2Kings 13 - the influence of older men

2 Kings, please, in Chapter 13. 2 Kings, Chapter 13. I can never figure preachers out when they've got a great big clock.

They've still got to take their watch off and look at it, so the clock isn't right, but there's such a glare off that clock since you got rid of your colored windows that we can't see it anymore. So either change the clock or the windows. I certainly will share time, try to share time.

However, when you spend hours on something, you don't feel like getting up here and butchering it in front of 200 people. A big bullock, so I just might give you a quarter, okay? 2 Kings, Chapter 13. And verse number 14.

2 Kings 13, verse number 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of sickness, whereof he died, and Joash the king of Israel. Now you're separating him from the earlier king, which is a king of Judah.

King of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows.

And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it. And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.

And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot.

And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria, for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Elphic till thou hast consumed them. Then he said, Take the arrows.

And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. He smote thrice, three times, and stayed, or stopped.

And the man of God was wroth with him and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times. Then thou had smitten Syria till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.

In other words, only three victories. Elisha died. They buried him.

The bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming end of the year. It came to pass as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men, and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha. And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up upon his feet, and so on.

What I'm going to take from this passage this afternoon, I know it's not a passage that is very often spoke of, but I'm just going to, something I've enjoyed personally, and apply it. And I will apply it with other passages of Scripture to support it. Basically, what we have here is a gracious spirit in a man that could have been otherwise, Elisha.

Joash had really virtually ignored this man for years. Didn't even look his direction. Didn't ask for his help.

Now when he's dying, and seemingly he can give him little or no help, he comes to him for help. That so often happens, doesn't it? Sometimes someone we just kind of ignore, we push them off, and then right at the end, you know, when they maybe couldn't be as much use as they could have earlier, then we go to them for help. That really is the picture here.

If Elisha was going to act in the flesh, he would have simply said, listen, you didn't need me before, you don't need me now. Carry on. All the best.

But here was a king with all his failure, with all his weakness. Another thing, Elisha could have said, what, northern tribe? Or of the north? Ephraim? Israel? How can I help you? You see, Elisha and Elisha, men that never wrote books, were men that prophesied, if you want, in a very risky business. There's never a risk, hardly any risk that was taken in the life of a priest, but definitely with a prophet, to the north.

They were prophets that were raised up by God, particularly to the north. And this is Elisha, of course, as you know, that comes in after that man, Elisha. And he ministers for about 60 years, and not once did this King Joash avail himself of his help.

However, he comes to him, and now he's making this big lament over him because he's going out. That's kind of very hypocritical, isn't it? You know, really, how much did he really care? I mean, was there a ritual cherubim shed here that he was going to convince people that he really liked this man or needed his help? But good for the prophet. Good for the prophet.

I mean, he rises to the occasion. You know, when it comes to really shooting arrows, I am likely thinking that King Joash was much better at it than this old prophet. The only difference was that what the prophet didn't know about shooting arrows, he knew God, and the king didn't.

And, you know, it's interesting to notice, too, that when you come along that the prophet doesn't say, Hey, listen, I was going to say, Buckwheat, get out of here. I'll show you how to do it, and pulls it. No, he didn't do that.

He graciously puts his hands on the hands of another man. And brethren and sisters, you know, it is delightful. I believe commendation or accommodation is due to come out here to the Midwest, and I'm speaking more, I'm not speaking here locally, but to see older brethren, older brethren, that are bringing younger brethren along in the assembly, and they're putting their hands on them.

They're not doing it till they can no longer carry the bread back to the table, or they're nervous with the cup, and everybody's nervous whether they're going to make it or not. No, they passed it on. They've showed these men what to do, and they've stepped back, and they just watch these men as they seek to function for God.

That is very, very commendable. Now, notice this old prophet, if you like, and I'm not speaking disrespectful, he takes the hands of that younger man, and you can almost see those old knurled knuckle hands of that old prophet, and he puts them on top of the hands of the younger man, and he says, now listen, open the window. Open the window.

Not only was he to open the window, but it was to be opened in an eastward direction. Fire your arrows, brother, towards something that has a future. The east was the rising of the sun.

I mean, surely all of the arrows weren't intended to end up in the mud, but they were to go in a direction, in other words, aim high, but we'll come to that in a minute. Let me ask you this afternoon, are there windows really that are closed in your life? Are there windows that are closed in my life? Certain things that we're just not open to, certain things that we don't think we can achieve, we can't make it, so that's just a closed window. Maybe a family member, somebody you should be faithful to, getting up in years, and you're thinking, yeah, but it causes so much unrest and so much unhappiness.

