In continuing our study of the
types, and I'm using 2 Kings chapters
1 through 13, we're going to look at Elisha, one of God's
prophets, as a type of Christ. And I purposely
skipped over Elijah. Elijah was first and a very great
prophet. In fact, on the Mount of Transfiguration,
there was two prophets that appeared with Christ who represented the
entire Old Testament, Moses, representing the law, and Elijah
as representing all of the prophets. But I purposely skipped over
Elijah because he's expressly revealed in the scripture as
a type of John the Baptist. the New Testament, and quite
a few scriptures. Let me give you some references
here to Elisha before I get into the study. 1 Kings 19, verses
16 through 19, and then 2 Kings chapter one through 13. So how is the beloved prophet
of God a type of Christ? Well, he's a type of Christ in
his appointment as a prophet. He's the prophet of God. God
said to Elijah, Elisha, the son of Shaphan, shalt thou anoint
to be a prophet in thy room, in thy stead. So he's appointed
of God And God revealed himself to Elijah and said, this servant
that's been following you around, I'm gonna anoint him as a prophet
in your stead. Now there's three main offices
appointed to Christ to fulfill the redemptive purpose of God.
And the first of those is prophet. This coming redeemer must, everything
that he's gonna do is sewn up in these three offices, prophet,
priest and king. And because no one could fully
typify the Lord Jesus Christ, these offices are often typified
by one person and one office at a time. And to recognize the
true prophet of God, the Lord said, if anything he prophesies
does not come to pass, take him out and stone him, he's not my
prophet. Everything he says must come to pass. Now you think about
that. That's a fearful thing, isn't
it? He's a prophet of God. But if
you start thinking about it a little bit, God's vision is not impaired. God sees perfectly. Time doesn't
have anything to do with his sight. His sight is eternal. It's all encompassing. He can
see everything and every time all at the same time. His vision
is not impaired. His foreknowledge is not incomplete. And in fact, everything that
happens in time has been decreed by God. And so what's that got
to do with it? Well, this prophet is a messenger
of this God. He's a messenger of this God.
And he bears the message of God to the people. And it could be,
I was thinking about this in our day and time, it could be
that the false impression that men have of God, talking about
his weaknesses and his ignorance and his failure to do certain
things, it could be that that image is projected by those who
claim to be his ministers. In fact, I know that it is. That's why people have such a
low opinion of God. Because they have a low opinion
of his messengers. And they projected that to the
people. In the scripture, to go against one of God's prophets
almost always meant certain death. Almost always. You didn't fly
up in the face of one of God's prophets. I don't care who you
were. I don't care if you was a king.
Didn't matter who you were. You didn't fly up into the face
of one of God's prophets. In 2 Kings chapter two and verse
23, God's prophet Elijah, Elijah had anointed him and he took
Elijah's mantle. He watched Elijah in that chariot
and that whirlwind took him right into glory. And he came back
and cast that mantle down and God split those waters of the
Jordan and he walked across on dry ground. And he was on his
way up to Bethel. And as he was going up to Bethel,
the children of the city came out. There was a whole bunch
of children, just a multitude of children. And they came out,
and they began to mock him. And they chanted, following behind
him. They kind of encircled him and
began to chant. And they said, go ye up, ye old
ball head. Go up, ball head. just chanting
and mocking and making fun of God's prophet. And Elisha turned
and cursed the children, and God caused two she-bears to come
out of the woods, and they tore to pieces 42 children. Tore them all to pieces. To act in an irreverent manner,
in a rebellious manner toward one of God's prophets almost
always resulted in death. You remember when Moses was confronted
by those three men? And they said, you got too much
on you, we're gonna help you out, and we know you're not willing
to do this, but we've already met and voted and this is what
we're gonna do. And Moses said, everybody's on
the Lord's side, line up over here. And everybody's on their
side, line up over there. And those ones who lined up behind
those three rebels, God took them everyone to hell, Barnard
said, with their shoes on. Took them, their cattle, their
children, swallowed them up. Swallowed them up with a great
earthquake. And just took them to hell with
their shoes on. And you can go on and on. Elisha
was sitting on a mountain one time and the king said, who is
this Elisha? And he pointed toward one of
his captains and he said, you take 50 men up there and you
get that man of God. And you bring him in here to
me and make him bow down before me. And those 50 men went out
and Elisha was by himself sitting up on top of a hill. And these
men come out and they said, are you Elisha? He said, yep. They
said, you the prophet of God? He said, if I be the prophet
of God, let fire fall from heaven and consume all of you. And it did. And the king was,
he was angry and he sent 50 more out with another captain. And
Elisha said the same thing and the fire fell from heaven and
consumed him. And so the king, he was really
mad now. He sent his last captain with
50 more, and they went out, and the captain of the 50, when he
saw Elisha, he said, Father, Father, the king has made us
to do that. We don't want to do this. We
don't want to be here. We're not trying to defile you
or defy you. So Elisha come with them with
that final 50. So he was a prophet. Jesus Christ, he was more than just a prophet,
he's the prophet. All of the information, all of
the wisdom of God, God has made him to be unto us wisdom. How
much wisdom? All wisdom. Wisdom, we'll go
on in eternity learning about God through him. He's all wisdom. Everything God has to say to
sinners, He says through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if we're commanded to respect one of those old prophets in
such a manner, how much more the Son of God? John tells us over in John 3,
I think it's verse 36, it's the very last verse of that chapter.
