Lessons About the Christian Life

Introduction: Sufficiency and Perspicuity of Scripture

0:07 Things that continually strikes me, sometimes with more force than others, in this kind of regular, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter ministry of the Word of God, is what the theologians call the sufficiency and the perspicuity of Scripture. That is, what is necessary for life and salvation is clear, and all that is necessary for all of life is contained in Holy Scripture.

0:42 And as we come to study this segment in the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah, I trust we shall not only lay hold of some fresh word from God for our own hearts in the passage itself, but that we will likewise be struck with the absolute sufficiency of Holy Scripture. And where there is a clamoring on every side, even within the church today, that has as its very mood and attitude, well, the Bible is clear on some points and good on others, but it needs some supplementing from this discipline or that discipline or this science or that science or something else, that we shall resist with a holy passion that attitude. It was one of the notes that the doctors sounded very clearly on the weekend retreat, much, I am sure, to the chagrin of some people, but much to the delight of the heart. To the delight of everyone who does believe indeed in the sufficiency and the purpose-cuity of the Holy Scriptures. Our study tonight will focus upon the last paragraph of the 19th chapter of 1 Kings.

1:49 We spent a number of weeks considering the process by which God himself restored his dejected, despondent, discouraged prophet to a place of usefulness and spiritual virility once more. A wonderful process. A beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus fulfilling his role to his own people as the one who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. If ever you want an illustration of what that means, you just remember 1 Kings 19.

2:22 And see the Lord taking this drooping plant, bent over with all of its leaves downward, until you wonder, well, maybe it's even lost its life, like some of my tomato plants that I put in a little early. For a period of time, I wasn't sure, and I tenderly nurtured them and all the rest, but it's obvious now with a couple of good days of warm suns, they lost their life. There was a point I wasn't sure. So I tried to nurture them back to life.

2:46 Well, bless God, any plant that he's planted will never turn to brown leaves and die. He will tenderly nurture. There are times when it'll droop, and you'd think, boy, that thing's well nigh gone. And when you see Elijah sitting under that broom tree saying, Lord, it's enough, let me go, take me out of this mess, you'd say, that plant's just about had it, until the great horticulture, the Lord Jesus, comes and takes that plant in hand.

The Narrative of Elisha's Call (1 Kings 19:19-21)

3:10 And when he's done with it, boy, that plant is erect again, and its leaves turned upward to the sun, and once again is fruitful in the work of the kingdom of God. So we've studied that, and I don't want to go back and re-preach those messages, because I have much that I do want to set before you from this passage. Verse 19 of the 19th chapter. So, so, after being recommissioned by the Lord, being reassured that God would complete the work of judgment, continue the prophetic office, would preserve his godly remnant, so he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelve. And Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, and I don't know how to read this, because I don't know what was in the prophet's mind.

4:16 You can read this several ways. You can read it this way. Go back again. For what have I done to thee?

4:24 Or you can read it, go back again. For what have I done unto thee?

4:29 I don't know how to read it, so you read it the way you feel it ought to be. And he returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. Let us pray and ask God the Holy Spirit to open up this portion of his truth to us.

4:59 O Lord, we would be self-conscious of our need of your grace as we take Holy Scripture into our hands.

5:08 For you've said a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. May it please you to give to your servant liberty and facility of utterance. May it please you to give to this people hearing ears and seeing eyes, that together we shall be conscious of your presence in our midst, ministering to us of your truth and of the glory of your person, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

5:36 Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30. Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30. Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30. Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30.

5:46 Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30. Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30. Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30. Now, in the first place, spend a few minutes with me laying hold of the facts of this narrative as I've read it to you from verses 19-30.

5:48 straight, and then we shall move for the bulk of our message into the significance or the lessons of these facts. And there are three or four main areas of very profound and helpful lessons concerning the Christian life. All right, the facts of the narrative. What does the narrative tell us? In verse 19 we read, so he departed thence. Can you picture the difference in the trip out of the wilderness from that into the wilderness? You pick up your magazine and you see a certain paint being advertised or some kind of aluminum siding, and you see the before and the after. That old ramshackled house that looks like you'd do well to sell it for 10,000, and when the thing is done with such and such a kind of paint or aluminum siding, why the thing would get 27,000. The before and the after. The same scripture that records in detail the flight of

6:47 the prophets into the wilderness, and then his journey to Mount Horeb and God's dealings with him in that state of dejection tells us he departed thence. And I wish I'd had a Polaroid camera to catch his countenance as he went in and to catch his countenance as he went out. It'd make a wonderful before and after advertisement of the restorative grace of God. If someone had been somewhere passing through that wilderness when the prophet was on his way out, to his broom tree, his place of dejection, and had a mental image of his countenance, of his drooping, dejected bearing, and had seen the same man coming out after God was done with him and asked the question, what in the world happened at that time? There's only one explanation. The grace of God in restoring his servant. And I'm sure if you've walked long with God, your life is a wonderful monument to the before and after.