I don't want to go back to see them anymore. They this and they that. And maybe it's a neighbor, whoever it might be, or something, but it's a closed window.

As a result, there's no victory. As a result, there's no launching of the arrow. Maybe it's something within interpersonal relationships, something that you owe someone, or somebody you should go to and say to them, you know, really, I did appreciate your word.

I'm just too proud to say it. Listen, you don't need to worry about telling a preacher that you enjoyed his message. People think sometimes that'll go to their head.

Well, for everyone that goes to your head, you're good enough going the other way. You don't have to worry about the poor preacher that way. And really, people that don't commend you, sometimes they're just too proud to do it.

But when someone, I'm speaking maybe in a local setting, can you give them any encouragement, or is that a closed window? Because he crossed you up. Because he wouldn't do what you did. Because he wouldn't do exactly what you said.

That's a closed window. Don't close those windows. And we have the conference here maybe to open a window.

Windows that primarily have been closed have been shut. It's just a dead subject. And you know as well as I do, you're the one to open that window.

As was this man here. Notice what he says to him. When he was done, he took him the bow and the arrows, and he said to him, Open the window.

He didn't open them for him. He says, You open the window. Open the window eastward.

And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot.

And he said, The arrow of the Lord and of the Lord's delivered. So notice how he follows the instructions just as to what he is told. How am I taking instructions? How am I just following them as to what I'm told? Dear brother, you'll never make progress in the assembly.

You'll never develop. You'll never have the confidence of your brethren until you are someone that knows what it is to follow instructions. A man that knows how to lead was a man that learned how to follow.

And David is your prime example of that. And so we have a man here, and that's what he is going to learn. No wonder when it comes to the 18th Psalm, the psalmist says, He teacheth my hands to war.

I have no doubt in my mind that maybe Saul was better at throwing things than David. That might surprise you. But it could be.

The only thing that David had with him was God. As someone has said, It didn't matter where that stone came out, it was still going to hit the giant between the eyes. That's where it hit him.

It didn't matter. God was with him. So that's why the psalmist, he teaches that it's something that really was beyond his ability and something that was beyond his natural ability because he says in the 144th Psalm, He teacheth my fingers to fight.

So David realized that at that point, he had helped that come from God. Here was this king, and as low as he was, for little did he amounted to, here was kind of just a bright moment, just a flash kind of in his life. Too bad that he couldn't have taken the instruction that he received and gone further with it.

Why did that happen? Well, he opens the window, and he opened it. He said, Shoot. He said, The heir of the Lord is deliverance.

And, of course, it's the victory over Syria that he has in mind. He says, Take the arrows. And he took them.

And the king said, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stopped. You know, it's almost like he said, What? What? You think that's all I can do is fire arrows into a ground? You know, sometimes, brethren, that's what we're doing.

We're firing arrows into the ground. You ever feel like that? Whether it's in gospel work or the work in general or assembly testimony, going nowhere. We're like the man that said, I have bought a piece of ground.

That's what I bought into. And as a result of that, I can't do this, I can't do that, and I can't do the other thing. So what has happened? An arrow has gone straight into the ground.

Now, he didn't tell him necessarily. He said, Eastward. Eastward.

And he just followed the instructions. Yes, he was told to fire them into the ground. But he was to learn a lesson.

That three arrows were going to go into the ground. Why did he not keep firing? Why did he stop at three? The prophet stands back and says, Hey, what's going on? You could have had more deliverance than that. Why not? He says, Till thou hast smitten them five or six times.

Then hast thou smitten Syria till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. It's interesting he stops at six.

How come not seven? How come when it comes to the cities of refuge, there's only six? Where's the seventh? It's yet to come. It'll be the city of the heavenly David. It'll be the great city of refuge, the great city of our God, the seventh yet to come.

Can I suggest to you that a smiting here, just let me apply it, was a smiting that was going to take place at Calvary. That would be a smiting that would be in its perfection. That would be a smiting that found its mark.

Doesn't the psalmist say, and it can be applied to the Lord, Jesus thine arrows stick fast in me. When it came to Calvary, when it came to the cross, there was no limit in the smiting, brethren and sisters. There was no holding back.

We've been reminded already how we can go through the day and forget about Calvary, forget about the cross, be so occupied in service for him, we forget what he suffered that we might even be saved. Here is a battle that this man can remember. So he has literally fired them into the ground.

