Kings chapter 19 and beginning at verse 15 on page 560 as I pick up this series that I suspended for most of the summer. 1 Kings 19.15, The LORD said to me, Go back the way you came, and go to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-mehola. to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal, and all whose mouths have not kissed him." The word of the Lord. Lord, would you please help me to extract from this passage and those related to it practical truth to apply to the lives of your people that those words may work in our hearts so that having heard the word read and the word preached, we may also eat your word that is given to us in the Lord's Supper. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, going back to where we were before we suspended it, which was the fourth sermon about Elijah, you will recall that Elijah, we left him in suicidal depression. Have you ever been depressed? I think everybody has been depressed in some way or another, not to the point of asking God to take our lives, but sometimes I think people get to that point. Let me distinguish between asking God to take your life and suicidal ideation. That's a big word. It's more of a modern word. What is suicidal ideation? Suicidal ideation is when you begin to think about how you could take your life and you begin to obsess on it. So you think about how could I take my life and you obsess on it. That's called suicidal ideation. You visualize it, how I could do it. And Elijah was not there, but Elijah was mortally depressed if you look back. The previous page, he had seen there on page 559, he had seen an extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit. He had seen great victory. He had been used mightily by God to defeat the prophets of Baal and the Asherah, that is, the male storm god and the consort of Baal, Asherah. And he'd been mightily used, and God sent rain because God had appointed Elijah as the prosecuting attorney to prosecute a lawsuit against his people. Ariv, it is in Hebrew. R-I-V. Ariv. And so Elijah is appointed by God as a prosecuting attorney. to the nation of Israel that had broken God's covenant, his law, and had therefore suffered the consequences of breaking that law. And if you want to see the consequences of breaking God's law, his covenant, all you have to do is read the 26th chapter of Leviticus and the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, and you see all these curses. And among the curses was famine, Among the curses was no rain and so on an invasion of foreign armies. And so that's who Elijah really is. His miracles are done to reinforce the lawsuit. There exhibits A and B and C and D in this lawsuit that Elijah is sent to prosecute as the prosecuting attorney against the Northern Kingdom Israel. So he sees it. The prophets of Baal are slaughtered and then God sends rain because now the condition for the famine, for the lack of rain for three and a half years has been removed. So God sends rain. And what happens is that as soon as this happens, He gets word from Ahab's wife, Jezebel. Remember that she was a daughter of Bethbaal, who was the king of Sidon. And she says, in effect, in there in 1901, now Ahab told Jezebel, this is 1901, page 559, everything Elijah had done and how he had killed the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods, remember she's a polytheist, deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them. And guess what? She swore an oath by her gods that by this time tomorrow, Elijah was going to be put to death by the sword. Did that happen? No. What happened is she swore an oath this would happen, and in the course of time she ends up being killed, thrown out of a window by her eunuchs, and eaten by dogs. Wow. So that the only thing that was left of Jezebel, who invoked a curse on herself, By her gods, the only thing that was left of Jezebel was her skull and part of a hand. So no one could say, where is Jezebel? And so she brings a curse on herself by swearing this. But what happened is her curse, which had a supernatural element, the power of life and death is in the tongue. And when we make statements and we swear certain things, and we're going to do this by God, I'm going to do this, I swear to God, I'm going to do this. When we take an oath like that, what we're doing is bringing something on our own head. That's why as I pray for certain people, I'm aware that two people that we pray for, no names, living near where we live, were encouraged in a mass meeting of young people to swear oaths and promise they would never do this and never do that. You should never swear an oath lightly. And Jesus warns us about it. They swore oaths that they wouldn't do this and they wouldn't do that. And kids were pressured to lift their hands that they were taking this vow. And the pressure came on them more and more and more and they saw their little friends lifting their hands. I swear I'll never do that. That's so stupid because what you do when you swear to do something is you brought a curse on your head. How do you get out from under a curse like that? And thinking back to the children's sermon with Mabel, nothing but the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus breaks curses. It sets you free. You don't have to labor under a curse because of some careless thing you said or your ancestors said. The blood of Jesus cleanses you. But notice this had a powerful impact on Elijah in verse 3. Elijah was afraid. And notice as we read further, this is taking us back to where we were in early June, and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there while he went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord," he said. Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors. Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. And this is what we see. Elijah's depression led him to sleep a lot. Let him to sleep or not. He was giving up. He was giving up on life. And he asked God, please take my life. He did not ideate suicide. He didn't plan a suicide. He just said, Lord, I've had enough. I can't take it anymore. Take my life away. And then he's given strength. by the angel of the Lord, and he travels 40 days and 40 nights until he reached the mountain, Horeb, the mountain of God. Sandy and I hiked that mountain back in 2008, and that was quite an experience, going up on a camel as far as we could go in the darkness, and then getting up off the camels and walking the rest of the way and climbing to the top of that mountain. That's where Elijah's sent, and that's where God meets him. And so you can see there, skipping down, where the paragraph break is, and the word of the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah? And he goes on and he says, I've done this for you, Lord. I've done this for you. Have you ever felt like that? I've done this for you, Lord. I've done this for you. And Lord, look at the results. I got no results. Excuse me, I don't think he used bad grammar. And so I don't see any results. I just see futility in everything I've done. Lord, my life is a waste. You ever felt that way? You plowed and plowed and sowed and watered, and you don't see results. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. And so here is Elijah, he's looking at life. Can you identify a little bit with Elijah? You say, Lord, here it is. I still have children who are not living for you, who are not walking with you. I still have this and that. Lord, what is the fruit of my ministry? That's how Elijah felt. Can you identify? And so God begins to speak to him. But it's not in the whirlwind. It's not in the earthquake. It's not in the fire. But there came a child. And the quietness, God spoke to him. And he says, when Elijah heard it, he pulled out his cloak, pulled his cloak over his head and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? And then Elijah goes through this passage of scripture that we just read. And what do we see here? Elijah, boy. Wake up. Things are not as bad as you think they are. Look down there at verse 18. Elijah felt all alone. I'm lonely, Lord. I'm all alone. Nobody knows me. Nobody cares about me. Nobody's involved in my life and ministry. I'm just terribly, terribly alone. And look at what he says in verse 18. Yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel, all of whose knees have not bowed down to Baal, and all whose mouths have not kissed him." But you know, God had mercy on Elijah because God commissioned him to do three things. And Elijah only did one of them personally, and that is he anointed Elisha to become his successor. The rest of the things were done through surrogates. Elijah on the one hand did it with the anointing of Haziel, and then a prophet was commissioned by Elijah to anoint Jehu to be king. But let's look at this point. at the first thing that he did. And we look there in verse 19, page 560. So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, he said, and then I'll come with you. Go back, Elijah replied, what have I done to you? This was the call on Elijah's, Elisha's life. And he has to reflect on it. Jesus warns his disciples, he who sets his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. I don't think that's exactly what we have here in view with Elisha. Elisha had no intention of staying at home and being a mama's boy, living in the house with mama and daddy. He just wanted to tell them goodbye in a normal way. But Elijah asked him to reflect on what I've done. But notice immediately what happens after this. So Elisha left him and went back and he took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant. So what we find here is that Elisha burns up the past. He does it where there's no going back. He must have come from a relatively wealthy family because in a time of famine, He had 12 yoke of oxen. And he was farming, he was farming. And so his commissioning by the prophet Elijah meant that Elijah took his stole, his robe that he wore over his clothes, and he threw it on him. And that's what happens. And so he sets out and he follows Elijah. Now then you have an interlude in the next chapters. In chapter 20, you have Ben-Hadad. This isn't Haziel. Haziel is going to be commissioned by Elisha the prophet to kill Ben-Hadad. But at this point, there's a war between Syria and Israel. And so anyhow, what happens is that because Ben-Hadad had said that the God of Israel was a God of the mountains and not of the plains, What does that mean? It meant that they believed that gods had local territory. We'll look at that aspect in a couple of weeks when we see that one of the generals of Syria believed that gods had their territories specifically, and they couldn't invade other gods' territories. And just a glimpse of that story is that when Naaman is healed of leprosy, he wants two loads of earth from Israel, and he can go into his courtyard and spread that earth in his courtyard to set up an embassy for Yahweh, the God of Israel. So you can see here Ben-Hadad is saying, their God is a mountain God. We're going to fight him on the plains. And so for God to prove that was wrong, He delivers Ahab in spite of that. And then you can see Ahab spared somebody, and that's verse 35 of page 563. And so one of the prophets says, you let go the man I delivered into your hands, and therefore you're going to be in trouble. So we go to chapter 21, and we've seen that. David's vineyard, you know the story. I won't repeat it. And then Ahab's final thing is in chapter 22 when he goes out to battle with King Jehoshaphat and so he's killed at Ramoth Gilead and that's on page 567 1st Kings 2229 and the year happens to be 853 BC and we know it absolutely And there is the ending of chapter 22, is the end of the reign of Ahab, and so his son comes to reign in his place. Verse 51, page 568, Ahaziah, son of Ahab, became king of Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. And it says he did evil in the eyes of the Lord because he walked in the ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He served and worshiped Baal Now, I want to skip over that and go up to Elijah himself. This is the last glimpse of Elijah, and I want you to see what God does for this man. That's on page 570, 2 Kings, chapter 2. When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, the Lord has sent me to Bethel. But Elisha said, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. Then the company of the prophets come out. Do you know that the Lord's going to take your master away? Yes, I know. Don't speak of it. Then Elijah said to him, Stay here, Elisha. The