Well now, I know that it's my privilege
tonight, in meeting you good folks, to be
speaking to those who, in various spheres of
Christian activity, shoulder considerable responsibilities of Christian
leadership.
And so I thought that, as those who
have been called by God to positions of
Christian leadership, we might examine together our particular
responsibilities.
By virtue of the responsibilities that we have,
inevitably we make an impact upon those amongst
whom we minister.
It may be a Sunday school, it may
be a Bible class, it may be a
church congregation, it may be some business organization
designed to present the claims of Christ to
those in their professional capacity.
But whatever it is into which God has
led, inevitably, day by day, consciously or unconsciously,
we make an impact upon those amongst whom
we live and those to whom we minister.
And in particular, we make an impact upon
those who are younger than we are, quite
obviously.
Boys and girls in our Sunday school classes
or within our church congregations or youth clubs,
these are the ones who have the right
to look up to us, to get their
eyes on us, to scrutiny, to scrutinize, and
to draw their own conclusions.
So it is a perfectly valid question to
ask, what is the impact that your life
in a position of Christian leadership makes upon
those with whom you are principally concerned?
What is the effect of your life upon
the spiritual well-being of boys and girls
and young people?
With this in mind, I want to tell
you tonight two stories, a sad story and
a glad story.
The sad story, with which we'll begin, is
found in the first book of Kings and
the 13th chapter.
1 Kings chapter 13.
I'm sure it'll be a story that's familiar
to you all.
Behold, there came a man of God out
of Judah by the word of the Lord
unto Bethel.
And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn
incense.
Just a very brief historical sketch to give
the background.
Under Rehoboam, there had taken place the revolt
of the ten tribes of Israel.
And they had enthroned Jeroboam to be king.
For his part, he recognized the political danger
of those now under his sovereignty going to
Jerusalem there to worship God.
For he feared that if they were to
return to Jerusalem, slowly their allegiance and their
affections would be recaptured by Rehoboam.
So we're told that Jeroboam, verse 28, the
king of the previous chapter 12, chapter 12
and verse 28, he made two calves of
gold and said to the people, it is
too much for you to go up to
Jerusalem.
Behold thy God, O Israel, which brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt.
And he said, the one in Bethel and
the other put him to death.
And this thing became a sin.
So the people went to worship before the
one even unto death.
And he made an house of high places
and made priests of the lowest of the
people, which were not of the sons of
Levi.
He introduced, in other words, a completely counterfeit
form of religion, but which retained much of
its inherent sentimentality.
The gods he created were the gods who
brought them out of Egypt, because that was
still vivid in the minds of the people.
And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth
month on the 15th day of the month,
like unto the feast that is in Judah,
and he offered upon the office.
So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the
calves that he had made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of
the high places, which he had made.
So he offered upon the altar, which he
had made in Bethel the 15th day of
the eighth month, even in the month which
he had devised of his own heart.
That's the background.
And it is into this background that suddenly
there stepped this man of God out of
Judah.
And he cried against the altar in the
word of the Lord.
We read in the second verse of the
13th chapter, O altar, altar, thus saith the
Lord.
Behold, a child shall be born unto the
house of David, Josiah by name.
And upon thee shall he offer the priests
of the high places that burn incense upon
thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon
thee.
And he gave a sign the same day,
saying, This is the sign which the Lord
hath spoken.
Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the
ashes that are upon it shall be poured
out.
And so with complete fearlessness and in utter
faithfulness, this man of God out of Judah
proclaims judgment upon this idolatry and blatant defiance
of the God of Israel.
Unashamed, unafraid, and crystal clear in his discharge
of the responsibility that God has laid upon
him.
Well, that's refreshing.
That doesn't sound like a sad story.
Would to God that we more often heard
so clear a denunciation of evil and of
all defiance of God's sovereignty in the lives
of men.
Came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the
saying of the man of God, which had
cried against the altar in Bethel, that he
put forth his hand from the altar, saying,
Lay hold on him.
And his hand, which he had put forth
against him, dried up, so that he could
not pull it in again to him.
The altar also was rent, and the ashes
poured out from the altar according to the
sign which the man of God had given
by the word of the Lord.
In other words, not only was he utterly
fearless and faithful in the discharge of his
responsibility in delivering the whole counsel of God,
but God was in action on his behalf.
And the king's arm was with him.