7:48 And I like to think that when the prophet moved out with this fresh vision of his God, with this fresh hope instilled within his breast, Jezebel will not always sit as queen, the work of judgment will be complete as he assured him in the previous verses. Elijah, if she even guts your neck someone will carry on the prophetic ministry. You're going to anoint Elijah and Sangramah andおっurs for you in the coming week. Thank you very much.

8:20 Elisha, prophet in your stead, and Elijah, you haven't ministered in vain. I am reserving 7,000 who've not bowed the knee to Baal. With those encouragements from the living God in his heart, with his physical frame refreshed by the rest that God gave him, with all of these wonderful manifestations of the grace and presence of God, he now goes forth, a restored man, to a new ministry. And he departs thence, and he finds Elisha.

8:51 Well, you read the narrative and you think, well, he was just around the corner. No, 160 miles, with no freeways, and no commuter planes, and no metro liners. 160 miles on foot. What do you think kept the spring in his step all during that time?

9:09 Well, the very things that God poured into his heart.

9:14 With every step, there was the remembrance of what God had just told him. Him that escapes from the sword. The sword of Hazel shall Jehu slay, and he that escapes from Jehu shall Elisha slay. Here's the promise.

9:29 The work of judgment will be complete. And as he walks back through the land, comes out of the wilderness, and sees the decadence on every side, sees sin still there, as it were, upon the throne, unchallenged, he has this promise burning within his breast. And as he makes his way to that place where God tells him he'll find Elisha, where Abel-Mohalla, a distance of some 160 miles, he finally finds him. And when he finds him, here he is with these other men out plowing in the field.

10:04 Now again, you think of a plow hitched up to a John Deere or to a farm hall, and you'd say, what in the world are they doing with 12 plows out there? Well, you didn't have those nice, big, heavy-gauge steel plows that could turn over a 12-inch furrow. No, no. You had part of...

10:20 You had part of a branch of a tree that was cut off, and where another branch came down, sort of sharpened on the edge, and you had two oxen hooked up, and that thing was pulled and made a little furrow about so big, and then right along behind it came another one, and you needed at least 12 to in any way begin to work over that land. And remember how long the drought had there been.

10:40 Three-plus years. Three years, six months. The ground gets pretty hard in that time, doesn't it? And now through those torrential rains that God has sent, the ground has been softened, and for the first time in a number of months, in a couple of years, that ground is being worked.

10:57 And here is Elisha, out with the servants, himself being either the eldest son or the only son of the family, and in the place of honor. And here's this rugged man who no doubt these very people had seen, perhaps upon Mount Carmel. And they recognize someone coming over the brow of a hill and entering their field, and he bypasses the leading eleven, behind their yoke of oxen, and he comes to this twelfth one, Elisha. And there's no indication that there was any conversation between them.

11:32 There seems to be an intimation that he knew, had some previous acquaintance with him, for he apparently, without any direction externally, goes right to this specific one whom God has ordered him to anoint. And he does a strange thing. Put yourself in the woods looking out through the trees at this rugged-looking man, and you see a broken individual coming across the field and walking up to a fellow, not shaking his hand or saying hello, but taking a shawl off his shoulder and throwing it upon the shoulder of this other man, turning on his heel and starting to walk away. And lo and behold, as he starts to walk away, this fellow drops his plow, gives a signal to his oxen to stand still, and he runs after him. He has this amble there. He runs after him. He goes clambering down.

12:21 There's the passing of a few, two words between them. And here are the words. He says, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he says, Go back again, for what have I done to thee?

12:33 So the young man turns and goes back to his oxen, to his plow, but instead of following the other fellows, he says, Let's call it quits for the day, fellow. I'm going to take a tea break, make a coffee break. We're going to have a little feast break. And so they all march their oxen off the field with their plows, and this fellow does a strange thing.

12:52 He finds the sharpest knife around, and he sticks it into the juggler vein of these two oxen. The blood spurts out, and they fall dead upon the ground. You say, What in the world kind of a guy is this? What's he doing?

13:05 Next thing you know, he's cutting up those oxen. And he takes his plow with his hatchet, cuts it up into firewood, and builds him a fire.

13:16 Before long, they're all gathered around having a feast. Notice verse 21. He returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and slew them. And boiled their flesh with the instrument, the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat.

13:30 And after they're all just there, licking their chops, and expressing their gratitude for this unusually abundant coffee break,

13:39 he turns on his heel, plants a quick kiss upon the cheek of his father and mother, and he runs in the direction in which the prophet went out of sight, until he catches up with him, and he becomes his servant. And scripture says, he ministers unto him. Can you get the picture? Can you read scripture like it's dealing with real people in real situations?

14:03 If there's one thing I hope, after seven years of ministry, that maybe at least a little bit is caught on. Can we just read scripture? Annie Roden, he did this. Put yourself in the woods watching all this.

14:14 See it? You see it happen?

14:18 That's just what happened. Precisely. These are the facts of the narrative. Now, what do they tell us?

Lessons About God: His Care and Effectual Call

14:23 What is God seeking to convey to us in this passage of his holy word? Well, let's begin tonight by considering the lessons this passage contains about God himself. That's always a good place to begin. God has revealed himself to us in holy scripture.

