Now our scripture is 2 Kings
chapter 2. In our text, verse 14, 2 Kings
2, 14. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? Now prior to this, God had indicated
to Elijah, and evidently also to Elisha, that the great prophet
of God, Elijah, was to be taken up into heaven. I do not know
how long Elisha was with Elijah, But the young prophet Elisha
would not leave the side of this great man of God. He listened
to him, he depended on him, and he looked to him. In fact, Elijah
tested him three times. He said to him, Elisha, you stay
here. God is sending me to Bethel.
And Elisha says, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth,
I will not leave thee. So the two of them journeyed
to Bethel. And while they were there, the sons of the prophets
at Bethel said, Do you know, Elisha, that God is going to
take your father? It wasn't his natural father,
but his father in spiritual things. The sons of the prophets said,
Elisha, do you know that God's going to take your father to
heaven? And he said, I know it. You just hold your peace. He
was disturbed about this. He was deeply disturbed. And
then Elijah said to him, Now you stay here. I'm going down
to Jericho. God is sending me to Jericho.
And Elisha again said, As the Lord liveth, and as thou so liveth,
I will not leave thee. So both of them went to Jericho.
And while they were there, the sons of the prophets again said
to him, Do you know that God is going to take Elijah to heaven
today? And Elisha said, I know it. hold ye your peace, leave me
alone." And Elijah said then to him, said, God is sending
me to Jordan, you stay here. And Elijah said, I will not stay
here, as the Lord liveth, and as thou so liveth, I will not
leave thee. So both of them journeyed together
down to Jordan, and when they came to Jordan, they came to
the river. They stood on the bank of the river, and Elijah
took his mantle from his shoulders and rolled it up, and he smoked
the water. And the Scripture says, the waters
of Jordan were divided, and the two of them went through on dry
land. And when they got to the other
side, the old prophet turned to the young man, and he said,
ask what I shall do for thee before I am taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And Elijah said,
that's a hard thing that you ask. Nevertheless, this shall
be a sign unto thee. If you see me when I am taken
up into heaven, then it shall be so. If you do not see me,
it shall not be so. And about that time the scripture
said that a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and came
between them. And Elijah was taken up by a
whirlwind into heaven, and Elisha saw him go and cried, O my father,
my father. And after Elijah had gone away,
Elisha was standing there in the mantle This shoulder piece
that Elijah had worn, made of probably goat skin, but it's
a long mantle that covered his shoulders and his body, had fallen
to the ground. And Elisha, the young prophet,
reached down and picked it up. And he rolled it up, as he had
seen Elijah do, and walked up to the waters of the River Jordan,
as he had seen Elijah, and he cried as he smoked the waters.
Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now this is the great object
to be desired. We need the presence and power
of the Lord. His presence, not just His word,
not just these hymns of praise, not just the building dedicated
to His glory and to His service. not just the ordinances that
he has left. We need the presence and power
of the Lord God. For His presence is our salvation. His presence is our comfort.
His presence is our life. His presence is our hope. And
His absence, even with all these things, is decline, disease,
and death. The prophet cried, O God, leave
me not, forsake me not, O God of my father. David cried, O
God, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Take not thy presence. Do you ever fear a departure
of the presence of God? God departed from Saul, left
him to himself. to make all of his horrible errors
and horrible mistakes. God departed from Samson. The
Spirit of God said Samson arose, prepared himself for battle,
and wished not that the Spirit of God had departed from him. This is the great object to be
desired, this is the great object for which we're to pray, this
is the great object for which we're to hunger and thirst, and
that is the presence of the Lord God. Where is the Lord God of
Elijah? Without Him, I can do nothing. Without him, I would surely fail. Without him, I would be drifting
as a ship without a sail." And then Elisha thought, note this
carefully, I love the old writers, but you can have them and not
have God. I love the old pilgrim Puritan
fathers, but you can have them and not have God. Elisha sought
the Lord, not his servant. Elijah was gone. Elijah would not return. His
work was ended, finished, and Elisha knew this. And this is
one of the dangers that we face, why we must profit by what has
been taught and what has been preached and what has been said
and what has been written. A man's ministry cannot continue
after he's dead. His words can be left and his
books can be left, but the God of glory uses living men. You'll find that all the way
through his work. Elijah was gone. His work was
ended. He would not return. Elisha sought
the presence of the Lord. He said, where is the Lord God
of Elijah? The same Lord God that was with
Elijah must be now with me, he said. The presence of the Spirit
of God that was upon Elijah must be upon me. And then Elijah was content to
use the same instrument that Elijah used. He didn't seek any
novelties. He reached down and took the
mantle that Elijah had used, the mantle that Elijah had accomplished
the work of dividing the Jordan. He reached down and picked up
the same mantle and smoked the water and divided that water. He used the same instrument.
