All these things in Jesus name. Amen
Okay, you're there in first Kings chapter 19 and look down at your Bibles at verse number 19
First Kings 19 it says here
so he departed thence and found Elisha the son of Shaphat who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him and
he with the 12th and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and
said let me I pray thee kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow thee and he said unto him go back
again for what have I done to thee and he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and
Boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave unto the people and they did eat then he arose and went after Elijah
and
Ministered unto him and what I want to preach on this evening is the greater works of Elisha the prophet the greater works of
Elisha the prophet of course Elisha is the successor to the prophet Elijah
Elijah is probably one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament
He did a lot of great works
But when he handed off the mantle the responsibility of a prophet to Elisha
You know the guy the next guy to become the prophet of Israel Elisha actually did greater works than that of Elijah
Now when I say greater or what we're gonna look at in John 14 greater doesn't mean that
There are a better quality or Elisha was better than Elijah
He had a different God or something like that or he just had more power
It just means that he did more miracles than what Elijah did
Okay, and in fact when you compare the miracles that Elijah did and you compare the miracles that Elisha did they're practically the same
The only difference is he did twice as many. Okay, and in fact when you study the miracles of Elijah
He did approximately about eight miracles. They were pretty
prominent pretty popular
And and just some miraculous things that we see throughout the Word of God even the New Testament being mentioned
But Elisha on the other hand actually did twice as many he actually did 16 miracles
basically double of what Elijah did and so we're gonna go over the miracles tonight and this might even be a two-part series and
And I'll break off the other half or I'll preach the other half
Next week, but let's let's look at some of the things here go to John 14 if you would John chapter 14
We're gonna come back and go to 2nd Kings after John 14
but the reason I had you start in 1st Kings chapter 19 is to show us the fact that
God is basically telling Elijah that he's gonna go off the scene
You know, he needs to pass the baton to someone and he chooses Elisha to do so
Okay
And it's very similar pretty interesting how the relationship between Elijah and Elisha
Match up the relationship between Jesus Christ and his disciples or Jesus Christ and ourselves
There's a lot of symbolism there that we can
Extrapolate from the story of these two and we're gonna look at some of that this this evening
Look at John 14 and verse 11 the Bible reads in verse 11
Believe me that I am in I am in the Father and the Father and me or else believe me for the very work's sake
Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and
Greater works than these shall he do
Because I go unto my father the Bible says so Jesus specifically promised and said that the person who believes on him
Actually has the potential to do greater works than Jesus himself not greater in quality not greater in divinity
He's just referring to more works as far as quantity is concerned
And you can see why you know, Jesus was only here for I mean his ministry
Should I say lasted for approximately three and a half years?
And so in those three and a half years he put in a lot of work got a lot of people saved
Did a lot of miracles?
However, when you compare that to someone who's been a Christian for example for 20 years
Who's been a Christian for 30 years 50 years?
They had the potential to do far more greater in
Quantity as far as works are concerned than Jesus himself because they're here on this earth a lot longer
And that's a promise that's given to us by Jesus Christ
He wants us to excel the quantity of works that we do here on this earth to do greater than he does
Because of the fact that he went into his father. Well when you look at Elisha
He was able to do these greater works when when Elisha was taken up into heaven
Okay, and so there's a lot of parallels now go to 2nd Kings chapter 2 if you would 2nd Kings chapter number 2
2nd Kings chapter number 2
Look what it says in verse number 8 of 2nd Kings chapter 2 it says in Elijah took his mantle and
Wrapped it together and smote the waters and they were divided hither and thither so that they too went over on dry ground
verse number 9 of 2nd Kings chapter 2
And it came to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said unto Elisha
Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee and Elisha said I pray thee
Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me, okay
This is a pretty awesome awesome. This is a pretty awesome request. That's what awesome is when you put requests and awesome together, okay?
It's pretty awesome request because he's saying he obviously recognizes the works of Elijah
He sees that what he's done the miracles that he's accomplished and he says I want a double portion of what you have
What you did I want to be able to do double of that. He's not being ambitious
In a sense of you know, he's just kind of has his own self-interest and once they magnify himself
He just wants to do greater works than that of Elijah and it says in verse 10 and he said thou hast asked a hard
Thing nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee
But if not, it shall not be so now
What is the parallel that we see between Elijah Elijah and Jesus Christ and us or the disciples?
Well, the Bible tells us that the comforter would not come
until Jesus Christ was taken and
When he was saying he says he says to dwell in Jerusalem until you be in dude with power from on high
right and it wasn't until Jesus Christ ascended up into his father that the the Holy Spirit came and
Empowered them to be bold to preach the gospel to get thousands of people saved and they were able to do greater works of these
But they had to wait until Jesus himself was ascended up into heaven to be with his father
Just as Elisha had to wait for Elijah
To ascend up into heaven as well in order for him to receive a double portion of his spear look at verse 11
It came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold there appeared a chariot of fire
And horses of fire and part of them both asunder and Elijah
went up by a whirlwind into heaven and Elijah saw and he cried my father my father the chariot of Israel and the
Horsemen thereof and he saw him no more and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces
so here we see the final event between Elijah and Elisha were really the the the the
Mantle or the baton is hand to Elijah to basically carry on the work for Israel as him being the main prophet
Of the land there. Okay. Now, let's look at some of the miracles that he did now first and foremost
What were the greater works that Elisha did?
