Turn to the second book of Kings
in chapter 2, 2 Kings chapter 2, we read the following from
verse 1. And it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah
into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from
Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha,
tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel.
And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul
liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth
to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will
take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yea,
I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah
said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath
sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came
to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets
that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest
thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head
to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know
it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry,
I pray thee, here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he
said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not
leave thee. And they two went on. And fifty
men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar
off. And they two stood by Jordan.
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smoked
the waters. And they were divided hither
and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground. And
it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto
Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away
from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou
hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me
when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee. But if
not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they
still went on and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot
of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder,
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it. And he cried, My father, my father,
the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw
him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes
and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank
of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and smote the waters and said, Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went
over. And when the sons of the prophets
which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit
of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. and they came to meet him and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. Came to pass as Elijah and Elisha
went on and taught that behold there appeared a chariot of fire
and horses of fire and parted them both for sunder and Elijah
went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Elijah is that remarkable prophet
of God of whom we read most about in the first book of Kings. In
the second book of Kings we read of how his ministry is succeeded
by Elisha who follows him. Both remarkable men of God greatly
used by the God who sent them to preach his gospel. Men sent of God, determined,
steadfast, devoted, men who cared not for their own gain, but for
the glory of God. men who knew persecution and
hardship, men who had the opposition of so many against them, men
who knew what it was to have their lives threatened, to face
death, and yet who were given that faith to stand before God
and not compromise his truth, even if it meant that they should
be persecuted unto the grave. We read of Elijah at the start
of his ministry saying, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before
whom I stand. As the Lord God of Israel liveth
before whom I stand. That was where he stood. That
was what shaped his ministry. He knew he stood before the living
God. He knew God had sent him. And he knew that if God had sent
him and God was with him, then man could do nothing to him,
though men may slay him. Yet as another said he would
still praise God. He was a burning fire in the
hand of God. A burning fire for the gospel. And this picture of fire follows
Elijah and Elisha throughout their ministries. Elijah in 1
Kings chapter 18 is brought to stand before the prophets
of Baal and brought to challenge them
to show whether their God be true or whether his God is true.
And the prophets of Baal tried to bring down fire from heaven
from their God and nothing came because they worshipped a dumb
idol. And yet Elijah took his sacrifice
and poured water all over it so that naturally it could not
burn. And when he called upon the Lord's
name, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice
and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water
that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is the
God, the Lord. He is the God. Here in chapter two of two Kings,
Elijah's ministry comes to a close and he's about to be taken up
to heaven to be with his Lord and master. And the other prophets
in the various places which he visits with Elisha in Bethel,
in Jericho, in Jordan, all come and say to Elisha, knowest thou
that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?
And Elisha said, yea, I know it. He knew that Elijah would
be taken. But when Elijah is taken, he
does not die as others die, but the Lord took him up into glory. and there appeared a chariot
of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder and
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven when he parted from
Elisha there were chariots and horses of fire here we see the
fire again fire likewise in chapter 6 when we read of Elisha standing
before the Syrians who come to attack Israel. We read that Elisha
prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee open the eyes of this young
man that he may see, that he may see that I do not stand alone,
though I am thy lone messenger to this people, that I am not
alone. that there are those in heaven
there are those in glory who stand with me. And the Lord answered
Elisha's prayer and the Lord opened the eyes of the young
man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha. A great army supported
the lone servant of God. In the natural sense he stood
alone in a world of opposition. But horses, spiritual horses,
and chariots of fire stood around him. Why fire? Why fire? Because fire speaks
of two great things. Firstly, the judgment and the
wrath of God. against sin and against evil
men. That wrath which came down upon
the sacrifice which Elijah offered, which demonstrated that God,
the God of Israel, is the one true and living God. and which
in type and figure pointed the people to that sacrifice which
was to come which God would send for sinners, even His only begotten
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God would give as a sacrifice
to die in the place of sinners, a perfect man in the place of
sinful men. the one man who never sinned,
the one man who could reach from God to men because he was both
God and man. God sent his son as a sacrifice. He sent him to the cross at Golgotha. He had him nailed to the cross.