What I'm saying is this. The old preachers are dead. We
seek their God. And in seeking their God, we
use the same message they used. We use the same gospel they use. We use the same word of God.
We need no novelties of the present. We need no wonders of the future. We need the same word, the same
instrument, which Elijah used, which Elisha used, which Peter
used, which Paul used, and that is the word of the living God. Our Lord said, without me you
can do nothing. And the Apostle said, I can do
all things through Christ which strengthens me. Where is the
Lord God of Elijah? Without him we are fuel for Satan's
fires. Without him we are left subject,
and this is a dangerous position, to our own evil wills. Without
Him, we are groping in the darkness of sin. Without Him, we are the
blind leading the blind. Without Him, we are men trying
to build without tools. Without Him, we are ships without
rudders. Without Him, we are without bread
and water. Without Him, we are in a prison
without a door. Without Him, we are sheep without
a shepherd. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? I have two points in my message
tonight, and only two. The first point is this. This
question is a cry for help. This question is a cry for help. And then my second point will
be the answer to this question. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? This young man, realizing his
need, realizing the task that's before him, realizing, I'm sure,
what Paul realized when he cried, Who is sufficient for these things? As he stood there and watched
his spiritual leader being taken from him, he cried out, Where
is the Lord God of Elijah? Be thou also with me. I need
thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine
can peace afford. I need thee every hour in joy
and pain. Come quickly and abide, or life
is vain. I need thee, O I need thee. Every hour I need thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to thee." Elijah was saying this,
that God who kept Elijah faithful throughout all his life must
also enable me to stand firm in the faith. Turn to Jude, the
little book of Jude, verse 24. The same God who kept Elijah
faithful throughout his whole life must enable me to stand
firm in the faith. Without him, I'll fail. Without him, I'll fall. Without him, I'll perish. In
Jude 24, the Scripture says, "...now unto him that is able
to keep you from falling." And there's no place that can keep
you. For the angels fell. The angels who were in heaven
fell, departed from the living God. Adam and Eve, who were in
the perfect Garden of Eden, they fell. Noah, who was miraculously
delivered from the flood on an ark which God enabled him to
prepare, fell. David, who was the king of Israel,
the highest in all the land, fell. One of the apostles, Judas,
who followed our Lord Jesus Christ for two, three and a half years,
fell. Demas, who was the companion
of the apostle Paul, fell. There is no place that can keep
you, but there is a person who can keep you, and that's why
we need him. Now, under him that is able to
keep you from falling. Now unto him that is able to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy, to him be the glory. Let him that standeth
take heed, the scripture said, lest he fall. Lest he fall. Leave me not, neither forsake
me. The God who kept Elijah faithful
throughout his life unto this time of departure to glory, Elijah
was praying, be thou also with me. And then he's saying this,
the God who provided for Elijah, the God who provided for him
in the wilderness, must also supply my needs. The Apostle
said, but my God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory through Christ Jesus. And David wrote, The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. I don't know about tomorrow.
It may bring me poverty. But the one who feeds the sparrow
is the one who stands by me. And the path that be my portion,
be it through flame or flood, his promise goes before me, and
I'm covered with his blood. The Lord God who met the need
of Elijah and fed him by the ravens must also meet my need.
He must also supply my need. That's what Elijah's crying.
