Second Kings, Chapter 6. Second Kings, the sixth chapter. And the sons of the prophets
said unto Elisha, And behold, now the place where we dwell
with thee is too straight for us. Let us go, we pray thee,
unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us
make us a place there where we may dwell.' And he answered,
Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray
thee, to go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So
he went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down
wood. But as one was felling a beam,
an axe head fell into the water, and he cried and said, alas,
master, for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, where
fell it? And he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick
and cast it in thither. and the iron did swim. Therefore
said he, take it up to thee, and he put out his hand and took
it. Now there are many who find this
story incredible, and they laugh at us who believe this book to
be indeed the word of God, verbally inspired, altogether inerrant,
without error or misstatement of any kind. Yet God says here,
the iron did swim. And when God says the iron did
swim, he means the iron did swim. Others vigorously defend the
inspiration of scripture. And they see nothing here in
this story except the fact that it's a showing of God's miraculous
power as God. They readily agree that the iron
did swim, but they don't have a clue why it swam. Don't have any idea why God made
this axe head to swim in the River Jordan. They know the letter
of the scripture. They believe the letter of the
scripture. They believe this is the book
of God. They stand on the book, the blood
and the blessed hope, but they don't have any idea what the
book says. what the blood accomplished or
what the blessed hope is. Certainly, this story in the
life of God's prophet, Elisha, demonstrates God's power. It
demonstrates his care for and provision for his people. But
is that all that's intended by this miraculous story? Does God
only intend for us to see here a demonstration of great power,
miraculous power, the supernatural? Does he only intend for us to
understand that he is God who has power over the elements of
creation? No, no, that's not the reason
the story is given. Our Lord Jesus gives us the key.
Turn to two passages with me. They're very familiar to you,
but I want you to see them. Luke chapter 24. Now here's the key
to understanding the scriptures. This is the key that unlocks
the whole book of God. This is the key by which we understand
the Old Testament scriptures. Our Lord is walking with his
disciples on the road to Emmaus. And as he walks with them, he
opens the Old Testament scriptures to them. Verse 25, Luke 24. Then
said he unto them, Oh, fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now, these men knew
what the prophets spoke. And they believe the truth of
the prophets, but not understanding the prophets. Our Lord says you
don't believe the prophets. You don't believe what the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,
and thereby to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses,
and in all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. All right, look at John chapter
5. John chapter 5. Our Lord's talking to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees who memorized long portions of scripture, great
portions of scripture. And that's commendable. But they
had no understanding of the scriptures they memorized, the scriptures
they quoted continually day after day. And our Lord Jesus says
here, search the scriptures. The word might be better read.
You do search the scriptures. You do search the scriptures.
For in them, you think you have eternal life. You think you have
eternal life by knowing the content of scripture. What a sad commentary
on the whole religious world. Memorize the scriptures, learn
the scriptures, learn the history of the scriptures, learn the
letter of the scriptures, and that's godliness. You think you
have eternal life by that. Now, don't misunderstand me. Don't misunderstand me. Scripture
memory is wonderful. I wish I had the memory I had
when I was younger. It's wonderful. Memorize all
the scripture you can, but ask God the Holy Spirit to teach
you the meaning of the word. The meaning of the scripture
is that which is important. Our Lord said, you search the
scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they
are they which testify of me. Does he mean for us to understand
that everything in the book of God is about him? What other meaning would you
get from those words we just read in Luke 24 and here in John
5? What other understanding can
you possibly gain from them? Do you mean to say, pastor, that
everything in the word of God is somehow or another about Christ? The revelation of Christ, the
revelation of His person and His work as our Redeemer, that's
the key to the Scriptures. You will never understand this
book until you understand that it's all about Him. You will
never rightly understand any single passage of Scripture or
any event recorded in Scripture unless you understand this is
talking about the Redeemer. Now God showed me how it speaks
of Christ. And the Holy Spirit takes the
scriptures and by the scriptures shows us the things of Christ.
