed
through him. Now we're at the end of Elijah's
natural life, but it's not the end, is it? Just the beginning. Amen, brother. When Donny Bell
called me when Sister Mary died, And he said, he called me like
two or three minutes after she died and said, she's more alive
now than she's ever been before. She's gone from the land of the
dead to the land of the living. That's where Sister Kathy is.
She's in the land of the living. Praising God, man. No more health
issues, nothing. Just praising our great God in
the land of the living. My, oh my. So here, Elijah dies,
but that's not the end, is it? He's gone off into glory, beloved.
And here lies the miracle prophet. He, by the power of God, has
healed the sick, raised the dead, and here he is on his deathbed.
He's on his deathbed. And the power to, now the power
to heal is big money, isn't it? Big money. My oh my. You know, they bought, they followed
Christ because of his healings and because of the things that
he did. He says, you follow me to the folks in the New Testament.
He said to some of them, you follow me because your bellies
are getting full. My oh my. And you know, miracle,
supposed healings are huge even nowadays, right? You got these
charlatans making tons of money. But when you ask them to go to
the children's hospital, which is the, if we, would not that
be the first place we would go if any of us had the power to
heal? Would we not go run into the children's hospital and the
cancer wards and put our hands on people if we had that power? And I'll tell you what, you would
never have to worry about money. You would never have to worry
about money. You wouldn't have to ask for it. Right? My oh my. But it's big
money nowadays. Oh my. But those folks are nothing
but charlatans. These false healers, you know
they can't even heal themselves. They can't even heal themselves.
My oh my. They give no glory to God. They
only give lip service to God. And they steal the glory from
God for anything that they claim to do. You know, one guy back
when I was growing up, you guys might remember this, before I
was even saved, this fella said, if you don't give me $8 million,
God's gonna kill me. You remember that? Remember that,
Dave? You guys might remember that? I think it was Oral Roberts,
wasn't it him? Yeah. Give me $8 million or God's
gonna kill me. Well, God's gonna kill you one
way or another. Whether people gave you $8 million or not, he's
dead now, right? Ralph Bernard has a sermon on
sermon audio. It's called The God Who Kills
People. Oh my. I'll tell you what, what a message.
God is the holder of life and death. He's the one who holds
life and death, beloved. And every one of us has an appointment. I tell folks all the time, I
have an expiration date. You know, all our food's got
them expiration dates. That's just foreshadowing what we are.
We all got an expiration date. We don't know what it is, but
we got an expiration date where we're gonna be gone, just like
that. Right? It's true, isn't it? It's true. It really is. But these false teachers, they
get a toothache, where do they go? They go to the dentist. They
need something repaired, like an arm or something, they go
for surgery. Man, they blow a hip out, they
get a hip replacement. They're just false charlatans,
that's all they are. But note here in our text, Elijah
didn't even attempt to heal himself. You notice that? He's resigned
to God's will. Yeah, and he knows where he's
going, but he's resigned to God's will. He's not begging God, oh,
please heal me, right? No, he's resigned himself to
God's will. And there's been many times we've
seen in this study where he's under threat. Remember the Syrians
surrounded the whole city that he lived in? And he says, his
servants go, oh, we're going to die. He says, there's more
for us than against us. There's an innumerable amount
of angels all around them. Remember? Remember that king
wanted to go lop his head off? during that siege, and he said,
I'm gonna go take that head right off Elijah. Yeah, he's just,
he's chilling, as Zane said. I like that. He was chilling
with his friends in his house. That's wonderful. He was just
relaxed. He was resigned to God's will.
Whether he lives, or now we see, whether he dies, he's resigned
to God's will. And you know, that's something
that God does when we're born again. You ever notice that?
Now, like you said, brother, death is a doorway to glory. And no matter how much, now,
I want to take care of myself, but no matter how much I take
care of myself, on the day that God's ordained for me to die,
I'm leaving this world, beloved. Right? I'm gone. And there's not a doctor
in this world who's going to keep me here. There's not a medication
in this world that's going to keep me here. I'll be gone. And I won't be a gone Jesse running
the other way. When you got a fight and that
gone Jesse takes off on you. Oh, we'll be gone up to glory,
beloved. Gone up to glory. Rejoice and praise in our King,
man. Amen. In the presence of our
great God. So he didn't attempt to heal
himself. He'd seen his day. He's ready to leave this world.