14:42 Some of that revelation comes in distinct propositions where the scriptural writer will say certain things about the being and character of God. We have a passage such as the introduction to the law. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God. That's a propositional statement about the unity of God's being, the essence of God.

15:09 But much of the revelation of God comes to us not in those propositions, but worked into the warp and woof of real live situations where God is revealing something about himself in what he does with his people and how he deals with them. And in this passage, we have two wonderful revelations concerning aspects of the character of God and the ways of God. First of all, we see God's care to preserve his truth amongst men.

15:43 When it seemed that truth had fallen to the earth, when the last remaining pillar to change the figure that was supporting truth in the midst of apostasy was about to pass off the scene, that person being, of course, Elijah, it's God who takes the initiative to say, you, Elijah, shall anoint Elisha, and it was God who had preserved and protected this young man from all of the wicked influences of that day so that when the hour of appointment came, here was this young man, relatively, we shouldn't say, then tell us what his age is, here was this man, I don't know if he was young, here is this man whom God has prepared to be his mouthpiece to Israel. And that care that God envisaged to Israel in that dark hour, that jealous concern to preserve his truth and to preserve instruments through which his truth would be proclaimed in purity and in power is nonetheless real today because that care and the outworking of that care in preserving messengers of truth is one of the purchased blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I'm reading now from Ephesians 4, chapter in which the Apostle declares Ephesians 4 and verse 8,

17:10 Wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now this he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower part of the earth. He that descended is the same that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave some to the apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering unto the building up of the body of Christ.

17:44 One of the fruits of the purchase of Christ and then his glorious triumph in resurrection and ascension was securing for the church sufficient instruments through which truth would be proclaimed and preserved to the end that the body of Christ might be increased, built up, and brought to maturity. What explanation is there that in the darkest periods of the history of the church there has never been lacking some voices to proclaim thus saith the Lord.

18:22 Certainly it wasn't the devil's work to blot it out every last remnant of true ministry. And certainly it wasn't the world welcoming such troublers in Israel saying well since we have this little religious itch, this little religious itch, we'd like a few of you to talk to us about God and sin and heaven. No, you can't look to the world for the reason. You can't look to the devil.

18:43 Well, you can't look into the hearts of men for men by nature love darkness rather than light. There's no explanation but that history unfolds and particularly the history of the church God's care and concern to preserve the purity of truth and the preachment of that truth. As we consider, we consider the hour in which we live. What explanation is there for this resurgence of interest in the great wealth of truth existing in some of these old books that have been collecting dust for decades now and suddenly they're being reprinted and read not just by stuff-shirted theologians and by professional preachers but people who put in their eight and ten hours out on the job and in the press of the family and domestic responsibility are devouring truths and coming back to a view of God and of Christ and the work of redemption that is meat and drink to their soul. Why is it that everywhere God is putting his hand upon men and burning into their hearts a concern to have a ministry that is true to every facet of divine truth that's going to refuse to take off any of those right angles of truth and pare them down to make them compatible to current opinion. What's the explanation for this? I submit there's no explanation but that God himself is jealously concerned

20:12 to preserve his truth amongst men. And as you read this narrative don't get so lost in the strange details of it this throwing up the mantle this unusual response what have I done unto thee this killing of the oxen that you fail to see in all of this this is a picture of God's concern to preserve truth in the midst of his people. And then in the second place it's a wonderful revelation of God's power to effectually call men to fulfill his purpose. One can read this narrative and focus all of his attention upon the apparent devotion and piety of Elisha.

20:57 One can read it and try to find in it some perhaps magical persuasive power in the unusual and unique characteristic of Elijah. But one does not rightly read this passage until he sees in this glad response of Elisha to this symbolic call of Elijah a very valid and vivid demonstration of the power of God's effectual calling unto men. In this age of apostasy with Baal worship entrenched amongst the people it is God who says I have reserved seven thousand who have not bowed the knee. What's the explanation of a young man who's been brought up in the midst of all that was connected with Baal worship? Remember we went over some of the details of that. All of this impiety and ungodliness and uncleanness what's the explanation for the fact that a young man is walking in a field and when a prophet throws a shawl on his shoulders he kisses everything goodbye and runs after him.

22:05 Runs after him and takes his place as a servant of God and a servant of the prophet. Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power. That's the explanation. Here's a picture of the effectual call of God upon a man.

22:25 It was God who made Elisha indifferent to his own plans that he had in his own ambitions his own safety. Remember being a prophet wasn't the popular thing. They didn't offer you the keys of the city and have the mayor come out to meet you and say our town welcomes you for this campaign. You get Jezebels breathing out their hatred and tracking you down to take your head off.

22:50 You get godless Ahabs and indifferent apostate Israelites against you. And Elisha knew all of this and yet facing all of that the shawl was cast upon him and he runs. Why? How do you explain that?

23:08 The effectual call of God. It was God who laid hold of him. By way of application let me say that this is I wouldn't call it a type but it's a beautiful analogy of the effectual calling of God unto salvation as well as his effectual calling to special service. But the scripture tells us in the 13th of Matthew that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls who when he finds one pearl of great price what does he do?