All right, back in 2 Kings. What does a swimming axe head
have to do with Christ and his gospel? Let's see. Verse 1. And the sons of the prophets
said unto Elisha, behold, now the place where we dwell with
thee is too straight for us. The first word here in Second
Kings 6 is the word and. It connects us with that which
has gone before it. The word that opens the book
of Second Kings tells us about idolatry flourishing in the land
of Israel. It begins with Ahaziah in chapter
1, the king of Israel, seeking help from Beelzebub, the god
of Ekron. Here's the king of a people who
call themselves the children of Jehovah. The king of a people
whom the Lord God set aside and called by his own name. A people
to whom God has given his temple, his law, his prophets, his priesthood. And he's seeking the counsel
of Beelzebub. Seeking the counsel of a stump.
Seeking the counsel of a rabbit's foot, God. Seeking the counsel
of some idol that a man has carved out of stone. Seeking the counsel
of Beelzebub. Covetousness. materialism, following
idolatry, as it always does, were rampant in Elisha's day.
Even Elisha's trusted servant, the prophet Gehazi, was taken
in the flood of wickedness. Gehazi lived to get what he could
out of life. His wickedness was utterly subdued
for a long, long time, but when he saw his opportunity, he ran
after Naaman, that powerful, wealthy Syrian whom he thought
was altogether unfit for the bounteous goodness and mercy
he found from the Lord God when he came before Elisha. And so
Gehazi ran after Naaman and he pretended to be seeking a gift
for God and his prophets. Like all self-serving false prophets,
Gehazi's God was his belly. Now you can mark that down. You
can mark that down. Every false prophet does what
he does because of what he gets from it. You can mark it down. It doesn't matter whether it's
a few pennies or whether it's a lot of money or whether it's
power over a few people or power over many or whether it's a name
or reputation. Every false prophet handles the
word of God deceitfully because his God is his belly. And he shows it sooner or later.
Gehazi's God was his belly. That means he lived to get gay.
And therefore, he was cursed of God and banished from the
school of the prophets as a leper forever. Now, there have been
many times in history in which idolatry had been rampant. Ungodliness
has been so universal that the cause of God seemed to be in
jeopardy and doomed for failure. Many times in history when it
appears that ungodliness and idolatry has completely consumed
the light of the gospel, the children of Israel in Egypt had
given up all hope that God would indeed fulfill his word and bring
them out of that land of darkness. And they had grown accustomed
to the ways of the Egyptians. And when they had given up all
hope that God would deliver them, God raised up Moses and brought
them out of Egypt with a high hand and across the Red Sea,
dumping Pharaoh and the armies of the Egyptians into the Red
Sea. Elisha must surely have recalled
the time when Elijah fled to Horeb because Jezebel was after
him. that mighty prophet, that mighty
prophet who didn't hesitate to denounce kings to their face
and warn them of God's judgment. And when God's judgment came,
tell them plainly God's judgment is on you because of your iniquity. Now in his weakness flees from
a woman who seeks his life. He flees to Horeb because Horeb
is the place where everything began. It was at Horeb that God
gave his law to Moses. It was at Horeb that God showed
Moses the pattern of the tabernacle, showed Moses how to make the
tabernacle as a picture of redemption by Christ Jesus the Lord. And
Elijah comes back to Horeb as if to tell God the battle was
lost. Lord, I alone am left. We may as well give this up.