He's ready, beloved. Remember Paul said that he desired
to depart, but it's better for him to be here. Right? He knew that at the time that
he was to die, that there was no mistake and he was going to
die. The scripture says it's appointed on men once to die.
That's an appointment. That's a time set. Now, this
is Elijah's set time. This is the time, as it is pointed
out, the man wants to die, but after this, the judgment. Now,
Elijah is in Christ. Right? But Christ is going to
die for him 2,000 years from our time. But is he still in
Christ? Yeah. He's chosen in Christ. from before the foundation of
the world. But in time and space, he must
be redeemed, right? So our King comes into this world,
and the same time he redeemed Elijah, Brother Dave, he redeemed
David, and Wayne Boyd, and Brian, and Zane, and Linda. Same time. Same time he redeemed
all the prophets we read about. Same time he redeemed them. Same
time he redeemed us. Because we're crucified with
Christ, aren't we? Nevertheless, we live. Right? It's true. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's
wonderful. Now, Elijah, we don't have any
idea of totally knowing how old he was, but he was obviously
an older man, because we know that by looking at the amount
of kings that passed and stuff. Some, I think it was Hawker,
said he's probably in his 60s or 70s, at least. But we also don't even know how
old he was when he was called to his prophetic office. The scripture's silent about
that. So the scripture's silent on how old he was when God called
him, and the scripture's silent on how old he was when he passed
away. We know that he's working in
his dad's field, so he's a man, he's a man working in his dad's
field. Yeah, amongst the servants, he's working right there with
them. So we know he was a young man. But again, we're not told what
the age was, and then we're not told the age of his dying either.
A.W. Pink says this though, he says,
if we total up the years with the various kings who reigned
over Israel, who were all outlived by Elijah, beginning with Ahab,
it would be, seem to be that he was a very old man. That's
all they say. Yeah, nobody really guesstimates.
Like I said, Hawker took a guess, but even then he was very vague
with it. So when the scripture's silent,
what? We're silent, right? That's what
we, we just know. The natural course of man is
to die. And this is the time for Elijah to die. Turn if you
would to Psalm 31. We'll read a portion over here,
which will encourage us. We know that, we don't know how
long he accompanied and ministered to Elijah, even before Elijah
was taken up to heaven. That's not even told us either.
But we do know that our times are in the hands of the Lord.
Do you know that? Our times are in the hands of
the Lord. You know, on the great ocean
of Providence, we're not like driftwood. You know, driftwood
just goes with the waves, right? Do you know we're not like driftwood?
Watch this. This is wonderful. Psalm 31,
starting in verse 14. But I trusted in Thee, O Lord.
I said, Thou art my God. Can we say that? If you can say
that, you say that by God's grace, don't we? Isn't that wonderful?
Oh, my. But I trusted in Thee, O Lord.
And we're still trusting in Him, aren't we? We're still trusting
in Him. And, O Lord, there is old Jehovah. I said, Thou art
my God, my Elohim, my strength, my life. Now look at this next
verse. Look at this. My times are in
thy hand. Does that mean every second?
Yep. Does that mean from conception?
Yep. That means before that too, right
brother? Yeah. That means from before
the foundation of the world. Our times, look at that, are
in whose hand? Thy hand. Well, who is he just
spoke of? He spoke of Jehovah Elohim in the verse right there.
the self-existent one who is our strength. My times are in
thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of mine
enemies and from them that persecute me. How many times has he done
that for us, beloved? Multiple times. Now, the sovereign
authority of providence holds in his own power all the issues
of our life. They're all in God's hands. That's
what he's saying here. My times are in thy hand. All
the issues of my life are in your hands, Father. And in His
power. Again, we're not like driftwood
upon the ocean of Providence. Driftwood just goes wherever,
wanders around wherever the waves take it, right? No, we are steered
by infinite wisdom. Steered by infinite wisdom, beloved. towards our desired haven, which
is our rest. We're being steered by the hand
of Providence, Brother Zane. We're not aimlessly drifting
around. He's steering us home. My, sometimes the road might
be a little rough, right? But you know, he clears the path
before us, doesn't he? Right? Remember the cities of
refuge? What the priests used to do? They had to go out and
they had to clear all the rocks. All the rocks from that road.
