Great Themes No.6 Go on with God

Son of Shaphat. He was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the 12th 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 will come with you. Go back, Elijah replied.

What have I done to you? So Elijah left him and went back. 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 become his attendant. In 2nd Kings, in the second chapter, starting at the beginning. 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 you live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.

The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elijah, Elisha, and asked, do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, Elisha replied, but do not speak of it. Then Elijah said to him, stay here, Elisha, the Lord has sent me to Jericho. And he replied, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.

So they went to Jericho. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, he replied, but do not speak of it. Then Elijah said to him, stay here, the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.

And he replied, as surely as the Lord lives and you live, I will not leave you. So the two of them walked on. Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan.

Elijah took his cloak, 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. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replied.

You've asked a difficult thing, Elijah said, yet if you see me when I'm taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise not. 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 Elisha 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.

May God help us to understand his words. Now, one of the things that we always endeavor to do at the tab is to come around God's word and to implant it into the minds of people, because the most important thing is that we have a knowledge, a working knowledge and understanding of biblical truth. There is a verse of scripture that talks about us marking, reading and inwardly digesting God's word, which reminds me that when I was visiting last week, I call on the household of Major Smith, an older brother who's not been very well for some time.

And I was enthusiastically greeted by the most charismatic dog I'd ever met. And after he put me down, Mrs. Smith said, you know, my dog has a real attraction for the tabernacle. And I said, you really mean that? So she said, yes, and I can prove it.

I said, how? She says, you know your motto card with the scripture text on? So I said, yes. So she said, well, he took it off the mantelpiece and he ate it yesterday. Well, you can be an extremist in every area of nature.

But the Bible does say that we are to read, mark and inwardly digest God's word. And I'm going to bring a passage of scripture to you this evening and then we're going to have a prayer together. Could I just have this volume down a fraction? There's just a bit of an echo there.

Thank you. I'd like you to turn to 2 Kings 2. And the 6th verse. 2 Kings 2 and verse 6. The latter part of the verse.

And Elisha replied, As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So the two of them walked on. Father, help us during our evening meditation that your word shall be explained in such a fashion that all shall understand it and that it shall be imprinted indelibly upon our memories and become a maxim by which we shall live out our lives during the year that within your grace is yet to be.

Help us, Father God, to study well your word this night. Amen. There are two servants of God whose stories are depicted in this second chapter of the book of Kings.

They're engaged upon a journey. And for the two of them, it is a very important journey indeed. One is an old man.

It's towards the end of his life. Indeed, this will be the final walk that he will ever take. He's loved the Lord and worked for the Lord all the years that he has lived in the Holy Land.

There have been days of great political pressure. He has risked his own life. There have been moments of utter calamity when he has asked God to take him from this world.

But now, and it's not in a state of depression, he starts off on his last journey. At the end, remarkably, almost uniquely, he is taken from this world to the next, borne along by a taxi, so to speak, sent from heaven, a fiery chariot which will collect him and take him into the immediate presence of God. So much for the older man.

There's the younger man. And it's on him that I fix your attention particularly this evening. In one sense, far from being the final journey of his life, it's the first.

It's the beginning. It's the commencement of years of service which he will offer the Lord and he will take over from the older man. It's perhaps not so much to be seen as a walk as a race, a relay race.

The old man, he's done many and many a lap. He's now at the end and there's a baton and he's going to hand it over to the next. And it's the young man who stalks alongside him, who will take the baton and who will become in God's service as great if not even greater in his influence in living for and preaching the message of the Lord God in Palestine.

Now the older man, his name is Elijah and he endeavors to dissuade the younger fellow whose name is almost the same but not quite, Elisha from accompanying him on this journey. There are three or four occasions when either Elijah or some who happen to be met en route discourage the younger fellow Elisha from going on. And on almost the final occasion when Elisha is tempted to leave and to stop walking with Elijah he says the words of our text, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live I will not leave you.

So the two of them walked on or as the authorized version of the Bible puts it, the two of them went on. These were men, an old man, a young man and they had the common denominator of being servants of the living God. And the Bible says the two of them walked on.

And if there's one thing that burns on my heart, and again I choose my words this evening so very carefully as we're confronted with 1982, if there's one thing that I seem to find in the heart of God to say in His name to this tabernacle filled with young and older friends, it is this, walk on. Go on in the service of God. Go on in the knowledge of God.

Let there be no obstacle that you don't get over. Let there be no encumbrance which in any way delays your progress. Go on and on and on to serve the living God.

There's not time to go into the reason why I'm making my next observation so you'll have to accept it or reject it as you please. But in many ways Elijah in the Old Testament typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. There are certain anticipations in the Old Testament as to what Jesus will be like and how His ministry will be fulfilled.