Well, you're in second Kings chapter 2 look down your bottles of verse 13 if you would first and foremost
We see that he parted the waters of the Jordan River verse 13 says he took up also the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and
Smote the waters and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
When he also smitten the waters they parted hither and thither and
Elijah went over and when the sons of the prophets which were to view a Jericho saw him they said the spirit of Elijah
Doth rest on Elisha and they came to meet him and bow themselves to the ground before him now
What is the significance of this miracle?
Well first and foremost in order to understand what this is talking about
We need to go back to the time of Joshua where the children of Israel are coming into the Promised Land
Via the Jordan River and if you remember the command was that when they were to cross the Jordan River
The high priest was to put their foot first into the water and then the waters would part and they were able to travel on
Dry land unto the Promised Land. Okay, that was like the major miracle of that day
but the picture that we see there is that Joshua
Who's by the way a picture of Jesus is?
Taking the children of Israel from worshipping false gods on the other side of the Jordan River to worshipping the true God in Canaan land
Okay, so he's basically leading them from serving false gods to serving the true and living God
Well, Elijah is a prophet who was in the land of Israel teaching people how to forsake their false gods
Parting the river of the Jordan with his mantle and teaching them how to serve the true and living God
So Elijah or Elisha when he when he comes on the scene, he's doing the same exact thing that Elisha did
He's basically teaching the children of Israel to serve the true and living God now
Think about this. Okay, because how does he do it? Well, he takes the mantle from Elijah
It's not a new mantle
Right. It's the mantle of Elijah that he gives to him
He takes it and he smites the waters with it
They part and he and and he basically it confirms that he is the chosen prophet
You know chosen by Elijah himself. Well, the mantle is something it's like a coat that kind of goes over you
Understand it's almost like a coat. It could be like a robe maybe even a hooded robe or a hooded coat
This is the mantle that belonged to Elijah
well
What does the Bible tell us the Bible tells us put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision?
For the flesh to fulfill the lustre up go to Ephesians chapter number four. Hold your place there in second Kings
Go to Ephesians chapter number four
What's the significance or the symbolism of the mantle?
The symbolism is this is that the the the Spirit of God that was upon Elijah came upon
Elisha via the symbolism of this mantle that came to him
Okay
so in order for him to do any type of miracle in order for him to lead the people into the true worship of God and
Forsaking the idolatrous worship of these pagans. He had to have the mantle of God
He had to be clothed upon with humility put on the new man and and and and do that
Look at Ephesians 4 verse 20
But ye have not so learned Christ if so be they have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus
They put off concern in the form of conversation the old man
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and
That you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness
I want you to notice that, you know, although he was able to do greater works. It wasn't a different mantle
The Bible says it's the self same spirit
So that means that the same spirit that Elijah had is the same spirit that Elijah had
It's the same spirit that you and I have today
So, you know, it's not like you know, the Holy Spirit is is ageless
You understand doesn't age with time
It's not like well, you know in his younger days
The Spirit of God was far more zealous and would move men to do and preach these crazy
Sermons and do these crazy illustrations and all these things, you know, but today he's more mellow
Today's more kind and meek and nice wrong
The Spirit of God is the same today as it was in times past and if it didn't change between Elijah and Elijah
Then it shouldn't change between Elijah and us
Right. That's why the Bible talks about us
You know, you think of the fact that John the Baptist came in the power in the spirit of who? Elijah
The Bible says he came in the spirit and power of
Elijah it's not referring to some isolated spirit that only Elijah had is referring to the Holy Spirit of God
It's referring to the fact that he had the mantle of God and is it any coincidence that Elijah?
Was wrapped with a leather girdle and so was
John the Baptist
You know, he had that that belt, huh? You know saying those belts that people hate on his stuff
You know, he he was girded about his loins. You understand what I'm saying? And
But
You know, it's it's figurative of what we see with Elijah now today. We're not wearing a literal belt
Amen, the Bible tells us that we're girded about with truth
It's symbolic of the fact that we have the truth in our loins and the inner man
And it's the same truth that Elisha had it's the same truth that Elijah
Had okay and in order for us to make waves or should I say divide the waters in order to cause the vision?