I remember Henry Mahan said, that's like preachers going out
and preaching the gospel. All the rocks are removed. Trust
Christ. Trust Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Yeah, he's the rock. He's the
city of refuge. Right? Oh my, it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. You know
that God's providence is a soft pillow for anxious hearts. It's
a soft pillow for anxious hearts. And you know what else it is
too? You know what God's providence?
It's a grave for our cares. It's a grave. Bury them. Bury
our cares. Bury our concerns. Bury our anxiety. Bury our worries in the grave
of God's providence. Give it to Him. Give it to Him,
beloved. My, oh my. And you know what it'll do? That'll give us joy. That'll
give us peace. Says they are delivering me from
the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me.
How many times have we seen that in our lives? God delivering
us from our enemies. It's incredible. God bringing to naught the plans
of the wicked against us. And it's all according to his
mercy and all according to his grace, beloved. Now, is it lawful
for us to desire to escape from persecution? Absolutely. But
we have to be resigned to the Lord's will, don't we? If it's
the Lord's will, and when that may not be granted to us, that
which we desire, you know what will carry us on? Sustaining
grace, sustaining mercy, sustaining love. And we have have we not
brother brian tasted that the lord is gracious We've tasted
that haven't we? He's so sweet. He's so gracious
to us. He's so wonderful to us. We've
tasted it And he will deliver us In his time and in his way
Sustaining us all through whatever comes our way and eventually
enabling us to laugh, to scorn the fury of our foes that was
against us. Oh my. I'll tell you what, he
takes it serious protecting his sheep. He takes it serious protecting
his church. And we're the church. We have
a building we're in here, but you and I, the people, the ecclesia,
we're the church. And God protects his own, doesn't
he? And we've seen it, haven't we? We've seen it. Oh my. Look what it says here. Look
at this. Look at verse 16. Make thy face
to shine upon thy servant. Oh, how does he do that? Just
by giving us glimpses of his love. Right? You read the scripture and the
Holy Spirit illuminates it and your heart fills with joy. Save
me for Thy mercy's sake. Oh God, have mercy upon me. Remember
the publican? God, have mercy upon me. Oh my. This is our heart's cry, isn't
it? For Thy mercy's sake, for Your
glory, for Your honor, for Your praise, Father, that our lips
may praise Thee. It says, let me not be ashamed,
O Jehovah. for I have called upon thee."
Who have we called upon, Brother Dave? We've called upon Jehovah,
haven't we? We've called upon the self-existent
One who needs no one or nothing, who has no one to say, you can't
do this. That's who we call upon, Brother. Oh, my, oh, my. Let me not be
ashamed, O Jehovah, for I've called upon thee. Let the wicked
be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. my let the lying lips be put
to silence it would speak grievous things proudly and contempulously
against the righteous oh how great is thy goodness oh we it's
so great that we can't even define it can we it's it's indescribable but it's
so great It's so glorious. It's so wonderful. Oh, how great
is thy goodness. Can't be measured, and the depths
of it can't be found. And yet it's set upon all of
us as his people. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. My. Look at this. Oh, how great is
thy goodness which is laid up for them that fear thee. Do you
fear God? And I don't mean a slavish fear. I mean a reverent fear. A fear
of awe and wonder at who he is. Oh, that's the fear of the Lord
is what? The beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and
instruction, don't they? Oh, my. Which now is wrought
for them. Look at this. Look at this. Oh,
how great is thy goodness, which thou has laid up for them that
fear thee, look at this, which thou has wrought for them that
trust in thee before the sons of men. His goodness is so great,
brother Dave, to us, and it's manifested in our lives every
day so that everyone can see it. Oh my, for his glory. Yeah. Not for us to glory. We
got nothing to glory about, do we? Are we not just receivers
of this, beloved? We're just receiving this mercy
and grace, aren't we? In Christ Jesus our Lord. It's
wonderful. Oh my. Look at this. Thou shalt hide
them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of men, and thou
shalt keep them secretly in the pavilion from the strife of tongues.