Little did he know the battle was just beginning. The Lord
God told Elijah that he had reserved 7,000 faithful men in Israel
by whom he would maintain his cause. Children of God, don't judge
God's work by your natural eye. Don't judge what God's doing
by what you see by what you perceive Elijah's I alone him left. What
are you talking about Elijah? I've got 7,000 faithful men in
this little spot of ground right here and you don't have any idea
who they are 7,000 faithful men at my beck and call willing to
do my bidding Those Jews who were carried away into Babylon
were convinced that God's promises were broken. His purposes had
fallen to the ground and Israel would never again exist as a
nation. Then God sent Cyrus to bring them out of Babylon. And
by the decree of a pagan king, rebuild his temple and rebuild
the city. How dejected Elisha must have
been when he saw Israel engulfed in idolatry. When he saw that
servant whom he had trusted, Gehazi, another prophet, one
who had followed him as he followed Elijah, he saw Gehazi fall. But the idolatry of the land
and Gehazi's deceit, greed, and unfaithfulness did nothing to
hinder God's purpose or to injure God's cause. Understand that,
children of God. the evil around us, horrible
as it is, and as we rightly are opposed to it and vexed by it,
as we rightly fear for those under its influence, let us never
fear for the cause of God. The cause of God is always safe,
not just safe, prospering always exactly according to God's will. Elijah, seized these things and
instead of these things hindering God's purpose, injuring his cause,
the kingdom of God grew. The prophets of God only increased
until at last the place where they met for instruction wasn't
sufficient for them. And the sons of the prophet said
to Elisha, behold, now the place where we dwell with thee is too
straight, too small for us. There's too many of us. We can't
we can't any longer meet in this little school room. I repeat,
all is well in Zion. The cause of Christ is sure.
The purpose of God stands. The foundation of God stand assured. God will save his elect, not
one shall perish. God is saving his elect exactly
on schedule. All the ransomed of the Lord
shall come to Zion. Christ is building his church,
still adding to his church daily such as should be saved. Now
the phrase sons of the prophets is not a phrase that's given
to tell us who the parents of these prophets were. But rather
it is to identify them as men taught of God and gifted of God
as his prophets. These are men who are God's prophets. He refers to the school of the
prophets. We're told very little about these schools. In fact,
we know virtually nothing about them except that three exist.
We're just we're not told anything about him except the three of
them existed. One at Bethel, one at Jericho and this one at
Gilgal. It appears, and I recognize I'm
giving some supposition, but this is how it appears to me.
It appears that the prophets of God gathered about them companies
of young men whom they instructed in the word, the law of God,
and the truths of divine revelation. These schools of the prophets
were not at all like Bible colleges and seminaries today. Bible colleges
and seminaries are full of preacher boys. Preacher boys, that's what
they're called, preacher boys. That is boys who aspire to being
preachers. Boys who mama or the church or
the preacher or somebody has told them they ought to be preachers.
Boys who haven't any responsibility, who haven't had any influence
of manhood. Boys who've never known what
it is to go out and work in the world. Preacher boys. Boys who
live in ivory towers and have no experience. Novices aspiring
to be preachers. No, that's not what these school
of prophets were. These were schools of prophets. They weren't men who hoped to
be prophets. They were men who were prophets. Men whom God had called and gifted
as prophets. Elisha was the teacher. God raised up in every generation
One prophet who seems to stand above the others, to whom the
others looked for direction. And it's true in our age, in
various circumstances, in various parts of the country, various
parts of the world, God seems to raise up a voice around whom
the others are gathered and are instructed in the things of God.
I mentioned Brother Scott Richardson this morning. He certainly was
one. Brother Mahan had been one all
his life. Elisha was the teacher. The prophet of God was the theology
professor from whom these young men received their training in
the word of God, instructed in the things of God, instructed
in serving God as his servants in their generation. Every time
I read this passage or one like it concerning the schools of
the prophets, I think about the preacher school in Mexico. Brother
Walter Groover established that school long, long time ago. I've
been going down there for 35 years, I guess, 36 years. And
it was already up and running when I first started going down
there. And do you know when I go down there, I still stand before
the same men and instruct them in the things of God. Good many
of them are a lot older than I am. They've been preaching
a lot longer than I have, but they don't ever graduate. They continually learn, learn
from Walter and Cody, and learn from one another. They will go
in normally, and Brother Walter, Brother Cody will take a session,
and then one of the men there will take a session. And they
teach one another under the guidance, under the direction of those
gifted men. The school of the prophets under
Elisha had increased so greatly that they were cramped for space.