He had him offered up as a sacrifice. And at the cross, God laid upon
him the sins of his people. And at the cross, he poured down
his fires of wrath and judgment upon his own son. the fires burnt him up and consumed
the sacrifice so that the sin and the sins of Christ's people
throughout all time should be taken away forever. so that the
judgment should be quenched, so that God's wrath should be
appeased, and so that His mercy and love and righteousness should
be made known to that people in saving their souls from condemnation. Have you looked and beheld upon
the sacrifice consumed by the fires of God? Yes, fire speaks
of judgment. But fire speaks also of righteousness
because that judgment was a judgment of righteousness. God must offer
his son as a sacrifice because he could not simply forgive our
sins by turning a blind eye to them. They must be dealt with
justly and righteously. His righteousness is such that
to save sinners their sins must be blotted out and judged that
he might make us perfect as those who no longer have sin. He cannot
overlook it. So judge it he must and if he
could not judge it in them because they would be destroyed in wrath
forevermore then he must judge it in a substitute and the only
one he could send as a substitute for sinners was his only begotten
son. The fire of righteousness. Elijah's
whole ministry pictured this. The judgment and the righteousness
of God. He began with fire and he was
taken up with a chariot of fire and horses of fire. He was a
burning fire. We read in the Psalms, God's
description of those whom he sends as his ministers, his messengers. It says in Psalm 144 that God
make of his angels his messengers spirits, his ministers a flaming
fire. flame in fire. Flames of fire
they burn brightly in a dark and an evil world and they make
known the righteousness of God because they are sent as preachers
of righteousness. Think of Moses when he's sent
forth to Egypt to deliver God's people. He's brought to stand
before a flaming bush, a burning bush which was never consumed. That bush which burnt under the
wrath of God, the judgment and the righteousness of God, that
bush which was a figure of Christ. Moses took the shoes off from
his feet for he stood on holy ground, he was beholding a figure,
a picture of his Saviour crucified, burnt up for him under God's
wrath. And yet as he beheld, he beheld
that the bush was not consumed, the sin was consumed, but Christ
was never. As God He would rise again from
the grave. He was slain upon the cross.
He was burnt under the wrath of God. Our sins were wiped out
in Him, destroyed in Him, condemned in Him. But He Himself had power
to lay down His life and power to take it up again. Yes, we see fire in Elijah's
ministry. And as we've seen in Elisha's
ministry also, when he stands as God's messenger, his prophet
before the people, and the chariots of fire are round about him,
the hosts of God round about him, he may be alone. He may simply stand declaring
the message of God but that message which he declared was a message
of righteousness, he was a preacher of righteousness, he preached
the gospel and there's a power in the gospel which brings forth
the horses and the chariots of fire of God's host. so that none
can stand against it no matter how great they are, no matter
how many in number they are. The world can fight against God's
gospel with all its might. The media and the governments
can condemn believers and condemn the truth and silence the sound
of it all they might. But they'll never take it away. They will never silence it. It
will always rise again because God is the one who speaks. He is as a lion who roars. And when he roars, people hear. when Elisha stood and preached
that gospel the power of that gospel went forth because therein
in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. Elisha his name means my God is salvation
And here, when Elijah is taken from him, and the mantle of Elijah
is sent down and falls upon Elisha, as the one who should follow
him, we see a tremendous picture of salvation. He's sent as a
messenger of salvation, he's sent to declare that God saves,
not man. Not us, not our works, not our
righteousness, not our decision, but God saves. God is salvation. God has done it all and will
do it all. God sent forth his Son to save
a people. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall. Not he shall attempt to save
all men from their sins if they will, but he shall save his people
from their sins. Christ came and laid down his
life for the elect, for his people, for the sheep, not for the goats,
and in laying down his life for that people he saved them. And all that remains to be done
is for the message of that salvation to come unto their ears by the
Spirit of God through the preaching of His gospel to make it known
and to bring them to the knowledge and assurance of that salvation.