And the king answered and said unto the
man of God, Entreat now the face of
the Lord thy God, and pray for me,
that my hand may be restored me again.
And the man of God besought the Lord,
and the king's hand was restored him again.
And he became as it was before.
Obviously a man whose activity was vitally in
harmony with God's mind and purpose.
He was simply the human vehicle of God's
will at that particular time, for this particular
second.
And any man who at any given moment
is identified by his heart attitude of total
obedience to God with the mind and will
of God, has the legitimate right to call
upon all the resources of God.
That's a divine principle, given to us clearly
in the 11th chapter of the epistles of
the Hebrew, he that cometh to God must
first believe that God is, and that he
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him.
Put in a simpler way, all that God
is, is fully available to the man who
is fully available to all that God is.
That in a nutshell of course is the
Christian life.
All that Jesus Christ is, in whom dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, is
available to the man or the woman who
is fully available to all that Jesus Christ
is.
And that's why if we come to the
place where we're prepared to be fully available,
we can know that we are complete in
him.
This man knew something of this.
He stepped out of the pages of the
Old Testament, he was a man who had
entered into this unique personal relationship with God,
who in the place of obedience and in
the faithful discharge of his responsibility, had a
high confidence that God would be in action
on his behalf.
The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro throughout the whole earth looking for the
man that he might show himself strong on
his behalf, whose heart is perfect towards him.
A heart that's perfect towards God is simply
a human personality placed unreservedly at God's disposal.
That's all it means.
To recognize that my life mechanism, my capacity
to think and to react and to decide,
is a life mechanism that I must place
under the supreme jurisdiction of God himself exercising
his sovereignty in and through me by his
divine justice.
And God says I'm looking for that man.
I don't care where I find him.
I don't mind the color of his skin.
I don't mind whether he's educated or ill
-educated, whether he's scholarly or simple, whether he's
rich or poor, whether he's naturally endowed with
unusual gifts or unusually bereft.
All I'm looking for, says God, as my
eyes run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, is any man anywhere who is available
and I'll show myself strong in his heart.
Here was a man whom God had found.
Well, that wasn't a sad story.
That was anything but a sad story.
And the king said unto the man of
God, come home with me and refresh thyself
and I will give thee a reward.
The man of God said to the king,
if thou wilt give me half thine half,
I will not go in with thee, neither
will I eat bread nor drink water in
this place.
For so was it charged me by the
word of the Lord saying, eat no bread
nor drink water nor turn again by the
same way that thou camest.
I've received my instructions and I may not
stray from them.
So he went another way and he returned
not by the way that he came to
bed.
He was a man refreshingly disinterested.
The promise of social advancement, to be entertained
in the royal palace or such monetary reward
as the king might have bestowed upon him,
left him completely unmoved, untouched.
He was a man consumed with a holy
passion to be in the place of the
king.
He had an insatiable appetite to see God
unhindered at work in and through his life.
And that doesn't sound like a sad story.
But in point of fact, this is one
of the saddest stories in the Bible.
Verse 10, so he went another way and
he returned not by the way that he
came to bed.
Verse 11, now there dwelt an all prophet
in Bethel.
That's where the sad story begins.
There dwelt an all prophet in Bethel.
It doesn't say he was a bad man.
It doesn't say that he was doing anything
which might have been described at this time
as specifically wrong.
But what we come to know of this
all prophet in Bethel is this, that he
had become acclimatized to the evil atmosphere in
which he lived.
He had reconciled himself to the status quo.
In this place, Bethel, which means the house
of God, where Jacob first met God.
In this place, Bethel, where Jeroboam was establishing
idolatry in the faith and in defiance of
the living God of his people Israel.
There was an all prophet who knew better.
There was an all prophet who knew God.
And he never raised a voice of protest.
He never barred the way to King Jeroboam.
Nor did he condemn his actions.
And that isn't even to say that he
did not personally disapprove of them.
He may have disapproved violently.
But he did nothing about it.
Nothing.
He'd become acclimatized.
Why had he become acclimatized?
Why did he do nothing about it?
Because I believe he was an all prophet
in Bethel who had learned to live a
life less than miraculous.
He had learned to live a life which
was something less than a life explicable only
in terms of God.
Of the man of God who came out
from Judah, you couldn't say that of him.
When a man speaks, a man's arm doesn't
wither unless God is in action.