And there are certain aspects of Elijah's life which seem to predict the Lord Jesus only in shadowy fashion. When the Saviour comes He will be far greater than any Elijah, but nonetheless it seems as though Elijah caught a little bit of the reflection of the Saviour. And if it be the case that Elijah typifies the Lord Jesus, so I would argue most emphatically that Elijah typifies the Church.

Right at the beginning of the Bible reading Bruce brought to you this evening, the two are brought together Elijah and Elisha. And the latter recognises that Elijah is His master. Elisha is the servant.

Elisha is the follower. Elijah is the one who makes the pace. And when Elijah ascends into heaven, for he doesn't die, Elisha takes over his ministry.

As when the Lord Jesus is taken from this earth into the heavenlies, He entrusts to His Elisha, His Church, of which so many of us here are representative tonight, His ministry, His work. So, you see the point, if you will allow, what time will not allow me to demonstrate clearly to you, but I could go into reasons later on if you so demand. If you will allow that Elijah typifies the Lord Jesus, and Elisha the Church, then you have a tremendous objective set out in front of us for us to live our lives by as we move into 1982.

The two of them went on. The two of them walked on and on and on. That's progress.

And the Christian life never comes to a full stop. You never sit back in your chair and believe that you've done it all, not even if you're 70, let alone 17. You go on and on.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Philippians, and he's getting on a little bit in years. He nonetheless, having achieved so much by the power of the Holy Spirit for the Lord Jesus Christ, says to his Christian brothers and sisters in that Greek city, I press forward. And the language of the original gives you the picture of an athlete straining away, going down the path, running with every nerve, with every fiber of his being, invested in propelling him along at the fastest speed possible.

We go on and I want to tell you younger people and old that I believe God's word for us as a fellowship the last address with the exclusion of our watch night service that I have the privilege of bringing to you this year in this lovely sanctuary. The word of God is this, go on. Go on.

Go on from what? Go on from an initial commitment to the service of God. Back again to the first passage that Bruce brought to your attention. You find that Elisha there has been encountered by Elijah, and in a very picturesque fashion he has a call, a general call to the ministry.

Do you know what they did in those days to indicate that so and so was to succeed a prophet? They took off their coat. They took off the cloak. The cloak was the prophet's insignia.

And the cloak was placed around his successor. So Elijah strips off his cloak and he puts it onto Elisha. And Elisha recognizes that he has been elected to follow the path of Elijah.

He will be working for the prophet as his servant, as his attendant for a while. Notice when Elisha was elected to serve the Lord he was engaged in activity. God doesn't call idle men to a successful ministry.

Peter was a fisherman and he was engaged in earning his living and earning it properly on the seashore of Galilee when the Christ came along and said, Peter, stop mending your nets. Stop fishing and come and join me and mend men's lives and fish in the pool of humanity. When our Lord Jesus picks disciples, he picks activists.

There's old Matthew, a civil servant. What can you do with a civil servant? Well, listen to one preach next Sunday morning and you'll get some demonstration here in the tabernacle. But as far as Matthew is concerned, he can be propelled into the service of the Christ.

Leave your tax collecting. Let the inland revenue get on with it. And you come and I'll teach you to collect good interest for the God of heaven as you proclaim his gospel.

So Matthew and Peter and here Elisha, they leave off what they were doing. They have the call of God and there's an initial response. You know that phrase that you get sometimes in the English language about burning your bridges behind you? That means to say you can't go back.

Well, that's exactly what Elisha did. You see he left a very wealthy background. His father was a farmer and when Elijah met him, he was in the field with his oxen and with the plow.

And what does Elisha do to indicate that he's going to fully follow Elijah? He sacrifices the oxen. He breaks up the plow, uses that as a fire, cooks a meal and invites his colleagues for a good steak and then he goes off into the service of God as a servant of Elijah. The Lord Jesus Christ initially challenged each one of us to follow him.

And he said, no man who follows me is to look back. If a man will be my servant, he has to deny himself and that denial will mean sometimes leaving mother and father and sweetheart and close Christian friend. It might mean hazarding the life.

It might mean setting off and going to the other side of the world. It might mean the rejection of every economic security that ever there was. But this is what I demand of you says the Christ.

And there have been countless thousands of people who have so responded, burnt their bridges and they have laid their all on the altar of sacrifice. Such was Elijah. A man who went on.

On with God. In the company of Elijah. And that's what God has challenged hundreds of us here in the tabernacle to do.

To respond to the initial call of Jesus who died on the cross to purchase our salvation. Who once in his kingdom, activists who prepared to renounce everything if need be in his service. But for Elijah, it wasn't just a question of an initial response.