Oh my. Do you know we're kept by God
in the secret of his presence? If we're kept in the secret of
his presence, right, and the everlasting arms are around us,
can any foe harm us? See that's why he says, don't
fear a man who can destroy your body, but fear him who can destroy
both body and soul in hell. Blessed now, okay What do we
say now blessed be the Lord? Blessed be Jehovah for his great
goodness to us this you can just see the psalmist It's just working
up to this and it just this just comes out of his heart After
penning those words, he just says blessed be the Lord for
he has showed me his marvelous kindness in the strong city Who's
the strong city? That's Christ. I That's Christ,
beloved. He's a refuge, isn't he? He's
a refuge in a time of storm. He's the city of refuge that
we run to, beloved. For I said in my haste, I am
cut off before thine eyes. Nevertheless, thou heardest the
voice of my supplication when I cried unto thee. Remember Elijah?
Remember Elijah? I'm the only one left, Lord. We can get like that too, can't
we? All the time. And look what he says to us though.
Look at David's rightness. For I said in my haste, I said,
O Lord, I said this in haste, please forgive me. I am cut off
from before thine eyes. Nevertheless thou heardest the
voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee, O love Jehovah,
O love the Lord, all ye saints, Here's a charge for you. Oh,
love the Lord, all you saints. Here's a charge for me. Oh, love
the Lord, all you saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful
and plentiful, rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage,
and he, and he, God, shall strengthen your heart. All ye that hope
in the Lord. I'll tell you what, that makes
me want to shout, beloved. Are you hoping in the Lord? Is
He your hope? He's our only hope, isn't He?
He's our only hope, beloved. We don't have any other hope.
Now God, if He wills, can recover people from sickness. Here's
Elijah. He's on the bed of affliction. His death is near. If God willed
it, He could heal him, right? Right? Our dear sister Kathy,
her cancer's in remission. Our dear brother Dan's going
through treatments. We pray that his cancer will be in remission.
and be gone. Right? And I know, I'm talking
to them, they just left it in the sovereign's hand. They're
leaving it in God's hands. What a testimony. My goodness.
It's incredible to see, to hear. It's amazing. And God may, He may recover,
and He can recover people from sickness. He's done it many times,
hasn't He? But sooner or later, On comes
something from which we will never recover. From which we will never recover.
From which there's no deliverance. It is that time, it is that time
that is appointed by God, and it would be good in that time
if we would be like Elijah. And God gives grace during those
times, doesn't he? He gives dying grace. And he
also gives grace to the ones who care for the dear beloved
who's passing. He gives grace and strength in
time of need, doesn't he, as scripture says. Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain grace
to help in time of need. My strength is sufficient. And it's in our weakness, beloved.
That's the amazing thing. In our weakness, he's strong.
See, it's the opposite of what the world thinks. The world thinks
you've got to be strong, you can't be weak. But in our weakness,
every believer goes, I'm so weak, I need Christ. I need Him all
the time. Right? He told me. He told me in the scripture that
I read that without Him, I can do nothing. And we say, Amen,
don't we? We say, yes, Lord. It's so. I will. Yeah. My. And have thine own way, Lord,
have thine own way. Right? He's the potter, we're
the clay. Right? Oh my. So think of the miracles which
Elijah saw. He'd witnessed his predecessor
being carried to glory, his mentor being cleared to glory on a chariot
of fire. He told the truth, the mighty man at the jeopardy of
his own life. He saw the widow's son raised
from the dead. He saw God's power in making the bitter water sweet
in Jericho. He saw innumerable number of
angels surrounding him and protecting him from his enemies. He saw
a deadly stew made edible. A deadly stew made edible. Oh
my. He saw the widow's son saved
from slavery. Remember the widow that had two
sons? And remember the oil that never
stopped, never drained? He saw that. My, oh, my. He saw God in his power, again,
make the bitter water sweet. He saw the deadly stew made edible
by God's power. He saw the widow's sons saved
from slavery by God's power. And the oil to continue to fill
up many pots He saw that. He saw the great deliverance
of God's people. Remember the Syrians that surrounded
that city? Remember? And God made a sound at night,
and they ran off. And those old lepers, remember,
they're, whoa, so much food. Remember, they said, well, whether
we stay here, we die. Whether we go inside, we die.