But he does so, but life is provoked because he does not go far enough and smite enough to ensure a victory. Isn't it sad that in our Christian experience sometimes we can go, you'll see a believer and they'll go so far and they stop. And it's like something just beyond that would be victorious in their life.

They don't make it. They stop. I stopped speaking to somebody here today without knowing.

And you fired three arrows and every one of them has gone in the dirt. What's the use? I give up. Brethren, don't understand me.

I tried to do my best. I thought this would work and you really did. You really felt you had the Lord's mind.

Whatever happened, it just seemed like it went right down into the ground. So you stop. You've given up.

Keep going. Keep going. Open the window.

Open it toward the east. Fire it towards the rising of the sun. That's where blessing will come from.

Why this poor king just stopped short of that. And so often we stop short, don't we? We stop short. Times when, you know, I've got to admit, without a pardon of personal reference, likely one of the best visits, I've had some good visits in Ontario.

Brandon and I both have. But likely one of the best visits I had was when I wanted to do it the least. You would understand.

People in Ontario do. You think I'm in bad shape now? You should have saw me about Thursday night. The last thing I felt like after that meeting, I felt like going home to that lazy boy chair, ratcheting it back and checking home emails.

I did not feel like driving 30 miles the opposite way to make a visit. With a cold, ready to tell people almost to sit on the other side of the room, I had to talk to them. It's likely the best visit I had.

And there's times when you all but give up on somebody. You thought, I'll go back once more. Once more, this is it.

They won't listen to me. They keep me outside the door. They won't even let me in.

They won't even speak to me in a kind way. You're not going to go back. Brother, go back.

I don't know, I may best get out of town while I'm still alive, but I was going door to door the other day. In fact, I was trying to work the cold off. I thought, this is nonsense, this cold.

I'm going to work it out of me. So I grabbed some invitations, started it on the street, second day doing that. And things were going good.

Talk about ready to quit. I knock on this one door and a lady comes to the door, a nice, respectful-looking lady. And she was all ready for me.

I thought, oh, this is something. I could kind of see just a bit of a smile play in her face. And she opened the door and she said, you know, there's the garbage can right there.

She says, you can put that right in there. I said, you know, if that's the kind of person you are, I'll just do that. I just put her in the garbage can.

And her mouth was still open. And I was going down the steps and her mouth was still open. Don't tell me she didn't go pick that up and read it.

I'm sure they do. But right about then you feel like, wow, I'm going back to the car. I'm done.

You ever feel like that? You say, well, preachers don't feel like that. Don't you kid yourself. And don't you think that any of us, regardless of what you hear, don't have times when you think, ah, really? But, you know, sometimes it's the next house.

It's the next house. I remember one time, Monica, one of the toughest afternoons I spent visiting, one of the toughest. Went to a house, knocked on the door.

Oh, they were so thrilled to see me and everything else. And they had just come out of Catholicism, and that night they were being baptized in the Mormon church. Oh, man.

Oh. I thought, well, where were we? Are we sleeping? Somebody else got here. And anyhow, to make a long story short, those two people got saved, and they're still in God's assembly.

They've been there over 20 years. And since they've come into the assembly, there's been 11 others come. Your arrow got in the mud.

Speaking to some here today that I know, you've tried. You've done your best. Parents, family, maybe things in the assembly you've tried to make, but it just seems like the arrow went out and just went right in the mud.

Keep on going. That was the mistake. Mind you, there was as much deliverance as he had.

And notice, he will help them bond the arrow. He has no strength in himself. The prophet will help him bond the arrow.

Sort of where I get my arrow bonding of it today. I don't believe my older brethren. This book, this book.

So I'm reading this book. It's what fortifies me. It's what strengthens me.

It's what will give you the strength. One more time. So it's kind of a short story, but kind of ends kind of sad, doesn't it? When there are things in our lives that need the death arrow, wrong desires, wrong ambitions, desires of the flesh.

Those are arrows that are needed in our lives. Sometimes we need to come to a conference like this one. As Mr. Ramsey used to tell us, it was open season.

An arrow hits you. You think, ooh, ah, you say. He doesn't know.

That's the value of conferences, Christians. Just to come here. I haven't been here for a couple of years, two or three years.

Two years, I guess it is. But to see just the increase in number and to see the numbers at the previous conferences this spring here in the Midwest is telling me something. Midwestern United States hasn't lost sight of the value of their conferences.

Don't ever do it, brethren, because I want to tell you there's lots of places where they are. Places where there used to be 1,000 people for a conference hardly broke 200 this year. Sad.

