Okay, I'm going to try to bring
a message this evening, and I'm entitling the message, I'm titling
the message, The Miracles, The Miracles of Elisha. We know Elisha was called the
man of God. I like that, the man of God.
He's called the prophet of God. And how all these miracles, they
are typical, the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both Elijah
and Elisha were prophets of God. And we know that all the prophets
of God tell us about Christ. You remember in Acts 10 43, to
him give all the prophets witness. So Elijah is about pointing us
to Christ. Elisha is about pointing us to
Christ. Isaiah, Jeremiah, all the different
prophets, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Micah, Jonah,
all those prophets, Daniel, Ezekiel, all those prophets tell us about
the Lord Jesus Christ. While Elijah is mentioned many
times in the New Testament, many times Elijah is mentioned, but
Elisha is only mentioned one time, one time. And that's the
passage that we read a moment ago from Luke chapter 4 verse
27. Both prophets, Elijah and Elisha,
are pictures, personal types and pictures of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They foreshadow His coming, His
ministry, and His character. You remember Elijah's name means,
My God is Jehovah. Elisha's name means God is salvation. Both their names tell us much
about the Lord Jesus Christ who was God our Savior. Now I've
told you in our study through 2 Kings that Elisha is known
as the miracle prophet, the miracle prophet. But his miracles were
limited, limited in power, limited in number. And they pale in comparison
to the countless and almighty, powerful miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. Now, if you want to find John
22, the Gospel of John, chapter 21 rather, if I told you to turn
to John chapter 22, we'd be here for a good while, because it
only goes to chapter 21. But the last verse of John 21
verse 25 tells us something about the scope and breadth, depth,
length, power of the Lord's miracles. And there are also many other
things which Jesus did. We know that word Jesus is His
name of humiliation, His sacrificial name as Savior, to which if they
should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that should be written."
Wow. Think about all the, you know,
we've been going through the book of Luke and we see We see
in every chapter the miracles in His birth, the miracles in
His ministry, all the different miracles that the Lord is... And by these miracles, He's demonstrating
something, isn't He? He's demonstrating in what he
said and what he did that he is the Christ of God. He is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now I thought it might be good
for us as we continue our study through 2 Kings and we'll be
looking at chapter 14 next week. I thought it might be good and
helpful and I hope a blessing For a few moments, as we see
the end of Elisha's ministry in our study in 2 Kings chapter
13, is where we left off last week, 2 Kings 13, where we see
that it says there in 2 Kings 13, 14, Now Elisha was fallen
sick of his sickness, whereof he died. His ministry that God
had given him, was blessed of God, and when his ministry was
over, the Lord took him home to glory. And I thought it might
be good that we review for a moment of the miracles that God gave
Elisha. There's 12 different miracles
of Elisha that are recorded from 2 Kings chapter 2 through Chapter
13, and how they picture the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the blessings that we have in Him. And we have all spiritual
blessings in Christ. We don't lack one spiritual blessing. We are, the scripture said, in
Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are
complete in Him. We have all spiritual blessings. We can't be more justified, redeemed,
and sanctified, and even glorified than what we are right now. in
Christ. We are blessed with all spiritual
blessing in the heavenly in Him. Elisha in his life, in his ministry,
Elisha in his death even, foreshadows the person, character, office
of our Lord Jesus Christ. who is none other than God Almighty
manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld His glory. Elijah is called in James 5 17,
Elijah is called a man subject to like passions like as we are. In other words, Elijah was a
sinner saved by God's grace. Well, that was true of Elijah,
but it's also true of Elisha, another prophet of God, subject
to like passions as we are. Every frailty of the flesh, every
temptation in the flesh, these two prophets of God were subject
to the same thing that we are. But you know what? So too, the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, was tempted and tested in all
points like as we are yet. without sin. You'll find that
in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. No mere man can truly and fully
represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah, David, and others, Elijah
and Elisha are pictures of Christ, but no mere man can truly and
fully represent the Lord Jesus Christ. They are but pictures
of him. We read about in the Word of
God that the Lord Jesus Christ is a prophet like Moses, but
now Moses had many, many frailties, didn't he? But he's a prophet
like unto Moses, but so much greater than Moses. A priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ is our great high priest. A priest similar
to what Aaron was, but my goodness, Aaron and Moses both had much,
much frailty and weakness in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ
is so much superior. You remember the key word in
the book of Hebrews is better. Christ is better. And then we
see the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a king similar to David. David was a man after God's own
heart. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
king of kings. He is Lord of lords. David, he
was a great king, Israel's greatest king. No doubt about that. Israel's
greatest king among men. But he pales in comparison, doesn't
he, Freddie? compared to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is King of kings and Lord of lords. There are 12 miracles
I want us to review, the 12 miracles of Elisha, and how they picture
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, I've read this
scripture to you many times. Whatsoever was written aforetime
was written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scripture might have hope. Romans 15, 4. Now,
here's the first one. I'm going to give you these references.
