Elijah and His Successors

Introduction to Elijah's Final Scene and its Intimacy

0:04 Let us turn in our Bibles to 2 Kings, chapter 2.

0:12 We are coming to the close of our series of studies in the life ministry of the prophet Elijah. Tonight is the 30th time that we have looked at some aspect of his life. Little did I realize when we began these series that it would extend for so long a period. I trust the study has not been tedious, but to our mutual prophet, a number of you have indicated that the Lord has been pleased to use this series in many different ways to be of help and instruction, and I trust that these concluding studies will be no exception to that.

0:47 I will ask you to follow as I read tonight 2 Kings, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12, or just a part of verse 12. And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me as far as Bethel. And Elisha said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

1:29 So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou? Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it.

1:48 Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.

2:10 And the sons of the prophets said, The sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to the Jordan.

2:35 And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they too went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off. And they too stood by the Jordan.

2:54 And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters. And they were divided hither and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do. I shall do for thee, before I am taken from thee.

3:16 And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing. 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.

3:40 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, That behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven, and Elisha saw it. And he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

4:08 And he saw him no more.

4:14 It's a very touching scene, is it not? The prophet of God who has served his own generation. In this intimate relationship with his successor. Until he is taken up from his sight, and he sees him no more.

The Principle of Trained Perception

4:33 As I've sought to study this passage, and ask the Lord what he would say to my own heart, and to our hearts together. I've been struck again with the principle that in any given situation, A person generally sees what his eye is trained to see. Let me illustrate. Suppose we were to bring into this room a man who by his training and profession is an interior decorator.

4:59 Or let's make it more personal, bring him into your home.

5:02 Another man who by profession and training is a builder.

5:07 Another man who by profession and training is an architect. And we let them go through your home for a 15 minute tour. At the end of that time, we ask them, Now write down what you saw. Well, the man who's trained...

5:24 Well, the man who's trained and experienced is in the realm of interior decorating. He's going to say, I saw a certain color scheme that was atrocious.

5:33 He'd say, I saw a certain arrangement of furniture that was very, very pleasing to the eye. And had a real sense of what is right. And so he would go on writing all that he saw. But it would be in terms of color, and furniture arrangement, and shape, and design of the decorations.

5:53 We'd ask the builder, What did you see? He'd say, Well, I saw some of the fruits of shoddy, quick construction. I noticed that some of the walls were obviously not standing perpendicular to the floor. I noticed when I went down through your basement that there were defects in the foundation.

6:11 And then he would write what he saw that was good and poor in the actual construction. He couldn't perhaps care less about color arrangement and space arrangement because his eye is trained in terms of construction. Now the architect...

6:25 He would see things that in terms of overall design were perhaps very, very poor in function. He'd say, Well, I'll tell you what I saw. I saw an arrangement with the kitchen that was very, very difficult for the average housewife. Or I saw an arrangement for the master bedroom that was terrible.

6:41 Or an arrangement for this room that was very good. You see, all of them saw the same physical objects. But when you ask them, What did you see? Their response is in terms of what their eye and experience has trained them to see.

6:55 Isn't this true?

6:57 Now, to a greater or lesser degree, this is true when we come to Scripture. And I'm convinced that this is one of the reasons why it's a rare man who can serve any congregation with real continued fruitfulness for much longer probably than a period of ten or so years. Because try as any man may, there's a certain sense in which his whole background, God's deemings with him, his own particular gifts and callings, have trained him to see certain things in the Scripture. And though many other things are there, his eye is not sensitive to catch them.

7:37 Now, as I come to this passage, I confess that I probably see things that my eye and my experience and my background have trained me to see. And to that extent, I ask you to forgive me if, as we come to the passage tonight, what I see here as the word of the Lord to my own eyes, what I see here as the word of the Lord to my own eyes, what I see here as the word of the Lord to my own eyes, what I see here as the word of the Lord to my own heart and to our hearts as a people and to the Church of Jesus Christ in this present hour is shaped and molded by the cultivation of my own eye. I trust you see more than I see. And I'm sure there's much more that the Lord will show me in our subsequent studies.

