Elijah's Homegoing

The point: Be prepared to go at God's bidding, recognizing His sovereignty over the time and manner of your homegoing.

Death is described as God's black chariot, not the devil's, by which He summons His children into His presence, emphasizing God's sovereignty even over death.

If I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. These are the words of Christ. Most of his children he takes by means of death. And death is, as one servant, God has said, simply God's black chariot by which he summons his own children into his presence.

11:21 - 11:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Be prepared to go at God's bidding, recognizing His sovereignty over the time and manner of your homegoing.

Some of God's children are allowed to 'run down like a clock that expends the earth,' while others are snatched away suddenly, illustrating the diversity of God's sovereign timing in calling people home.

Now even amongst those who die of God's children, some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth. Some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth. Some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth. Some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth.

12:30 - 12:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Live carefully if you desire to die comfortably; no man can live carelessly and die comfortably.

John Bunyan's depiction of Greatheart finding Jordan dry and Hopeful saying 'I feel the bottom, and it is good' when crossing the river of death, illustrates the principle that men generally die as they have lived, with faith carrying them through.

John Bunyan captured this idea so beautifully in his Pilgrim's Progress, both books one and book two. Great heart, that saint that had conquered enemies while here on earth, when he came to cross Jordan, the symbol of death in Bunyan's allegory, he found that the Jordan was dry.

23:56 - 24:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Elijah is depicted as being in full spiritual bloom at his homegoing, demonstrating vigorous faith, commendable humility, and sure repose in God's salvation. Martin encourages…

Martin recounts meeting old preachers who constantly sought to resurrect their past days of glory, contrasting this with Elijah's humility in seeking privacy for his unique homegoing.

And they'll do anything. They'll magnify their past. I think of an old preacher in this very county that every time I'd meet him he'd say with a quivering lip, tell me all the great things that happened years ago. Years ago.

36:56 - 37:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray that God will make you a person who brings forth fruit in old age, full of sap and green, rather than withering and becoming a reproach to His name.

Martin compares saints who 'outlive their bloom' to garden plants that wither and shrivel at the end of summer, expressing a desire to be 'plucked up' while still producing fruit, illustrating the desire to go home in full spiritual vigor.

And so the great lesson then of this passage is in the third place that we may die, we may go home in the full bloom of spiritual life vigorous in our faith genuine in our humility implicit in our obedience and our rest in God's salvation. I think one of the saddest things is to see saints who outlive their bloom and who are like those beings out in my garden. It's one of those painful things when the summer begins to draw to a close and I see those leaves begin to wither and no beans growing anymore and then the plants just die. I'd rather go out while they're producing buckets of beans like ...

41:52 - 43:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray that God will make you a person who brings forth fruit in old age, full of sap and green, rather than withering and becoming a reproach to His name.

Mrs. Blair, a white-haired woman in the congregation, is cited as a living example of a saint 'full of the sap of faith and humility and implicit obedience even unto the final days of her life,' illustrating the possibility of spiritual bloom in old age.

This is one of the great delights of this ministry that dear white haired woman that sits there every Sunday morning dear Mrs. Blair to see a saint of God full of the sap of faith and humility and implicit obedience even unto the final days of her life. What a beautiful thing to behold but dear ones it's the exception and not the rule and this is what breaks my heart. Profess saints who've grown sapless who are stiff and brittle and unbending and no fruitage you can find them everywhere.

44:13 - 44:51 Read in full sermon