And lead people from serving false gods to the true God
We need to have that mantle in our lives as well. Look at first Thessalonians if you would first Thessalonians
chapter number one
You see obviously we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God once we get saved
But there's a reason why the Bible constantly commands us to put on the new man
It's referring to the fact that we need to put on the power of God
Conscientiously put on the power of God and be renewed in the spirit of our mind and and recognize that in order for us to
Accomplish greater works than even those who came before us. We need to make sure that we have that mantle
And you know, there's men of times past who had the mantle
They were clothed with the mantle. They preached great sermons. They stood for righteousness
They did great works, but then you know what? There's other prophets who came after them that chose not to wear that same mantle
so what we're doing as
The new IFB or as just Bible believing Christians we're taking that mantle and just kind of
Just dusting it out a little bit. Yeah, because it hasn't been worn in so long
You know and we're putting on the new man and and you know what it seems as though people haven't seen that mantle quite some time
That's why they react to this preaching the way that they do
But the reality is this if you were to look 50 years back some of these preachers were crazy
They sounded crazy, I mean it's been quite some time since J Frank Norris
you know preach, but he had the mantle of God upon his life he preached hard sermons and
You know, it's because it's the same spirit. Okay
Look at 1st Thessalonians 1 verse 8
For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaea
But also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything
For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how look what it says ye turn to
God from idols to serve the living and true God
Just as Joshua led the children of Israel from forsaking false gods and serving the living and true God just as Elijah did it
Just as Elijah did it in like manner
It's our responsibility to help people out there to get saved and that they turn from these false idols of worshiping Mary
Worshipping, you know, they're they're false gods or they're bad religions or trusting in their dead works to serving the true living God. Amen
But the mantle is needed for that go back to 2nd Kings chapter 2
2nd Kings chapter 2
So, you know Elijah or should I say Elijah, you know, he had no desire to make himself a new mantle
You know, the old mantle was good enough
He didn't desire to to go to the the lady who you know sews clothes and say hey
I need you to make me something newer. I need something more new
I didn't really like the way Elijah's ministry was he was a little too abrasive
You know, no the mantle that he had was was fine enough for him
It got the job done because of the fact that although it was an old mantle
It was still the new man, you understand but what was another miracle that he did?
We'll look at 2nd Kings chapter 2 verse 19. He also purified the water
The waters at Jericho verse 19 says in the men of the city said unto Elisha
behold I pray thee the situation of the city is pleasant as my Lord seeth but the water is not and the
ground barren and he said bring me a new cruise and put salt therein and they brought it to him and he went forth into
the spring of the waters and cast the salt in there and
said thus saith the Lord I have healed these waters there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land
So the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of Elisha which he spake. So it's a pretty amazing miracle you have
Waters in the area that are made bitter in a sense and what that typically means is the fact that they're poisonous
there's something in the water that's causing people or they can cause someone to die if they drink it and
Obviously, they're in need of water
And so what he does is he performs this miracle where he takes salt and he sprinkles it in the water
And it's made pure. Okay, so we see here that he has this miracle or this ability to what preserve life
Well, what does the Bible tell us? Ye are the salt of the earth if the salt hath lost its savour wherewith
Salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trotted under the foot of men
You see God wants to take us as salt and sprinkle us in different cities, right?
Why well concerned cities are just made bitter
Certain cities promote things and believe things and do things that cause death
Okay, and when people drink of that religion or they drink of those ideologies they drink of those ideas
You know, it brings death to them. So what does God want us to do?
He wants us to be sprinkled all over the California all over Anaheim Hills all over Southern
California and different parts of the United States and different parts of the world why so we can preserve life
Okay, so people can drink of the waters
freely to prevent judgment
So the ability to preserve life and in fact think about this the Bible says in John 7 and verse 38
He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water
So the Bible says once you believe on Jesus Christ your belly not a physical belly
But it's in your belly the inward man out of his shall flow rivers of living water folks
We are likened unto living springs
Okay that bring forth living water. What is that living water the gospel?
Right, we bring forth living water
We're giving people the gospel people are getting saved but even aside from the gospel once people get saved
We still bring forth living water
Righteousness judgment the precepts of God to basically make someone's life better
Because you know, we don't want to just get someone saved. Obviously, that's the most important thing. We want them to be baptized
We want them to obey the commands of the Lord. We want them to serve God
We want them to know the Bible so they can have life and have a what more abundantly
understand and so this great miracle here and
It's based upon the salt that he placed in
The waters now, you know, I would say that there's certain cities here that need salty men, but there's other cities
I would say, you know, I don't know if salt is gonna do it
You know, yeah, what's up Oh money shout out to Omani
It's one of those cities where it's just like I don't know if any amount of salt can fix the problem there
You know Hollywood, I don't know if there's any amount of salt they can fix Hollywood
Okay now believe it or not, you know, we did a sowing marathon in San Francisco
Okay, so no old IFP can ever talk trash on us that we don't love people folks
We did a sowing marathon in San Francisco. When's the last time you did any kind of sowing old IFP in San Francisco?
I mean, I've never heard of anybody taking a missions trip to San Francisco. Have you?