Where is the Lord God of Elijah? The Lord God that kept him and
preserved him and protected him, faithful unto death, must keep
me. The Lord God who fed him and supplied his needs and provided
for him, he's got to provide for me. And then over in 1st
Kings 17, 21, and 22, there was a young boy who died. A widow
had fed Elijah, and her son died in 1st Kings 17. And Elijah,
the prophet of God, in verse 21, took the little boy up into
the loft. And verse 20, he cried unto the
Lord. Elijah did. in I Kings 17.20,
and he said, O Lord my God, hast thou brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself
upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said,
O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him
again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again and
he revived. The God who enabled Elijah to
raise the dead must also enable us by his powerful spirit, by
his life-giving spirit, to bring forth men from spiritual grave. As Elijah stood by that dead
child His soul had left his body. The woman was weeping and said,
Why has this evil come upon me? I have brought you into my home,
the prophet of God. I have fed you, I have ministered
to you, and now my child dies. And Elijah took that dead child
up into his arms and took him up into the loft and laid him
before the Lord. And he said, O my God, O my God,
let this child's soul come back into his body. Now we are sent,
you talk about soul winning, you talk about witnessing to
sinners, you talk about preaching the gospel. Let me tell you,
Elijah was no more helpless standing before the dead farm of that
little boy who had no soul than I am standing before dead sinners
who have no spiritual life. And you're no more, Elijah was
no more helpless holding in his arms the dead form of that little
boy. He couldn't breathe life into
him, but God could. He couldn't cause his soul to
return, but God could. He could not give him life, but
God could. And Elijah was no more helpless
than you are when you are witnessing and ministering and telling the
gospel to some sinner dead in trespasses and sin. God's voice
must be heard. God must quicken the dead. You
have He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Don't
you believe that? That's the reason Elisha stood
here and cried, where is the Lord God of Elijah? I can talk
him into a religious profession, but only God can give him life.
I can talk him into believing some doctrine, but only God can
give him life. I can talk them into quitting
their meanness and turning over a new leaf and joining the church
and going to heaven when they die, but only God can give them
life. Only God can stand outside the
grave of Lazarus and cry with an effectual voice, Lazarus,
come forth! Lazarus, come forth. The God
who raised the dead by Elijah. must, by his presence, by his
spirit, by his power, enable us to bring men from their spiritual
death to the living one, Christ the Lord. That's how helpless
we are. Can't you just imagine Elijah
as he stood over the dead form of this boy? He's so helpless.
The widow says, do something. I can't do anything. Do something. There's nothing I can do. With
men it's impossible. That's something God can do.
And brethren, I'm telling you, we're shut up. We're shut up
to His power. We're shut up to His grace. We're
shut up to His presence. If He's not here, we waste our
time. And then in 1 Kings 21, here's
another illustration. 1 Kings 21. The God who gave
Elijah courage and boldness, to stand face to face with kings,
and deliver the message of God without fear, must also deliver
us from the fear of men, and make us bold to preach his word. In I Kings 21, verse 20, Ahab
said to Elijah, here was King Ahab, he had just come from the
vineyard, having slain Naboth and having taken his vineyard
away, because Jezebel wanted it. And he came from that terrible
deed, and he met Elijah, the prophet of God, face to face.
And Ahab said to Elijah in verse 20 of 1 Kings 21, Hast thou found
me, O mine enemy? And Elijah answered and said,
I have found you, because you have sold yourself to work evil
in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon
thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from
Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut
up and left in Israel. The same thing that's happened
to Naboth is going to happen to you." That took courage. Here was the prophet of God.
Here was a man with no armies behind him. Here was a man with
no visible support facing a king of Israel, and he says, the same
thing you've done to neighbor, God's going to do to you. And,
brethren, that takes courage. Peter had that kind of courage.