And they said to him, Elisha, we need to build us a bigger
house. We need to build a bigger schoolhouse. The place is too
straight for us. Look at verse two. Let us go,
we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam,
and let us make us a fit place there where we may dwell. And
he answered, go ye. These prophets were ready to
work, ready to work with their own hands, to build their place
of residence. They were ready to put their
shoulders to the work, as believers should be when there's anything
to be done for the cause of Christ. God make me such. But they wouldn't
do anything without Elijah. with Elisha giving them direction
and guidance. Not that they worshipped Elisha.
Not that Elisha was somehow in hierarchical order above them,
a greater prophet than they were. But rather, they respected him. They esteemed him highly as God's
prophet to his prophets. God's prophet by whom they learned
from God and were taught of God. In the 31 years we've been together,
you have constantly given your pastor such esteem. If God is
pleased tonight to take me out of this world and it gives you
another faithful pastor, gives you another man to preach the
gospel to you. Give that man that same esteem,
treated with that same earnest respect, not because he's somehow
a better man, not because somehow he has greater learning, greater
talents than you have, but because he faithfully labors in the word
and gives you God's word. Such a man deserves such esteem. Happy is that congregation who
has such a pastor and who treats him as these men treated Elisha. Blessed is that church who treats
God's servants as God's servants. Esteem them highly in love for
their work's sake. Obey them that have the rule
over you, whose faith follow, considering the end of their
lives, Obey them as they that must give account, who preach
the word of God to you. That's the instruction of scripture.
And thereby be at peace among yourselves. Every local church
needs to take a lesson. I don't hear it except round
about because people know if I hear it, they're going to hear
from me. People yak about the preacher. stir things about the
preacher and they dissatisfied this, that or the other about
the preacher and they constantly keep things smelling like a barnyard
because they're stirring, just stirring all the time. And that's
what happens. That's what happens. A man not
preaching the gospel of God's grace, leave him. Leave him. Leave him right now. Forget it. Just leave him. But a man who
faithfully labors for your soul ought to be honored and esteemed
as God's messenger to your soul. Now watch this, verse three.
And one said, be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. Not only did these men seek Elisha's
permission to go, they wouldn't go without him. They wouldn't
go without him. That doesn't mean they were Elisha's
yes men, they're God's men. but they respected Elisha by
whom God brought his word to them. When one of these prophets
said to Elisha, Be content, I pray thee, to go with thy servants.
He wasn't simply being polite. He was expressing the desire
of the whole band of prophets that they needed Elisha. See,
Elisha represented the word and voice of God to these men. They needed him because they
needed to hear from God. And God sent his word to them
by Elisha. Some of you, many of you frequently
will ask me before I get to preaching if I have something for you. I don't come here without being
prepared. But I won't have anything for you unless God speaks by
me. But if God speaks, I've got something for you. If God speaks. If God speaks. And I beg of you
that you pray that God will speak by his word through his servant
to your hearts by the power of his spirit. These men knew that
God spoke to them by Elisha. so they craved his company. Walking
with him, they were in the path of blessing and blessedness,
the path of peace and protection, of instruction and direction.
My friend, Professor Roger Ellsworth, points out the desire of the
prophets to have Elisha with them may very well have constituted
a stinging reminder to the captives that their present plight was
due to their failure to delight themselves in the word of God. Blessed are those people to whom
God sends his word. This is the means by which God
reveals himself. This is the means by which God
calls out his elect. This is the means by which God
comforts and edifies his saints. This is the means by which God
instructs and directs his people. This is the mean by which God
directs you in your steps day by day in this world. So what
about our personal reading and study? Don't neglect that. Don't
neglect that. But you will not find God's direction. You will not find God speaking
to you, but as he speaks by his servant. And then you go home
and you read the book and you say, yeah. Yeah, that's it. This is this is what God has
said. This is how God teaches us. I
pray they go with their servants, they say. And we're saying, in essence,
as Moses said, if thy presence go not with us, carry us not
up hence. And Elisha answered, I will go. Ready to go with them. What a
picture of a prophet. Ready to go with them. God's
servants are men ready to serve. Ready to help. Ready to do. whatever they can for the glory
of Christ and the service of his people. Those are God's servants. Now,
you are God's servants. David Coleman, just as much God's
servant as Don Fortner is. I just happen to be your pastor.