You know pastor Anderson came to me and said I got an idea
We should go to San Francisco do it so many marathon and and we it was Verity Baptist Church faithful
We're Baptist Church and first works Baptist. I
Don't even know I don't know. I don't remember for independent at that time. Does anyone remember for independent? Maybe we were
But we went and and it was a very interesting trip
To say the least I think is Ira and Exodus got their stuff stolen from the van
They broke into their van and took broke into the church van that we rented and stole their stuff
I mean it was pretty bad in San Francisco
And and I mean I've already explained some of the stuff that we saw in San Francisco on the streets
But you know people got saved there
People actually got saved there. So we sprinkled a little salt there, but you know what?
There's certain cities that is just done with
No amount of salt could ever help, you know, Israel is a place where I'm not sure any salt will help there
okay, and
So but here's the thing. There's plenty of cities out there that still need the salt of the gospel
They need salt believers there
They need churches there right to make the waters that are there were once bitter alive
Once again to preserve those who are in it look at verse number seven of second Kings chapter number three
Go to the next chapter there
So
What are some of the miracles? Well the miracle of parting the Jordan rivers with the mantle?
using the mantle which is being a symbol of
Putting on the new man and being able to part the waters and divide
You know false doctrine from right doctrine being able to save people being able to preach the Word of God and and bring forth
Righteousness another miracle that he did was that he purified the waters at Jericho
Another one is that he filled the dry land with water and
Gave victory over the Moabites look at verse number seven of second Kings chapter three
It says and he went and sent a Jehoshaphat king of the king of Judah saying the king of Moab
Has rebelled against me will thou go with me against Moab to battle and he said I will go up
I am as thou art my people as thy people and my horses as thy horses and he said which way shall we go up?
And he answered the way through the wilderness of Edom
So the king of Israel went and the king of Judah and the king of Edom and they fetched the compass of seven days journey
And there was no water for the host and for the cattle that followed them and the king of Israel said alas
That the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab
So let me just give you what's going on. Give you a little picture of what's going on here
Moab is coming to fight against Israel Israel joins forces with Judah, but they also join forces with Edom
So there's three kings against Moab, okay
But you know this it was someone's bad idea to go through these to this valley
It was completely dry
And obviously if you're bringing an army through a value you better make sure that they're hydrated that they have water
that would the resources necessary to you know, sustain them and help them to fight this battle and
They think to themselves. Oh, man
The Lord's the one who brought us here so we can be slain of Moab because there's no water here
Okay
verse 11 says but
Jehoshaphat said is there not here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord by him and
One of the kings one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said here is Elisha the son of Shaphath
Which poured water on the hands of Elijah? So by the way, this shows us that
Elisha was a servant
Why did he become a great man of God because he was a great servant before he was a great leader
How what was he known for for pouring water on the hands of
Elijah okay
It says in verse 12 and Jehoshaphat said the word of the Lord is with him
So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him
Now although these kings are pretty they're pretty dumb if you think about it. Okay, they obviously have enough sense
to go to the man of God and
And I mean they didn't go to the man of God to see if they should good fight that they should go to five they
Should be a part of this battle. They just went from for the answer and
This is what we need today. We need men of God who cares if they're known or not who just have the answers
Right, they have the answers. I want to share this illustration. Okay earlier this week. I'm not gonna say who it was. I
Had a producer contact me
I
What a way to start off a sentence right I had a producer contact me and said
So and so needs to know what the Bible says about this
Can you help us find that verse? I'm like
Seriously and this is someone who interviewed me about a year ago after the bombing and
I said sure and it was a really easy verse
For me, it was really easy and I said the two and they're like, oh, thank you so much
But you know, it kind of shows me how biblically illiterate this world has become
Now someone's telling is that why couldn't they just Google it or something?
Well, maybe apparently Google doesn't even know the answer sometimes
You know, sometimes it actually requires someone who actually reads the Bible
Stop depending on AI
To find you the verses
Hey, but you know what? Thank God that they chose a new IFP pastor to find the answer at least they know
Hey, there's someone out there who knows the answer and then go to some liberal pastor or some, you know
Whatever kind of pastor they went they came to me and I'm not saying I'm anything special cuz I'm thinking why didn't he go
Like to someone else and it wasn't a hard answer at all
You know hard and a hard question would be like, you know
Can you explain the thousand two hundred sixty thousand two hundred ninety one thousand three hundred thirty five days in the book of Revelation in?
Five minutes, you know, no, you know, I'd be a little longer than that. It was a very simple answer
But you know what we need this is why it's important that we raise men of God who just simply know the Bible
And you know what in the day and age in which we live. It's not hard to know the Bible anymore
You say why because of the technology? No, I'm saying it's not hard because not a lot of people know the Bible
So what little Bible you do know is still more than what the vast majority of the population knows
I mean you'd be surprised the things that you take for granted are things that people think about all the time that they have no
idea about
So read the Bible cover to cover study the Word of God as much as possible and don't take these things for granted because there's
People out there who don't even know the simple truths of the Word of God, okay
so they go to Elijah Elisha, excuse me, and it says but Jehoshaphat said is they're not a prophet or verse number
13 and Elisha said unto the king of Israel. What am I to do with thee?