The Context of Elijah's Departure: Elisha and the Sons of the Prophets

8:18 What we want to consider tonight is really sort of an introduction or a study to the whole context of this last scene of the earthly sojourn of the life of Elijah. We can't say this is an end to the ministry of Elijah because he pops up again way down the line in the New Testament on the Mount of Transfiguration where he's apparently having some ministry with and to the Lord Jesus Christ prior to his death and subsequent resurrection. But you will notice that the whole setting of this last earthly scene of the prophet is not a public setting, but it's a very exclusive and private setting. And the two relationships that are here exclusively are, number one, the prophet's identity with his successor, Elisha. The little phrase, and the two went on. And the two passed over together. There is a great mood of togetherness here between the prophet, Elijah, and his successor, Elisha.

9:23 And there's this little phrase that is one of the most beautiful descriptions of personal intimacy. And as they still...

9:30 Still went on, they talked. Verse 11. They were taking a walk together. And this is one of the unusual indications or an unusual indication or an indication of an unusual intimacy of friendship when people just walk and talk together.

9:46 When they freely share their minds the one with the other. So this passage is set on the one hand in the context of an intimate relationship between the prophet Elijah and his successor, Elisha, and the other setting, and this takes in the whole of it, is his identity with these groups called the schools or sons of the prophets. There were apparently these three large gatherings of young men who aspired to the prophetic office at Gilgal, at Jericho, and at Bethel. And it's interesting that when God has intimated to the prophet that his earthly ministry is done, and that he's allotted to him just a few more days to walk here, that he chooses as his place of dwelling and the company of his association the prophet of God who will be his successor and the sons of the prophets. Now I believe this is tremendously significant. For what a man chooses as his dying company is a pretty good indication of where he places importance and what in his eyes is high and low. High on the scale of that which is vital.

11:03 So the context of this passage is the prophet Elisha in personal contact, the sons of the prophets in some kind of last contact and intimate charge to them. Now then, if that has any significance, our first task tonight is to ask the question, what were these schools of the prophets or who were the sons of the prophets? If God has put this here and there is significance, we'll not understand the significance unless we have some basic understanding of this strange group of people called the sons of the prophets. Who were they?

Who Were the Sons of the Prophets?

11:45 Where did they come from? What was their function? What was their purpose? Well, whatever they were, they seem to have had their beginning under the ministry of Samuel.

11:56 Samuel was the first of the prophets of Israel. If we...

12:01 Skip Moses, who was indeed a great prophet, but in terms of what we might call the beginning of the prophetic office in Israel as a distinct office, Samuel was the first of the prophets. He is marked as such in Scripture. For Peter says, Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and onward have spoken of these days. Acts 3, and I believe verse 19.

12:25 And we read in 1 Samuel chapter 10 two references to these sons of the prophets. 1 Samuel chapter 10. And it will give us a little idea of what their function was in Israel. 1 Samuel 10 and verse 5.

12:47 God is giving directions to Samuel for the anointing of Saul to be king over the people of God. And he says, After that thou shalt come to the hill of God where is the garrison of the Philistines and it shall come to pass when thou art come thither thou shalt meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery and a timbrel and a pipe and a harp before them and they will be prophesying. Now notice carefully that here is some indication of what their particular function was. They shall come down from this place of seclusion with instruments of music psaltery, timbrel, pipe and a harp and they have, in some measure, the spirit of prophecy. They will be giving vent to some kind of prophetic utterance. Verse 10. And then they came thither to the hill.

13:42 Behold, a band of prophets met him and the spirit of God came mightily upon him and he prophesied among them.

13:53 Apparently under the ministry of Samuel it was his desire that there would be gathered around him this band of relatively young men to whom would be imparted knowledge, knowledge of the law of God and unusual sensitivity to the ministry of the spirit of God as the spirit of prophecy and who would go about almost as what we would call a roving band of street preachers who would sing the praises of the God of Israel with their musical instruments and who would give instruction in the law of God. There is something very similar to this under the revivals that followed under the ministry of John Sung in the far east. Wherever he went and the spirit of God would be prophesied, poured out in power, he would establish what he called preaching bands. And these bands, mostly of what we would call lay people, would go through the towns singing and preaching the gospel. That perhaps gives us a little picture of what their function was as we find them here in 1 Samuel. Then for a period of almost 200 years there is no mention of them.