23:38 He sells all that he has to obtain that pearl. It's a man he says who finds a treasure in a field and when he finds that treasure he sells everything else to buy that field. Whenever the Holy Spirit savingly reveals Christ to the heart of the sinner he always reveals him in such a way that that sinner gladly abandons the most cherished possession of his heart and embraces the Lord Jesus as his all and in all. The Holy Spirit never reveals Christ in such a way that we dicker with him and strike bargains with him. He always reveals him in such a way that a sinner will do in his heart what Elisha did in this narrative before us tonight. For Jesus said if any man come to me and hate not his father mother brother sister and his own life also he cannot be my disciple. There's no explanation for what happens when a person is truly converted giving himself up to a Christ he's never seen with these eyes for a heaven that he's never been to to look over and see if he likes

25:05 the lay of the land to enter all kinds of opposition from his friends to encounter a whole new set of enemies to set himself against the world the flesh and the devil who in the world is going to do a thing like that for something he's never seen never touched for the sake of a place he's never been to the one to whom the Holy Spirit has revealed the Lord Jesus. And that's the only one. That's the only one. You see you can bring people to dicker with Jesus and to snatch at some of the benefits of Jesus for a thousand and one motives but laying before a man the demands of Christ as well as the glorious promises and provisions of Christ no man will embrace them in his right mind unless that mind has undergone a transforming work of the power of the Spirit of God and he sees in the face of Jesus Christ the very glory of God and his heart runs out to him saying here Lord what wilt thou have me to do? Now what happened to Zacchaeus? The Son of God looked up in the tree and said come down. He didn't turn and say now wait a minute who are you to order me?

26:26 He says and he came down. What happened? Somewhere either before or when those words were spoken the voice that said come down subdued that heart and he recognized in the one who said come down his sovereign and his savior and his master and he came down and he went to his house. That's how God calls sinners effectually unto salvation and also and this of course is more in keeping with the actual teaching before us you see that power of God in effectually calling men into special service.

27:00 There is a revelation of the person and glory of God so that the heart of the child of God facing all of the difficulties facing all of the heartaches that he knows will still say as did Isaiah here am I send me. Elisha had no glamorous concept of the ministry of a prophet all he knew about a prophet is what he had seen in Elijah and what he may have heard from others that were slain by Jezebel and the others that were fed not on steaks and caviar in the expensive hotels in the metropolis who were fed on bread and water in a cave that's what he knew about the prophetic office lots of glamour huh lots of glamour no no glamour but God laid hold of him somewhere along the line God had given him such a revelation of his own in action saying here am I send me isn't that what happened to Matthew he's sitting by the seat of custom one day the Lord Jesus passes by and says follow me and it says he left the seat of custom and he wasn't sad about it he called his friends together and had a feast he apparently was happy to leave tax collecting to become one of the peculiar

28:29 messengers of the Lord Jesus what happened to Peter and John they were there taking care of their nets when the Son of God said come follow me they left their nets left the business they followed him one of the indications that the Spirit of God is moving in power in any given assembly is that there is this effectual call of God bringing men not only into the possession of true Biblical salvation a salvation in which there is no dickering with Christ but a falling at his feet in brokenness and submission but also in a materialistic age such as ours with the deification of the world in which there is no deification of every other calling in life but the call to the ministry that God break through all of that and lay hold of young men seize them bring them captive to his purposes young men who have not gotten some kind of romantic idea of the ministry but who faced the difficulties the heartache and the heartbreak but they say what is all of that I have seen my God and he has come and cast the mantle of his grace and his purpose over me and I say here Lord I make no apologies nor am I embarrassed to say that one of my constant prayers for the Trinity Church and you young men ought to know it I don't want to be sneaky about it

29:58 I pray often that God the Holy Spirit will cast the mantle upon the shoulders of many of you and lay hold of you in such a way that you will see the glory and the privilege of being called to special ministry in the kingdom of Christ in some form of ministry of the word and when he does this I'm not saying if but when I believe God is hearing our cry let none of us say well that must be the reason they had such a godly father or that must be the reason they had the kind of ministry no no here's the reason God has effectually laid hold of them and to him and him alone must we ascribe the glory so the lessons of the narrative two lessons about God himself jealous care to preserve his truth amongst men secondly his mighty power to effectually call men to fulfill his purposes then the secondary where I see some very practical lessons for us is that in the life of Elisha as set before us here we see an example of the kind of men God calls for special ministry this is where I mentioned earlier the purpose of scripture and also the sufficiency of scripture like that

Characteristics of Men God Calls: Industry

31:27 like that if scripture had a page or two that said a manual of ministerial qualifications but that would be pretty dry stuff wouldn't it well this is part of the manual right here what kind of people does God call oh you say well since that can't be me I can go to sleep now no no wait a minute you every one of you are to be praying what that the lord of the harvest send forth what labors into his harvest isn't that your responsibility shirkers you didn't say pray that he'll send forth armchair quarterbacks who can sit around tell everybody what to do he said pray he'll send forth labors people equipped filled with a passion and concern to labor in the vineyard well what is a labor what kind of people does the lord thrust forth into his harvest we need to know this from the standpoint of our praying and then some of you to whom this word of God comes from you for special service that you might know to emulate and to take as a pattern and example the life of Elisha in the first place we see that God calls a man of industry I didn't say a man in industry but of industry a man who's not too big to walk