Get thee to the prophets of thy father. It's the prophets of thy mother. Oh, man
He's a go listen to the pastors your mom listens to
Go get your Joel Steins and your Rick Warren's and your punk little pastors out there to tell you what the Bible says
Elisha is rough. I like this guy. He's a one of the prophets are your mama
He's saying I'm not your mama's preacher
And the king of Israel said unto him nay
For the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab
They're like no because we're really in trouble and when you're really in trouble
We can't go to these guys because they're not gonna give us the answer we need
They're gonna give us a sermon a 12-week series on grace
Verse
14 and Elisha said as the Lord of hosts liveth
This is very funny before whom I stand surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah
I would not look toward thee nor see thee
He's like you're lucky that
Jehoshaphat is here. If he wasn't here. I wouldn't have helped you at all. What does this tell us of Elisha?
He's not a respecter of people
Care less of these people are our kings. He doesn't care that the king of Israel's there
He doesn't care that the king of Edom is there
He doesn't care that they have riches and honor and and wealth and prestige and all these things
He's like, I don't care who you are
You're lucky that you're with Jehoshaphat who I do regard because he's the king of Judah and because of that I hope you out
He says I would not look to thee nor see thee
Now
Bring me a minstrel and it came to pass when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him
Minstrel is an instrument. Okay, so he's like bring me my favorite song play my favorite song and I'll you know
Spirit of God will come upon me. By the way, the relation there is that music is spiritual. Amen
And this is why the Bible says speak to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody and hearts into the Lord
And it talks about in the previous verses be not drunk with wine
We're in his excess, but be filled with the spirit and previous to that be not
Unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is and it's all in relation to the music that we sing
Or the music that we listen to and the music that we sing
so he's like bring me a minstrel play before me and he's just at that point he becomes filled with the spirit and
He's able to prophesy unto them
He says in verse 16. He said thus saith the Lord make this valley full of ditches
For thus saith the Lord you shall not see wind neither shall you see rain
Yet that Valley shall be filled with water. That's an awesome miracle
that you may drink both ye and
your cattle and your beasts and this is
look at verse 18 and this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord is
There anything too hard for God no
So he causes them to dig out these ditches and he said you're not gonna see any wind you're not gonna see any rain
You're not gonna see anything else that would cause you to reason away why these ditches are gonna be filled
But yet not only are you gonna be able to drink out of it your animals are gonna be able to drink out of it
Okay, and I don't know if they have camels there, but let's just make believe that there's probably some camels there
Camels drink a lot of water, right?
Okay, I mean cattle just in general drink a lot of water so there's enough water in the these ditches to satiate
their thirst and
He tell and obviously this sin this seems like an impossible thing
this is why it says it is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord and
What this should teach us and by the way, he says he will deliver the moral bites also into your hand
So these are two miracles in one where he fills the ditches
But then he also gives them victory over the mole bites as well, okay
Now a couple things that we can learn from this number one is the fact that we should never
You know downgrade or downplay what God is able to do
right
We should always seek to have excel in our faith of what God is capable of doing in our lives in the life of our church
Don't ever try to reason away why something is not possible
Okay, obviously if it's within biblical reason, okay
It's like well, I think it's possible I could win the lottery or something
You know, I think I could win a million dollars. No within reason of the Word of God and
If it's within reason of God's Word, there's no reason why we can't have the things which we asked for you understand
Why well because it is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord
God you know owns the cattle in the Thousand Hill. He owns all the silver and gold
There's nothing impossible with God
understand and
So we need to have faith that God is able to do great things in our life to use this in a great way
To get people saved uses in a great way to get a lot of people baptized uses in a great way to
You know to to extend the message further out into the world to use us in a great way so that our lives count for
Something okay, and along with that to basically defeat our enemies spiritually speaking, okay
So he fills these ditches with water and the Bible tells us you have to turn there Luke chapter 3 and
Verse 4 as it is written in the book of the words of his eyes the prophets saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness
Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight
every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low and the
Crooked shall be made straight and the rough way shall be made smooth
God wants us as a church to fill these valleys these empty valleys with the water of God's Word
To go out there and preach and just fill these cities with fill Jerusalem with our doctrine as the book of Acts says
now
2nd King go to 2nd Kings chapter 4
Let's look at the next miracle miracle here. So let me review real quick
First miracle is that he parted the waters of Jordan River with Elijah's mantle
He then purified the waters at Jericho by placing salt in it
He filled the dry land with water and gave victory over the Moabites
And then the fourth miracle is that he provided an endless supply of oil
Look at 2nd Kings chapter 4 verse number 1
by the way
The ministry of Elisha and the miracles that he did it's one of those those segments of the Bible that are they're kind of odd
Where his miracles are just kind of like well, that's kind of weird. Why does it say that?
And you'll see how weird it gets in just a bit
You kind of wonder like man
like that
Look at verse 1 now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets
Until Elisha saying that thy servant my husband is dead and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord
And the creditors come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen and Elisha said unto her
What shall I do for thee?