When a man speaks, an altar doesn't suddenly
fall apart unless God is in action.
The man of God who came out from
Judah was a man who had become accustomed
to living a quality of life that could
not be explained except in terms of God.
But the all prophet in Bethel had learned
to live a life that could only be
explained only in terms of man and certainly
not in terms of God.
And that's where the sad story began.
And this unfortunately is where too often, all
too often, in 1962 the sad story begins.
Because amongst those who carry responsibilities within the
context of Christian activity, there are all too
many who have learned to live lives that
are less than miraculous.
Who disapprove of sin and disapprove of the
atmosphere of the world around them wholeheartedly, but
have become reconciled to it and do very
little about it.
Nor indeed expect that anything ever will be
done about it.
An all prophet in Bethel whose activity in
Christian service, whether it be in the Bible
class or from the pulpit, is so colorless
and impotent that it quite obviously can only
be explained in terms of man but certainly
not in terms of God.
The old prophet in Bethel.
But what was the impact?
What was the impact of this all prophet
in Bethel upon this young man, bursting with
eagerness, with a holy passion within his heart,
fired with a holy ambition to be only
always in the place where God wanted him
and only always to see God in action
through him.
What was the impact, the influence of the
all prophet in Bethel upon a man like
him?
Or to bring it home to ourselves here,
what is the impact of your life?
What's the impact of my life upon that
young man, that young woman who suddenly gets
fired with a holy ambition to be nothing
less than God said and whose enthusiasm may
be, puts us to shame.
What's the influence of our lives upon them?
What's the impact of our lives upon them?
How far do we enhance that holy ambition
that is within them?
Or how far are we like a wet
blanket calculated to smother and stifle and deaden?
Have you got accustomed to living a life
in Christian leadership that is less than miraculous?
Have you got accustomed as a Christian leader
to living a life that is explicable apart
from God?
In your Bible class or crusader class or
Sunday school or in your church services, if
you were entirely honest with yourself, is it
anything less than something orthodoxly mechanical?
No challenge to the fundamental issues that are
at stake.
Thoroughly evangelical, fundamental to the fingertips.
Nothing ever happens.
Nothing ever really happens that would need God
to explain it.
Verse 11, Now there dwelt an old prophet
in Bethel, and his sons came and told
him all the works that the man of
God had done that day in Bethel, the
words which he had spoken unto the king.
Then they told also to their father.
You can imagine the excitement with which they
burst into the house and said, Dad, Dad,
you ought to have been there.
You ought to have heard how that young
man talked to the king.
And you should have seen the king's face.
Why did he go red?
And he shouted at him, said lay hands
on him, arrest that man.
His hand withered, Dad.
His hand withered.
He couldn't take it in again.
Dad, you ought to have been there.
And the king started praying and pleading with
the man to ask God to heal his
arm again.
And he did.
It was healed.
Dad, you ought to have been there.
We never heard you talk like that.
You talk to us sometimes about God, but
we never saw God do anything like that.
Dad, Dad, how is it that he can
talk like that to the king and you
never did?
Dad, how is it that God acted on
his behalf and we've never seen God act
on your behalf like that?
How do you think the old prophet in
Bethel felt?
Say, how do you feel when sometimes you
see God in action in the life of
some young fellow or girl?
You can think back maybe five, ten, fifteen,
twenty years and say, I can remember the
day when God acted on my behalf like
that.
But nothing happened, Dad.
Their father said unto them, What way went
he?
For his sons had seen what way the
man of God went, which came from Judah.
And he said unto his son, Saddle me
the ass.
So they saddled him the ass and he
rode there.
And he went after the man of God
and he found him sitting under an oak.
And he said unto him, Art thou the
man of God that came from Judah?
And he said, I am.
Then he said unto him, Come home with
me and eat bread.
An old prophet in Bethel, a slimy old
prophet in Bethel, he saddled his ass and
he followed the young man.
He found him sitting under an oak.
And with all the customary language, with the
usual cliches, with what we might describe today
as the evangelical jargon with which he himself
was well acquainted.
Are you the young man of God that
came from Judah?
Are you the young man about whom I've
heard so much?
All my boys were so impressed with what
they saw this morning.
I'm so glad to meet you.
And I'd be delighted if you'd come home
with me and eat bread.
We'd be, we'd be greatly honored to have
you in our home.
I'm sure you'd be a great blessing to
my family.