Turn to the book of Acts, chapter 4. In Acts, the fourth chapter,
verse 18, listen to this. Acts 4, 18. And they called the
apostles. And they commanded them not to
speak at all nor to teach in the name of Jesus Christ. And
Peter and John answered and said, Whether it be right in the sight
of God to listen to you more than God, you be the judge. But
we cannot but speak those things which we have seen and which
we have heard. Whatever it costs, whatever it
brings upon us, we're going to remain true to God's Word. That
takes boldness, and we've got to have something that this natural
flesh can't give us. We've got to have something that
the natural man cannot produce. We've got to have a boldness
and a fearlessness that only God by his presence can give. And then in the next place, where
is the Lord God of Elijah? Elisha knew this, that the God
who divided Jordan for his prophet to walk over would not fail him
when he too came to that river. Now, Jordan was a type of depth,
walking over into Canaan. walking over into the land that
was promised, walking over into that blessed place of rest. And
someday I'm coming to that river. Someday I'm going to stand on
the bank of that river. And I need the power of God to
divide that river. I need the power of God to take
me over. The songwriter put it this way,
when I come to the river at ending of day, When the last winds of
sorrow have blown, there'll be somebody waiting to show me the
way. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. Though the burdens are heavy
and the mountains are steep, Christ the Savior will care for
His own. Till the end of the journey,
my soul He shall keep, and I won't have to cross Jordan alone. Elisha knew where he was. Elisha
knew what he was. Elisha knew his weakness, his
inability. Elisha knew what he needed. And
when his father, the prophet, upon whom he had leaned, upon
whom he had depended, whom he had followed, whom he had listened
to, when he was taken from him, and he stood there alone, and
all the sons of the prophets, fifty of them, were over there
watching, And here was the man who was to take up the banner.
Here was the man who was to be the leader. He looked up and
cried, where is the Lord God of Elijah? I'm not going to leave
this place until I'm assured of his presence. I'm not going
to leave this place until I'm assured of his power. Have we ever been brought to
that place? Have we been brought to see that desperate, desperate
need? Have we ever been brought to
the place where we really see the total, complete dependence
that we have upon His presence? His presence. Jacob saw that. He wrestled with the angel of
the Lord. He said, I'm not going to let you go. You bless me.
I will not be left alone. I'm not going to face life alone.
I'm not going to try any longer alone. I need thee. I need thee. Desperately I need
thee. Desperately. Now here's the question
answered. Turn to Psalm 115. Where is the
Lord God of Elijah? Where is he? Where is the Lord
God of Elijah? We don't want the God of Baal.
We don't want the God of the Amorites and the Philistines.
We don't want the God that has no eyes and cannot see, and no
ears and cannot hear, and no arm and cannot save. The one
whom we need is the Lord God of Elijah. David said, As the
heart panteth for the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee,
the living God, the living God. Our Lord Jesus said, This is
eternal life, that they might know Thee, the true and living
God. I don't want a God, I want Thee,
God of Elijah. I want the God who can keep,
and the God who can provide, and the God who can preserve,
and the God who can save, and the God who can deliver, and
the God who can empower. I want the God of Elijah, His
presence. Where is He? First of all, I'll
give you three answers to that. First of all, he's in heaven.
Psalm 115, verse 2. Wherefore should the heathen
soul say, Where is now their God? And David replies, Our God
is in the heavens. Our God's not confined to a temple.
Our God is not confined to a mountain. Our God is not confined to shrines. Our God is not confined to a
small corner of a building where we place Him and leave Him. Our
God's in the heavens. The heaven of heavens cannot
contain Him, and the earth is His footstool. He is in the heavens,
and His kingdom ruleth over all. He is very God of very God. He is the absolute, eternal,
infinite Sovereign of heaven and earth. Our God is in the
heavens, David said, and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Turn to Psalm 99, one of the
men read in the study a little while ago. Psalm 99. The Bible
reads this way all the way through. Psalm 99, the Lord reigneth. the Lord reigning. Let the people
tremble. Let the people tremble. We're
not looking for a good luck charm. We're not looking for an idol
to wear around our necks. When we cry, where is the Lord
God of Elijah, we're crying for him who reigns. He sitteth between
the cherubim. Let the earth be moved or staggered. The Lord is great in Zion. He's
high above all the people. Let them praise thy great and
terrible name. He is holy. He's sovereign, sovereign
in creation. He made all things as it pleased
Him. He made the Sahara Desert hot
because it pleased Him to do it. He made the world two-thirds
water because it pleased Him to do it. He made the mountains
high and cold because it pleased Him to do it. He made one country
rich in minerals and another poor because it pleased Him to
do it. He's sovereign in providence.
He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. He killeth
and He maketh alive. He breaketh poor. He raiseth
up. He lifteth the beggar from the
dunghill and sets him on the throne. I, the Lord, do all these
things. He's sovereign in salvation.