Tell me what hast thou in the house and she said thine handmaid hath not anything in that in the house
Save a pot of oil
Then he said go borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors even empty vessels
Borrow not a few and when thou art come in thou shall shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and shall pour out
Into all those vessels and thou shall set aside that which is full
So she went from from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured
Out it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her son
Bring me yet a vessel and he said in term there is not a vessel more and the oil stayed
Then she came and told the man of God and he said go sell the oil and pay thy debt and lived out and thy
Children of the rest what a great miracle
Mm-hmm. First and foremost one thing that we can learn from this miracle is the fact that God will use anything that we have
Because the Prophet asked her. What do you have in my house? And she said nothing save a pot of oil
Just a pot of oil right and what did he do?
He multiplied that oil so that she can pay off her debt and live of the rest now
This is a principle for us to learn that you know
You don't have to be a great person with great multitudes of talents and gifts. But what do you have?
You may not be able to have all these other talents or resources or money or looks or whatever may be
But what do you have if you only have a pot of oil God can work with that pot of oil
Okay, if you have just a little bit of resources just something minimal God can use that and multiply it for his glory
The other thing that we can learn is the fact that you know, God expects us to dream big and
To attempt big as well
Because he says there verse number three go borrow the vessels abroad of thy neighbors empty vessels borrow
Not a few
So he didn't tell her go collect 10
He didn't say go collect 20. He didn't say 30 40 50
He just said go borrow and make sure that it's not a few
So there came a point that when she was going from neighbor to neighbor to neighbor that she decided to just stop
And say okay. I think this is enough
But here's the thing is that in God's economy. He just wants you to keep asking
Get as many as you possibly can. There's no limit to how many souls that we can reach folks
There's no limit. What's the limit how many doors out there in the United States of America?
How many yes, thank you
It's true
It's mathematically true
How many doors aren't there in the world just other countries
We're to go out there. Well, you know, what should we stop so winning? Uh, never
Borrow not a few right go knock on every single door that we run into
Every city every part of the United States of America and let's just be honest. We have our work cut out for us
There's never gonna be a time when we just run out of doors to knock on and even if we're in a city where it's
Unreceptive it's not as good. We just go into the next city where there's a bunch of other doors as well
That's right. We borrow not a few. Okay
And obviously vessels if you think about vessels in the Bible, it's often synonymous with bodies, right? And
We're looking to fill bodies with oil, which is the Holy Spirit
So we're filled with the Holy Spirit and we're going out there to fill vessels with that oil of the Holy Spirit as well
okay, and of course that was a great miracle and
There was no more vessels in the oil stage
She was able to come and sell the oil pay the debt and live with her children of the rest
That was an awesome miracle go to verse 16 if you would verse 16
See here the promise of a son
second Kings
Chapter 4 verse 16 says and he said about this season according to the time of life
Thou shall embrace the Son and she said nay my lord thou man of God do not lie until thine handmaid and the woman conceived
And bear son at the at that season that Elijah had said unto her according to the time of life
So this is obviously a great miracle here
where
Basically, Elisha prophesies that this woman is gonna bear forth a son now
This is a great miracle, but the greater miracle is actually yet to come
now look at verse number 18 of
of
second Kings 4
So the fifth miracle is that you know, he promised her a son obviously via the Lord
Look at the look at verse 18
It says when the child was grown it fell on the day
That he went out to his father to to the Reapers and he said unto his father my head my head
and he said to the lad carry him to his mother and
When he had taken him and brought him to his mother he sat on her knees till noon and then died
Okay, this is a very sad story, you know, they have this child he grows up
Apparently he receives maybe some sort of injury to the head and you know
It causes trauma and he ends up dying on the lap of his mother. Okay?
Very sad and look at verse 21
It says and she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went
Out by the way, the bed of the man of God is referring to the prophets chamber that she had created for Elisha
This is actually how she met the prophet
This is how she met him and he ended up granting her the petition of having a son
Because she would see the man of God walking back and forth and she basically told her her husband
Hey, we should make a prophets chamber so that this man can come and rest here, etc
So he was she was a blessing to him so that in turn he was a blessing to her and the the obviously the principles
This so good seeds
amen
Be a blessing to the people in your life be a blessing to the people in your church because one day you're gonna need
That blessing back
You're gonna need that person to be a blessing to you
So she was selfless and was a blessing to the man of God
Which in turn caused the man of God to grant her a child and also this great miracle that we're gonna look at right here
verse 22 says and she called into her husband and said send me I pray thee
one of the young men and one of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again and
He said wherefore wilt thou go to him today?
It is neither new moon nor Sabbath and she said it shall be well
Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant drive go forward slack not thy riding for me except I bid thee
So she went and came into the man of God to Mount Carmel and it came to pass when the man of God saw her
Afar off that he said to get Hayes I his servant behold yonder is the Shuna might
Run now I pray thee to meet her and Santa is it well with theme is it well with thy husband?