A slimy old prophet in Bethel.
You see, there's nothing that creates so much
resentment in the heart of a backslidden old
prophet in Bethel than seeing another man, a
younger man, doing under God what he knows
he should have been doing himself.
And the young man of God said, I
may not return with thee, nor go in
with thee.
Neither will I eat bread, nor drink water
with thee in this place.
For it was said to me by the
word of the Lord, thou shalt eat no
bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again
to go by the way that thou camest.
These are my instructions.
I'm sorry.
I appreciate your kindness, but I cannot.
But the slimy old prophet in Bethel said
to him, I am a prophet also as
thou art.
And an angel spake unto me by the
word of the Lord, saying, bring him back
with thee into thine house, that he may
eat bread and drink water.
But he lied unto him.
He said, my dear young man, I want
you to know that I too am a
prophet.
I love God as you love God.
I serve him as you serve him.
And much as I have to learn from
you, and much as your presence in our
home may be a blessing to my own
family and to my own people, of course,
maybe there's something too that you could learn
from me.
And God has told me that you should
come back to my house.
But he lied unto you.
He might well have said, I can remember
when, when I was as enthusiastic as you
are, and I was as keen as you
are, but you know, over the years, over
the years, one mellows, you know, and over
the years one, one gains experience and settles
down.
And, and of course, young man, you, you
can't go on like this all the time,
you know, you'd have another breakdown if you
went on like this.
I believe I have, I believe I have
something from God to give you.
I believe I have a message from the
Lord for you.
Now you come back with me.
Well, the poor kid, what was he to
think?
What was he to say?
Did he want to look pretty, unteachable, pig
-headed, stubborn, and proud, and self-willed, in
the presence of an older man, and a
prophet of God, who came to him with
all the language of the saints?
So he went back with him, and did
eat bread in his house, and drank water.
So he went which way?
Back, back.
That is always the impact and influence that
an all-prophet and better has upon the
young man, who is foolish enough to
yield to his advice.
He took him back.
You'll find that in this very, very sad
story, this becomes the characteristic of the old
prophet and better.
It came to pass, as they sat at
the table, that the word of the Lord
came unto the prophet that brought him back.
And he cried unto the man of God
that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the
Lord, forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth
of the Lord, and hast not kept the
commandments the Lord thy God commanded thee, but
camest back.
And who brought him back?
But camest back, and hast eaten bread, and
drunk water, in the place of the which
the Lord did say to thee, Eat no
bread, and drink no water, thy carcass shall
not come unto the sepulchre of thy father.
It came to pass, after he had eaten
bread, and after he had drunk, that he
saddled for him the ass, to wit, for
the prophet whom he had brought back.
And when he was gone, a lion met
him by the way, and slew him.
And his carcass was cast in the way,
and the ass stood by it.
The lion also stood by the carcass.
And behold, men passed by, and saw the
carcass cast in the way, and the lion
standing by the carcass.
And they came and told it in the
city, where the old, and when the prophet
that brought him back from the way heard
their answer, he said, It's the man of
God, who is disobedient unto the word of
the Lord.
Therefore the Lord has delivered him unto the
lion, which hath torn him, and slain him
according to the word of the Lord which
he spake unto him.
And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle
me the ass, and they saddled him.
And he went and found his carcass.
Listen, verse 29.
And the prophet took up the carcass of
the man of God, and laid it upon
the ass, and brought it back.
He even brought his carcass back.
And the old prophet came to the city
to mourn, the slimy old prophet and beggar,
and to bury him.
Listen, And he laid his carcass in his
own grave.
And they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my
brother.
Can you imagine a more horrible story than
that?
I think that's one of the saddest stories
in the Bible.
A slimy old prophet and beggar.
Although there was nothing particularly wicked about him,
but he had learned to live as a
spiritual non-entity, a life utterly colorless, without
any luster, a life without any evidence whatever,
that declared a living God.
And he brought him back and buried him
in his own grave.
And now there was nothing left to disturb
the bad conscience of a man who had
become reconciled to the evil atmosphere in which
he lived.
And whom nothing disturbed more than anything that
would alter the status quo.
Verse 33, After this thing, Jeroboam returned not
from his evil way, but made again of
the lowest of the people priests of the
high place, whosoever would he consecrated him.
And he became one of the priests of
the high place.
And a young man of God with all
the power of God and the power of
God was safely buried in his own grave.