I don't want you to turn to them because If we turn and read them,
it'll take three or four messages to get through these. So I brought
10, I brought 12 different, this is a summary of 12 different
sermons. So I'm gonna try to bring it
down to 35, 40 minutes. The first miracle that we studied
about was found in 2 Kings chapter 2 verse 9 through verse 15. There we find Elisha ask Elijah
just before Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind,
he said, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me and
it was so. Elijah had the power and anointing
of God the Holy Spirit upon his ministry and upon him, but in
a limited way, even though it was a double portion. A double
portion compared to what Elijah had, but it was a limited way
when we compare to the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though Elijah Or
Elisha had a double and a more anointing, if I can say it that
way, a double portion of the Lord's anointing upon his ministry
than Elijah had. And we know this happened at
the River Jordan. Likewise, when the Lord Jesus
Christ was baptized in the River Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended
upon Him at the River Jordan, and God Almighty speaks from
heaven and says, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ, as a God-man
mediator, had the anointing of the Holy Spirit without measure,
without limit. Now, if you want to turn to this
one, you can. John chapter 3, we find the forerunner
of the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 3, for He, verse 34,
John 3, 34, For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. The Lord Jesus Christ hath the
Spirit of God as the God-man mediator upon Him in an unlimited
way. not by measure, but he has all
power in heaven and in earth. The mantle of Elijah that fell
on Elisha, Elisha used to divide the river Jordan when he crossed
back over, remember? It is also a miracle, that is
a miracle, picturing how Christ has conquered death for us. That river of Jordan is a symbol
of death. And those who cross over that
into the promised land, that's a picture of the believer departing
this life and entering into that paradise to be with the Lord
forever. Separating the Lord Jesus Christ
has conquered death for us. Separating the river of death,
for He tasted death for us, and has conquered death for us by
putting away our sin and covering us with the mantle of His righteousness. He said, I am He that liveth
and was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. And because He lives, we live
in Him. He has conquered death, and He
has delivered us. Here's the second miracle, 2
Kings chapter 2, verse 19 through 22. Remember the waters at Jericho? were healed, it says in verse
21 of that chapter, he went forth unto the spring of the waters,
you remember they were bitter and polluted and the people couldn't
use that water there in Jericho, and it says in verse 21, 2 Kings
2, he went forth unto the spring of the waters, cast salt in there
and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters, there
shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto
this day." They were bitter. He cast in that salt and they
were healed. Now, how does that picture the
gospel? By the salt of His grace, and the salt of His mercy, and
His covenant mercy, and by the shedding of His blood, we are
healed. With His stripes, we are healed. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
Jehovah Rapha. You remember Exodus 15, 26? What
does that mean? The Lord that healeth thee. We are healed in Him because
our sin is put away. And we may, if any man be in
Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Now here's a
third miracle. I hope this is familiar to you. In 2nd Kings chapter 3 verse
17 to verse 20, Elisha fills the barren valley full of water
and our Lord Jesus Christ is called the water of life. He told that woman at the well,
if you drink of that water, that natural water, you'll thirst
again. In John 4 verse 14, but our Lord said, you drink of that
water that I give you will be in you a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. We are like that barren, dried
valley and the Lord fills us with the water of life. Christ
is the water of life. And makes us to bloom and to
be fruitful, to bring forth fruit unto the glory of God. For the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
meekness, temperance, faith. Turn to John 15. He says, without
Me, I am the vine. John 15 verse 5, I am the vine,
you are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. But without Me, you
can do nothing. We're only fruitful in Him. Apart from Christ, the water
of life, We're barren. We're a barren, dried, desert
land. Now here's the fourth one. Found
in 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 1 down through verse 7. The poor widow,
remember? Her husband was a prophet and
he had died and the poor widow was in debt. and had nothing
to pay the debt. They were coming to take her
two sons and put them in debtor's prison and take her property
