Miracle of the Pot of Pottage

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes Elisha's initiative to provide food, the gathering of poisonous wild gourds by an ignorant prophet, and the subsequent cry of 'death in the pot' as the men began…

Martin uses the image of large vats in an Amish home, used for making apple butter, to help the audience visualize the 'great pot' Elisha commanded to be set on for a hundred men.

And so what the writer is telling us is that Elisha was engaged in the work of instructing that particular band of the prophets who lived at Gilgal. And so what the writer is telling us is that Elisha was engaged in the work of instructing that particular band of their spiritual father and their spiritual master, and in that situation, some of those big vats that you may have seen in an Amish home down in Lancaster County in which they make their gallons of apple butter or perhaps some other huge cauldron that would hold enough pottage or we would say stew for a hundred people. Well, Elisha gi...

12:27 - 13:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Please send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay.

Martin recounts a request from a Scottish parish for a preacher who 'knows God other than by hearsay,' illustrating the need for firsthand experience with God, not just theological knowledge.

I shall never forget a statement I read. It came out of Scotland, and a given parish in Scotland was without a preacher. And when they communicated with the proper denominational representatives who were responsible in helping them to secure a preacher, they sent this message. Please send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay.

25:34 - 26:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The general principle in Scripture is that when God's judgments are upon a nation for its sins, the righteous suffer with the wicked.

Martin uses the example of Jews gassed in concentration camps to highlight the difficulty of reconciling God's absolute sovereignty with the reality of evil and suffering.

You mean God was in the heavens doing what He pleased when carloads of Jews were brought into concentration camps and gassed to death like animals?

28:48 - 29:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The general principle in Scripture is that when God's judgments are upon a nation for its sins, the righteous suffer with the wicked.

Martin uses the example of a child murdered in Harlem to further illustrate the challenge of affirming God's throne and government in the face of horrific injustice.

Was God on His throne when some man with beastly lusts, rapes, and killings, killed a little seven or eight year old girl in the back streets of Harlem?

29:13 - 29:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Store up the truth that God's judgments sanctify and purify His saints, for a time may come when you and I desperately need it, facing imprisonment, worthlessness of money, or hunger.

Martin quotes Krummacher's commentary on Elisha, eloquently distinguishing the effects of calamity on the godly (chastisement, recourse to God) versus the ungodly (hardening in sin).

There is a wonderful statement in Krumacher's commentary, on the prophet Elisha, touching this very point, and I want to read it to you. He states it so eloquently. Where, then, is the difference between those who love God and those who are alienated from Him? Truly the difference notwithstanding is immeasurable, and one and the same calamity is quite different in the effects of its visitation upon the godly and upon the ungodly, while the latter, often become by it more hardened in their sins the ungodly,

37:46 - 38:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Emulate the graces of our Lord worked out in fallen humanity, crying to God that the same Spirit who worked these graces in a man of like passions will work them in us.

Martin compares Elisha's calm in the face of panic to Jesus' calm rebuke of the storm and His disciples' little faith, highlighting the grace of unwavering faith.

that remind you of some incidents in the Gospel? Lord! They shake Him. He's sound asleep in the stern of the ship. Awake, Lord! We perish! And the Lord calmly stands and rebukes the

51:07 - 51:23 Read in full sermon