And now he said, We can get back
to normal.
Isn't that a horrible story?
Isn't that depressive?
We're not told the story of the young
man.
We're not told the name of the young
man.
I think God loved him too well to
tell us his name.
He was just a man of God and
he was slain by a lion.
God killed him because God loved him.
God said, I'd rather kill him than he
should ever grow to become a slimy old
prophet and better.
I'd rather die than become a slimy old
prophet and better.
You see one of the problems confronting the
Christian church today and not the least the
evangelical church of New Zealand is this, that
there are many young men and women who
are hungry for God.
There's absolutely no question about it.
In whose hearts there has been aroused a
holy ambition to know God in action in
their lives.
And if in the manifestation, not always necessarily
with maturity and wisdom, but if in the
manifestation of that holy desire to be the
best for God they disturb the status quo
of the old prophets in Bethel who do
nothing but pull them back to bury them
in their own graves and they refuse to
be buried.
Then the chances are they'll say goodbye to
our formal evangelical churches and run after some
extravagant way of life because they know nothing
better in the places from which they've come.
And that's one of the problems of the
evangelical church.
We have become lethargically comfortable in cherishing the
fundamental faith of our fathers, but we have
ceased to live miraculously and all too often
genuine desire to see God in action in
the lives of young people is met with
nothing but the wet blanket of old prophets
who to ease their own conscience would rather
bury them in their own graves than see
another younger man under the power of God
do what they themselves should be doing.
Well that's the sad story.
To end on a cheerier note let's turn
to the glad story.
It's found in the second book of Kings
and the second chapter.
And it's such a familiar story to you
that we need only almost a glance at
it.
It came to pass chapter two of two
Kings that when the Lord would take up
Elijah into heaven by whirlwind that Elijah went
with Elisha from Gilgal.
And Elijah said unto Elisha tarry here I
pray thee for the Lord has sent me
to Bethel.
And Elisha said unto him as the Lord
liveth and as thy soul liveth I will
not leave thee.
So they too went down to Bethel.
That's our introduction to this particular faith.
Elisha in the company of a man called
Elijah.
A man who constantly lived in the miraculous.
A man who knew this intimate relationship with
God.
Who could speak and God would act.
The rain would be with him or the
floods would come.
And it was this relationship to God that
Elisha coveted it.
And constantly there was aroused within the heart
of Elisha a holy ambition I want to
know God this way.
And I believe that I can know God
the way Elijah knows God.
And I believe that God will be to
me what he's been to him.
And he wouldn't be satisfied with less.
But Elijah was a man of God.
And he knew better than to give Elisha
cheap encouragement.
Elijah knew how God had called him.
And he knew that a man's spiritual authority
finally doesn't derive from men's ordination.
It doesn't arrive from a man-made commission.
Elijah knew well enough that a man's spiritual
authority derives only from the fact that God
has called him.
That God has ordained him.
And that he's right bang in the center
of God's plan for his life.
And has the right by virtue of his
availability to God to expect God's availability to
him.
Elijah was wise enough to know this.
And he knew perfectly well that Elisha would
never know divine authority simply by imitating Elijah.
There was nothing that Elijah coveted more for
Elisha than that Elisha should know God as
Elijah knew God.
But he knew there was no shortcut.
It wasn't a question of technique.
It wasn't a question of teaching Elisha how
to say the things Elisha said.
And do the things the way Elijah did
them.
He knew that if ever Elisha was to
know the God of Elijah in the way
that Elijah knew God, then Elisha had to
know God as Elijah knew God.
So he gave him no cheap encouragement.
He didn't want him just to be a
copyist.
He didn't want him just to be a
little budding Elijah.
He wanted above everything else that Elisha might
still be Elisha.
But with Elijah's God.
But nothing delighted the heart of Elijah more
than when Elisha insisted on coming.
Deep, deep down his heart he was saying
thank you God.
That's what I want.
But I want him to come because he
must.
Verse three.
And the sons of the prophets that were
at Bethel came forth to Elisha.
And they said unto him, knowest thou that
the Lord will take away thy master from
thy head today?
These were the sons of the prophets in
Bethel.
I somehow fancy there still remained the influence
of that old slimy prophet in Bethel.
For these were no more than conformists.
They expected nothing, nothing, nothing spectacular.
They expected nothing out of the ordinary.