Or whether we go to the Syrians, we die. Let's go to the Syrians.
And God and his province had already scattered the Syrians.
And then they felt guilty. Remember? They're like, man,
how can we sit here and eat all this food? Right? And that's
like us when we receive the gospel, right? The good news of the gospel.
The great feast of the gospel. How can we just sit here and
we have to tell others, don't we? We have to tell others about
the great things Christ has done for us and that he can do for
sinners who come to him. Whosoever. Remember? We saw that
in Acts. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. My, that's good news,
isn't it? That's wonderful. That's wonderful. So now we see the servant of
God, he's sick unto death, soon to be taken to his eternal rest,
though, and eternal joy. And why will it be that? Because he'll be in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of that. Heaven's heaven
because of Christ. That's why it's happening, because
that's where our Savior is. And you know what? It's also
a land of eternal day, too, isn't it? There's no more night, and
there's no more sin. So Elijah he's ready He's ready
to leave this sin-cursed world And go to be in the presence
of our great God My he's ready to see the one who's going to
ransom his soul. Oh my by the shedding of Christ's blood at
Calvary's cross and Let's now look at the lamentations of Joash,
they're the same words that Elijah spoke as he watched Elijah ascend
into glory. Look at this in verse 14. Now
Elijah was fallen sick of the sickness wherever he died, and
Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his
face and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof. These words of Joash are in part
spoken of as a lamentation of his own soul, but they're also
the words that Elijah spoke or Elisha spoke to Elijah. My oh my. And we see right away
now that Elijah, he's sick, the sickness is unto death, but we
see right away, he immediately assumes his role as prophet,
even though he's weak, and even though he's infirm, even though
he's near to death. He shows himself capable of encouragement
and anger too, because he gets mad at Joash. Look at this in
verses 15 to 19. And Elijah said unto him, take
bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and
arrows. And he said to the king of Israel,
put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it.
And Elijah put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said,
open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elijah
said, shoot. And he shot. And he said, the
arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance
from Syria. For thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou
have consumed them. And he said, take the arrows.
And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, smite
upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed.
And the man of God was wroth with him and said, thou should
have smitten five or six times. Then hadst thou smitten Syria
till thou hadst consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite
Syria but thrice. So he only struck three times.
So the prophet said, you're only gonna defeat Syria three times.
If you had done it six times, you would have defeated them
six times. And we see that Elijah told Joash
to take up a bow and arrow. And as Joash took the bow, Elijah
put his hands on the hands of Joash. Now, one might ask, why
did he do that? Why did he do that? Well, he
did this to signify that the destination of the quarrel of
the arrow and the success of it was in the hands of the Lord.
It's in the hands of the Lord. It's not in the skill of Joash
or the strength of Elijah. Elijah is so weak. It shows us
that the destination of that arrow is in the hands of the
Lord. Remember that stone that hit
Goliath right between the eyes? Same thing, right? David flung
that stone, but that stone was divinely, it was controlled right
into the head of Samson. Goliath and Goliath went down
like a ton of bricks, didn't he? Dead. Struck dead. My oh my. So after the opening
of the window facing eastward, Elijah told Joash to shoot and
then the divinely guided missile flew to its preordained target,
right? Hit right where it's supposed
to hit. My oh my. See, everything changes now when
we look at the perspective of God's providence. It hit right
in the part of the ground where it was supposed to. Oh my. And Elijah told Joash,
The meaning of what has been done, that Joash would defeat
the army of Syria, and we know it's all by the power of God,
right? All by the power of God. And right now, Syria's arrayed
against them. So he goes to Elijah, not just
to say goodbye to Elijah, but he desires something. He desires this, he desires deliverance
from Syria. He desires deliverance from Syria.