He was going to go on and serve God and get deeper and deeper in the area of commitment as his master Elijah comes to the last few grains which are going to fall through the glass, the hourglass of his life. Elijah is going to be taken from this world to the next and Elijah, if he's got the metal, has a job to do but has he got it? Did he really mean what he conveyed when he first responded to Elijah's command in the name of God? Would he really hazard everything? Elijah, think it through carefully because when Elijah has gone, the responsibility that is yours is gigantic. And so he's tested as every servant of a living God is tested not once, not twice three times.

Aye, if you count them all up at least four times. Elijah says to Elijah, go back if you want to. Just like our Savior said to would-be disciples, you remember in his ministry, are you sure that it's really me that you want to follow? If so, come right now.

And one says, well, let me first go and do this. And another says let me first go and do the other. And the third one said, let me first go and do something else.

And Jesus said, no, if you're really fully going to follow me, there's no such thing as me first. You go back. And there were people who went back because when Jesus gave the challenge of the gospel, he gave it in all its bluntness with all its cost spelt out so that no one could say they were ever conned into the kingdom.

And here is Elijah doing exactly the same thing as Jesus did years later on. Elijah, why don't you go back now? Stay here. If you don't go back, stay here because the Lord has sent me to Bethel.

You see, they got as far as Gilgal on this last journey of Elijah's and he was a convenient breaking off point. Elijah could, with no loss of face, perhaps stay where he was in the comfort of Gilgal. But he says, no, look at that first verse.

Or rather, we're now into the second verse. Elijah said, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. I'll not let you go.

Do you remember Peter said the same to Jesus? Though all men deny you, one thing you can count on is this. In your moment of need, I'll be there. Now Elijah says the same thing.

But he gets one over the fisherman because when Elijah is tested, he stays true. So they go a little further. Can you see them? It's not the sort of countryside that you get down here on the tip of the downs, just by the edge of the south downs.

It's much more barren. And to go from Gilgal to Bethel means that you move to a safe sanctuary there in Bethel. Here are a school of the prophets.

As there are schools of prophets in several places in Palestine in those days. Now Elijah, here we are. Come, let's have a good man-to-man talk.

You don't really want to go further with me. You see at the end there's that baton and it means that you take it. And that's a tremendous load.

I know. I've been confronted by Jezebel. I've known what it's like to have the whole of the political forces in Israel against me.

I know what it's like to be so depressed. I have come to the end of my tether and ask God to relieve me of life. Are you sure that you can pay that price? Elijah? Well, why not stay in Bethel? After all, Bethel is a great place.

It's just like Keswick is in England. I mean in Keswick you've got the big convention every year. The best speakers they all come together.

Several thousand people. If there's anywhere for an evangelical to live with great peace of heart, surely it's Keswick. Well, Bethel that's where Jacob had an experience of God.

A ladder that came down from heaven to earth. Bethel blessed by many an association of men being there who knew the living God. Wouldn't it be as well to stop off at Bethel? There's Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Lord, it's good for us to be here. Of course it is. Jesus is there.

Elijah is there. Members of the Old Testament dispensation are there. The glory of God is there.

It's good for me to stay here. It's good for us. Let's set up a permanent residence.

Let's have a conference hall. And we'll start with three little booths. So that we've got some sort of protection from the hot sunshine.

It's good to be there. But Peter, down at the bottom of the Mount of Transfiguration there's a demon possessed boy. There's a father there who's almost bereft of his senses.

If you're just going to be a cozy little evangelical on the top of the mountain, then how in God's name are you going to minister to somebody who's in need? Stay on the Mount of Transfiguration if you like. Bask in the blessing of the Lord. But God has called you to a program of activity.

And the same applies to Elijah. There's a school of the prophets. There he can dose himself in whoever stood for the Calvin of his day.

There he can bask to his heart's delight in all the manuscripts and read what all the rabbis were saying. There he can read and read and read. I find it a delicious prospect to stay at Bethel.

But God hasn't called him to be a perpetual student to accumulate theological degrees by the cartload. There's something else. There's an intoxicating program.

It's difficult but it's magnetic. He shies away from it but he also rushes towards it. No, I won't stop at Bethel.

And so Elijah has another go at him. Later on they've moved from Bethel through across to Jericho and then beyond the Jordan. They're not across that historic river of blessed memory.

Not quiet when you get to the sixth verse. So Elijah says, stay here. The Lord has sent me to the Jordan.

But Elijah responds as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So the two went on and on and on. Many of you here I think are at your Gilgal your Bethel or your Jordan and in many senses you could stop off right now.

Why progress further in the Christian life? You're saved. Sergeants preached enough of reformed theology for you to believe once saved always saved. That worries me sometimes because you could become so cozy that you sit back in your armchair and believe that there's nothing else that God expects of you.

All that God would give the members of our fellowship here and remove me if he won't a burden to go on and on and on. One of the men who most impressed me when I was a teenager back in my steel city of Sheffield where I was brought up was a brother we had preaching here at the Tabernacle a couple of years ago. His name was Ronald Chapman.

