Elijah's Homegoing

Introduction: The Last Picture of Elijah's Earthly Life

0:03 If you have your Bibles with you, I would encourage you to turn with me to 2 Kings, chapter 2. 2 Kings, chapter 2.

0:19 I shall read the first 11 verses and part of the 12th verse.

0:28 Here we find the last picture of the earthly life of the great prophet of God, Elijah. There is yet another record of his activity, many hundreds of years subsequent to this, and upon the Mount of Transfiguration he stands with Moses in the presence of the transfigured Christ, speaking, as Luke says, of his decease which was to come at Jerusalem, indicating that Elijah had a great interest in the sufferings of Christ, for by those sufferings he, like all the people of God in all ages, found acceptance before God. But this is the last picture of his life. This side of that picture that we have of him, many hundreds of years subsequent to this.

1:19 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. So they went down to Bethel.

1:48 And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yea, I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho.

2:14 And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And 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 today? And he answered, Yea, I know it.

2:40 Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to the Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they too went on.

3:01 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off. And they too stood by the Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters. And they were divided hither and thither.

3:18 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 for thee, before I am taken from thee. 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.

3:46 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. 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.

4:14 And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen, whereof, and he saw him no more. Let us pray that God may be pleased to open to us this portion of his word.

4:37 Again, our Father, we are indeed grateful that when we come to consider the great issues of who you are, what is truth, what is right, what is wrong,

4:51 what is the meaning of life now and its destiny hereafter, that we need not follow the poor, feeble, blind, blind thoughts of men, that we have this infallible rule of faith and of practice, even your holy word, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We thank you for this book, O Lord, for all that we know of you and of your salvation we have come to know through the light of its pages. O may it come to us with authority and power tonight that we, like the Thessalonians, may receive it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually works in those who believe. May it not be said of us, the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. O God, deliver us from the cursed sin of unbelief and the skepticism of our natural hearts and give us, we pray, that childlike disposition to receive whatever you have revealed. Speak to us.

6:01 Then to our comfort and conviction, to our edification as we study together through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

6:17 As I indicated before reading this chapter, we have set before us in these words, which I have read, the last picture, the last scene in the life of the prophet Elijah. In our previous study of this chapter, I focused, upon the context of this entire chapter, which is basically a record of the prophet's presence with his successor, Elisha, and his presence with these three schools of the prophets. And the basic significance of this would seem to be that Elijah recognized in the latter days of his ministry and subsequently gave himself to this ministry that if there was to be any permanent reformation in Israel, it would come to pass not by dramatic and static occurrence of miracles, but by the power of truth once again permeating the conscience in the warp and woof and fabric of the life of Israel. So he gave himself to the training of his successor, Elijah, and to the development of these schools of the prophets, which were, we might say in contemporary jargon, sort of halfway between seminary and missionary training schools, where young men gathered in order to study the scriptures,

7:43 in order to be made sensitive to their message, and then to be used as sort of wandering bands of street preachers to go throughout Israel and proclaim the message of God. And that seems to be the great significance, perhaps the least dramatic part of the life of the prophet, were these waning years when his public ministry seems to be, when his public ministry seems to be, when his public ministry seems to be, when his public ministry seems to be, when his public ministry seems to have come pretty much to an end, and yet God allows him not just to mark time, but to make this significant contribution to the ultimate changing of many hearts in Israel. Now tonight we want to approach the chapter considering the lessons contained in the fact, time, and manner of Elijah's home going. The Bible is very silent concerning the death of some of the most eminent saints that adorn its pages, pages. We don't even know how the great apostle Paul died. We have some hints from the scripture and we have some light from secular history, but there is no detailed account of how he died. There is no detailed account of the death of Moses except that he died and God

8:56 buried him. But now here we have a very detailed account of the homegoing of one of the servants of God, specific details concerning the fact of his homegoing, the time of it, and the manner. Therefore, it must be that there is something of significance in these things for all scripture is breathed of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, and I left out reproof. All of those things are true.