from her, and she had nothing to pay. And Elisha filled the
empty pot with special oil, remember? And she was able to sell the
oil, save the farm, save her two boys, and the Lord gets all
the glory. This too is a picture of the
Lord's mercy toward us. For by nature we are empty vessels. We have nothing to pay our debt
unto God. We've sinned against Him. We
have nothing to pay the debt. We're empty vessels and the Lord
fills us with the oil of His Spirit, the oil of His love,
mercy, and grace, for the love of God is shed abroad in our
heart by the Holy Spirit. That oil is the type and picture
of God, the Holy Spirit. You see, the Lord will provide
for us according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ, just as He provided for that widow woman. He empties
us of ourselves and then He fills us with the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. He said, come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy, find
grace to help in time of need. He strips us of our filthy rags
of self-righteousness and clothes us with his own righteousness. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth righteousness without works. The poor widow has all
those empty pots full of oil and she pays off her debt and
we are blessed in Christ abundantly and eternally. Here is the fifth
miracle, 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 18. We find there the Shunammite
son was raised to life. Now remember when Elisha was
traveling through, that Shunammite woman provided a little room
and a table for him to stay. And she was a barren woman. And
Elisha said, you're going to have a son. And sure enough,
the Lord blessed her with a son. But you remember what happened?
The son died. The Lord gave this barren woman
a special son. Later, the son became sick. Remember,
he said, oh, my head, my head. And then he died. She went to
see Elisha. And the Lord, through this prophet,
raised up the dead son. Remember when she came to the
prophet and Elisha sent out a forerunner to see who was coming to find
out, oh it's a Shunammite woman, to find out how she's doing.
Remember what she said? All is well. All is well. and all is well because God is
on the throne." This is also a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ
raising up and quickening dead sinners and giving them spiritual
life to whom He will. Elisha raised up just her son. I'm sure there were other children
in that area that had died, but Elisha went specifically and
sovereignly being sent of God to that child and raised him
from the dead. You see, God will have mercy
on whom he will have mercy. You hath he quickened who were
dead. We read in John 5, 21, as the
father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the
Son quickeneth whom He will." Remember John 17, the Father
had given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal
life to as many as the Father had given to Him. Now, we're
down to number 6. Number 6, 2 Kings chapter 4,
verse 38-41, and we find there In the school of the prophets,
there was a drought and couldn't find much to eat, and so they
put on a big pot of soup. And remember, somebody went out
and picked a wild gourd and threw it in the pot of soup, and when
they sat down to eat the soup, somebody yelled out, don't eat
it, there's death in the pot! Remember? Remember what happened? By a miracle of God's grace,
through Elisha, he cast in the meal, some kind of meal, cornmeal,
something, he cast some kind of meal into that pot of soup
and the people did eat and there was no harm. The deadly soup
became wholesome, nutritious food through the meal, the bread,
that he cast into the soup. The poisonous pot of soup represents
the poisonous doctrine of work salvation, the death in that
pot. The only remedy is the meal of
the Word, the truth of the Word. We are to cast the meal of the
gospel into the pot of poisonous soup and ask the Lord to kill
the poison and magnify His grace. Our works are nothing but Death
in the pot. Death in the scheme of salvation. Our Lord said you shall know
the truth and the truth will set you free. Aren't you glad
for that truth? Salvation is of the Lord and
salvation is by His grace. In that same chapter, 2 Kings
4, we find the seventh miracle. 2 Kings 4, verse 42 through verse
44, that's the last few verses of that fourth chapter. Elisha
took what little was given to him, 20 loaves of bread, and
fed 100 men, and they had bread plenty left over. This also foreshadows
what the Lord did in taking a few, little, and multiplying, you
remember, the few loaves of bread and the fishes, and fed 5,000
men, not counting the women and the children, and we know that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of life, and He is sufficient
for all of His people Can you exhaust the storehouse of His
bread? How many years has He been sending
out bread to His people? And how many years has He been
feeding the church of the Lord Jesus Christ with the bread of
life? And the storehouse is still full.
The Lord said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. You remember what they said?
