Would you turn to 2 Kings chapter
two. Shh. 2 Kings chapter two. 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'll 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 not that thy Lord
will take thy master from thy head today? And he said, yea,
I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha,
tarry ye here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.
And he said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I'll
not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And
the sons of the prophets that were Jericho came to Elisha and
said unto him, knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master
from thy head today? And he answered, yea, I know
it, hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Terry,
I pray thee here, this is the third time he does this, for
the Lord has 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 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and they
stood to view afar off and they stood by Jordan. And Elijah took
his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters. And they
were divided hither and thither so that the two 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'm taken from
thee, it shall not 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 asunder, and Elisha
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. 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 thither and thither and Elisha went over. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
with thanksgiving for the salvation that's in your son. Lord, we
thank you for who you are. We thank you and praise you for
all your glorious attributes. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we would have your presence, that you'd speak in power to
our hearts from your word. Lord, leave us not to ourselves
for the Lord's sake. Forgive us of our sins for the
Lord's sake and cleanse us from our sins and all iniquity for
the Lord's sake. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Oh, that we might have your presence.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now there's so much in this story
where this man Elijah is taken up into heaven. Now it had happened
centuries before when Enoch was taken up into heaven. But here
we read of Elijah being taken into heaven before he died. Now,
I have no doubt that as he was taken into heaven, he went through
that change. He wasn't taken into heaven just
as he was. I don't know how that works,
but somehow he was changed and fit for heaven, just like someone
is changed when they die and are resurrected. He experienced
all that. He didn't go into heaven as a
sinner. He went into heaven as a holy
man. What a miraculous thing that took place. And I think
it's interesting. You'll remember that Elisha had
been chosen by God to be Elijah's successor. You can read about
that in 1 Kings chapter 19. And it's very interesting the
way Elijah puts Elisha through three tests before he goes up. He talks about three different
places he's going to go. He says, Elisha, you stay here,
I'm going to Bethel. And Elisha's reply was, as the
Lord liveth, I will not leave thee. And then he said he was
going to, what was the next place? Jericho. And you stay here, I'm
going to Jericho. And Elisha said to Elijah, as
the Lord liveth, I'm not going to leave thee. And then he said,
I'm going to Jordan. And Elisha said, as the Lord
liveth, I will not leave thee. I will not depart from you. Now,
remember, he had been under Elijah's mentorship or whatever you want
to call it for six years. And he loved this man. and he
did not want to leave them. But there's some typical significance
to these three different places. Bethel means the house of God. Now, when it comes to being in
the house of God, there's one I want to be with and be found
in, the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want anything to do with
the house of God apart from being with Christ and being in Christ. And then there's Jericho. Jericho
is the place that God cursed. Remember he said curse would
be anybody that tries to raise up this city again. That's the
place God has cursed. And the only way I can face the
curse of God is being in Christ, being with him and him taking
that curse for me. And then Jordan. Jordan represents
death throughout the scripture. You know, we sing songs going
over Jordan. The only way I wanna face death
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I are going to be
tempted and tried to go away from this. And this was Elijah's
testing of Elisha these three times. I'm gonna go, you stay
here, no. Oh, our continual cry is oh that
I may win Christ and be found in him. I always want to be with
him. I never want to be viewed in any way other than in him. Is that the desire of your heart?
Well, Elisha was tested with this. And we read in verses seven and
eight And 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood
to view afar off, and they stood by Jordan." They witnessed this. This had at least 50 eyewitnesses
as to the chariots of fire coming and picking up Elijah and bringing
him back to heaven. And Elijah took his mantle, that
same mantle that he had endorsed Elisha with some six years earlier.
You'll remember when he placed the mantle upon him. And he wrapped
it together and smote the waters, and they were divided hither
thither, so they too went over on dry ground. Verse 9, 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.
Whatever you want, ask me. And Elisha said, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. Now, was he saying, I want to
be twice more powerful and twice more used than you? No, he wasn't
saying that at all. But I think it's interesting
that if you number the miracles that Elijah performed, God performed
through him, and if you number the miracles that Elisha performed,
there were exactly twice more miracles by Elisha than Elijah.