14:56 Either in this period of terrible decline following the reign of David, though he may have done something to sustain them, there is nothing in the sacred record to indicate one way or the other. It would seem that in the period of decline from Solomon onward, this whole concern to preserve the prophetic office had fallen by the wayside as people rejected the word of the Lord. They no longer thought it a vital thing to preserve and propagate the word of the Lord. So it's only understandable that concern for the schools of the prophets would fall into the rubble of neglect, and would be passed over as a thing unworthy of any investment of time and energy.

15:39 However, it's under the ministry of Elijah and particularly of Elisha that reference to the sons of the prophets and these schools of the prophets comes back into the foreground. So that in a very real sense we might say that one of the most tangible fruits of the ministry of the prophet Elijah was the revival of this ministry, of the schools of the prophets. And so we find them here in the text before us, and then several references to them and their ministry in 2 Kings 4, and then in 2 Kings 6, we have another indication in the narrative of some idea of how they functioned. Verse 1 of 2 Kings 6, And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now the place where we dwell before you, that is where we dwell before thee, is too straight for us, that is too small. There seemed to be a growing, there seemed to be an enrollment that went beyond the present capacity of their dormitory. Let us go, we pray thee, unto the Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place.

16:51 They were not afraid to get their hands dirty and calloused. They were apparently men who had either learned the trade prior to their coming to the school of the prophets, or while there, some profane, some secular historians who give us some light on this indicate that this might be one of the things that they learned while in the school. They learned a valid trade to support themselves. Let us make a place.

17:16 They didn't say, let's pray that the Lord will put it on the hearts of God's people to come and build us a place. They said, let us make a place where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be pleased, I pray thee, to go with thy servants.

17:30 And he answered, I will go. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe had fell into the water. And he cried and said, Alas, my master, for it was borrowed.

17:44 They were apparently poor. They didn't have too large scholarships to put them through. They even had borrowed axes to do their manual labor. And the man of God said, Where fell it?

17:56 And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and the man took it. So you have here some indication of the kind of life that these sons of the prophets lived. They would gather around an unusually Spirit-anointed man of God, be it Samuel, be it Elijah, be it Elisha.

18:18 And in this context, they were exposed to the Word of God. They were exposed to the Word of God as it came to vivid expression through a man of God. They were sons of the prophets, in that they called the prophet their father. You notice that when Elijah went up in the world when he said, My father, my father.

18:38 Elisha looked upon himself as the son of Elijah. And those men who were there in the school, or what's called the sons of the prophets, regarded themselves as the spiritual sons of the man of God. So much then for the background of these groups called the sons of the prophets. And then who was Elisha?

19:00 We've gone over that ground. He was that young man called about five years previous to this instance. It was at least five years before that the man of God came by that field where Elisha was plowing with the other servants and the mantle of the prophet was cast upon him. He had his goodbye feast to his friends, his relatives and loved ones.

19:22 And for this period of five years in which there is very little record of any public ministry by Elijah save this instance of his dealings there with those people who come out these bands of soldiers who come out to take hold of him and also his dealings with Ahab's son no record that he was involved to much extent in public ministry. The intimation being that during these five years his primary ministry was building into the life of his successor. That in the twilight years of his life he was as it were pouring his own life no longer into Israel as a nation directly but into the man who in turn was going to affect Israel for a period that chronologically as best we can figure out was about twice as long as the ministry that he himself enjoyed. Now do you get the setting of the whole thing? We just usually read over these things and say well we believe every word is inspired but what's the purpose of all of this? This identity with the sons of the prophets, this identity with Elijah his successor.

The Significance of Elijah's Identity with Successors and Schools

20:28 And that's the question that I want to attempt to answer now. What is the significance of this identity? And I believe the answer lies in understanding this principle. Please follow closely.