But He saved them and He saves them and He sends His gospel
to make it known to them. And Elisha is sent to preach
it and his very name declares it. My God is salvation. He comes preaching the same message
that his master Elijah preached. And how we see his devotion to
Elijah and his ministry and the way in which Elijah walked. For
Elijah walked by the right way. I will lead them forth by the
right way. God says in Psalm 107, and Elijah
walked by the right way, not by his strength, not by his wisdom,
not because he worked out the right way to go, but because
God sent him and led him and said, go hear Elijah. Throughout this passage, we read
that Elijah says unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee, for
the Lord hath sent me to. The Lord hath sent me to Bethel. The Lord hath sent me to Jericho. The Lord hath sent me to Jordan. The Lord sent and called Elijah,
and sent him here, and sent him there, and Elijah went where
he was sent. God put faith in his heart, God
put the strength of grace in his bones, and God led him where
he sent him. and Elisha followed. Oh, how he follows his master. Elijah said unto Elisha, verse
two, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to
Bethel. But Elisha said unto him, as
the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
Later Elijah says unto Elisha, Tari, here I pray thee, for the
Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he says, as the Lord liveth
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came
to Jericho. Later Tari, here I pray thee,
Elijah says unto Elisha, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan.
And he said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will
not leave thee. And they too went on. How he follows his master. He will not leave him. He will
not be separated from him. He's one with him. Where he goes,
he goes. He's a follower, a disciple. He loves him. He loves his God. He loves his ways. He will not
leave him. this we see Elijah, Elisha pictured
as the disciple of Christ and Elijah here as Christ who leads
his disciples and Elisha will not leave Elijah as the disciple
as the child of God will not leave Christ and if Christ says
I am going to Bethel then the child of God says by faith then
I will go with thee to Bethel I will not leave thee Thou art the Son of the Living
God, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, which it does,
I will not leave thee. And when Christ says he will
go to Jericho, the disciple of Christ, his child says, I will
not leave thee, I am coming. And when he says, I will go to
Jordan, the child of God would long to go to Jordan too. Three times over Elijah says,
Tarry here, I am going here, the Lord has sent me here, and
three times over Elisha responds, I will not leave thee. Oh the
devotion, he will not let him go. Just as with Ruth and Naomi,
Ruth would not leave her mother-in-law Naomi. She loved her, and her
God, and her ways, and she would stay with her. And the disciples of Christ,
believers, when they've been brought to know who Christ is
and His salvation, they will not leave Him. When He says to
them, will you go away? They say unto Him, to whom else
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. To whom else shall we go? So
they follow. So they follow. First to Baffo,
then to Jericho, then to Jordan. Now what are these places to
which the Lord God sent Elijah and with him Elisha? What are
these places to which the Lord God sent Christ and with him
his bride and his children? First Bethel, then Jericho, then
Jordan, they're not random places and this is not a random account,
this is not simply an account of several places that the Prophet
of the Lord was sent to to preach and Elisha follows him there.
But there is meaning in the places recorded and meaning in this
passage. First Bethel, then Jericho, then
Jordan. Bethel is the house of God. Jericho is the city of man. And Jordan is a river of death. Christ came from heaven's glory,
from the house of God. He came from that place in which
God's people go to worship God. And he came, as it were, from
heaven, from Bethel, to the world of darkness. and a world of sinners
where you and I dwell. In the depths of rebellion, the
depths of corruption, in darkness, stumbling about, wasting our
time, heading for destruction. He came to where you and I dwell,
in a city of man, in a Jericho. He came into this world to a
Jericho, a walled city, to deliver a people, to lead
them back unto himself and to his God, into the house of God,
unto Bethel. He comes from Bethel, as it were.
Then he goes to Jericho, to a walled city, a walled city. where you cannot enter unless
the walls are brought down. When Israel journeyed into Canaan
and came to Jericho, they marched around the walls of the city.