Lesson 1: God's Sovereignty in Choosing the Time and Manner of Our Homegoing

9:29 So when we are introduced in this chapter to these words, and it came to pass when, that's an adverb of time, the Lord would take up Elijah by a whirlwind, a description of the manner of his homegoing, into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And from the very beginning statement of the chapter, we are introduced to some very vital and significant lessons concerning aspects of the Christian's life and homegoing. I trust such as will commend themselves to every serious and thoughtful person. First of all, we learn that God is sovereign in choosing the time and manner in which he will take us to himself. I indicated earlier that the word when is a word of time, and the words by a whirlwind indicate manner. when the Lord would take Elijah to himself, and when he had purposed to do it by a whirlwind, then he did so. Now, God purposes to take all of his people to himself.

10:50 That we have in common with Elijah. For our Lord prays in the 17th chapter of John, I will that all whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Jesus said in the 6th chapter of John, This is the will of him that sent me, that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. God has purposed to take to himself every one of his redeemed children.

11:21 If I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. These are the words of Christ. Most of his children he takes by means of death. And death is, as one servant, God has said, simply God's black chariot by which he summons his own children into his presence.

11:45 Death is the Lord's chariot, not the devil's. And death is God's servant and will ultimately be brought into final subjection. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death. But even now, death is not working out in the realm of no man's land.

12:03 Death is the Lord's black chariot to carry his people, into his presence. There will be a great company of the redeemed who will be taken off the scene suddenly at the appearance of Christ who will bypass the chariot of death. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We shall not all sleep, that is die, but we shall all be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye.

12:30 Now even amongst those who die of God's children, some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth. Some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth. Some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth. Some are allowed to run down like a clock that expends the earth.

12:39 As Jesus said to Joshua and Enoch to Jeremiah, 1 Thessalonians chapter 15, 1 Thessalonians chapter 15, And then it ticks feebly and a little more slowly, and then it ticks its last. Others are snatched off in the very flush of their youth and apparent usefulness. The principle that God is absolutely sovereign as relates to the time and the manner in which he will take us to himself stands on the very face of the first verse of this chapter for when we ask the question, why? did the Lord choose this time to take the prophet home? And why did he choose to do it by a whirlwind? The only answer we can come up with is the answer of our Lord's words in Matthew 11, even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. Why was no one else taken up in a whirlwind? We don't know. Why did God choose to take this man in this peculiar,

13:35 unusual manner? Even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. Enoch was the only other man, along with Elijah, who experienced entrance into the presence of God, bypassing the door of death. And all of the company of the redeemed alive at the return of Christ will join Enoch and Elijah. Now, why this diversity? Well, God is telling us in this great issue of our homegoing to Him, our entrance into His presence, that he is absolutely unfettered and completely sovereign as to the time and manner in which He will summon us into His presence. Now, of what practical use is this to us? May I suggest two practical areas? Number one, this then behooves us to be prepared to go at His bidding. God very clearly revealed to Elijah

14:35 and Elijah's son, Enoch, that he was going to take the prophet home. He was going to take Elijah and Elijah's son, Enoch, and Elijah's son, Enoch, and Elijah's son, Enoch, and Elijah's also apparently to Elisha and to these sons of the prophets, the precise day that he was going to step out of this scene into that eternal state. And they came to the prophet Elisha saying, don't you know, your master's going to go today. Somehow God revealed it to them. Elisha says, I know all about it. Hold your peace. Don't get all excited. I'm not ruffled. And the man who's going is not ruffled. What are you all ruffled about? And we'll see in a little bit that that has great significance. But God gave clear intimation and revelation to this man of God when he was going to go. And he may have also given some hint as to how. This may be why he wanted privacy. This may be why he wanted to be alone or at least only with the presence of his successor, Elisha. But whether or not he revealed

15:29 the how, certainly he had revealed the when. Now, sometimes sometimes sometimes God's children have some obvious intimations that their time is coming. They can feel the spring of life beginning to wind down and they know that their days are numbered. Others of God's people have had very unusual subjective intimations that the Lord was going to call them home. I can't explain those things. Often after a child of God has been cut off in the ark, who may have made some kind of premonition. Israel Indeed, it's a premonition. And as we know it, it's a premonition. We have to keep it short. Now, I would say that we don't need to go over it. We're just trying to follow that premonition. We only need to take it in the next few sentences as it's very much if you just listen to the rest of the Bible. And that's what we do. Well, that's what we do. That's what we do. And that's why we look at those statements. It's a premonition. And maybe God said it's a premonition. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's not. It's a premonition. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's not.