He has feelings for Elijah. That's evident by what he said.
But he also going there because he wants to be delivered from
Syria. His words were sincere, but what's
apparent is that he came to Elijah for help against Syria. And what
follows shows us that he was a little less zealous than he
should have been. He should have been more zealous.
Because we see in verse 18 that Elijah tells Josh, take all the
arrows. Take them all, right? And smite the floor with them.
Look at this. And he said, take the arrows, and he took them.
He got all the arrows. And he said unto the king of
Israel, smite upon the ground, and he smote thrice and stayed.
Now you would think that he'd just keep going, right? Till Elijah said, okay, stop. Right? But he was a little less zealous
than he should have been. Brother Tim James says this,
Elijah's reaction requires us to read between the lines and
refers to Joash's response to the requirement. Since he came
up short on the smiting, it appears that he was less than enthusiastic
in his obedience. He's a little less enthusiastic
about being obedient to what he's been told to do. He might
even think, that's kind of foolish. We don't know. We don't know
his mind. But he might have thought that. He's not given a number. And the good news of his upcoming
victory, you imagine if Elijah said, Dave, you're going to defeat
Syria. You're the king. You're going to defeat Syria.
Man, you'd be wild. So he said, okay, that's it,
right? We would think we would do that, right? But again, it's
ordained by God that he'd only do it three times, but it just
shows you that he was a little, he wasn't as enthusiastic as
he should be. Brother Jim James said, though
he was not given a number, the good news of his upcoming victory
ought to have filled his veins with a surge of adrenaline, and
thus he would have continued thrashing the arrows on the floor
until he was told to stop. Oh, let's read verse 19. There
it is. Elijah's half dead. He's almost
dying, and he gets mad at him. It's the flesh, eh? Oh my. And
the man of God was wroth with him and said, Thou should have
smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria till
thou has consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but
thrice. So we see his lack of enthusiasm
became a prophecy in itself. Elijah the prophet and patriot
of Israel by his anger revealed the heart of Joash and his lack
of dedication that cemented the limited number of battles in
which he would prove victorious. Now let's read verse 20. Elijah was spent. He was spent. He was done. His appointment with death has
come. And the scripture declares in
2 Kings 13.20, and Elijah died. The natural end of all men and
women and children. He died. He died. And they buried him, and the
bands of Moabites invaded the land at the coming of the year.
He died. His work was done. His purpose
was accomplished. The miracle prophet goes to his
long-awaited home and awakes in the arms of Christ. My. Now when we die here, we're immediately
ushered into the presence of the Lord as God's people. Immediately. I'm telling you,
right away. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's
wonderful, isn't it? Praise be to God. And Elijah's
name will be employed again and again in the New Testament as
our Lord and His disciples refer to the things that He did and
the things that He said, which proves He being dead yet speaketh,
right? He being dead yet speaketh. And
His words and deeds are as iron. And we see that He died and they
buried Him. Now those two in verse 20, not
long after Elijah dies, Israel has a second enemy the moabites
have invaded My oh my several commentators say this is Could
be because of god's judgment upon the people because they
went into heathenism again But we see here And the band of moabites invaded
the land of the coming in Of the year that's at the first
of the year when the when the fields are plenty when there's lots of cattle in
the fields. Remember, Israel's timetable
for winter is not the same as ours, right? My oh my. Marvel here at verse 21 now. A group of Israelites are taking
a friend who's died, and they're going to go bury him. And these
Moabites, they came in bands of marauders. And they roamed
across the land and just killed and pillaged across whatever
they came to. Here's these guys, they're taking
their friend to the grave. And they see in the distance
a band of marauders. Who would no doubt kill them
if they saw them. So what do they do? They cast their friend's
body, they roll the stone away, they cast their friend's body
into Elijah's tomb and they take right off. They take off. They didn't know
it was Elijah's tomb. And the Moabite marauders again
came for their yearly plunder in which they robbed and killed
and took what they wanted. And their merciless marauding
interrupted a funeral procession you see here. And the pallbearers
in fear of their life, they sought to quickly dispose of the body
and take right off. My oh my look at verse 21 and
the king the past As they were burying a man that behold they
spied a band of man And they cast the man into the sepulcher
of elijah And when the man was let down and touched the bones
of elijah, he revived and stood up on his feet This miracle was
wrought in a time of prevailing unbelief in the land to teach
a lesson to the faithless age As we hear see here something
that no heathen god could do Right? No heathen god can raise
the dead. They're just stone and wood.