He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, and
none can say unto Him, What doest thou? He declares the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done. He is a sovereign God. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
He can answer if He wants to, and if He doesn't, He can leave
us to ourselves. Let the earth tremble. This God
of glory is not one you can summons by snapping your finger. He's
not one with whom you can bargain. He's the Lord God of heaven.
And when Elisha stood here alone after Elijah had departed and
he cried, where is the Lord God of Elijah? It was a prayer, it
was a plea, it was a cry, it was a call. It wasn't a demand. He'll answer if he wills. But
he doesn't have to. That's what our Lord told those
people in Luke chapter 4. He said there were many widows
in the land of Israel in the days of Elijah, but unto none
of them was Elijah sent but to this woman who was a Gentile. There were many lepers in the
land of Israel in the days of Elisha, but none of them were
healed but Nahum, a Gentile. Where is he? He's in the heavens. He's not in your temples and
your shrines and in your holy mountains, and He's not in the
Holy Land. I know people who go over to
Jerusalem, and they go to those shrines and to those places where
Christ was supposed to have been buried and born and crucified,
and they stand on those so-called holy places and feel closer to
God. What you've got, if you can feel
closer to God in Jerusalem, you've got you in idols, what you've
got. You've got your Nile. God doesn't
dwell in Jerusalem. Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he pleased. If a man wants to go to Jerusalem
and to what they call the Holy Land, and that land's not any
more holy than this land right here, if a man wants to go over
there for the purpose of seeing how people used to live and seeing
where Christ ministered when he was on this earth, that's
one thing, but to feel closer to God. That's ridiculous. And the preacher who took those
23,000 names of lost people and laid them over there on Golgotha's
hill, hoping that through some superstitious power that God
would save those people because their letters were laying on
that hill called Golgotha, he was revealing his total ignorance
of who God is. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? He's not in the Holy Land. He's
not in shrines and temples and holy mountains and places made
with hand. Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he pleased. He's a matchless, sovereign,
eternal, infinite God that cannot be confined to these things. We're just like the Israelites
of old who worshipped the brazen serpent till the king had the
sense to grind it to powder and throw it away. We're just like the people of
old who worshipped things that they can touch and things that
they can see and things that they can feel that confine to
these natural senses. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? He is in the heavens. He reigneth
over all. He is sovereign. He is very God
of very God. He is in the sunshine and the
rain. He is in the snow. He is in the
storm. He is in all the earth. Does thou build a house for me,
Solomon? The heavens can't contain me."
And then secondly, turn to 2 Corinthians 5, where is the Lord God of Elijah? He's in the heavens. And secondly,
he's in Christ. He's in Christ. It says in 2
Corinthians 5 verse 19, namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. You can't have the presence of
this Lord God until you recognize who he is and where he is. There's no way to approach him
until you're made aware of where he is. Philip said, Lord, show
us the Father, show us the Father, and we're satisfied. He said,
Philip, have I been so long time with you and yet you haven't
known me? He that has seen me has seen the Father. The Father
is in me and I am in the Father. God himself came down here to
this earth and took on himself a human body. In the fullness
of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them born under the law. God walked this earth
in human flesh as a man. God in the person of Jesus Christ
obeyed the law as our representative. God in the person of Jesus Christ
went to the cross and died that cruel, terrible death on Calvary
for our sins. That was God in Christ. God in
the flesh was laid in a grave. God in the flesh arose from that
tomb, and God in the flesh ascended to the right hand of the majesty
on high, where he is our personal envoy, ambassador, intercessor,
mediator. God's in Christ. Where is the
Lord God of Elijah? He's in the heavens. He's not
in Jerusalem. He's in the heavens. He's not
in this mountain. He's in the heavens. He's not
in these buildings made with hands. He's in the heavens. He's
not in our little sacred shrines before which we kneel. He's in
the heavens. He's not in Easter Sunday morning
any more than he's in Monday morning. He's in every morning. Every hour, every minute, every
second of every day is in Him. Thirdly, turn to Hebrews 4, where
is the Lord God of Elijah? Lord God of Elijah, I need thee. I need thy presence. I need thy
power. I need thy strength. I need thy
salvation. I need thee. And if I am blessed with thy
presence, I'm going to have to look to the right place. I'm
going to have to cry to the right God. Thirdly, he's on a throne of
grace. Hebrews 4.16, listen to it. Verse 15 says, We have not a
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted as we are yet without seeing.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Where
is he? He's on a throne of grace. Now
listen to me very carefully right here, and this will help our
prayer life, this will help our prayer attitude. It is a throne
that we approach. Never lose sight of that fact.