32:53 behind a plow see Elisha wasn't sitting around as we read tonight and sang in that hymn with some fond and just wondering when in the world was Jehovah going to wake up to the fact that this great potential blessing was wasting away out in the field somewhere no no here was a man who accepted the menial task of plowing and embraced it as the will of God and gave himself to it I'm suspicious when any fellow comes up to me telling me he's just so convinced God's given him such gifts and all the rest and he just can't understand why I'm suspicious of it terribly suspicious of it for that's not the pattern found in Holy Scripture God called Amos from behind a plow God called Peter and James and Andrew and John from fishing nets God called Matthew from busily being busily employed at the seat of custom and the Lord generally lays hold of people who follow the pattern of his own life he went back and was subject to his parents and even though he was the incarnate son of God he was not found wasting away his months and his years until the time of his anointing in Jordan but when the father said at that anointing of the Holy Spirit this is my son my beloved in whom I'm well

34:22 pleased what had he been pleased with for some 18 years the last account we have at age 12 in the temple for 18 years he'd been pleased to see him go morning after morning to the carpenter's shop and take his place in the menial task of that little humble shop he had seen him make his way up to the temple at the appointed time submissive to the precepts of the law the ceremonial as well as the moral and the father looks down upon this and says I'm pleased and then he's set apart for that peculiar ministry of preaching and also of healing the sick and those other things that were his distinct responsibilities as Messiah Jesus said he that you that is faithful in little is the one who is found faithful in much oh I say to any of you here any of you young men any of you seminary students have aspirations to preach remember this God never laid hold of a man who was lazy in his present sphere of responsibility never I don't know of any instance do you and you parents whose prayer is Lord be pleased to use our children in the work of your kingdom it is to your conscience to be a son of God he who is humble and humble

35:51 is that he who is humble who is faithful and who is faithful to his brother Jesus the Holy Spirit bestow upon him his love and his grace and his grace and his love his grace and his power and his love and his love and his power and his strength and sermon preparation. That lesson comes through. A job worth doing, worth doing well.

Characteristics of Men God Calls: Unswerving Commitment

36:25 Don't any of you fall asleep and say, this is not for me. This is for you mothers, you fathers, as well as you young men. God calls a person of industry. Grace never negates the responsibility to labor. Never. Well, the second thing about this man, he was a man of unswerving commitment to the call of God. Perhaps you've thought of a contrasting passage to this. Keep your hand in this portion because we'll be turning right back to it. But let's look at the passage that is very similar in some ways, but so dissimilar in others in Luke, the ninth chapter.

37:05 Luke, the ninth chapter, verses 61 and 62. And another also said, I will follow thee, Lord, but I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. I will follow thee. First suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house. Apparently the Lord called him. It summoned him. Come, follow me. And he said, Lord, I'll come, but let me go back first and say goodbye. Very similar to what this young man said, what Elisha said. I've got to stop saying young man. I've got a kink in my brain there. This man, Elisha, said, but Jesus said to him, unlike what Elijah said to Elisha, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God what was the problem here? Well, Jesus discerned that as this young man said, well, Lord, I'll

37:59 follow. I'll put my hand to the plow. That is, I'll go in the direction that you've called me, but he's looking back over his shoulder and there's indecision. And the Lord knew that were he to go back and kiss his mother and father goodbye, he would have clung to them and never left them. And so the Lord said, no, no, no, no. This indecision is a terrible thing. Any man who's got a hand in the direction of complying with the call of God, but he's looking back over his shoulder. His bridges are still there. They aren't burned behind him. He's still got a way of escape from that call.

38:35 He's not fit for the kingdom. That was the problem of this fellow, but not so with Elisha, because the prophet says to him, he says, all right, go back again. You go back with my blessings. Why? Because you see, in the heart of Elisha, father and mother and job had already been left in spirit. And now he just wanted, as it were in object lesson to let them all know. So he goes back, kills the oxen. They won't serve me any good purpose anymore.

39:09 You fellows keep your 11 yoke of oxen and your 11 plows, but not me. They're not good for work after I'm done with him. He kills him. And my plow, no use to you. Your oxen can only pull one at a time. So I'll burn mine and use the firewood to cook up these oxen.

39:28 Mom and dad, when that prophet came by and the mantle was cast upon me, I understood the significance. This is a custom still prevalent in certain Eastern parts amongst some, even the pagan religions. The priest, when he's going to name his successor, will cast his mantle upon him. He understood this. He got the message. And in his heart, once that mantle touched him, the hand of God had seized him. And he said, Lord, I'm yours for this task. That was the response of his heart. So now he says, I want to go back again and make it.