16:05 And it's a premonition. week or two weeks or a day before, indicating that God had given some kind of a premonition. And though God may do this in his sovereignty in ways that transcend our understanding or ability to rationalize, most of God's people and the majority of worldlings are taken off this scene without any clear indication as to the when and to the how. And it behooves every one of us, recognizing that death is the appointed means for most of us, it is appointed unto men once to die, that we be prepared in the present moment, not knowing when that day nor hour shall be, that our God will summon us into his presence either for bliss or for judgment. But there is also a second lesson here, and I think we see some indication that Elisha had learned it, and it is this. It behooves us to be sweetly submissive when God exercises his prerogative with reference to our loved ones and those who are dear to us. Death becomes a great test for the Christian, not just for himself, but when those to whom he is closely attached are snatched from him in what seems to us to be an inopportune time or in an unusual way.

17:31 And many a Christian... A Christian who has stood the test of persecution, of opposition, and the onslaughts of the devil breaks down in the face of the death of loved ones.

17:41 This was true of the Thessalonians. We studied for some time their problem. Here they were as an infant church, standing up against persecution, witnessing and proclaiming the gospel in the whole area of Macedonia, but when they lost their loved ones, their Christian faith broke down, and Paul had to write them, saying, Brethren, I don't want you to sorrow as those who have no hope. And often the child of God has his faith severely tested when God exercises his sovereignty in calling to himself a child or a loved one in what seems to be a most inopportune time and in ways that transcend our capacity to understand.

18:22 Then our faith is put to the test. Do we believe that God has the right to exercise this prerogative? That when? When he purposes to take one of his own into heaven, be it by a whirlwind or by a tragic accident, it's his perfect right to do so.

18:42 And I speak as a father of three children who cannot conceive of life without those three children, and as one who's known the joy of sharing life with a dear Christian woman for thirteen years, a life that I cannot conceive of apart from her.

19:02 And yet I'm a Christian. I must tell myself continually, God has a right with respect to those children and that wife, when and how it pleases him to take them into his presence, and I have no right whatsoever to even whisper why.

19:25 It would seem that this is the lesson that Elisha learned. For when the intimation of the approaching departure, and apparently they knew it was not going to be death. This is a strange phrase. Thy master shall be taken away from thy head this day.

19:41 And then the prophet says in verse 9, what shall I do for thee before I am taken from thee? Apparently they knew it was going to be an unusual home going, and they come with the spirit, don't you know, your master's going to go today. He says, hold your peace, I know all about it. What are you so excited about?

19:57 God wants to take him today, that's his business. Doesn't that seem to be, and we're reading between the lines, something isn't there. They come all excited. Don't you know, today's the day.

20:06 Let's go. Let's get in the prayer. Let's do something. Let's have a prayer meeting.

20:09 Let's have God keep him with us a while. We need him desperately. He's the great standard bearer of the people of God. Let's hold some all-night prayer meetings that the Lord will spare him.

20:22 Leave him amongst us for a while. Don't you know, he's going to go from us today. Three times he says, hold your peace, I know all about it. Don't get excited, that's the Lord's business.

20:32 He wants to take him home, hallelujah. It seems to be some indication that Elisha learned the practical implications of the church. And I don't know when, often as a pastor, I wondered, Lord, who'll be next? When I stand next Sunday morning, whose face will be the missing face?

20:52 I don't know. I don't know. My faith would be most severely tested if the missing face were one of my own family. It would also be severely tested if it were one of you who seems to be in the flush of your usefulness in the work of Christ's kingdom in this church.

21:12 But I must remind myself again and again, as with Elijah, so with every one of us, God is absolutely sovereign when it comes to the time and manner in which he ushers his people into his presence. Very practical lesson, isn't it? You may not think you need it now. Before the week is out, you may be clinging to it desperately.

Lesson 2: Men Generally Die as They Have Lived

21:37 Second lesson concerning the manner, time of the home. The foregoing of the prophet is this, men generally die as they have lived, or in the case of the prophet Elijah, men generally go home to heaven as they have lived on earth. Verse 1 says, it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind. What a strange way to take a man to heaven.

22:13 And yet in the case of this man, it is not. For what greater symbol and characteristic of his whole life could there be than a whirlwind? How did we get introduced to this man? We read in the latter part of the 16th chapter of 1 Kings, the account of the terrible apostasy of Israel under the leadership of Ahab.