And after seven circuits the walls came tumbling down. And
they came tumbling down when the trumpets were blown, when
the horns were blown, when the gospel was preached. The horn,
the pipe of the gospel. And when Christ comes to the
Jericho of our hearts, to the walled city of our hearts, He will enter in. when the walls
come tumbling down, and they come tumbling down when we hear
the sound of the pipes of the gospel, the horns of the gospel,
the power of the gospel. Our hearts are walled. They're
set up solid against God and his truth. We will not hear. We refuse to hear. We want to
go and live our lives as we will. We will not serve God, we will
not hear of his son the Lord Jesus Christ, we will not believe
in him, we will not believe in the true and living God, we will
not believe in the creator who made us to whom we are accountable.
We will not believe that he made this world in six days and rested
the seventh. We will not believe that he made
a man and a woman first, Adam and Eve, and that they sinned.
We will not believe that their sin and death by sin passed down
by natural generation unto us. We will not accept that as a
consequence we are sinners under judgment. We will not accept
that God is right and just to condemn us for our sins and we
will as those who are sinners not come unto Christ for salvation. Our hearts are steadfast they're
walled against the truth and unless the walls are broken down
nothing enters in. God can send Elijah to preach
his gospel to you and stand before you in power with chariots of
fire round about him and you will not hear. He can send an
Elisha unto you to stand before you and he can stand around him
with horses and chariots of fire and your eyes are blinded like
the young man who could not see. And you see no horses and no
chariots, you just see a man and hear the words of a man.
But if God opens your eyes to see the horses and the chariots
of fire round about him, and God breaks down the walls of
your heart by his gospel, then salvation comes to your door. Yes, Elijah was sent first to
Bethel, the house of God, then to Jericho, and thence from Jericho
to Jordan. because the only way that the
walls of your hard heart in Jericho
can be brought down is if one goes to Jordan the river of death
and enters into Jordan and takes upon himself the wrath of God
for you. to take away your sins, to be
judged and to be slain for you. If your heart will break, you
need to see the one who went to Jordan for sinners and was
bruised and was broken and was slain and was burnt under the
wrath of God for sinners such as you. So Elijah went to Jordan and
Elisha would follow him and 50 men of the sons of the prophets
went and stood to view her far off, and they too stood by Jordan. These others came to see what
would happen at Jordan, as others stood around the cross when Christ
went into the rivers of Jordan for his people. They came and
they stood, but though they went to the brink of Jordan, they
could not go where Christ went. As Christ would tell his disciples,
I go to a place where you cannot follow, but later you will be
with me. Yes, his people are crucified
with him, but not in the way in which he is. Only he could
drink the cup of God's wrath. Only he could take the fires
of God's wrath in Jordan. So Elisha comes to Jordan with Elijah. And Elijah took
his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters of Jordan
and they were divided hither and thither so that they too
went over on dry ground. Because Elijah was there, Elisha
could go over with him on dry ground. But it was Elijah's mantle
that divided the waters. We're reminded here of how Israel
went across Jordan on dry ground. And God keeps taking this same
message throughout the scriptures and keeps repeating it. And keeps
making known that there is this river through which we must pass
on dry ground. And it's this mantle which smoked
the waters. that made the way through plain. It came to pass when they were
gone over that Elijah said unto Elisha, ask what I shall do for
thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray
thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. He said,
thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me
when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee. But if
not, it shall not be so. and it came to pass as they still
went on and taught that behold there appeared a chariot of fire
and horses of fire and parted them both for sunder and Elijah
went up by a whirlwind into heaven and Elisha saw it and he cried
my father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof
and he saw him no more And he took hold of his own clothes
and rent them in two pieces. And he took up also the mantle
of Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the
bank of Jordan. The mantle of Elijah. Oh, this passing through on dry
ground, how we see the cross here. and the mantle that Elijah
struck on the waters, what is it but the righteousness of God? That in which he was clothed,
that which he wore as his garment, righteousness. Only righteousness
can divide the waters, only God's judgment in righteousness can
divide the waters, can separate our sins, can take them away.