Lord has sent me to Jericho. And notice, Elisha, he wants the blessing. He wants the anointing of the Spirit of God. He wants that anointing more than he wants anything in all the world. And so he doggedly pursues it. And he says there, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So they went to Jericho and then there's the prophets from Jericho. And so again, and go down, you see this accompaniment and 50 men of the prophets. And they are facing, now notice verse eight of chapter two, Elijah took his cloak That's the same cloak that he threw over Elisha when he commissioned him to be a prophet. And he says that he took his cloak, verse 8, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. What does that remind you of? Moses. Moses. Moses was used by God to part the waters of the Red Sea. And now Elijah is used by God to part the waters of the Jordan. Who were the two people who met the Lord Jesus Christ in their flesh and blood bodies on the Mount of Transfiguration? Moses, who used his staff and parted the Red Sea, Yom Suf, And Elijah, Elijah, who parted the waters of the Jordan with his, with his cloak. And so it says, he struck the water with it, the water divided to the right and the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, Elisha, tell me what can I do for you before you are taken from, before, tell me what can I do for you before I'm taken from you? And look at his prayer. That's my prayer. "'Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,' Elisha replied." You have asked a difficult thing, Elijah said, yet if you see me when I'm taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise not. And as they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, my father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel, and Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah? He asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and the left and he crossed over. Just a couple of thoughts with probably too much going through in a light way this history. What do you want? What do you want? Elisha wanted the anointing of Elijah the prophet. You know, as I look at our world today, as divided as it is, as divided as the churches of Christ are in our day, as there is such a lack of gospel preaching, as there is such a lack of preaching God's law, and of preaching that there are consequences for breaking God's law. As I look at the problem with America, I see the problem goes straight to the church itself. What do I want? I want a double portion. I want to be full of the Holy Spirit. I want my words to count. And you know, that should be your prayer as well. It's not only for preachers and prophets in the Old Testament. It's that as we live our lives, your life and my life is important to God. It's important because God wants to use you. Do you know that Jesus said that greater works than he himself did those who followed Him would do? Do you know that God delights to answer prayers in the New Testament far more than He did in the Old Testament? Do you realize that as many as may be the promises of God, They are yea and amen in Him for you and for me. What do you want? I want my life to count. I don't want my life to just slowly burn out like a candle, slowly flickering without wind, but just slowly dying out into its embers. I want to go out in a flash! I want the anointing of the Spirit of God on my life. I want to live for him until I die. I want to be used by God till the moment I'm gone. As Elijah was used by God, so Elisha wanted to be used by God too. What do you want? What's worth living for? Money? Money turns to dust in your mouth. Money alone can't satisfy. If you read Ecclesiastes, you see it again and again. The more you got, the more you want. It creates a lust for more money and more power. Fame, fame is flickering. We live in an age where we can see movie stars when they're caught by cameras with long-range lenses, and they do close-ups, and all these things. What do you want in life? Do you want to have a life of ease, or would you rather have a life of usefulness? That's what I want. And you know, I want to invite you to the Lord's Supper, even if that's not what you want. Even if what you want is simply, I just want to be left alone, Bob. I just want a quiet, peaceful life. If that's what you want, that's okay. But trust in Christ. It wasn't the life of Elijah. It wasn't the life of Elisha. that caused them to be used by God, it was their faith in God. And you know, that faith that you have in God is all you need as you come to the Lord's Supper. All that you need is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you receive Him by faith, by faith alone. Repent, that is, turn from your sins, cast yourself on God's mercy in Christ, and He'll receive you just the way you are. The Lord's Supper, in a real sense, is a response in a revival meeting. God designed the Lord's Supper to be the altar call in a revival meeting. And every time the gospel's preached, it should evoke a response of some kind, and that response is to partake of the elements. That's the heart of the matter. I will have, later on, a mention of Elijah because he wrote a letter to somebody and it survived. But that's the end of the series on Elijah, and we'll pick up Elisha, God willing, next Lord's Day. Let's pray. Lord, please bless us as we ponder the life of Elijah, a man who knew suicidal depression, but never ideated suicide, a man who prayed you would take his life, but never did anything to involve his own life being taken. And Lord, a man who looked at life and became very pessimistic because he didn't see the big picture. And the big picture was that you had reserved for yourself 7,000 people who were still loyal servants of the Lord God of Israel. And Lord, the final thing that we reflect on is that when he'd had enough, you took him out of this world. And what a glorious way you took him out of this world, by sending angels who appeared as a chariot of fire and horses of fire and took him. And Lord, may we, like Elisha, pray Lord, for the anointing of your Spirit on our lives, that as we walk and talk with others, that as we pray with and for others, we may experience that anointing on our lives, the double portion that our lives would count for you. For Jesus' sake, amen.