Conferences that used to be 450, and I attended them, maybe would have 75 on a Saturday morning. What's happened? Too many arrows have gone in the mud. Too many windows have remained closed.

Nobody wants an arrow. Nobody wants anything that's going to hit them or hurt them. Okay? Always remember, always remember, something may hurt, but it will not harm you.

Okay? I might receive ministry, and it hurts, but it won't harm you. Okay? It's like the doctor comes to you. You know that same old line? Remember, you took the kids there? You're a kid yourself, and he said, Now, this is going to hurt, but if you're going to be better, you've got to have this.

That's what he's saying is it's going to hurt, but it won't harm you. Really, none of us died as a result of what we heard at a conference, has there? Maybe there hasn't. Now, not only do we have, and there's much more.

I'm just going to just go over a lot of those things. Let me just say that it's interesting when you come to, when you think of the six, it's six times that Abraham besought the Lord for Sodom. How come not seven? Remember, it's six.

Now, I know that she had one already that she brought. Boaz would give Ruth six measures. She already had one, but there's one yet to come.

In other words, there's a completion that is found in Christ and Christ alone. So, God's strong hand will hold yours, and your arrow will fly true. You allow this book to guide the launching of your arrows, whatever that exercise might be.

Whatever you might have, the activity, it takes strength. That's what the apostle says, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. You need strength to do that.

In other words, we need goals in our lives, not just simply firing them into the ground, although that had a purpose. That's what he was told to do, and that's what he did. I often think of the disciples when they're told to go get a cold.

What? All these years of training, and we're going to go get an unclean animal. Well, if the master wants it, go get it. Go get it.

Is there anything the brethren ask you to do, and you feel it's too menial, that you're too advanced, you've been too many years saved, you can't do it? There's nothing wrong either. It's a good thing. I don't mind putting an apron on and helping in the kitchen at conference time, and let the Christians tell me what to do for a change.

Best tonic ever. It'd be a lot easier on them next time. Until a preacher gets up that morning in ministry that day, and he's talking about, how much did you read this morning? I got up and said, listen to you.

How many potatoes did you boil before 7 o'clock this morning? Well, he's in his bed. He's going to beat on me because I haven't been reading my Bible. Well, I didn't read too much of it that day.

I just openly confessed it. I admitted it to him. But he wasn't down in that kitchen putting potatoes on so the Christians could eat either.

He's down there eating them. Come on, let's be realistic about the thing. Anyhow, don't get me going on that.

We got to get something better than that. The value of older people. That's something we learn here, the value of older people.

I know sometimes we can be annoying, repetitive, and irritating, and in the way. But we need younger people today at our assemblies. But we need the older people.

You know, in a very practical way, when we're in prosperity, when you're in youth, when you're gone, it's amazing how that when you were in your 40s, there's certain places you never heard from. They never invited you. And now they're calling you up, wanting you to come.

And there's a side of me that says, hey, listen, why didn't you call me when I was 49 instead of 69? Because I knew a lot more then. I had far more answers. Why didn't you call me then? Why don't you call me now? I get old.

Stupid. What? Call me back then. But there's something about older people.

You know, when things go the other way, okay, when things are going good, you're jumping to the next level in the job. Maybe you shouldn't have, but you bought the next farm, or maybe you're not buying farms right now, but you're doing this or you're doing that. It's younger people you want to talk to.

But when things go the other way, who do you want then? You want the older person. You want the older person. When we have trouble, we like old folks to be around because you know why we want the old people? They know how to talk.

Isn't it true? You take an aged mother of 70 years, she's almost omnipotent in her comfort. She hears of maybe a young sister that has lost a child. She can go to that young sister and comfort her like nobody can comfort her.

She knows that it is maybe to follow the hearse with a little white casket into the grave. Some of the younger ones don't. Some of them do.

But there's something about comfort in that older people. There was something that this prophet missed in this older man that he could have captured. Isn't that the truth when you think Paul with Timothy? There was something there with those older men and those older women, older sisters that would teach the younger.

There was a value there. You know, we learn the value of that. Then we know what the value is of the both of them feeding together, the old and the young.

Feeding together, being fed together, being developed together. But Elijah served others until he died, right to the end. Like I say, you know, he could have maybe said, listen, I've really done more miracles than Elijah did.

And I'm done. But wait a minute, there's one more. There's one more that could have happened.

He's not going to know about it. He did. Yeah.

Imagine that. Something happened after a man's died. I want to speak on this for a minute.

I want to notice the man in the sepulcher. I want to notice the menace at the sepulcher. Elijah died.