That's all. That's all. Both God's servants. Certainly,
this is to be applied to you. God's servants are people ready
and willing to do what God would have them to do. It must be applied to those men
who are over you in the Lord, to those who preach the gospel.
God calls a man to preach the gospel. He makes that man willing
to give himself to the work of the ministry, to addict himself
to the gospel and the preaching of the gospel. Faithful men ready
to serve. I can't tell you how disappointed
I was just recently. Preacher refused an opportunity to preach
the gospel because he, you know, my son's birthday is coming up. My son's birthday is coming up. God's servants, ready to serve,
ready to serve. Faithful prophets not only are
ready to serve, but they hold up one another's hands and they
strengthen one another's hands. They're not afraid to get their
hands dirty when dirty hands are needed. Paul, that man by
whom God the Spirit gave us most of the New Testament. In Acts
28, you find him gathering wet wood to build a fire. How come folks needed a fire? That's all. That's that's what
needed to be done. Here is Elisha going out into
the woods to fell some trees and build a schoolhouse for preachers.
This man through whom God worked stunning miracles. I'm talking
stunning miracles is out here with a bunch of other preachers
considering himself blessed of God to engage in mundane activity,
chopping down trees with an axe. How come? Because some trees
were needed. That's what was needed. You see,
godliness and spirituality are not just reading your Bible
and going to church and praying. Not just singing hymns and talking
to one another about the things of God. Godliness and spirituality
often involve sweat and labor and dirt. They're far more often
connected with common, ordinary things than most people imagine. All right, look back at verse
4, 2 Kings 6. So he went with them and When
they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling
a beam, the axe head fell into the water. And he cried and said,
alas, master, for it was borrowed. While engaged in the work of
cutting down trees to build a schoolhouse for the prophets, this man is
cutting down a tree. And suddenly, the axe head flies
off the handle into the Jordan River. And this man finds himself
in the midst of great trial. He had borrowed the axe from
a friend. While he's working away, he loses
the axe head. Now, I don't know about you,
but I used to think when I would read this story, what's the big
deal? It's just an axe head. Why was he disturbed by that?
Why was he grieved by that? That's because I hadn't stopped
to consider the plight this young man was in. Apparently, obviously,
he was very poor. Having an axe in that day was
not like having a McCulloch chainsaw today. Having an axe in that
day was just part of life. And obviously, he was poor or
he'd had his own axe. Anybody who lived had to have
some wood to burn to heat the house. But he didn't have his
own axe. He had to borrow an axe. By the
loss of this axe, this young man incurred a debt impossible
for him to pay. And being an honest man, that
was horrifying to him. Honest men don't welch on their
debts. Not honest men. Honest men don't
incur debts they can't pay. But most importantly, I think
his expression seems to indicate that here he is doing something
that needs doing, doing something that other men are engaged in,
doing something to build this house, this schoolhouse for the
prophets, and here he is useless. That's his goal. What can I do? We came out here to cut down
some trees, every man to carry a beam home. Now, what am I going
to do? How often you and I, who seek
to serve our God and his cause, who seek to serve his people,
find ourselves in just this position. The situation looks hopeless,
but it's not. We think things are bad and getting
worse and nothing can stop the snowball effect, the onslaught
of trouble and sorrow, and so we're concerned and troubled,
deeply concerned. As far as we're concerned, Nothing
can be done. But our extremities, our desperate
times of need, are God's opportunities to show his greatness, his goodness,
and his power. As soon as this young man cried