And heathenism brings no comfort to the bereaved and sorrowing
spirit. Christ alone, beloved, brings
life. Christ alone brings life. Christ
alone brings immortality through the gospel. And none but the
Lord Jesus Christ, none but the Lord Jesus Christ has dared to
say, I am the resurrection and the life. None but him. And he
said that because he's the God-man. He's the one in whom all life
is. Oh my, he's the giver of life
and he's the taker of life too, isn't he? He's the giver of eternal
life because He rotted out by the shedding of His precious
blood at Calvary's cross. He redeemed His people from their
sins. And then the Holy Spirit regenerates
us and gives us faith to believe. And now we learn more and more
the things that we could never learn before, the things that
we never knew, that Christ died for us, that we have a home in
glory because of Him, that we're saved from all our sins. That
God's law and justice has no hold upon us anymore. That we're
free in Christ. Oh, what a happy condition. In
the language, note that the language in this verse is very plain.
It's not hard to understand, is it? And it came to pass, as
they were burying a man, that, behold, they saw a band of men,
marauders, Moabite marauders, and they cast the man into the
grave, the sepulcher, the tomb of Elijah. And when the man was
let down, and when he touched the bones of Elijah, he revived
and stood up on his feet. Life from the dead. My, oh, my. Life from death. My! You know what this is here
to tell us, beloved? That Elijah's God is the God
of the Bible. He's the sovereign God over all
who alone has sovereign power over life and death. This last
miracle of Elijah proved once and for all that the power did
not belong to Elijah. It was not personal power, was
it? These fake faith healers, they brag about
this power. They got no power at all. They're
charlatans. But even one who had the power
didn't say it was his, because it wasn't his, was it? It's God's
power. And he gave glory to God. And
this last miracle proved that. He's dead. He's dead. Power didn't belong to Elijah.
It wasn't personal power. No, this miracle power belongs
to the Lord, just as salvation's of the Lord. Salvations of the
Lord. This is why we read how Paul's
shadow, we're going to read that in the book of Acts, Paul's shadow
healed many, as did the cloth with which he wiped his brow.
But miracles are the sole property of the Lord, aren't they? They
come about by His power. Do you know we're miracles of
the Lord? And it came about by His power, didn't it? He saved
us. Couldn't save ourselves. Can
dead men do anything? We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. Do lifeless bones possess life
or power? No, they're just bones. So beloved
of God, I ask you, does this not point, does this not point
to the fact that eternal life is only found in the Lord Jesus
Christ and him alone? Is he raised from the grave,
we're gonna raise with him? And how do we rise? By the power
of God, don't we? By the power of God, by a miracle
of God. Elijah is a type of Christ, and we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God are reconciled to God by His death,
by Christ's death, by the death of God's Son. He, being Christ,
by His death hath destroyed death. And our reconciliation with God
only comes in the body of his flesh, being Christ, through
death, Colossians 1.22. This miracle not only pictures
the effectiveness of Christ's death, but it also teaches us
that the resurrection of those whom God has chosen is only in
Christ. Elijah's a picture of Christ.
He's a picture of Christ. Note too, it was when the man
touched the bones of Elijah that he revived. There was contact
before there was life. Think of this. Were we born 2,000
years ago? No. But listen to what Paul writes
here. I'm crucified with Christ. That means all of us, too. We
were crucified with Christ. We were in him. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live,
now I'm born again by the Holy Spirit of God. The life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. The Lord Jesus Christ
bore my sins. He bore, if you're a believer,
he bore our sins, beloved. And our sins have no damning
or condemning power over us anymore. None. And now the world's crucified
unto us. We can't go back to the world.