20:41 If the reformation for which the prophet of God longed was to spread and take deep root in Israel, he had come to see that it would not be by static dramatic expressions of the miraculous fire from heaven upon the sacrifice upon the soldiers. A widow's son raised from the dead. No. If the reform that would sweep over the whole face of Israel was to come to pass, the prophet of God knew it would not come to pass by static and dramatic expressions of the miraculous but by the abiding power of truth permeating the hearts of the rank and file of the people of Israel. Though the miraculous could catch the eye for a moment, it was only the power of truth filtering into the life, molding the mind, shaping the affections, directing the life. Only this would restore godliness across the face of Israel. You get the principle. Controversy,

21:53 times of unusual upheaval in the history of the church of Christ are necessary. And though controversy may as it were clear the ground for the truth of God for a short period of time, that ground will have to be cleared again very shortly unless there is the systematic widespread propagation of positive truth to take root in the hearts of men. Unusual visitations of God in revival, where people are prostrated under the sense of His awesome presence, where men are as it were shaken by God almost physically, are great times to arrest the attention of men, but the long range effect of such visitations is well known in the history of the church of Jesus Christ. Now if that's so, then the only way for it to be done is that men be grounded in the truth, taught how to embody that truth in life and how to communicate it in ministry, and then get to the point where they can get to the point where they can get on with the job of doing it. So it is no surprise that the prophet Elijah who has through his entire ministry been jealous

23:20 for the Lord God of Israel, who has been the prophet of thunder and of fire, should be found at the very last scene of his life giving himself in ministry to those who will be the instruments to carry out this gradual work of extending the power of Israel. God's method is the method that we see before us. One man of God, mighty in the power of God, who in a very real sense casts the shadow of his greatness over other men and they in turn extend his vision and the burden of God. And I would suggest to you that this is the pattern that is stamped upon the face of Holy Scripture. Paul says to in verse 2, The things which thou hast learned of me among many witnesses. Here was the great apostle. In a peculiar sense, Timothy was his Elisha, but that wasn't all.

24:26 There were many other witnesses. There are names like these that we don't often have upon our lips. Sosthenes, Sophater, Epaphras. But those are names that are found in the New Testament.

24:41 In some places Paul calls them his fellow workers, his fellow soldiers. If I asked you, please turn up a verse that has Sophater's name in it, you'd be hard pressed to do it, would you not? If I asked you to turn up a verse, if you've got a concordance, you wouldn't be, but I mean without the use of your concordance. Sosthenes and Epaphras, no.

25:04 But these are men who were, as it were, the sons of the prophets. Timothy was in a very real sense Paul's Elisha. And these other men were this band of young men into whose life the apostle poured his own life in order that they in turn might teach others. We see this exemplified in the greatest in fact it sounds trite, in the one who embodies most clearly and with most authority the principles of training for the propagation of truth, even our Lord himself. And we read in Mark the third chapter these very interesting words, Mark 3 13, And he goeth up into the mountain and calleth unto him whom he himself would. And they went unto him, and he appointed twelve that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. You know where the emphasis lies? He appointed twelve to be with him, to be alongside of him, that he might pour his own life into them, that he might cast the shadow of his own example upon them, and they in turn being stamped with his own image might go forth to proclaim the message.

26:23 And so I submit to you that the significance of this last chapter in the life of the prophet Elijah being cast in the context of this intimate association with his future successor and with these lesser lights the sons of the prophets is setting forth this principle. Now, what does all that say to us? And I confess to you it's at this point that I think what I said in introduction applies most forcibly. We see what our eye is trained to see.

Application: Crying to God for Elijahs and Reforming Ministry Training

26:55 We project what is the burden of our own hearts, and I trust you will forgive me for projecting what I trust will become the increasing burden of all of our hearts. What does this say to us tonight? Well, it says something to us in a general sense as the children of God and then something very specifically to us as parents and as young men and women. In a general sense, it says to every one of us who love godliness and who love the truth of God that we must be found crying mightily and often to God to raise up some Elijahs who may cast their shadow upon the Elishas and gather about them some sons of the prophets. The birth of the school of the prophets awaited the arising of the prophet Samuel. The rebirth of the school of the prophets awaited the presence of another mighty prophet Elijah. And the history of the church illustrates this principle again and again that there is never a resurrection of the kind of ministry that filters down to the rank and file of the people of God in any broad sense until God is pleased to raise up his Elijahs

28:24 that they in turn might pour their lives into the Elishas and the sons of the prophets. I suggest to you that this was the original vision of the schools founded for the training of ministers here in our own lands and yet how strange it sounds upon our ears in this day. I want to read from the original charter of Princeton Seminary. This was to be the purpose and function of the seminary.