22:33 And when it looked as though everything had gone into a night upon which no sun would ever rise again, suddenly in chapter 17, we were confronted with these words of a prophet who came and said, I am a prophet. I came and planted himself in the presence of a king and said, as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand, the heavens are shut up and the key is in my pocket. He turns on his heels and walks out. He came in like a whirlwind, went out like a whirlwind.

22:59 It was his life. Upon Mount Carmel fire of God falls and brings a nation to its face. The dejected prophet is out in the wilderness and as God deals with him, he gives him that unusual vision. There was the rending earthquake.

23:17 There was the fire, there was the wind, symbols of his life and ministry, and then that still, small voice, that voice of a gentle quietness. What more significant picture of the life and ministry of the prophet than a whirlwind? Chariots of fire, as he came in with the fire of God in his heart, and the fire of truth upon his lips, so he shall be ushered into the presence of God in a chariot of fire. As he came in with the suddenness and power of the whirlwind, he shall be taken up with the suddenness and force of the whirlwind.

23:56 John Bunyan captured this idea so beautifully in his Pilgrim's Progress, both books one and book two. Great heart, that saint that had conquered enemies while here on earth, when he came to cross Jordan, the symbol of death in Bunyan's allegory, he found that the Jordan was dry.

24:18 When Hopeful went into the river with Christian, and Christian, who had been long in the slough of despond, who had had many conflicts through his pilgrimage, when he fears he's about to be swallowed up, what does Hopeful say? These are his words. He says, I feel the bottom, and it is good. You see, he died, he died as he had lived.

24:44 He had lived as a Hopeful one, one whose faith was strong, and when he came to die, that strong faith carried him through without fears and apprehensions. Now there are exceptions to this rule. There are some children of God, who seem to live in great light while they are here in the time of their usefulness, and then when it comes to the hour of death, they seem to be shrouded in terrible darkness, and they may die in darkness. That doesn't change their state.

25:15 If they are savingly joined to Christ, they shall wake up in His presence, beholding His likeness with joy. Other times there are children of God who seem to live with relatively little light, great doubts as to their salvation, all the way through life, great problems with assurance. But in the hour of death, God gives them a sight of the Redeemer's countenance by faith, that they die not hoping, not wishing, but they die counting. Confident and knowing that they have an interest in Christ.

25:47 Those are the exceptions, but the general rule is men die as they have lived. And this is intimated in the way that this man is ushered into the presence of God. He comes out of nowhere, as it were, as a whirlwind, and he's ushered into the presence of God in that same manner. May I ask you a very simple, but I hope searching question?

26:11 Would you die, as the old saints say, comfortably? Would you be ushered into the presence of God comfortably? You won't be unless you're willing to pay the price of living carefully. No man can live carelessly and die comfortably.

26:35 Now we'd all like a comfortable death, wouldn't we? We'd love to be able to say with hopeful, when we tread the verge of Jordan, I feel the ground beneath me, and it is good. There's a price to be paid for that privilege. And it's the price of walking in good conscience before God.

26:58 Saying with the Apostle Paul in Acts 24, 16, Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense to God and to man. That's the man who can say, as he does in 2 Timothy 4, as he faces death, I'm ready to be offered time of my life, my departures at hand, I'm ready to go home. You see, he faced death comfortably because he lived life carefully. It's amazing how people want all the comforts of grace in death who don't want the disciplines of grace in life.

27:37 You've got to make your choice, friend. If you want to live carelessly, then be prepared to die with the terrors of conscience and possibly the torments of the damned. If a comfortable death is worth anything, it's worth a careful life. And if you forget everything else tonight, I hope that little turn phrase will stick with you.

28:02 And may I say to you who claim to love your loved ones, you know the greatest legacy you can leave to them? Some of you have made very careful preparations that if you should die, they'd be taken care of for the next millennium. Social security, life insurance, everything taken care of. Listen, if that loved one is a Christian, you know what's the greatest legacy you can leave to that person?

28:27 Here it is. If you don't leave them a dime to live on, if you leave them this, they'll bless your name through eternity. Here it is. The best legacy you can leave is to leave them a solid scriptural basis to believe that you died in Christ.

28:47 That's why Elisha was not terrified. Jehovah's going to take his father in the faith away. He's lived with this man for some six years now. He heard of him many years prior to that, but now he's had a chance to view him up close, and he knows when he goes where he's going.