out to Elisha, God's prophet, then the prophet cut down a stick. and threw that stick into the
Jordan River. He threw it in the very place
where the axe head was lost, and the axe swam to the surface. He just threw a piece of wood
right in where the axe head was lost, in the dirty, murky, dark
waters of the Jordan. You couldn't see that deep. He
throws it in, and axe head swims like a dolphin. That's its way. Look at verse six. The man of
God said, where fell it? Where did you lose it? And he
showed him the place and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither
and the iron did swim. With God, all things are possible. Frank Hall, I don't believe that's
one hundredth what I wish I could, not one thousandth what I wish
I could. With God, all things are possible. And I ought to believe it. I
have every reason to believe it. I've experienced it. Oh, my soul, I've experienced
it. Things which are impossible with
men are possible with God. With God, nothing shall be impossible. He can do whatever he will. He
can make iron swim like a dolphin. I can't. You can't. But God can. He made the dolphin and he made
the iron. Who do you think makes the dolphin swim? With God, all
things are possible. Still, there was a man involved
in the work. And the man performed the work
by casting a stick into the water. Could God have caused the axe
head to swim without Elisha casting a stick into the water? Of course
he could. But God was pleased to use a
man who throws a stick in the water to raise that ax head up
from the bottom of the Jordan River and cause it to swim. God's pleased to use men to do
what no man can do. God's pleased, how condescending,
how gracious, how kind is our God that he will take you, or
take Mary Lou and you just hand somebody a track or you speak,
tell somebody what God's done for you, give life to a dead
sinner. Oh, condescending mercy. What an honor God puts on his
people. If you're in great trouble, be
of good cheer. Our God is the God who makes
iron to swim. Therefore, he said, verse 7,
take it up to thee, and he put out his hand and took it. Now,
let me make four statements, and I'll wrap this up. I might not make more than one
or two, but I'll try for four. Number one, we have in this story
a picture of God's salvation, the salvation of poor, lost sinners
by Christ crucified. Turn back to Deuteronomy. Chapter
21, Deuteronomy 21, verse 22. If any man have committed a sin
worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou shalt
hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon
the tree. But thou shalt in any wise bury
him that day, for he that is hanged on a tree is accursed
of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God
giveth thee for an inheritance. Guess what the word tree is here. It's exactly the same word translated
in 2 Kings 6, stick. Exactly the same word. You do
remember where this passage in Deuteronomy is quoted in Galatians,
don't you? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Why did Elisha cut
down a tree, a stick, and cast it into the water to recover
the axe head? because that's just exactly how
God saves guilty sinners. Like the axe head, we were lost. The place where the axe head
was lost was the Jordan River, used throughout the scriptures
as a picture of death. Like the axe head, we were lost
in death, dead in trespasses and in sins. Elisha cut down
the tree and cast it into the water to recover the axe head. You don't really believe. You
surely don't really believe that a man can put a piece of wood
in the water and cause an axe head to swim to the top. You
surely don't believe that, do you? No, I don't believe that.
I don't believe that at all. Some of you are familiar with
Brother Brown's most intriguing interest in Jacob's ring-striped
sticks where he peeled the bark off little poplar sticks and
held them before the cattle and got the cattle from them. You
don't really believe a man could hold up a peeled poplar stick
and get the kind of cattle he wanted, do you? You don't really
believe that, do you? You don't really believe just
because while those cattle were breeding and their eyes looked
on that stripped piece of poplar, it would cause them to come out
a certain way. You don't really believe that, do you? I don't.