28:56 Will you listen carefully? Section one. It is expected that every student in the theological seminary will spend, excuse me, I want to read another section first. I got carried ahead of myself here.

29:13 Theological science as a science has no peculiarity. It is in this respect like every other science. No man understands it until he's practiced it. The statesman does not.

29:25 The jurist does not. The physician does not. Nor the navigator nor the surveyor. Lawyers and physicians do not commit the training of their young men to those who have never been practiced in their profession.

29:37 They would deem it a great blunder. The laws of the land require that some portion of the time of their students should be employed in the offices of practiced teachers. A man must have been in the midst of his work and observed and marked with studious care and anxious solicitude the practical operation of his principles in order to present those principles in their truest and best light to the young mind. No matter what the talents of a theological instructor may be, it is not possible for him rightly to exhibit the truth of God and to teach others to exhibit it if he himself has not been in the habit of exhibiting it to the popular mind, that is to the rank and file of people.

30:21 Books and treatises, reviews and single discourses written by some of these distinguished authors speak for themselves. They have great excellencies, but they have this one deficiency. They do not have the savor of the pastoral office. They are not like the works of Leighton and Erskine, Romaine, Witherspoon or Edwards. These are some of the great masters of the past who were brilliant men but who were above all pastors. Nor are they with all their acuteness in research what they would have been had their authors seen more hard service. We have sought to ascertain if the scriptures anywhere contemplate a class of theological teachers who have not themselves been the acknowledged and honored teachers of the people. Unless we have overlooked some important fact, the history of the Jewish and Christian church speaks the same language from the days of Samuel to the days of Paul and it is uniformly in line in favor of the views here expressed.

31:23 You see what he is saying? Where in scripture did anyone ever assume to teach the Elisha's and the sons of the prophets who had not had a lifetime of a powerful ministry behind him? This did not come in Elisha's early thirties. It came at the twilight of his life. And the author is asking the question, what grounds do we have for any other process in the training of men to the Christian ministry? I go on quoting from Mr. Spring. What is the voice of common sense and of all the better feelings of our hearts on this plain question, if it be not that the men whose professed employment is to teach others to preach should themselves be preachers of the gospel? It is said they are preachers of the gospel. They are so, but not to the people. See? And how often do they preach it to their own little special charge? Once in four

32:15 or six weeks and then they come before their pupils with a highly elaborate and finished discourse, a banquet for the king and not for the people. It's just the preaching to discourage the humble and spoil an ambitious aspirant for the ministry. This will do occasionally, but it will never do as the habitual example for the imitation of the young. They will never be broken into the harness after this sort. Far better it were to fall back upon the old method of instruction by the pastors of churches than to have our young men subjected to the evils of such a purely scholastic training. Our theological teachers ought to be men who've known something of the burden and heat of the day. Men who've been in the field in sunshine and amid storms in seed time and harvest. Not literary men merely, nor preachers to a selected few with itching ears, but men who've had come in contact with the common mind and preached the gospel to the common people. Now you say, Pastor,

33:15 this is a hot night. We could have been off with the relatives and here you are quilting pages from a... Ah, listen, follow me closely. Listen. One of the great causes for the state of the church in the present hour is a failure to grasp the principle that comes to light in 2 Kings 2. And if we have a love not just for ourselves in a selfish way, but for the larger sphere of the kingdom of Christ, then we must recognize this principle that God's method of preparing younger men in order to permeate the land with truth is to raise up the Elishas who minister with power in the flush of their own youth and strength and then in their waning years can pour their own lives into the Elishas and then gather