40:00 It's obvious to all what's down in here. That's the kind of man God lays hold of. The man whom he has brought to the place of unswerving commitment to his call. He's ratifying openly what he had experienced inwardly. It's my privilege to be with Pastor Huebner up in Massachusetts several summers ago for a few days of vacation. And outside of his church there, there's a grave, a graveyard. And I was looking at some of the epitaphs, and I came across this one of a missionary who had gone to some part of Africa, and in fulfilling the call of God, had buried his wife and four children on the mission field. He himself apparently went through life then single for the rest of his days, and then died and was buried in this churchyard. And the epitaph read

41:04 something like this. The vows of God are upon me, and I may not stop to play with God. I tell you, my heart was moved. Here was his name in the time of his death, and his wife and his four children, most of whom died in infancy. The vows of God are upon me, and I may not stop to play with earthly shadows. What's a plow? What are the oxen? What are mom and dad? Earthly shadows.

41:49 The mantle of God has come upon me. I may not stop to play with God. That's the kind of man Elijah was. A man of industry when God laid hold of him for special ministry. A man brought to the place of unswerving commitment to the call of God. And there's also something else intimated here. There's no record that mom and dad had a big bawling session when he planted a kiss on the cheek and said, I may never see you again. It's my own sneaking suspicion when we get to the end of the book, and I'm going to read it to you. I want to ask them that as part of the 7,000 who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal, that they had inculcated in the mind of Elijah from the time of his youth that there was no more noble call than to be a prophet of God. So that as he grew up, though he was content with walking behind a plow

42:55 and did not look upon this as, quote, something secular, he knew what it was in the normal pressures of life to experience communion with God. When the prophet cast the mantle upon him and in so doing signified, Jehovah has put his hand upon you for prophetic ministry. Being heir to his father's estate, being foreman over those other field workers and any other prestige or any other place of usefulness seemed insignificant. The call of God. Oh, dear parents, may God help you to pray and work in by precept.

43:39 That concept to your children. I fear that many a young man who could have had a sphere of real usefulness in the kingdom of Christ was hindered. Not by parents who said, look, I want you to be a lustful, rebellious, immoral, ungodly. No, no, no. No, they wanted to be saved, wanted to be Christians, taught them the way of God. But by their own attitude and by their own standard of living and by the expression of their faith, they were not able to do that. They were not able to do that. They were projecting the concept to this young man. Well, the ministry, well, yeah. We need Christians. We need Christian lawyers. We need Christians. I won't despise or look down any of you young men whom God leads to be plowboys. He leads you to be doctors. I'm not mocking any

44:39 profession that is an expression of the will of God. What I'm attacking is this, the failure in the minds of materialistically all of us. I'm attacking the failure in the minds of all of us. I'm not mocking any profession that is an expression of the will of God. What I'm attacking oriented Christian parents to project a biblical concept of cultivating the better gifts, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14.

44:59 I've talked some men out of the ministry simply because they had longings and holy desires, but God hadn't equipped them. And the best thing I could do is talk them out of the ministry. God didn't furnish them. It would have been, I just don't have that much ill will to any congregation to wish that some men stand up before them week after week.

45:20 That would be punishment. They'd cry out with Cain, my punishment's more than I can bear.

45:27 So I'm not talking about pushing people. No, I'm not talking about any of that. Get all of those characters out of the way. What I am saying is that Scripture sets before us that the highest privilege afforded any of the sons of men is to be set apart for special ministry of honoring and expounding and applying the truth of God.

45:48 Covet to prophesy, Paul says.

45:53 Covet to prophesy.

45:56 And when the call of God came, there was unswerving commitment to that call. And perhaps, I can't be dogmatic because Scripture doesn't warrant me in being, but bringing to bear the other principles of Scripture, I believe we're warranted in saying perhaps the vision incorporated into this man's life by his own parents had much to do. And the third thing I see about Elisha, and this is the kind of person God calls to special ministry. Not only a man of industry, a man of unswerving commitment to the call of God, but a man of balanced piety.

Characteristics of Men God Calls: Balanced Piety

46:32 You say, now, where in the world do you find that?

46:35 Well, what did his parents ever do to deserve a rude desertion with no explanation and with no proper formal goodbye? If you'll read through other passages in the Old Testament, you'll see that this idea, when a young woman was to leave with her husband, she'd kiss her parents goodbye. You remember Laban came to Jacob and chided. He said, you've taken away my daughters and you didn't let them kiss me goodbye.

46:59 It was the act of respect. So, in the heat and the tremendous surge of emotion that must have come to Elisha, and he was no wooden character, to think God has laid hold of me. The mantle is upon my shoulder. Jehovah is saying in this, you are to be my prophet.

47:18 What a tremendously ecstatic experience. If ever a man would be excused from some of the niceties. A practical religion, it would be here. But he says, look, may I return and say a proper and formal, respectful goodbye to my mom and dad.

47:35 You see, that's a balanced piety that in the heat of the highest pinnacle of spiritual ecstasy, we don't forget the practical and moral duties of the Christian life. On the other hand, he wasn't going to allow his sense of responsibility to his parents way over the call of God. And he didn't say, now, wait a minute. I've got to check with dad and mom to make sure that if I cease being foreman over these other eleven fellows, the business won't go to pot.