29:07 He has seen grace operative in his life, and he knows that grace will find him in his departure. If you were to die tomorrow, would you leave that legacy to your loved ones? How about you kids? Would your parents sob over your coffin?

29:29 Not just with the natural sorrow that they no longer hear, but would you hear your laughing voice and see your dirty shoes kicked around and hear you fighting with your brothers and sisters and all those things that make up the joys of family? Or would it be that they had no solid scriptural grounds to believe that you died in Christ? What would be the basis of their grief? What about you wives?

29:58 If you died, would you leave behind you a husband who grieved simply as the world grieves? What about you husbands? Oh, you've made good provisions, material. But what kind of legacy have you left for that wife spiritually?

30:22 Have you left her any grounds to believe that you died in Christ? If not, may I say, you've robbed her of that which she wants more than anything else. Men generally die as they have lived, is the second great lesson of the passage before us. Thirdly, and this should be of great encouragement to us as the people of God, men may go home to glory in full bloom spiritually.

Lesson 3: Believers May Go Home in Full Spiritual Bloom

30:56 One of the wonderful things about this chapter, and I don't think I saw it so clearly until even later this afternoon, is that God gives us some details about this last day, yea, the last hours in the life of Elijah, to let us know he was transplanted into glory not because he couldn't take the weather of earth and the plant was beginning to droop and needed a more encouraging, a more sympathetic environment. No, this is a picture of a man in full bloom being plucked here and transplanted up there. In what sense is he pictured as in full bloom? Well, notice in the first place, the vigor, the vigor of his faith. We read the passage, and I'm sure most of us just read over it. So matter of factly does scripture state, here the prophet and his successor Elisha, are walking together toward Jericho. And each time he has said to them, now look, don't go any further, I want to go by Noah, I'm not going to leave you, I'm going with you.

32:03 So they come now, and they're going to go to Jericho. And Elijah says, now tarry here, the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. So they come down to the Jordan, and they want to go to the other side. There's a problem.

32:20 Jordan's not dried up, it's still a river. Large, formidable, deep, rushing waters. So what does the prophet do? He just pulls his mantle off, wraps it up, smacks the waters, and walks over.

32:33 Why don't we just read that? Do you remember what a big, elaborate preparation God made for this same miracle back when he was going to bring his people out of the wilderness into Canaan, under the ministry of Joshua? Remember for three days and nights, elaborate preparations were to be made. There was to be a sanctifying of the entire assembly.

32:57 Then on the day, that they were to pass over, the ark was to go before, the priests were to be in a certain order. All of this elaborate arrangement, and then when the priests' feet were covered to the ankles, God parted the waters. All of this great religious rigamarole and preparation before this great event. Here the prophet comes up, dressed in his unusually homely garb, this man of hair, as he was called in an earlier chapter, pulls his mantle off from his shoulder, smites the waters, and they march over.

33:31 What is this, if it isn't a tremendous picture of the vigor of this man's faith, right up to the hour that he was ushered into the presence of God. The same man who in unbelief and dejection had run from that woman Jezebel, we find him not only fully restored, but having come to a place of full bloom. May I say that this should not be unusual, though it is sad to say amongst the people of God. If faith is basically what we read in Rome in Hebrews chapter 11, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

34:10 If faith is what it was to Moses, he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Should not faith deepen and grow as the hour of our looking upon his face draws nearer? And if the prophet knows that in a few short hours he will peer through that veil that has separated him from seeing his Lord by sight, shouldn't his vision be most clear as he approaches that sight of his God? And so the picture here is the man of God, right up to the day, the hour of his home going, in the full bloom of faith.

34:52 He has not become jaundiced and soured by the events of life. He saw enough to jaundice anybody. He saw a nation that had fallen on its face saying the Lord he is God, get up and go right back to its veil worship. He had seen the unbelief and the hostility of Ahab and his successors.

35:12 He had seen all of this. He had seen enough to make a man question, is anything real? He was walking not by sight, but by faith. And this last hour we have the record of this vigorous faith.

35:28 Secondly, we have the record of what would seem to me to be a very commendable humility. God has intimated that he is going to take him home and apparently in an unusual way. And yet the prophet wants to be alone. Remember now, he's been out of the public eye for some years.