can put dry ground where the sins once ran. That mantle, that is what Elisha
needed to be clothed in if he was to go forth and preach the
gospel that he had once heard from Elijah's lips. And that
mantle is what came down, fell down from heaven as Elijah was
taken up from him. That mantle. Elijah's righteousnesses
were as nothing worth, they were filthy rags. His righteousness
could not save him. His righteousness could not take
him through the waters. His righteousness could not take
him through Jordan. But the mantle of Elijah, the
righteousness of God in which he was clothed could. So we read
in verse 12 that Elisha when he saw it and saw the chariot
of fire and the horsemen and saw Elijah taken from him, took
hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. He knew they were of nothing
worth. And unless you come to this point
of knowing that your righteousness, your works, your decisions, your
will are of nothing worth, then you'll never know what it is
to be clothed in the mantle of God, in the righteousness of
God by the faith of Jesus Christ. You'll not know salvation until
your righteousnesses are rent in twain. But Elisha saw. He saw Elijah. He saw the miracle that Elijah
wrought at Jordan. He saw through him unto Christ
his saviour at the cross taking away his sin. And he saw the
mantle drop down upon him as Christ was taken out of his sight
as pictured by Elijah. Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind by the breath of God as it were
the spirit of God as it were came down and took Elijah up
the breath, the spirit of God that breath which breathed life
into man in the beginning and which takes up Elijah at
the end that breath which in the gospel breathes life into
dead and fallen sinners that breath which you need to feel
breathing upon you as it breathes the knowledge of Christ in his
gospel and takes up Christ as a glorious
saviour into the heights of heaven above to sit and to reign and
to preach his gospel from that height from whence he sends it
forth that breath we need the spirit
of God to know these things otherwise they're just words but when God
preaches his gospel he comes by his spirit he breathes there's
a whirlwind When the power of the Gospel breaks down the walls
of our heart, there is as it were a whirlwind. We hear like
we've never heard. We see like we've never seen.
We feel like we've never felt. We feel the love of God rushing
into our heart. We feel the forgiveness of sins,
which once only brought us guilt and the dreadful fearing of destruction
to come. We feel the Spirit's influence
as he makes known. Christ and as he takes his mantle
of righteousness and wraps us in it and we know that we are
right and righteous with God at peace with God because we're
wrapped in the mantle the righteousness of God there's no sin and no
sin to be brought into God's sight And when we come to see
this, we may take up the mantle, as Elisha took the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and we may
cry out, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is my God? Show me that thou art real. I
must know the one true and living God. Nothing short of real religion
will do. I don't want the notion, I want
to know that I have the mantle, the righteousness of God. I want
to know that thou art mine. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when God in grace puts that
mantle upon us, that righteousness, and strikes the waters with it,
We see them part hither and thither. And Elisha went over and we go
over. And we enter into a heaven's
glory, eternal glory we know we have everlasting life. Here
now in this world we enter, we cross over Jordan and we know
the waters are parted. We know our sins are forgiven.
We know we're clothed in this mantle. We've seen Christ ascended. We've seen His Spirit coming
down as cloves of fire upon His disciples as they did on the
day of Pentecost. It's happened to us. The Gospels
come in power. The Spirit has breathed upon
us and the Spirit has come down as a clove of fire upon us. And we know Our sins are no more. Do you? Do you know your sins
are no more? Has God made this known unto
you? Has the mantle, the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ fallen down upon you? When it happened
to Elijah, the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho
saw him, and they said, the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. They saw it. And when God saves sinners, as
he did the disciples of Christ, and sends his spirit unto them
as he did at Pentecost, he sends them forth as lights in a dark
world, as ministers of flaming fire. He makes his angel spirits,
he makes his ministers of flaming fire. They're sent forth to stand
and to declare that Christ their Saviour, their Elijah, has gone
to Bethel. He's gone to Jericho and he's
gone to Jordan for me and at Jordan he's taken the fire and
quenched it. He's divided the waters hither
and thither and with him I have gone through on dry ground as
the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand. I declare
that Christ is my Saviour and I declare that though I stand
alone that if your eyes should be opened by the same gospel
which opened my blind eyes for once I was blind but now I see
but if the same gospel should open your eyes which have opened
mine then you will see and behold that the mountain round about
me is full of horses and chariots of fire as they were around about
Elisha. Praise God.