And they resented the suggestion on Elisha's part
that ever he could be an Elijah.
And they tried to persuade him to take
his place with them and sit in monotonous
rows and be like the rest, as colorless
as them all.
And they said, knowest thou that the Lord
will take away thy master from thy head
today?
You'll look jolly silly when Elijah's gone.
You've been basking in his limelight for long
enough.
He said, yes, I know.
I know.
I know Elijah's gone.
Hold ye your peace.
Which was a polite way of saying mind
you and listen.
I'm not prepared to be as colorless as
you are prepared to be.
I don't believe I'm anything.
And I don't believe Elijah is anything.
But I believe in Elijah's God.
And I believe what God can be to
Elijah, God can be for me.
And I believe that God could be the
same to you if ever you were prepared
to believe it.
But you're too busy conforming to pattern.
You're too busy trying to be respectable.
And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here,
I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent
me to Jericho.
He said, as the Lord liveth and as
thy soul liveth, I'll not leave thee.
I'm not staying with this man.
I'm coming with you.
So they came to Jericho.
And the sons of the prophets that were
at Jericho repeated the dose.
They came to Elisha and they said unto
him, knowest thou that the Lord will take
away thy master from thy head today?
And he answered, yes, I know.
Hold ye your peace.
And Elijah said unto him, tarry, I pray
thee here, for the Lord has sent me
to Jordan.
He said, as the Lord liveth and as
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
And what's it say?
End of verse six.
And they too went back.
This is the glad story.
They too went on.
That's the difference between Elijah and the impact
of his life upon Elijah and the old
prophet in Bethlehem, the impact of his life
upon the young man of God from Judah.
The old, slimy old prophet in Bethel took
him back.
But Elijah, without any extravagant or shallow encouragement,
took him on.
And fifty men of the sons of the
prophets went and they stood to view afar
off, well out of harm's way.
And they too stood by Elijah.
There wasn't one of those fifty sons of
the prophets who could not have stood where
Elijah stood.
But instead they remained afar off, spectator only,
in the gallery, on the touchline.
They were there to see the fun.
They had become accustomed to seeing Elijah do
things that were explicable only in terms of
God.
They didn't know the answer.
They didn't know why.
It was just a fait accompli.
It was just one of those strange spiritual
phenomenon they thought.
But Elijah, that Elijah should know God the
way Elijah knew God.
That God would be prepared to be as
active in and through him as God was
prepared to be active in and through Elijah.
This was something that they could not credit.
And so they stood, the fifty of them,
afar off.
And they nudged each other and they'd say,
wouldn't it be fun when God has taken
Elijah from Elijah, to see him trying to
please the Elijah.
What a fool he'll make of himself.
And Elijah took his mantle and he wrapped
it together and he smoked the waters and
they were divided hither and thither so that
they too went over on dry land.
None of the fifty sons of the prophets
were surprised at that.
They'd been accustomed to strange things happening when
Elijah was around.
But now there was going to be the
fun.
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 from thee.
And Elisha said, I pray thee let a
double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
The double portion of course was the portion
given to the firstborn in the family.
That's the significance of it.
Elijah simply said, I want to be treated
as though I were your heir.
If God is going to take you to
himself, I want to be available and as
available to God as you have been available
to God.
And so I want the double portion.
I want this wonderful spiritual inheritance which is
obviously yours to be mine.
I say, is that the impact your life
has upon your life?
Is this the influence that you have over
those fellows and girls?
They may come to you and say, look
here, I don't know how to explain this.
I don't know quite what to say and
I don't really know exactly what it is
I want.
I know it isn't you for what you
are, but I want what you've got.
I want to be your heir.
You've entered into an inheritance with Christ to
which I'm still a stranger.
But I want you to know that with
all my heart, I want to share with
you this inheritance.
Is that the compelling impact that your life
has upon the men and the women and
the boys and girls to whom you're responsible
as the ministers of Christ?
Is there something strangely compelling about the quality
of your life that makes them insatiably hungry
for the same thing?
Let a double portion of thy spirit.
He didn't want to be twice as big
or twice as clever or twice as blessed
as Elijah.
It doesn't mean that.
He was simply asking for the portion of
the firstborn.
He was asking to enter into the same
inheritance.
And this wise man Elijah said, thou hast
asked a hard thing.