Is it well with the child and it and she answered it is
Excuse me, and she answered it as well and when she came to the man of God to the hill
She caught him by the feet, but gehaze
I came near to thrust her away
the man of God said let her alone for her soul is vexed within her and the Lord hath hid it from me and
Hath not told me by the way, this isn't part of the sermon
But this is very similar to what we see Jesus Christ doing right often
He would go
Within the masses and there would be a woman who would come to him
Trying to touch the hem of his garment and many of the times the disciples who try to thrust them away, right?
And then he you know, the children will try to come to him. He says suffer the little children to come
So this is kind of basically the same thing that we see here
Verse 28 says then she said did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say do not deceive me?
Then he said to get Hayes
I gird up thy loins and take my staff in thine hand and go thy way if thou meet any man salute him
Not any facility and if any man salute thee answer him not again and lay my staff upon the face of the child
So what we see here is actually a picture of the New Testament soul winner
because in the New Testament Jesus Christ tells his disciples greet no man by the way when he's going out to preach the gospel and
The principle there is just the sense of urgency that we should have when we go out and soul in
This doesn't mean that when we're going down the street, we're just like don't talk to anybody who's down the street
It's just signifying urgency. He's telling you know, someone is dying someone out there needs, you know
Someone child is dead. I need you to go over there and kind of bring them back to life
Well, that's what we do
Okay
When we go on and preach the gospel
We have to have a sense of urgency where we recognize that there are people that are dying and going to hell. Okay
Verse 30 says and the mother of the child said as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth
I would not leave thee and he arose and followed her
And Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there is neither voice nor hearing
Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him saying the child is not awake
And when Elisha was come into the house behold the child was dead and laid upon his bed
He went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain and prayed unto the Lord now. We're about to read it's kind of strange
Kind of wondered like what's this about?
But here's the thing folks nothing in the Bible is accidental, okay, there's a reason God places these this phrasing in the Bible
okay, he says in verse 34 and he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and
his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands and
Stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm
It goes on to say verse 35 then he returned and walked in the house to and fro and went up and stretch them stretch
Themself upon him and the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes now
Go with me through it to Hebrews chapter number two. We'll come back to that in just a bit very strange. Is it not?
You know, he makes Gehazi put the staff upon him. Okay, the staff does nothing so he himself comes
Into the into the house the child is laying on the bed
He's dead and what and what Elijah does is basically lay right on top of the child
To the point where it's like mouth to mouth eyes to eyes hands to hands
I mean, he's just basically right on top of it. Okay, and he does this twice and the child comes to life. Okay
Now, why did he do that?
Is he performing mouth to mouth? I mean what in the world is
Elisha doing right? Well, you gotta understand something obviously
God can just revive someone right away
He doesn't need to go through all these what people would consider to be like theatrics in order to revive someone, right?
But the reason he does is because it symbolically represents a beautiful truth in the New Testament
Okay
So he physically does these things in the Old Testament to reveal a beautiful spiritual truth in the New Testament
Kind of like what we saw
Earlier this morning where the men went backwards and fell after Jesus Christ said I am those men literally fell
But it's signifying the truth that they stumbled at the stumbling stone
You understand so he will literally make people do like actual things in order to signify and symbolize the spiritual truth
So what is the spiritual truth? Look at the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 8
Thou referring to Jesus has put all things in subjection under his feet
For in that he put all in subjection under him
He left nothing that is not put under him
But now we see not yet all things put under him
But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crown with glory and honor
This one it says the he by the grace of God should taste death for every man
What do we see Elisha doing mouth to mouth?
He's tasting death
For this young child, right it says in verse 10 for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things
And bring in many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Look at verse 14
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood
He also himself likewise took part of the same
That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death
That is the devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage for verily
He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. So what does he do with the child?
He makes himself like unto the child as though he's actually dead, right?