Spent years after he got to the age of 60 out in Rhodesia and there endured a great deal of hardship, nervous tension beyond imagination as he saw some beautiful missionaries including women butchered and raped in the service of God. He died just a couple of months ago. And when he was back home in my town, he said to the church secretary of a little assembly on an estate north of Sheffield Jack, go on go on to serve the Lord more and I believe that that's what God is saying to us.

There's been that initial response we've burnt the plow, we've slaughtered the oxen, we've gone beyond Gilgal, we've gone beyond Bethany we're getting up to the Jordan, but go on. Why does Elisha want to go on? Because he's got a hunger for God. He's got a hunger for God.

Oh my friend, let me give you a piece of advice. Be miserly as far as your own needs are concerned. Be generous in your distribution of what God has given you to others.

Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing as far as material things and passing them on is concerned, be they things or finance. But in this one thing, be greedy. Be greedy for God, for God approves of spiritual gluttons.

Listen, when Elijah is tested again, Elisha is tested again and again by his mentor, by his teacher he finally says as Elijah says, alright so you're going on, what do you want from me Elisha? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit. That's what Elisha asks for at the end of the ninth verse. Be greedy for God.

Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit. I repeat even if I shock you with my language, sometimes it's good to use language in a shocking way. Be a glutton for God.

I taste thee O thou living bread and long to feed upon thee still. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore. Four decades have passed in my life, but I tell you my young friend, I'm not satisfied with what I know of God.

I sometimes feel I've only had a crumb and yet I've had a look at the bakery and there are so many loaves that need to be devoured. So much land to be possessed, so much ocean to swim in, go on for the Lord. This is what Elisha declares.

He requires a double portion. Now that's asking for something colossal. Elisha has been one of the greatest of prophets.

He's not a writing prophet. Perhaps he didn't have time to put what he had to say into print because the need was so great. He storms up and down Palestine.

He's been remarkable in his ministry. He explodes unannounced like a meteorite in Palestine. He paralyzes Ahab with fear.

He has all the government cringing in front of him. There are times when he performs miracle after miracle in the name of Almighty God. The Israelis, they've never seen anything like this.

No, not even in the day of Moses. And when Elijah is taking his leave from this world, there's a man by the name of Elisha who says, what I want is twice as much as you ever had. And he doesn't get criticized.

He doesn't get condemned. He doesn't get rejected. Instead he has the singular approval of Elijah acting in the name of God.

And you remember how in the final moments of that remarkable man's life, Elijah as this chariot from heaven comes to take him away. Elisha cries out the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof recognizing with that proverbial expression that the power of Israel, the defense of Israel, the hope of Israel is embodied in the ministry that Elijah has exercised. And he believes that as he's worn the mantle literally of Elijah so he shall know a double empowering of the spirit of the living God.

God has, or rather this country has yet to see this century what God can do with a man clothed with a double portion of the Holy Spirit. I long to see that man live. I long to be in his company.

God still uses men. God still uses women. You cannot exhaust knowledge of God.

You cannot exhaust experience of God. You can but go on and on and on and on. A.W. Tozer said that one of the greatest things that is stopping evangelicals from progressing is this, that having found God they stop looking for him.

You can never know enough you can never experience enough of this great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember how I quoted the words of Beverly Shea some while ago and I use them again in a different context. He was speaking of the love of God.

I'm speaking of the power of God. You can only see a little of the ocean. You stand on the rocky shore but out there beyond the ice horizon there's more, there's more.

You can only see a little of God's loving, a few rich treasures from his bountiful store but out there beyond the ice horizon there's more. And there's more in times of power. There's more in terms of spiritual equipment.

I want God, I tell you humbly, I tell you in front of you all I want God to give me more of Him and I want to be possessed more of God. I believe that we have untold resources in Christ which still have to be exploited within our church here. I believe that as evil intensifies towards the end of the age and the coming of the Lord Jesus so the church needs every piece of equipment it can possibly gain in order to offset the inroads of Satan in our present civilization.

And blessed be God the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're mighty through Him to the pulling down of strongholds but for men to exercise such a penalty of weapons, such an armory they've got to go on beyond Bethel, beyond Gilgal, beyond the safety of the Holy Club on beyond the Jordan, into the wilderness into no man's land to spend time in the presence of the Living God and find as did the Baptist that when you have a hunger for God He serves up good nourishment and clothes you with the power of His Spirit so that ultimately you can take Jerusalem by its neck and shake its citizens and bring some to a state of preparedness for the advent of Christ Jesus. I'm through ask me what my word from the Lord is for the tabernacle, my last Sunday evening address this year of 1981 go on, go on go on with God and if He be gracious I'd like to be in your company enjoying more of the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ let us pray let's join in the words of the grace the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore, amen to the Lord in prayer