48:06 I mean, I'm the eldest son or the only son, and certainly I have, you see, that would have been an overbalance to practical duties. If he had simply responded to the call of God and not said goodbye, that would be an overbalance of what we would call his vertical responsibility. Here's a man of balanced piety. And I submit to you that this is the kind.

48:30 The man that God calls and lays hold of and makes useful in the kingdom of Christ. I say to you young men preparing for the ministry, make this one of your constant prayers. Lord, give me balanced piety.

48:44 Nothing is more jarring to people than to hear someone pray like an angel and have them in their home for a meal and find he's got the manners of an ape.

48:56 And when he's rebuked for it, he says, oh, that's just human condition.

49:04 Plague on his house. The Lord keep him from the monster.

49:09 The person who sees no relationship between his exegesis of Romans 5 and the speed with which he drives his automobile on the Jersey Turnpike. Isn't it a shame that preachers are proverbial for their indifference to speed laws? They'll say that that drives like a preacher. Shame on preachers.

49:27 It's a blotch upon the ministry. Preacher's kids have become proverbial. Oh, he's just a preacher's kid. What are you doing?

49:35 It's a shame on the ministry.

Characteristics of Men God Calls: True Humility

49:38 Shame. The man whom God lays hold of and equips and makes useful. People are men who've seen the necessity of cultivating a balanced piety. And then in the fourth place, I see him as a man of true humility.

49:54 Here the mantle is cast upon him. What does he think?

50:01 I remember Elijah had great multitudes, a whole nation upon Mount Carmel. Oh, I can't wait to preach to my first thousand. No, no. What does the scripture tell us?

50:10 Notice carefully. He arose, went after Elijah, and clamored for a chance to preach. No, he ministered unto him. He took the place of a servant, hiding behind the shadow of a great man, until it was God's time to set him out in the middle of the stage and put the spotlight upon him and say, Now, you're to be my instrument.

50:36 And this didn't go on for three weeks or three months or three years. For seven years, he took the place of a servant to a prophet of God. Wait, I'm anointed. The mantle was cast upon me, yes?

50:50 Jesus said what? Amongst the Gentiles, he who would be great, he politics for the place of position. But it shall not be so amongst you. He that would be greatest among shall be what?

51:04 Servant of all. I am among you as he that serveth. It was our Lord who girded himself with the towel, took the place of the servant, washed his disciples' feet to give them a living example of this principle. And again, I'm always suspicious of the young man who says he's called to the ministry, who's just itching for the next church up with a little bigger crowd, with a little larger congregation, with a little more prestigious place in the denominational structure.

51:40 Not so Elisha. He ministers to the prophet of God. Oh, the curse of the cockstruck of the young minister.

51:51 May the Lord deliver us from it. And as we as a church pray, Lord, send forth labors into your harvest. What are we to look for? Not like many evangelical churches.

51:59 Look for the young man with the gift of gab and the swagger who can stand up in the young people's groove and make it go off just as smooth as an Ed Sullivan production. I've been sickened by this in church after church. For young fellows with the gift of gab are encouraged to believe God's called them. Always in the place of leadership.

52:19 I look for the young man who wants to get near somebody who's gone a little bit further down the road and hide behind. Be shadowed and learned.

52:27 I say, maybe God's got his hand on him.

52:31 God doesn't use men who are going about with the cockstruck, but men who've learned what it is to take the place of a servant. You see, they thought they'd get John all upset. They came to him and said, Hey, John, look, some of your crowd's going after Jesus. He said, Hallelujah, that's what I was here for.

52:52 You can't make me sad any more than if I'm the best man at the wedding and all the attention is on the bridegroom. That makes a true best man. And the friend that makes him rejoice. You can't get me jealous.

53:04 He must increase and I must decrease.

53:11 And so we find these four characteristics in Elisha. Characteristics which all of us as children of God should seek to emulate. But in particular, as we pray for laborers and as we aspire to an office of usefulness in the church of Christ, these are the characteristics that mark the true useful servants of Christ. Industry and the present tasks.

53:35 Show me a fellow who's lazy in his studies and he'll be lazy in his preparation of handling the word of truth in a pastoral situation. Show me the fellow that's afraid to get his hands dirty, afraid for a little sweat on his brow and dust in his hair. And there's a man who'll run from the difficulties of the ministry. Show me the fellow who's vacillating, always looking back over the show, always got a way out.

54:02 Well, if things don't go too well in the pastorate, I can always, go into this, I can, if things don't go, no, no. The man whom God uses is the man who resolutely turns in obedience to the call of God and burns his bridges. No way out. He's shut up to the call of God.

The Nature of Biblical Ministerial Training

54:19 Woe is me if I preach not. The man of balanced piety, seeking to cultivate both the deep, inwardly experimental relationships with God and His truth, but the practical expressions of piety. A man who's learned humility, willing to serve, and then in the last place, and I can only touch on this because my time is gone, I see a lesson about the nature of biblical ministerial training. And I didn't know you fellows were going to be here when I said this.