He said, he that heareth not the Son shall not see life. He that believeth not the Son,
he's not gonna see life, What's he gonna say? But the
wrath of God abideth on him. He is that prophet of whom Moses
wrote that God would raise up in the last day and in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then secondly, Elisha
is a type of Christ in his succession of Elijah. There were two men
seen by the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, I told
you that earlier, Moses and Elijah. And in these two men were represented
the whole of the Old Testament. And in one of the darkest days
of Israel, God raised up a prophet who was equal to the task, and
he was Elijah. Elijah, you think about Elijah. He took on Ahab, the king, and
Jezebel, and 400 prophets of Baal, and he took them on single-handed. And he laughed at them and mocked
them in their idolatry, and God exposed them false prophets for
what they were. And Elisha was his successor.
His successor, you think about Elisha, I was talking to Brian
earlier in the week about Elisha. Elisha had a double portion of
Elijah's spirit. A double portion, you think about
that. And it was Elisha that made the
iron to float in the river. Many things were done, Elisha
healed Naaman. Many things that Elisha did. But in Malachi 4, 5, it said,
behold, I'll send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And then in Matthew
11, the Lord began to tell his disciples about John the Baptist.
In verse 7, he said, what went you out into the wilderness to
see? A reed shaking in the wind? Is that what you went out to
see? What went you out to see, a man clothed in soft raiment? He said, behold, those who wear
soft raiment, they dwell in king's houses. What went you out to
see, a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is
written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. And if you will receive it, this
is Elijah, which was for to come. So both these men, they took the place of Elijah. John the Baptist, being in the
power and the spirit of Elijah, the Lord, succeeded. And so it was with Elisha. And as Elisha succeeded Elijah,
so John called into scripture Elijah was succeeded by Christ. And then thirdly, Elisha prefigured
Christ in his receiving of the spirit of his predecessor. He received a double portion
of the spirit of Elijah. Christ, on the other hand, received
the spirit without measure. Without measure. John the Baptist
was, according to Luke's gospel, filled with the Holy Ghost even
from his mother's womb. You remember when Mary, being
pregnant, came to visit her cousin Elizabeth and told her the good
news. And hearing that good news brought
by Mary to John's mother, he leaped in his mother's womb,
having heard that good news. And Christ, he received the Spirit
without measure. He is the Word made flesh. In
John 3.30, John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earth.
He speaks of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all and what he has seen and heard, that he testifies.
There are three that bear record in heaven, and that one who bore
record in heaven bore record on earth. He's the word made
flesh. And he that receiveth his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true. And you'll hear him,
believe him, and bow to him, or you'll die in your sins. You're
gonna believe who he is. Who He is, that's what, if you
preach the gospel, that's basically what I'm preaching every time
I stand up here and talk to you. I'm telling you who He is. Who
He is, this is the Son of God. This is God and man in one person. This is He who was appointed
from all eternity. I'm telling you who He is and
I'm telling you why He came. He came to save sinners. He came
to accomplish redemption. He came to fulfill the redemptive
purpose of God. And I'm telling you where He
is. He's seated at the right hand of God. I'm telling you
what He's doing right at this present time. He's making intercession
for us. Arranging all things and reigning
over all things. Jesus Christ is the brightness
of the Father's glory and the express image of his person.
I was looking at that word in the dictionary. That word express,
that's something we use when we say he's the express image. We're saying that means the exact
image and we got all these things that would go through your mind.
But the word express means simply to make known, to set forth. to manifest or communicate. But it also means to send by
special courier. You send things, you send them
sometimes, if it's very important, you send it express mail. That means it's gonna be sent
by a special courier. Well, how much more Christ, who
is the special courier of the gospel of God. God hath in these
last days spoken to us by his son. And the word express, it
says he is the express image of God over in Hebrews 1 verse
3. The word express and the word
image in Hebrews 1, 3 are both the same word in the Greek. They're
the very same word. The purpose of the Holy Spirit
is to reveal or manifest the person and work of Christ, and
so it is filling and fitting that he should receive him without
measure. And then fourthly, Elisha typifies
Christ as the great physician. A young Jewish maiden told her
master, who had leprosy, said, there's a prophet in Israel that
can heal leprosy. This man of God can heal leprosy.