We're ruined for the world. And the world is ruined for us.
Glory be to God. Oh my. And what's our desire
now? To walk with him. to walk with
him in newness of life. It's the law of God. He's written
on our hearts now, not on tables of stone. It's written on our
hearts now, isn't it? Oh, Paul says, nevertheless I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. We live spiritually. And the nevertheless I live,
it's not the same I as from before, is it, brother? It's not the same I before we
were born again, Brother Brian. This I is the new man now. My,
nevertheless I live, yet not I. It's a new man, but Christ
liveth in me. We live spiritually. We have
a new man, a new creature. And this new man lives by faith,
lives by faith. Look into Christ for all things.
Look into Christ for pardon. Look into Christ for righteousness.
Look into Christ for peace. Look into Christ for forgiveness.
Look into Christ for joy. Look into Christ for the supply
of all grace. And beloved, if we've been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the
likeness of his resurrection. So marvel at this miracle set
before us and ask yourself, is anything too hard for God? Anything
too hard for God? Nothing. And let us remember
that we are dead to the things of the world, and our life is
hid with Christ in God. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter six. We're gonna close with this.
Faith is not power, you know, faith is not power. It's rather
the confession that we have no power, right? Faith is a confession
that we have no power. We believe in Christ. We confess
we have no power to save ourselves. It's a confession. Lord, I need
you. And the more we grow in our faith,
the more we realize we need him all the time. Oh, my. Moment by moment. Yes, brother. My. And we know now that he has all
power, and his power is not restricted. A man may have power in this
world, but it may be restricted by laws. It may be restricted
by certain things, and it's definitely restricted by God. But God's
power is not restricted, and it's not restrained. No one can say to him, what are
you doing? No one. And you know what else
it's not? God's power is never frustrated.
See, see, there's a God out there in religion. He's frustrated.
He wants to save people, but he can't. Yeah, he's bringing
his hands. Oh, my. Oh, my. That's not our God, beloved. Our God is not frustrated. Our
God's not restrained. Our God's not tied up. Our God
is sovereign and He rules and reigns and does whatever He pleases. And we leave here tonight, if
you're a believer, rejoicing in the fact that it pleased God
to save us. My, let's look at this in Romans
chapter six and we're close. My, oh my. My, oh my. Romans chapter six, verses one
to 10. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, Paul writes. How
shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? How
are we dead to sin? In Christ. He paid it all. My. Know ye not that so many
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory
of God, glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life. See, the same power that raised
Christ up is the same power that raised us up from our dead natural
state, born again by his almighty power. For, look at this, look
at this, this is wonderful. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, right? I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. We shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. Isn't that wonderful? That's,
that's incredible right there. It's just beautiful. Knowing
this, now here's something we know. That our old man is crucified
with him, with Christ. That the body of sin might be
destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. For he
that is dead is freed from sin. Dead men don't sin, do they? They're sinners. If they die
in their sins, they're sinners dead. But it says, but if we're
carrying a dead man, he don't sin, he's dead. Isn't that why? So we're to reckon
ourselves as dead to sin. Dead to sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. Oh, isn't that
wonderful? Look at that, Brother Dave. If we believe that, if
we believe we died with him, we believe we'll be raised again.
We're gonna live with him forever, brother. Oh my, it's wonderful. Knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more. No more death. We go to glory,
there's no more death, beloved. No more death. Death has no more
dominion over him. Death has no dominion over God's
people, except when we leave this earth, and that's it. There's
no sting anymore. Christ got all dominion over
death, doesn't he? He conquered death for us. For
in that he died, he died unto sin once. One time is all it
took for him to die for all the sins of all the elect of all
the ages. One time. It is amen. Finished. Right? That's it. It's done. Never to be repeated again. Oh, glory to God. For in that he
died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. And because he lives, we're going
to live, too. We're going to live, too. And
what do we say? Oh, glory be to God forever and ever. Amen
and amen. Oh my, oh my. It's wonderful. Absolutely, absolutely wonderful. Brother Dave, can you close us
in prayer?