34:08 around them the sons of the prophets. A better day, a more glorious day will dawn upon the church of Jesus Christ when God's people recognizing that this is the scriptural principle begin to cry to God that he would bring to pass that which would once again mean the extensive propagation of truth in the power of the spirit through ably equipped men. Then the second thing we must do is pray that existing schools will see this principle and if they refuse to see it that God will bypass them and raise up others. One of the curses upon our present schools of training, Bible schools and seminaries is that with this terrible pressure to give the students some kind of a degree that has some academic respectability, the state is dictating that you must have an average of X number of years of advanced training beyond high school. Seven years, eight years, you must have at least a half of your faculty with MAs and a third of them with PhDs, etc. And what is happening is this, that in order to keep abreast of those demands of the state, young men who've just come through school and who've been for the past eight to ten years in nothing but a formal schooling situation, who have their master's degree and some well on their way to their doctorate

35:34 or they have it in their early thirties, who've never known what it is to bear the burden of the heat of the day, who've never known what it is to weep with the people of God, to labor at being simple and clear, the broken-hearted pain of the pastoral office, are daring to sit and train and shape people for mission fields in pastorates. And this thing has gone right across the face of our training institutions. I could prove it by stating specific instances. And dear ones, I'm not saying that it's wrong for schools to press for academic accreditation, but don't any longer let them call themselves schools of the prophets. Let them call themselves, if they feel that's their calling, Christian liberal arts schools. There's a need for them. I'm talking in a very exclusive, limited sphere now. And we should cry to God that if this principle will not be recognized by the leaders, that God will raise up other schools that will acknowledge this principle.

Princeton Seminary's Original Vision for Devotional and Practical Training

36:40 Now I quote what I started to quote before. This was the vision of Princeton Seminary when it started. Listen to this language. It's expected that every student in the theological seminary will spend a portion of time every morning and evening in devout meditation and self-recognition and self-examination, in reading the Holy Scriptures solely with a view to personal and practical application of the passage read to his own heart, character, and circumstances, and in humble, fervent prayer and praise to God in secret.

37:18 It's expected of every student. Now, the whole of every Lord's day is to be devoted to devotional exercises either of a social or secret kind. Intellectual pursuits not immediately connected with devotion or the religion of the heart are on that day to be foreborn. The books to be read are to be of a practical nature. The conversations had with each other are to be chiefly on religious subjects. Getting together for prayer and praise and for religious talk calculated to promote growth in grace are also proper for this day, subject to such regulations as the professors and directors may seem proper to prescribe. It is wished and recommended that each student should ordinarily set apart one day in a month for special prayer and self-examination in secret, and that he should in suitable occasions attend to the duty of fasting. Now, what happens if they don't? That's all nice to have it.

38:16 All Bible schools say we expect all students to develop devotional habits. What happens if a student doesn't? I read on. If any student shall exhibit in his general deportment or levity or indifference in regard to practical religion, though it does not amount to any overt act of irreligion or immorality, it shall be the duty of the professor who may observe it to admonish him tenderly and faithfully in private, and to engage him in a more holy temper and a more exemplary deportment.

38:44 If a student, after due admonition, persists in a system of conduct not exemplary in regard to religion, he shall be dismissed from the seminary. The professors are particularly charged by all the proper means in their power to encourage, cherish, and provoke devotion and personal piety among their pupils, warning and guarding them on the one hand against formality and indifference, and on the other against ostentation and enthusiasm, by inculcating practical religion in their lectures and recitations, by taking suitable occasions to converse with their pupils privately on this interesting subject, and by all other means incapable of being minutely specified by which they may foster true experimental religion and unreserved devotedness to God." Doesn't that sound strange on our ears in this day? May I suggest that's precisely what Elijah did with Elisha? What did he do during those five years? Well, I doubt they sat

39:45 around and just talked about the weather six hours a day. He was pouring into this young man those lessons that he himself had learned in his long life of ministry, seeking by the grace of God, and this means to see a man duly prepared for the office of a prophet. It's not enough for us to say, well, we long to see God establish truth in our own assembly. We long to see Him use us as a witness in our community. Let's ask God for a larger vision. Lord, what about the church? You see, brethren, I can't think only in terms of our assembly. I go to too many places where I see people starved, not for want of sensational preaching, not for want of dramatic preaching, but for want of teaching and preaching that is born in the crucible of heart experience and comes out of a commitment to the authority of the Word of God in the warmth and power of the Spirit. And everywhere you go,

40:44 hungry sheep look up and they are not fed. And if you love the people of God and you want to see the truth of God extended, I plead with you, let us cry mightily to God that He will not only raise up His Elijahs, who may cast their shadow across the Elishas and the sons of the prophets, but that God will move in existing educational structures, and if they will not be moved, that God will raise up others. The third thing we must do is be prepared to expend ourselves wherever necessary for this purpose. It's one thing to pray, it's another thing to pay the price to see this brought to pass.