Elisha had a longer ministry. Elijah's was not anywhere close
to as long as his, but still, it's interesting that there were
exactly twice more miracles. But what he's saying is, give
me your spirit, the Holy Spirit. So I preach like you do. I preach
the gospel the way you do. That's what I want, and I want
a double portion of thy spirit. And you know everyone of us ought
to be asking that right now. Lord, give me a double portion of thy
spirit. That's the double portion of the firstborn. And that is
what he asks. Now, verse 10, and he said, thou
hast asked a hard thing. You know, Elijah knew he couldn't
give this double portion. It was up to the Lord to give
him that. He said, you've asked a hard thing, nevertheless, If
you see me when I'm taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee,
but if not, it shall not be. And it came to pass, verse 11,
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. Now, this whirlwind
is a hurricane or a tornado, and can you imagine what this
must have been like to witness this, to see this take place? But this is given to picture
to us the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a glorious
type of the gospel here. Now, as you go on reading, you
know that He did receive this double portion, the mantle did
fall upon him, but the only reason he got it was because of the
ascension of Elijah. Now the only reason, and this
is such a comfort to me, the only reason, and this is enough
of a reason, the only reason I'm gonna have the forgiveness
of sins is because of the ascension of Christ. God accepted what
he did, sin was put away, He went up into heaven, and I am
blessed by God for this one reason, the ascension of Christ. The
reason I'm accepted, the reason I have perfect righteousness,
the reason I have every blessing of salvation. The same is true
of you. The only reason we have these blessings is because of
what Christ did for us. Every blessing you have is not
God's response to you doing anything. Aren't you thankful it's that
way? It's God's response to Christ when Christ ascended back to
the Father, the Father having accepted what he did. And the
mantle, because of his ascension, falls upon Elisha. What a sight. Let's keep reading
verse 11. 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, by a tornado, into heaven. And Elisha saw,
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.
On one respect, I'm sure he was happy to see him go, on one respect. If somebody dies that you know
is a believer, you're happy for them, aren't you? You know they're
done with sin. You know they're done with sorrow.
You know they're done with trouble. They're in the very presence
of Christ. If somebody's a believer that you know, you're happy for
them, but if it's somebody close to you, somebody you love, how
you mourn, He was upset. He was distraught over Elijah
being gone. He'd been with him every day
for six years. The Lord had taught him the gospel through this man.
And he's gone, so he rinsed his clothes. And look what it says
in verse 13. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him, that mantle that symbolized his prophetic
office. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank
of Jordan. Now you remember earlier what
had happened. Elijah took that mantle and folded it up. What
was it made of? I don't know, goat hair, camel
hair, but it was the prophet's mantle, and he folded it up.
He smote the waters with that mantle, and the river parted,
and they walked across, and now Elisha comes back after the death
of Elijah, or not the death, the ascension of Elijah, and
he has that same mantle, and look what he asks. Verse 14,
he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote
the waters and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now, here's something very important. He didn't say where's Elijah.
He knew where Elijah was. Elijah was gone. Me and you will
soon be gone. We're not gonna live here much
longer. I wish we always had that in mind, don't you? We're
not gonna be here much longer. But Elijah's concern was not
about Elijah, but about the Lord God of Elijah. Where is the Lord
God of Elijah? Now, I guess the first thing
I would think of is who is the Lord God of Elijah? Well, if
you look at Elijah's life, first of all, the Lord God of Elijah
is the God of judgment. You remember how he sent a famine
to the land? Now everybody knows that God
is judge and that he will reward the righteous and that he will
punish the wicked. Now the big question is who are
the righteous and who are the wicked? That's what the gospel
deals with, but God is judge. God is the God of means. Don't
ever forget this. God is a God of means. He used
those ravens to feed Elijah. And then God is the God of creation.
He brought food into existence to feed Elijah and that widow
woman and her son. He brought food into existence,
created, brought matter into the universe that had not been
there before. Only God can do that. And he's
the God who answers by fire. He's the God who raises the dead.
He raised that widow's son, and God raises the dead in the gospel.
And he's the God who answers by fire, the God who accepts
the sacrifice. Would you even think about the
Lord apart from the Lord who actually accepted the sacrifice
and everybody the sacrifice was made for? That's who he is. Now, Elijah knows he's gone. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And I think it's so interesting
to notice that he didn't change the methodology at all. He did the same thing Elijah
did. He took the mantle. You see,
nothing new is needed. We need his spirit. But nothing
new is needed. It always pleases God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And he took
the prophet's mantle, just like Elijah did, and smote the water
saying, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now I wish that somebody
would ask me that question and God the Holy Spirit would give
me the grace to answer properly. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Well, he's where he's always
been, sitting on the throne. ruling and reigning, controlling
everything and everybody as the absolute Lord of Lords and King
of Kings, the sovereign over all the earth. He's never vacated
his throne. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
Where has he always been? Our God, said David, is in the
heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. It's always
distressing to hear somebody, when something bad happens, they
say, where was the Lord then? Where he's always been, on the
throne, ruling and reigning, and whatever he does is right.