Elijah's death teaches us some important truths. You know what it teaches? That life has its limits. That that older brother that you need won't always be there.

I've been called in with brethren. They say, you know, we wish we had brothers so and so. We could just go to him and he would help us.

He wasn't a domineering man, but he was a caring man. And they miss him when he's gone. So it teaches us, his death teaches that life has its limits.

But it also teaches us that a legacy has its limitations. A legacy has its limitations. Notice what happens when he died.

I just noticed it this week in my time studying him. Notice, no sooner does he die that a band of Moabites invade the land. Really? I thought they were conquered back in chapter 3. I thought Elisha had put them down in chapter 3. He hadn't.

But what do we have? They invade the land. He's gone. We're coming in.

I'm sorry, brethren. Too often I've seen that. I know men today, new men.

They're in their graves today. And they knew what was going on in a testimony that they gave their life for. Pardon the expression.

They would turn in their graves. I'm talking about a testimony where we just started showing films of a man and his wife teaching marriage lessons. That went on for a while.

You know what the next is. Sure. Well, it's just a hall.

It's just where the Christians meet. Can't we have him come and actually talk to us? You don't think that happens? It has happened. The men I knew that were foundational in that testimony and gave their lives to it that are both home and heaven would never have drawn near that.

That was almost on the heels of their death. As soon as they were gone, the invasion takes place. That's significant.

What's Paul say in Acts Chapter 20? Know this, that after, after my departing, there's a man that had influence, that stood, but he knew. Once I go, no, he's not saying, he's not, please understand, he's not saying, you know, I met, and really, things don't crumble with me. Testimony's going to die when I'm gone.

No, no, no. He says, after my departing, shall men arise, speaking perverse things, and draw away disciples unto them. Come on, brethren, you're wise enough to know, and sisters too.

We've seen that happen in our own eyes. Now, let me ask you today, dear brother. You may not be in a place of responsibility and leadership, but I want to ask you something.

Is there something ready to come into that testimony where you are as soon as you're out of the way? Or is there nothing you stand against? You see, when there's things that we take a stand against, I think, you know, once he's out of the way, we just bide our time. Once they're out of the way, we'll bring it in. It's happened.

It has happened. And so, no sooner is that man gone than these, if you like, these Moabites of all people invade the land. What happens next? Well, another man dies.

And so they see these Moabite men. They panic. And they take the man, and they toss him in the grave.

And Elijah's grave gives life to that man. And he comes up to you. Imagine the men.

I mean, I know I get too much of imagination at times, but you imagine the men going, whew, what? I thought we buried him. Surely this isn't the prophet coming back. So what do you read about the Moabites after that? There's a man that died in power.

There's a man that died that left power in his life that would affect others. It reminds me of Joshua, where it's so commendable. It says that the Israelites served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that had overlived Joshua.

Such was the effectiveness, such was the influence of his life that was going to leave a stamp on testimony even after he's gone. It was going to give life and preserve life. Now listen, brethren and sisters, let's arrow for that direction.

Let's arrow for that kind of a life. You live your life for God so that you're influencing your family. And in that testimony, after you're gone, there'll still be strength.

There'll still be strength there. After my departing, says Paul, that wasn't his fault. Can't blame it on the apostle.

It's not his fault. Why? Go to the chapter. He says, I've warned you night and day with tears.

The apostle Paul was a man who knew where to put the arrows, where they were needed. And if he needed to name men, he named them. If he needed to tell men, he told them.

There's no political games of him. I'm sick and tired of that, to be honest with you. If there was ever a day when we needed a man to stand up and sisters to stand up and let our yea be yea and our nay nay us today, none of this playing games because of where I am.

Nice to have confidence in men. And it doesn't matter whether they're on the west or the east or the midwest or the south or the north. I'm going to preach exactly the same thing.

That was this prophet. As a result, his death has such an effect, even upon the enemies. I can speak of that going back to where I was commended.

I tell you, a man that left an effect on us for years. Still his effect remains with me to this day. His life had such an influence on me.

An overseer in our meeting. He wouldn't have weighed 120 pounds. His name was Bert Brooks, an Englishman.

Knew his Bible. Knew God and he taught us the Word of God. And he wanted right things.

Had a daughter that broke his heart and everything else. Nevertheless, when Mr. Brooks got up to minister the Word of God, he knew where to put that arrow. He knew how to make it fly true.

Find its mark. And often it found its mark right here. God help us to go in and have the spirit, not necessarily of a Joash, but a better one.

The spirit of a man like Elisha. That even our life, even after we're gone, effect for testimony will still be to the best.