Someone said one time, foolish is the man who is overly familiar
with deity. Now I know, I've heard people
say, so-and-so prays such a pretty prayer, he talks to God like
he's talking to me. I don't advise you to talk to
God like you talk to me. I don't advise that at all. Foolish
is the man who is overly familiar with deity. Now the scripture
says, the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep
silence before him. God is greatly to be feared. Isn't that what the word says?
Holy and reverent is his name. Isaiah said, When King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled the
temple. Even the cherubims and seraphims
covered their faces and their mouths before the throne. And they cried, Holy, holy, holy
Lord God of hosts. I don't know. I don't know whether
an over-familiarity with the Holy God reveals spirituality
or not. I don't know. His presence is
awesome. That scripture you read, let
the people tremble. Come, my children, the wise men
said, and I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. The beginning
of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. This says, let us come
boldly unto the what? The throne. Now, brother, a throne
is a place of power. A throne is a place of majesty. A throne is a place of government. A throne is a place of authority. And this is a throne that we
approach. I know, and I'm glad. It's not
a throne of justice. or I'd melt before his presence.
It's not a throne of justice, or it would forever turn me away
and condemn me as guilty and banish me to the pits of hell,
but it's a throne of grace. I come boldly before his throne,
but even as I come and cry, Father, Father, I cry it with respect. and reverence and fear. It is a throne of mercy. There's
mercy with God, thank God. God's plenteous in mercy. But you'll find throughout this
Bible all of the prayers of men of God were prayers of reverence
and respect and fear. O God, we wait before thee. O
God, we cry unto thy name. O God, matchless is thy name.
O God, hear from heaven and attend unto our prayers. O God, the
leper said, if you will, you can make me whole. Let us come boldly. The very
fact you say, well, that says come boldly, yes, but not come
familiarly, not come irreverently. come boldly. The very fact that
the door is open to us is boldness. The very fact that we dare to
approach his presence is a boldness. The very fact that we dare even
to come into communion with him is a boldness, whether we open
our mouths or not. The very fact we can stand there
without being consumed is a boldness. What are you doing here, who
gave you permission to stand in my presence? We better learn this. Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? He's in the heavens. You're not
going to find him down at that little tacky shrine that somebody's
put some silly looking woman with a smile on her face and
a halo. You're not going to find God there. Where's the Lord God
of Elijah? He's not in a certain mountain
or Mecca. Where's the Lord God of Elijah?
Don't go to Jerusalem looking for him. They're going to tear
that place up one of these days. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
He's in the heavens. Our God's in the heavens. Our
God's in Christ. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
He's in Christ the substitute. He's in Christ the sacrifice.
He's in Christ the Redeemer. He's in Christ the High Priest.
That's where He is. He's in Christ, and nobody's
going to approach Him except in and through and because of
Jesus Christ. That's where God is. That's where
He deals. Christ is the tabernacle where God meets the sinner. Christ
is the mercy seat where sins are pardoned. Christ is the holy
place where God will do business with the sinner. And as we approach
Him, remember, we're coming before a throne, a throne, a throne
of grace. Thank God it's a throne of grace,
but it's not less than a throne. And because it's a place where
we find mercy, does not mean it's a place where compromise
is the tone and the key. It's a throne. Let us come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. You don't help smart-aleck beggars,
you help humble beggars. May God make me a humble beggar
at the throne of grace. Our Father in Heaven, thank Thee
for Thy Word for this beautiful, beautiful picture. We stand like
Elisha. not worthy to touch the hem of
his garment, not worthy even to sit at his feet, let alone
thine. But like him we have the same
need, the same emptiness, the same dependence, the same flesh. We stand in the place of Elisha,
there by that river Jordan.