Isn't it a blessing to really believe that although you don't
understand what's going on, you know he does? And you're satisfied
that whatever he does is right. Best because he did it. I love thinking about this. God
never does something because it's right. It's right because
he does it. That's the supremacy for him. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
He is where he has always been, in heaven ruling and reigning. Where is God? He's in Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Where is God?
He's in Christ. You look at the glorious person
and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love it when Philip said, show
us the father and it sufficeth us. And he said, I've been so
long time with you and yet has not known me. He that has seen
me has seen the father. God was in Christ. God is in
Christ. Where is Christ? Well, God's people are called the habitation
of God through the Spirit. Do you know that if you're a
believer, God's in you right now by His Spirit in His Son? Now that's mysterious, but the
infinite God whom the heavens cannot contain dwells in the
heart that He has given of every one of His people. Now I'm glad
he's given me a heart for him to dwell in. It's the heart that
I did not have before. It's the heart that believes
the gospel. It's the heart that loves him. It's the heart that
looks to Christ. But God is in his people. That's where he is. The scripture
says he inhabits the praises of Israel. Now whenever You know,
if you hear religious praise songs, I hate it. I will praise
you. I will always be what I will.
And that's not praise. What you're doing is exalting
yourself. I'm going to praise God. Oh, OK. That's that's just
not. But wherever you find someone
who truly praises him for who he is, does it make you happy
that God is absolutely sovereign and in control of everybody? Do you love it that God is holy? He's utterly holy. He's not like
me and you. Do you love that? Do you love
his way of saving sinners by free grace? And you can praise
him for it? That's what praise is. Praise
is a response to who God is. It's not some kind of I will
praise you and we're gonna have a worship service and everybody's
gonna waste. No, no. Praise is praise to God for who
he is from the heart, the heart that he gave. You know, the Lord
said, here's a couple of scriptures that mean the same thing. I walk in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks. And we know that those seven
golden candlesticks are those local churches in Revelation
two and three, seven different churches. But he says, I walk
in the midst of those seven golden candlesticks. And he said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the
midst of them. Now, wherever God's people meet
together, this is church, this is what church is, it's hearing
his word, the Lord promises his presence. It's not sometimes,
it's all the time. Wherever two or three are gathered
together, In my name, there I am in the midst of them. Now this
is where the Lord speaks. He speaks to his people from
his word. I love what Gene Rutledge used
to always say to me. How long has he been dead? Three
or four years? Five years? I don't know how long he's been,
but I remember this statement that I heard so many times from him.
I'm afraid to miss church because I'm afraid of what I miss out
on. And he meant that from the depth of his heart. And I pray
that the Lord will always give us that attitude with regard
to worship. Wherever two or three are gathered
in his name, there he is in the midst of them. And he's in that,
I didn't bring this out. Remember how when Elijah went
before Mount Horeb and there was an earthquake and there was
a fire and there was a hurricane and rocks blew up and everything,
but the Lord wasn't in any of those things. But he's in the
still, small voice. You know, the Lord, to speak
to our hearts, doesn't take yelling and screaming and a preacher
acting like an idiot. A still, small voice. Nothing else is needed. Where
is the Lord God of Elijah? And he takes that mantle, same
one Elijah used, same message. He smites the waters and they
part. Now look in verse 15. 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. You
know, I wouldn't suggest that. I wouldn't suggest that. They did, though, and it was
wrong when they did it. The Bible didn't make a comment
about it, but it was wrong. What was Elijah? A man. You bow
yourself before any man? No. No, you bow before the Lord's
God of Elijah. And these fellows kind of show
their superstition, verse 16. And they said unto him, Behold,
now there be with thy servants 50 strong men. Let them go, we
pray thee, and seek thy master. Lest, peradventure, the Spirit
of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain
or into some valley. And he said, No, you shall not
sin. You saw what happened just as
I do. Why do you want to do that? And when they urged him till
he was ashamed, and I think that word ashamed there means more
like irritated, come on, let's do it, let's do it, go on then. You've done that before, people
just driving you crazy, keep asking you the same things, go,
go for it then. And he said, seeing they sent
therefore 50 men and they sought three days and found him not.
You see, Elijah was in heaven. He was in heaven. You're not going to find him
here. He went into heaven. When they came again to him,
for he tarried at Jericho, he said to them, did I not say unto
you, go not. And we'll pick up in verse 19
next week about this. See if you see the gospel here. I'll read it. And the men of
the city said unto Elijah, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of
this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is
not. It's evil, and the ground is
bare, and it can't bring forth life. And he said, bring me new
crews and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And
he went forth into the spring of waters and cast the salt in
there and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There should not be from thence
any more death or barrenness. So the waters were healed. And
to this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake.
Now the gospel is so clear there. And that's what we'll consider
next week.