Because you see, Elisha, as to whether you
enter into this inheritance, as to whether you
enjoy God as I enjoy God, does not
depend upon your relationship to me.
That's why I never encouraged you to come
simply for my sake.
It depends upon your relationship to God.
And you see, Elijah went on to say,
as much as I love you, Elisha, as
much as I personally as a man may
trust you, strong and high as may be
the hopes that are within me concerning you,
I'm not God.
And I don't know your heart.
I want you to know this, that the
power of God is not given to a
man because he imitates somebody else.
Because he learns his techniques and uses his
style.
No, Elisha, you will never receive the double
portion because of your relationship to me.
You will only receive the double portion if
there is a relationship between you and God
with which God is satisfied.
So I can promise you nothing.
Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am
taken from thee, it shall be so unto
thee.
But if not, it shall not be so.
God will be the arbiter because he knows
your heart.
And it came to pass as they still
went, which way?
Verse 11.
And it came to pass as they still
went on, not back, and talked, that behold
there appeared a chariot of fire and horses
of fire and parted them both asunder and
Elijah went up for 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 he went
back and stood by the bank of Jordan.
And he took the mantle of Elijah that
fell from him and he smote the waters.
And you can imagine the excitement amongst the
fifty sons of the prophets as they stood
afar off.
And they saw Elijah, this Elijah, take up
the mantle of Elijah and smite the waters.
And they all nodded each other.
And he cried, where is the Lord God
of Elijah?
And when he also had smitten the waters,
they parted hither and thither.
And Elisha went over and God answered, you
want to know where the God of Elijah
is?
He's just waiting for an Elijah.
For God is fully available to those who
are fully available to God.
And you should have seen the look on
the faces of the fifty sons of the
prophets.
And when the sons of the prophets which
were to view with Jericho saw him, they
said, would you believe it?
The spirit of Elijah just rested on Elijah.
Extraordinary.
And they came to meet him.
And the poor miserable non-entities reconciled to
a life utterly meaningless.
Reconciled themselves to be non-entities.
Always non-entities.
Because they hadn't learned this vital principle, that
what God is to one man, he can
be to any other.
On God's terms of reference.
For all that God is, is available to
the man who is fully available to all
that God is.
Elisha said, Elijah, I can promise you nothing.
It will depend not upon your relationship to
me, but upon your relationship to God.
But if God helps me, my high privilege
will be to lead you on to that
place when you become available to God.
And then I can say goodbye to you.
Elijah, I can be caught up in a
chariot of fire.
God can take me another way.
But you'll be in good hands.
God's hands.
And I shall go into the presence of
my God, at least with this satisfaction.
I did not take you back, nor did
I bury you in my own grave.
I took you on until God took over.
And that's all I want to know.
Now let's pray.
Oh God, none of us is strangers to
thee.
We may be strangers to each other.
Strangers to each other, even among friends.
For in the presence of each other, we
see only what's on the outside.
Oh God, you alone have seen what's on
the inside.
Thou knowest the various responsibilities into which thou
has called us, or man has put us.
At this very moment known to thee and
precious to thee are the boys and the
girls and the young men and women into
whose lives thou has woven out.
We recognize that the office, be what it
may, is an office that we must discharge
and can only discharge.
As before thine all-seeing eye, just to
satisfy men can never be enough, if it
has never satisfied thee.
Forgive us, we pray thee, dear Lord, for
those occasions when the impact of our lives
upon others has been to dampen their ardor.
Forgive us for those occasions when we've hindered
and been a stumbling block.
Forgive us, dear Lord, for those occasions when
we've been tempted to resent the obedience of
another that has revealed our own disobedience, their
strength against which that has been silhouetted in
our own weakness.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for all those
who in their day and generation have been
Elijah's to us.
They're precious in our memories.
Some of them hardly knew it.
Maybe we never had occasion to tell them,
but somehow always in their presence it was
to go on and never to go back.
And we cover tonight this kind of reputation.
We pray unitedly for those whom thou hast
lovingly committed to our charge, that leading their
on, there may come the day when they
won't need us anymore.
We shall have preached ourselves out of business,
because they are solidly and securely in thy
strong hand, and God has taken over.
To this end, we dedicate ourselves afresh.
In a recognition of our own utter impotence.
And before thee and in thy presence again
we say, I am nothing, I have nothing,
and I can do nothing, apart from Jesus
Christ, who is my life, and for his
his name.