54:48 And you don't need this fuel. You're already convinced enough. But I'm speaking to our church primarily. How does God train ministers?

54:55 Isn't this one of our cries? There's so few true ministers who are feeding their flocks. So few true men of God who are preaching with insight and unction and power. How are we going to break into this?

55:06 This vicious cycle of dead men in the Bible schools and seminaries, turning out dead men in the pulpits, producing dead men in the pews, who are going back to get more deaths in their seminaries, to put more deaths in the pew, and on and on the vicious cycle goes. How are we going to break into this? I submit that the pattern is set here. God is going to use Elisha after Elijah goes home in a whirlwind.

55:30 But he says, I want to take you to school for seven years. Now you've learned some lessons behind the plow that will stand you in good stead. You've learned what real life people are like. You've seen those guys get in a fistfight over there, over some silly thing.

55:44 And you know what life is about. You haven't been so sheltered that you don't know how to mingle with people and you don't know how to react with people. I've seen people come out of Bible school, who've come through a nominal, at least evangelical church and go to Bible in the ministry and have been so, in the wrong sense, sheltered in their contacts that they didn't know how to have any kind of real rapport with a businessman. They didn't know what real life people were like.

56:09 God takes his servants often from the marketplace and from the plow and from the seaside. They know what people are like, but that's not enough. He must learn the ways of God. He must learn by example what it means to be God's mouthpiece.

56:26 And so God brings him alongside this great prophet whom he has restored to a place of usefulness. Isn't it wonderful the Lord didn't bring him along before that trip out into the wilderness? This might have shattered Elijah's idea of the prophetic ministry. If he'd had to go along with a guy who got in the bad shape that Elijah did, but he got him restored first and then he brought him alongside.

56:49 And he said, now this is how you're going to learn. And so he ministers unto him. And for a period of some seven years before Elijah goes home to glory in that chariot of fire, he walks, he prays, he agonizes with, he listens to the mighty prophet of God. And he learns.

57:10 And the thing that is interesting is that Elisha is an entirely different kind of minister. He doesn't come out a little rubber stamp of Elijah. Well, Elijah was all wind and fire and sun. Elisha, if you'll study out his life in ministry, is primarily a prophet of mercy.

57:31 Now, not exclusively. They made fun of his shiny head one day. People got in trouble, but for the most part, he was a prophet of mercy. He didn't come out a rubber stamp.

57:48 He didn't, as it were, sinfully seek to imitate the prophet at whose feet he sat. But he sought to learn the principles that make a man an effective prophet of God and incorporating those by the grace of God into his own life and into his own God-given personality, they became stamped with all that was true of Elisha.

58:12 So that Elisha then ministers and supplements the ministry that Elijah had. And I submit that this is the pattern of ministerial training set forth in Scripture. The Apostle Paul shows it in his own ministry. He takes these young men as his companions.

58:29 What's it mean to preach? They stood around and saw him reasoning in the synagogue. They saw him entering in to conflict with these hard hearted Jews. They saw him dealing with pagans.

58:40 And he turns around to Timothy and said, Timothy, what you've seen me do, you do the things that you've heard of me among many witnesses. The same commit thou to faithful men who in turn shall be able to teach others. Also, I say this because if we are to follow this scriptural pattern, then it's going to have to be as a church that we catch the vision of this. And as God brings into our midst young men who caught this vision and they say, is there any possibility that we can work in your church in order that by God's grace, we might be better prepared for the ministry?

59:14 And what little bit God has been pleased to teach his servants. Here to pass on. We as a church must never look at this selfishly and say, oh, that may cost us a little money or that may this or that. Wait a minute.

59:26 Do we want to see an extension of the ministry of the word of God throughout the earth? Then we must catch the vision of this biblical pattern of ministerial training. And then it should cause us to pray that where God has his Elijah's, where he has his true servants, he will give them the vision of this. It's not a.

59:48 Glamorous ministry. It's not a ministry that's going to hit the headlines of Christian life or Christianity. But it's a ministry that can act like a blessed leaven in the present state of the church. And it's this for which I'm sure all of us pray and for which we long under God.

Conclusion: Resolute Abandonment to Christ's Call

60:05 Well, those are some of the lessons that I believe are here in the passage. I trust they will help us. Who would have ever thought that we'd find in the life and ministry of Elijah anything like a section from a manual on the call and preparation for the Christian ministry. But there it is all before us.

60:25 Now, may God help us to walk in its light. And if the spirit of God this night, as it were, cast the mantle of Christ's call upon us, whether to himself in repentance and faith or for special service, may he give us such a sight of the glory of Christ that our response will be that of Elijah, one of resolute, utter abandonment unto him and to that call. I suppose there might have been some of his buddies who said, Elijah, what in the world are you doing? Look all you've given up.

61:06 I wonder what he would have answered.

61:12 What would you answer on the matter worth debating? You don't think in terms like that when you've seen God and heard his voice? Here, Lord, I give myself to thee, tis all. I can do what is right.