And so this great man, this Naaman, he told the king that he served. And the king went to the king
of Israel and told him, I'm gonna send you my servant Naaman, you
gonna heal him from his, boy, he put that king under some pressure. But when you think about what
our Lord has done, He said the whole need not a physician but
the sick. And what he's telling them there
is I'm the physician. I'm the physician. Christ came into the world to
save sinners and leprosy is a disease known from the beginning of time
to represent sin. You think about leprosy in the
Old Testament, you think about sin. And even so, all that the
Lord healed, he saved from their sin. I don't know if you've ever
paid any attention to this, but over in Matthew chapter 9, they
brought to Christ a man sick of the palsy. I preached on this
one time. He was sick of the palsy. He
just shook and foamed at the mouth. He was in an awful shape.
He was so debilitated that they had to lay him on a bed. He couldn't
walk. He couldn't talk. And the Lord
said, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Now
everybody else, he said, be ye healed. Or rise up and walk. Or take up your bed and walk.
But not to this man. To this man, he said, be of good
cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And hearing what the Lord said,
describes, accused him of blasphemy. And the Lord, knowing their thoughts,
said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whither is
it easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or rise and walk? Now they thought that was an
easy thing to say, or rise and walk. But what he's saying, he's
saying which is easier. You know what the Lord's telling
them? They're both impossible. That's what he's telling them. You think you can just tell a
man, here he is, he's lying sick at the polls, he's been that
way for years and he can't walk, he's totally debilitated. You
think it's easier to say, rise and walk, than it is to say,
thy sins be forgiven thee? But I tell you this, if the Lord
says, rise and walk, your sins are forgiven you. He heals sinners, chosen sinners. And then let me say this while
we're on the subject. As God devised the means whereby
Naaman would be cleansed from his leprosy, even so Christ our
Lord often used means to heal the sick. He didn't need them,
but he had a purpose in it. And his purpose was to tell us
that God has put in place means whereby faith is given. That's what he's telling us.
All these healings and things are pictures of that, of the
sinner being forgiven. They're pictures of his sin,
and he's convinced of sin, and he brings himself as he is in
his illness to Christ, and Christ makes him whole. But often the
Lord, you remember over there in John chapter nine, he spit
on some clay. This was a blind man. He healed,
I don't know how many blind men never did use any clay. But this
guy did, he reached down, he raked him up some clay and he
spat in it and he made kind of like a poultice and put it on
his eyes and he said, now you go wash in a pool of silo and
you come again, you'll see. And he did, he did what the Lord
told him to do and sure enough, he come away with clear vision. Means are determined by the physician
who works and does as he pleases. And then fifthly, Elisha is a
type of Christ in that his ministry was attended by a wicked servant. Elisha had a servant who had
no real interest in God. He had no real interest in his
master, Elisha. Half the time he didn't know
what was going on. He was just there to get whatever
he could get. And in the end, he betrayed the
prophet. Naaman, after God cleansed him,
wanted to give gifts. He wanted to give gifts to Elijah,
and Elijah said, as the Lord liveth, I won't accept any of
your money. I don't want anything you got. You just go. You just go and be thankful God
healed you. And so he did. He left. And the servant, he
didn't like that. And so he took off after Elijah
went back in his tent. He took off after Naaman, and
he told Naaman, he said, my master don't want anything, but a couple
of the sons of the prophets have come along, and they're in need
of some things. So if you could just give me
two talents of silver, I'll take it and give it to them. And so
Naaman did. He gave him the two talents of
silver, and he came back. Elijah, being a man of God, understood
exactly what he'd done and confronted him with it. And he said, Naaman's
leprosy now be on you. And he cursed him with leprosy. He had a servant who had no real
interest in God. He had no real interest in the
ministry. He was just there to get what
he could get. And in the end, he betrayed the prophet. And
so it is with the servant of Christ, Judas. In John chapter
6 verse 70, he said, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one
of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the
son of Simon. For he it was who should betray
him, being one of the twelve. And as Gehazi's interest was
in the money, even so Judas, his interest was in the money
too. Over in John 12, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, took a pound
of ointment of spikenard and anointed the feet of Christ and
wiped His feet with her hair. And Judas Iscariot said, he said,
was not this ointment sold for 300 pence? Shouldn't it have
been sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? John 12, verse 6. This he said,
not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He'd
been stealing money all along. For he it was, he says, who carried
the bag. He was the treasure. He kept
track of the money, and he was a thief. He was a thief. So I hope looking at some of
these types and seeing these things that we've been talking
about will help you better see the person and work of our Redeemer.
These types are so clear in their pictures of Christ. And as we
go through, I'm trying to point out different things to you about
the work of Christ. And may the Lord bless His word
to our hearts and give us the understanding that we need to
trust Him. and praise him, and submit to
him, and rest in him, and rejoice in him. Thank you.