35:54 He's been spending his time primarily with Elisha and with the sons of the prophets. This one whose reputation had gone far and wide through all of Israel. And so often when a man has been removed from the place of active ministry where he once had a name, he spends his remaining days seeking to preserve his name and his reputation and doing anything to convince people that he is not a has-been. This is one of the tragic stories of Christian missions, of Christian schools, and of Christian churches.

36:33 Men who had come to a place of preeminence in the kingdom of Christ by virtue of the sovereign appointment of God and the power and unction that rested upon them. But it was time for them to fade out as John had to fade out before Jesus. And as now Elijah must fade out before Elisha. And they can't take it.

36:56 And they'll do anything. They'll magnify their past. I think of an old preacher in this very county that every time I'd meet him he'd say with a quivering lip, tell me all the great things that happened years ago. Years ago.

37:13 I think of another man at whose feet I sat for several years. The same thing. Always seeking, as it were, to resurrect the past days of glory to set himself before you. Not this man.

37:27 When God is going to do a unique thing to him, the likes of which he's only done to one other creature, that's a pretty great honor, isn't it? He wants it to be done in secret. Leave me. I'm going over here.

37:42 Leave me. I'm going here. Leave me. I'm going here.

37:46 An indication that this man knew the grace of the hidden face. The grace of true humility. That when he comes to his last hour and God is going to honor him with one of the most unique honors, an honor that he even denied his own son, for he had to taste death, this man accepts that honor with the veiled face. So his faith is vigorous.

38:14 His humility is eminent. And in the third place, his obedience and his, I don't know what else to call it, but his repose in God's salvation is sure and certain. For here's a man who knows that in a few short hours he's going to be ushered into the presence of the God of burning light. And there isn't an indication that there was a ruffled hair upon his brow if he had any left.

38:44 These sons of the prophets were a bit shaken, but Elisha and Elijah? No evidence of being shaken whatsoever. He's going to meet his God. How could he go with such calmness?

38:54 He didn't have a God made in his own image like those Baal worshipers. He said, As the Lord Jehovah liveth before whom I stand. He knew that Jehovah was the God who spoke with fire and thunder upon Sinai. He knew Jehovah was the God who gave an inflexible law.

39:10 He knew Jehovah was the God who consumed his adversaries and whose anger burned against his enemies. A God who could not countenance sin. And yet he seemed perfectly at ease at the thought of being ushered straight into his presence. How come?

39:26 Because of two factors. One, he had known the application of the blood of cleansing to his own conscience. By faith, however clearly, we do not know. But definitely by faith he saw that there was forgiveness with God.

39:47 For here was the man who in dejection and unbelief had run from his post. Who had prayed that God would take his life. And is the picture of so many of us. Many of us felt much more like first cousins to Elijah back in those chapters than we feel like him now.

40:05 But here he is about to enter the presence of his God. And his obedience is implicit. And his rest or repose in God's salvation is deep and settled. That he is not afraid to meet his God.

40:21 No flurry of last minute penance. And I fear this is what many of us have in a subtle way under our skin. We say, well if I knew I was going to die tomorrow well I'd pray a little bit more. You know what we're saying?

40:33 We say we do a little more penance. Somehow we'll sort of buy God off. No my friend. If you're not living in such a way that knowing tomorrow was your last day you couldn't wake up and do anything that you do on any other day as the will of God then something's wrong.

40:50 If there's any relationship you'd want to change any activities that you'd want to alter you better change those relationships and alter those activities now. For they'll smite your conscience with pain when the time comes for you to be ushered out of this world into that one. And if you can't alter them and go back and undo them confess them and by faith see them sink beneath the cleansing blood that you'll know that they're past and gone. What would you like to alter if you knew?

41:23 The Lord had given you the intimation he gave to Elijah. Tomorrow you're going to be ushered into his presence. Are there some relationships you'd want to change real quick? Some attitudes you'd want to get right?

41:36 Some patterns that you'd like to change at least for one day? Better change them now. You might be in his presence tomorrow. For our first point was that God is absolutely sovereign with relationships of the time and the manner in which he ushers his own into his presence.