Lord, evermore give us that bread. They talked about the bread that
Moses demanded from heaven. They ate that and died. The Lord
said, you eat this bread, you'll never die. We are to use what
the Lord has freely given to us, and use it for the glory
of the Lord, and He will bless it. He will cause His Word to
prosper. We are to serve the Lord in whatever
capacity He has placed us in. We are to serve the Lord to His
glory. We are to do whatever we do to the glory of God and
to the furtherance of the gospel, and He will bless it. He will
bless it. as He blesses us with the Word
and with the truth. I've got written down here Colossians
chapter 3. If you want to turn there, you
can. If not, just listen and I'll read it. Colossians chapter
3, 23, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, not
unto man. Knowing that of the Lord, you
shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the
Lord Christ." He will bless because it's His gift. God is gracious. He delights to show mercy. Now,
here is the miracle number eight. Number 8 is found in 2 Kings
chapter 5 verse 1 through 19. And probably this is the most
well-known miracle of all the miracles that preachers usually
preach about. You'll always find the sermon,
if you're looking at any particular preacher, from the study in 2
Kings, they always will have several sermons on this particular
story right here. 2 Kings 5, 1-19, a well-known
story of the healing of a leper. You remember his name? Naomi. We read about that in Luke chapter
4 a minute ago. You remember back in September
last year, September 18th to be specific, Cody Groover was
here. and he brought a message from
2 Kings chapter 5. And when he told me, when we
were talking about that Saturday evening, I asked him, what are
you going to preach from? He said, 2 Kings chapter 5. Well,
I was getting ready to preach on that Wednesday night. And
I thought, But I'm glad he brought that message for us here. And
I went back and listened to it again after the Lord was pleased.
Two months later he was gone, November 17th, the Lord took
him home. But he titled that message, you
remember, Nahum and said, I thought. I thought that he would come
out and strike his hand on that leprosy and everything would
be okay. I thought. You see, all of our
thoughts are wrong. But you remember the story, Naaman
was a Syrian and a captain, but he was a leper. A maid from Israel
told him about the prophet of God named Elisha. And when Naaman
came to see Elisha, he sent a messenger out. He didn't even go out to
meet him. He sent Gehazi and told him, you go down, dip in
Jordan seven times, and you'll be clean. And you remember? What the scripture said, Naaman
was angry. He said, I have to go down there
and dip in that muddy Jordan. Oh, the rivers back there in
my country, they're crystal clear. Far, far and all these different
rivers. Naaman thought he was above that. He was angry and
said, I thought. Well, finally he was convinced
by one of his servants to go wash in Jordan and he did. and he was made whole. He had
the flesh of a little child and was made clean. We, like are
filled with the leprosy of sin. Leprosy in Scripture is always
a type and picture of sin. And we're like name, and we're
unable to cleanse ourselves from our sin, unable to put away our
sin. But by the Lord's will and by
the Lord's power, and through the cleansing blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we are made clean. I like the story of that leper
in Matthew chapter 8, where he came to the Lord and kneeled
and said, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. And the
Lord said, I will be Thou clean. He worshipped Him as Lord and
was shut up to the sovereign mercy of the Lord, and the Lord
was pleased to heal him. And that's a good story for us. We are mercy beggars at the throne
of God's grace, and He'd delight to show mercy. The publican said,
Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And the Lord said, he
went home justified. And that's what we are before
God, mercy beggars. Now here's the ninth miracle,
2 Kings chapter 5. Remember, I brought a message,
I entitled it, The Rest of the Story, remember? The rest of
the story about Naaman. You remember the story of Naaman's
servant Gehazi, how he lied to Naaman to receive some silver
and some fancy clothes and was discovered by Elisha. You remember
Elisha when Gehazi came back and said, where you been? He
knew where he was. He knew where he was. You remember
what happened? The leprosy that was upon Naaman
was put upon Gehazi and his seed forever. Now here's a gospel
lesson for us. Gehazi wasn't satisfied with
what God had blessed him with, being with Elisha and the ministry
of Elisha. Now here's the lesson for us. We have all things in Christ. God help us to be content with
what the Lord has given to us. Godliness with contentment is
a great gain. We brought nothing into this
world. and it is certain sure we're going to carry nothing
out. Let us have food and raiment, let us therewith be content.