Specific Applications for Parents, Young Men, and Unbelievers

41:27 Now may I be specific as I draw study to a close tonight. I have a word for you parents tonight. What is the greatest privilege that could be afforded you as a parent? As you thought of your life and role as a parent, what is the prayer that has, as it were, come out in your holiest moments for your own children?

41:55 May I suggest it should be that God would be pleased to consider him or her in the rank of the sons of the prophets. That God would be pleased to give such a passion and a longing for the extension of God's truth that that child, as he views the investment of his life will view it in this light. Lord, put me in that situation where I can most effectively be an instrument to see your truth take root in the hearts of men. I don't ask for miraculous powers. I don't ask for ability to call down fire from heaven, but Lord put me in the place where I can most effectively be an instrument to see your truth spread abroad through the face of the land. That there might be that reformation carried on by the power of the truth. And then I say to any of you young men who have your lives ahead of you, God says, covet earnestly the best gifts. And I know of no higher calling. There are many noble

42:59 callings in life, and any calling where God places you is noble. There's no such thing in that sense as sacred or secular. Our Lord was just as much pleasing the Father when he shaved wood in the carpenter's shop of Nazareth as when he knelt in prayer in the garden. He said, I do all the things that please my Father when I kneel to pray and when I shave wood.

43:22 So we must not get this dichotomy between secular and sacred, but Scripture tells us to covet earnestly the better gifts. There is a place of relative importance in the function and gifts that God gives. And my cry to you young men would be to covet that God would be pleased to place you amongst the sons of the prophets. Not covet to be an Elijah or an Elisha. I don't see anywhere in Scripture any man who was raised to that place was asking for it. In fact, when God came and put his hand upon him, he said, Lord, not me, somebody else. Somebody else. Somebody else, Lord.

43:57 Jeremiah wanted to run. Moses wanted to run. Elijah was reticent. He was on his face under a sense of conviction when God called him.

44:05 Whenever I find a young man praying, oh God make me an Elijah, I'm suspicious that there's some kind of motive there that isn't quite right. But for someone to pray, Lord, let me live and die in obscurity as far as the annals of the history of the church are concerned. Let me just be included as a nameless one of the sons of the prophets. But oh God, use me to extend your truth to my generation. To make a mark in establishing truth in the hearts of men that godliness and righteousness might once again mark your people. Oh, I plead with you young men, there's no higher privilege or calling. And I can say by way of personal testimony, and may God ever make it so, that to me there is nothing more thrilling, more exhilarating than the thought that I might be an instrument to help a few people see the truth of God and seeing it and laying hold of it, live to his praise in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. What greater privilege is there than that?

45:12 May God grant that we'll covet that. And conscious there are some of you here tonight to whom perhaps much of this has been all so obtuse and muddy because the truth of God has never become precious to your own heart. I would close with a guilty conscience if I didn't say to you tonight, though I've not preached the gospel tonight because as such the gospel is not there in the passage we've looked at, there is no greater delight than to say to people who are strangers to the power of the gospel, seek the Lord while he may be found. I would urge you to take seriously what scripture says about your sinfulness, about God's holiness, about his wrath against sin, and about his wonderful provision in Christ for all who come unto God by him. Take seriously what God says for the God of Elijah, the true and the living God, is the God before whom you and I must stand one day. If you stand before him without being clothed in the righteousness of his Son, you stand before him to hear those terrible words, depart from me ye cursed. May God grant you will not hear those words, but that you will search the scriptures, ask God to show you his salvation as revealed in his dear Son. And may we as God's people

46:37 as we consider this closing chapter in the life of the prophet have a vision of the strategic place of extending the prophetic ministry to our own generation. Let us bow together in prayer.