I believe it for a minute. unless God does it. Unless God
does it. Now, that's another story. You
mean you believe that at the direction of God, you take a
stick, cast it in water, and a piece of iron, swim to the
top? Well, sure. I read it right here. Did you
read that? Sure, I do. You don't really believe that
by the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ, by the preaching of the gospel,
by throwing the crucified Christ into the sea of death called
humanity, God causes dead sinners to live, do you? You don't really
believe that, do you? Oh, I do indeed. I do indeed. Faith comes by hearing. and hearing
by the word of God. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. Somebody says,
well, that word's talking about Christ. Uh-uh, not in first Peter. That's never the word used to
talk about Christ. That's talking about this book, the written
word. born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which lives and abides forever. And then
he says, and this is the word, which by preaching about church
truth is preached unto you. This is the word, which by telling
folks about the Ten Commandments is preached unto you. This is
the word, which by telling people that they ought not to smoke
and chew and stuff like that, this is preached unto you. This
is the word which by talking about prophecy and the rapture
and the tribulation period and the regathering of Israel and
the priesthood and the temple and the sacrifices is preached
unto you. This is the word which by telling
about Bible history is preached unto you. No. This is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. You mean those other
things are irrelevant? Let me see if I can be crystal
clear. Totally irrelevant. Totally irrelevant. Well, aren't
you interested in those things? Sadly, I am too much interested,
and I keep praying that God will take away the interest. I'm interested
in one thing, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and you knowing
Him. That's all. That's all. And we
cast in the stick of Christ crucified, as God commanded us to do. And
dead sinners are brought to life. What else do you do? Nothing.
Well, but you've got to have the right organization. You've got to have the right
song. And just at the right moment,
you put the pressure on and you get folks to walk up front and
make a decision. I'm not playing with your soul. I'm not making merchandise of
your soul. I'm interested in you knowing God. So what do you
do? Just cast in the stick. Just
preach the word. I wonder if I ought to stay up
another hour or two and write this article. Oh, God just might
use it. He just might. He just might.
I wonder if I ought to bother with answering that letter or
that email. I got too much to do. Ah, but
God might open the heart of your son or daughter or wife or husband,
give them life by it. Reckon you'd stay up? Huh? You got to pace yourself. Yeah, but if I don't, Maybe if
I just get one more thing done for Christ, maybe God might be
pleased to bless it, to the saving of his people. And then Elisha
said to the fellow, take it. Take it. Reach out your hand
and take it. Now him reaching out his hand
to take the ax head didn't cause the ax head to swim. The axe
head was already swimming. Him reaching out his hand didn't
give the axe head life. God did that. God did that before
he was commanded to reach out and take it. God did that by
the casting in of Christ crucified. He causes dead sinners to live.
And the sinner living before God takes hold on eternal life. The sinner given life in Christ
believes on the Son of God and receives Christ by faith made
willing in the day of his power. What a picture of God's free
grace. One more thing and I'll be done.
I'll just give you the second thing. God graciously intervenes in
the affairs of creation. Murley intervenes in the affairs
of creation, intervenes in history, intervenes
in the lives of men in the most insignificant ways as it appears
to us. Because God, our Savior, tenderly,
lovingly cares for his own. Here's this young man. He's lost
the ax head. He can't pay for it. What am
I going to do? And the Lord says, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Just watch me work. Just watch me work. Does he really care? Does he
really care? The very hairs of your head are
all numbered. All numbered. Let me give you
one more. I'll quit, I promise. When you find yourself useless, useless, This young man still had the
axe handle in his hand. He just lost the head. Axe handle's
good for nothing. He still knew how to use the
axe, but lost the head. His knowledge was useless. He
had everything he had before except that which was necessary
to make him useful. And that which is necessary to
make us useful in our day, in our generation, is the spirit
of God. When you find yourself useless, go back again to Calvary and plunge in the fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and be bathed
again in the Savior's redeeming blood, and ask God again to give
you of his spirit. Oh, to give you of his spirit.
Elisha followed Elijah around day after day. Elijah said, you
go take care of this. Elijah said, no, I'm going to
be right with you. He said, you go take care of that, and Elisha
said, I'm not going to leave you. He said, what do you want, Elisha? He said, I want a double portion
of your spirit. Oh, I want to be twice the prophet
you were. No, no. Elisha was a faithful man. He
wasn't seeking honor. What was he seeking? You remember what
a double portion is? That's the portion of the firstborn,
the one honored of God. And Elijah said, if you're with
me, when God takes me, you'll get it. And he stayed with him. He stayed with him. And God honored
him as his firstborn. Oh, Lord God, will you honor
us? Insignificant, worthless wretches
that we are. As your firstborn son. as Christ
Jesus himself. And use us for his glory. Amen.