41:52 And so the great lesson then of this passage is in the third place that we may die, we may go home in the full bloom of spiritual life vigorous in our faith genuine in our humility implicit in our obedience and our rest in God's salvation. I think one of the saddest things is to see saints who outlive their bloom and who are like those beings out in my garden. It's one of those painful things when the summer begins to draw to a close and I see those leaves begin to wither and no beans growing anymore and then the plants just die. I'd rather go out while they're producing buckets of beans like they are these days we can't keep up with the beans we eat them morning, noon and night. Not literally, but noon and night sometimes and then give some away as well. But I'd like to pluck them up so my last memory was that rich lush green with all the beans hanging off it instead of that straggly brownish green plant that just dies. Child of God, how do you want to be?

43:06 Do you want to be a plant that's lost its greenness and just withers and shrivels and dies? You don't need to be. Listen to one of the great promises God has made to his people. In Psalm 92 and verse 14 the Lord says speaking of the people of God perhaps you want to back up the verse the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon they are planted in the house of the Lord they shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be full of sap and green no withering for what end? To show that the Lord is upright He is my rock and there's no unrighteousness. In other words our greenness and full of sapness is a witness to the character of God and to the greatness of his salvation. I can say it because she's not here.

44:13 This is one of the great delights of this ministry that dear white haired woman that sits there every Sunday morning dear Mrs. Blair to see a saint of God full of the sap of faith and humility and implicit obedience even unto the final days of her life. What a beautiful thing to behold but dear ones it's the exception and not the rule and this is what breaks my heart. Profess saints who've grown sapless who are stiff and brittle and unbending and no fruitage you can find them everywhere.

44:51 For those who are described here in the psalm few and far between will you not pray that God will make you that kind of a person I've often prayed Lord don't let me outlive don't let me outlive the period of greenness cut me off in the midst of years then let me wither and be a reproach to your name. God may take me at my word I don't know but we don't need to wither. And that's the encouragement of this passage here's this man of light passions and we saw him right down at the depths and we felt very much akin to him now let's see what the grace of God gives us. The grace of God did not only in restoring him for a period of time but right up to the hour of his home going and so the third great lesson of the passage is that as the people of God we may go home to glory in full bloom. Psalm 1 is another promise of this Jeremiah 15 well there's one last lesson in the passage as far as it relates to the time and manner of the prophet's home going and it's this this passage declares that there is a world of spiritual and eternal reality there is a very real world of spiritual and eternal reality

Lesson 4: The Reality of a Spiritual and Eternal World

46:16 much of the Old Testament view of death was dark and shadowy scripture tells us in 2 Timothy 1.10 that Christ has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel he's not brought them into existence but he's brought them into full light. they were there in shadowy form but occasionally God would give a glorious breakthrough a token of that final and ultimate triumph over death that would come through the ministry and redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ so that after Elisha saw Elijah go home he could not think of him as dead he just stepped from one sphere of reality into another he had walked with him he knew he was a real man he wasn't walking with a ghost he had talked with him he had slept in the same room with him he had heard him speak and preach and now suddenly he sees him parted from him in these chariots of fire and when he goes back the sons of the prophets make an unusual request notice what they say in 2 Kings 2 and verse 16 and they said unto him that is the sons of the prophets unto Elisha behold now there are with thy servants fifty strong men let them go we pray thee and seek thy master lest the spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or upon some valley and he said he shall not sin

47:45 no need for that I know where he is he stepped out of this world of reality into that world of reality they said now he still may have some remains down here he said no it's not so and when they urged him till he was ashamed in other words they kept insisting he said all right go ahead and send so they sent therefore fifty men and sought three days and found him not and they came back to him and he tarried at Jericho and said unto them did I not say unto you go not what was the great lesson that Elisha learned from this sight of the home going of the prophet he learned and this became the basic spiritual principle of his ministry there is a world of spiritual reality not seen to the eyes of sight but seen to the eye of faith and listen carefully that vision of that world becomes the most important factor in the life of the child of God the strength of our vision of that world will determine the effectiveness of our living in this world say how do you dare make sense say how do you dare make such a broad dogmatic assertion well we have a clear example of this and I want you to turn over to chapter six and we shall see it chapter six of second Kings