What would it profit if we would gain the whole world and lose
our soul? You can have all the riches You
remember Moses counted all the treasure of Egypt as nothing,
and counting the greater riches in the Lord Jesus Christ, which
endure forever. So, that gets us down to 2 Kings
chapter 6, verse 1 through 7. And here's the tenth miracle. Remember, And I like this story. Remember how the worker lost
his borrowed axe head in the river? And Elisha was told about
it as they were—remember they were trying to cut up some wood
to build a bigger preacher school? And Elisha was told that the
axe head that was lost, that was borrowed, was down in the
river, sunk in the mud. You remember how Elisha cut a
tree, put it down in the river, and it made the iron to swim?
A miracle, wasn't it? You don't just naturally, an
iron doesn't swim. And we, like that iron axe head,
are lost in the mud of sin, unable to swim out. It takes a miracle
of grace. The Lord, by a miracle of His
love and sovereign grace, makes us to come alive and come to
Him by faith. You see, faith is the gift of
God, not of worthless any man should boast. You see, He's able
to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for us. We're down to number
11, 2 Kings chapter 6. Verse 8 to verse 23, the servant
of Elisha, his eyes were opened to see the mountains filled with
a heavenly host that protected them from the Syrian army. Remember,
Elisha and his servant were surrounded by that Syrian army. They were
hunting Elisha, Elisha to put an end to his ministry. because
Ahab hated him. And remember what Elisha told
this young servant, he said, they that be with us are more
than them. And the Lord opened the young
servant's eyes and he looked around on the hills and here's
all these flaming angels ready to do battle and protect them. Elisha prayed to the Lord to
smite the Syrians with blindness, and that came to pass too. He
opened the eyes of the young man, and then he blinded the
eyes of the Syrian army. The Lord is always hovering about
His people. He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you, I will be with you always. But the Lord
must open the eyes of our understanding to make us believe this and to
see this. He does this sovereignly to whom
He will have mercy. He gives us eyes of faith to
see Him because He commands the light to shine in our dead heart
to make us to see the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We've never seen that before.
We never see any glory in Him. See, by nature, there's no beauty
in Him that we desire Him. Is there? Isaiah 53. But when
He opens our eyes, He's altogether lovely. To you who believe, He
is precious. While He opens the eyes of His
people, some are justly left in the blindness of their sin,
loving darkness and hating light. Well, we're down to number 12.
You didn't think I'd do it. You didn't think I could do it,
did you? 36 minutes. Number 12. We talked
about this last week. The last miracle we see in Elisha's
death. In his death, he gives life. Oh, really? When he died, they
buried him. And you remember they hurriedly
When the marauders came through, they hurriedly took a body of
a dead man and threw it down in the tomb of Elisha. And when he touched those bones,
he was resurrected. You see, even in his death, he
gives life. That's Christ. In his death,
we have life. He is the resurrection and the
life. He said, I'm he that liveth and
was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore.
He said, because I live, you shall live also. Now, here is
my closing statement. The whole Bible and all Scripture
is about the person and work of Christ. All of it. All Scriptures
are all relative to the Lord Jesus Christ. Where they may
teach many other important lessons and many other different things,
the theme of all the Word of God is Christ and Him crucified. And that salvation is of the
Lord and in the Lord. He that hath the Son hath life.
All Scripture is given by God the Holy Spirit to teach us the
way of salvation. Holy men of old spake as they
were moved by God the Holy Spirit. And it is only profitable The
only possible study in the Word of God is as we study the Word
of God, seeking to know and to see the Lord Jesus Christ in
His Word. We sing that song, Show Me the
Truth Concealed Within Thy Word, and in that book revealed, I
see the Lord. Now turn to John chapter 5. John
chapter 5, and I'll let you go. John chapter 5 verse 39. Our Lord said, when He, the Spirit
of truth has come, He'll take the things of mine and show it
unto you. What does He take? The Word of
truth, the Word of God. In John 5, 39, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you. And remember the Lord is chastising
these all know it. Self-righteous Pharisee, but
I know you you don't have the love of God in you I'm coming
my father's name and you receive me not if another shall come
in his own name him we you receive How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that coming from
God only? Do not think I will accuse you to the father. There
is one that cues if you even Moses whom you say you trust
and For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for
he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writing,
how shall you believe my words?