49:12 the Syrians are invading Israel verse eight the king of Syria was warring against Israel and they're going to beat them down so they think and they said all right let's go find a prophet verse fourteen therefore send he thither horses and chariots and a great army and a great host and they came by night and compassed the city about the city of Dothan where the prophet is get the picture now the Syrian army has sent out its men chariots, horsemen they're going to get the prophet militarily impossible for him to escape and when the servant of the man of God here he is breaking in the successor you see the principle of one man casting the shadow of his greatness upon another and when his servant had risen early and gone forth before him behold a host with horses and chariots were round about the city and his servant said unto him alas my master how shall we do we're in a bad state there's some real horses out there I can hear them neighing there's some real chariots I can hear the clank of their wheels upon the streets there's real spears and real soldiers what are we going to do he says don't be afraid

50:36 for they that are with us are more than they that are with them what do you mean with us just the two of us us two no more there were two worlds the servant saw one the world of physical reality in which were placed a prophet and a servant and a host of military personnel and equipment now the prophet says verse 17 and Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see open his eyes that he may see there's another world he doesn't see it I do he's full of fear because he sees one world of reality I have no fear I see two I see the soldiers I see the chariots I see the horsemen but I see something else Lord open his eyes that he may see notice and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha you see this man learned the lesson that he was learning all along and it came to its climax when God took home Elijah that that world of spiritual reality

52:01 is just as real as the world of seen and felt reality some of you sit here tonight and say ah rubbish you know why your eyes are blind I can touch things I can see things in this world don't talk to me about things I can't see no I'll not talk to a blind man about the beauty of the sunset I'll not talk to a blind man about the beauty of the vastness of a mighty rolling ocean he can't see but the fact that he can't see doesn't change the presence of the ocean or the sunset the fact that you cannot see does not change the reality and oh blessed is that man or woman fellow or girl who by the operation of the Holy Spirit is brought to that stance of faith where there is implicit confidence in what God has revealed about that world of spiritual and eternal reality for as our faith in that world becomes the dominating governing principle of life he lives most effectively here in this world of physical reality whose eye is most fixed upon that world of spiritual and unseen reality this is exactly what the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 4 he says

53:26 our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not on the things that are seen we see not the Syrian army that's not the focus of our gaze we see them he says but we see and look upon those things which are eternal for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal and then he moves on into the 5th chapter of 2 Corinthians 5 of 2 Corinthians climaxing in verse 8 where he says we walk that which governs the whole of life we walk by faith and not by the firmer your grasp on that world the more effective your light in this world and this passage sets it before us beautifully and it's only as our hearts feed upon holy scripture for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God it's only as we give ourselves to living in that world and feeding the fuel for that world that we shall be strong and vigorous men of faith and women of faith for you see this real world of physical reality makes great demands upon you that's the world in which you put in your eight hours that's the world in which you dress your kids and make the bed and wash the dishes that's the world in which we are so much occupied

54:52 that unless we as it were retreat from it if but a few minutes a day to get our gaze fixed upon that world in which the chariots of fire and the horsemen of God are found it won't be long before we find ourselves ensnared and held in the vice-like grip of this world of sense and of time and rendered utterly ineffective for that world may God grant that we like the prophet Elijah shall be so conversant with that world that when the time comes to step out of this one it won't be too much of a shock to us that we shall have so lived there by faith how often do you read Revelation 21 and 22 how often do you contemplate what it will be like with Elijah to suddenly see the face of him whom you've loved to see the face of him who died for you when the picture is given of Elijah in Matthew 17 and in Luke 9 the transfiguration he seemed to be very much at home talking with Jesus it would be a great shock to many of us wouldn't it we converse with him so infrequently here our thoughts so infrequently run out to him here and now that suddenly being ushered into his eternal presence and seeing him face to face would be a great shock to us

56:19 but the mark of the great saints whether their names have ever gone down in Christian biography or not is that they were so conversant with that world that death was just like going out the back door into the backyard leaving one sphere stepping into another that's what it was for Elijah and Elisha got the message and that message became the dominating principle of his life so that when he's faced with the crisis he says Lord give him eyes to see if only he saw what's really there he wouldn't fear what's really there you say you're talking double talk no if only he saw what was really there in that world he wouldn't fear what was really there in that world may God make us such men and women for his glory so I submit to you that these are four of the great lessons in this chapter lessons surrounding the manner the time of the home going of Elijah it's a reminder to us that God is sovereign as touching the time and manner of our home going it reminds us in the second place that men generally die as they have lived thirdly that men may go home in the full bloom of spiritual vigor in life and fourthly that there is a world of spiritual and eternal reality let us pray