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people
For in that he himself had suffered being tempted. He's able to succor them that are tempted go to chapter 4 chapter number 4
So we see Elisha tasting death for every man. He's tasting death for this child. He's conforming himself to this child, right and
It's interesting that it says that it's mouth to mouth eyes to eyes hands to hands, you know
Like he's basically all points as the child was and in fact look at Hebrews 4 15
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
But was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin
So what we see is that a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ
Tasting death for us. He was tempted in all points
Hands mouth eyes feet every aspect and isn't it interesting that the Bible says that Elisha stretched himself
Over the child just as Jesus Christ was stretched on the cross
You see these things aren't accidental in the Bible folks
The reason he laid on the child is so he can be like unto the person who's suffering death
And in fact when you look at Old Testament laws, it was actually against the Levitical law to touch a dead body
It's considered a curse, right? Well didn't doesn't the Bible say that he became a curse for us
There you have it so, you know, whoever was criticizing Elisha back in those days like hey, that was weird dude what you did right there
Obviously didn't know what he was doing because it's a picture of what Jesus Christ would do for us
He'd be tempted in all points like as we are he would taste death for us. He would stretch himself for us. Okay
And the Bible also says that he took upon him that the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man
Understand and so it's a beautiful picture and when I read things like that it makes me appreciate the Word of God more
Because it makes me think of how deep the Word of God is but not just that it makes me appreciate the death of Jesus
Christ so much the more too because it gives us it gives it from another angle
It helps us to realize that we were dead in our trespasses and sin
Right until he came and stretched himself for us and brought us back to life now as far as the sneezing is concerned
Now as far as the sneezing is concerned, I don't know that's kind of weird. I don't have no deep answer for that. All right, I
Do know this is that you know, seven is often a number of perfection or completion and the Bible says that we are complete in him
Okay, so it was when Elisha stretched himself upon the child that he got up and he sneezed seven times
It was signifying that he is now whole
He was complete. Okay, so that could be potentially what it's referring to but I got nothing else after that. So
Sorry, go back to 2nd Kings chapter 4
In verse 38
Here's the last miracle that we're gonna look at this evening and
That is that he healed the death in the pot
Okay
Look at verse 38 and Elisha came again to Gilgal
and there was a dearth in the land and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him and
he said unto his servants set on the great pot and seethed pottage for the sons of the prophets and
One went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine
and gathered thereof of wild gourds his lap full and came and shred them into the pot of pottage for they knew them not
bad idea, okay
They go make some soup
So he goes out until he collects these wild stuff and he's just like this looks like some good
You know a type of herbs that we can use for this smells pretty good. Well, it's poisonous
Okay says in verse 40
So they poured out for the men to eat and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage
That they cried out and said O thou man of God there is death in the pot and they could not eat thereof
and he said
But he said then bring then bring meal
Excuse me
And he cast it into the pot and he said pour out for the people that they may eat and there was no harm in
The pot now, what is the spiritual significance of this particular story?
Because what we see here is they're putting forth a pot of food
but this man has gone out into the wild and collected wild herbs and wild things and things that are poisonous and it's in the
Pot and it could potentially kill them but the prophet comes and basically cleanses the pot so they can it can be eaten
Okay. Now what is the spiritual significance of that? Well, you know unsaved people
Come to church or maybe someone who saves come to church, but you know what they've been doing their whole life
Collecting wild olives
right
Going out into the world and they're gathering herbs and wild vines and gathering wild
Gourds and placing their lap full of that and they bring it into the pot
Okay, and you know what if that stuff is not taken care of right away a little leaven leaven at the hole up
You know a little sin can mess up the entire church a little tolerated sin can mess up the whole church
There could be death in the pot
Where it can kill the church. It can kill a Christian. So what do you need? You need a man of God
To come and extract all the poisonous stuff out of the pot
to remove the leaven remove the sin preach against everything under the Sun in
Order to remove all the wild vines the herbs, you know the herbs sometimes
A lot of times it's the herb
Literally herb
Out of the pot
The problem is a lot of churches they're fine with just eating out of the you know, dead pot
They're fine with people smoking pot and bringing that into the pot
You know, that's not fine. And it's not you know, it's not this guy's fault
Because he's just he's just doing what he thought was right
You understand so, you know, obviously Elisha did not condemn the man for doing this he just fixed the problem when it came
Understand so, you know a lot of people are gonna come to our church and they they you know
They come with baggage
They come with sins and things that they're struggling with and things that they dealt with in their past or maybe even
Presently dealing with okay. It's not their fault. We're all you know, dealt a hand in life
We have this is our lot in life so to speak
But here's the thing is that some of that those herbs and wild vines and gourds can be poisonous to the church
So it's important that if we're gonna eat out of this pot that the chef here
Removes all that stuff from the pot. Okay, we don't want to say well, you know, they meant well, so just eat up
You know just just eat up drink up and it'll be fine
No, because somewhere along the line the church will be destroyed because of it
We want some good soup, amen
We want a good pop. We want great soup. We want good food. We want some some pho
You understand we want some what's another good soup out there?
Chicken noodle soup. Is that is that good? What is it?
We want some posole I
Had to like remember what that's called what's another one
Huh?
Menudo
Got people waking up over here
Okay
We don't want just some conglomerate of whatever you kind of throw together
You know, we want some baba anybody know what baba is
It's like Vietnamese soup with rice in it
Maybe it's Vietnamese. I think it's Vietnamese
I'm not into soup
But if I did I that's the kind of soup I'd have I'd have fun stuff, you know
You don't want to just put random stuff in there, I'll be honest we shouldn't have no cup of noodle soup
Because either way, you know, we've been making a couple noodle soup the wrong way all these years
Anyways, it's not even supposed to go into the microwave. I mean, it's just like man things you learn later on in life
But the but the the responsibility of the Prophet is to heal the death in the pot
You understand and at the end of the day, you know, obviously more than this is the fact that Jesus Christ heals the pot
Right, he heals the death in the pot. He extracts the death from the pot Oh death
Where is thy sting right? And so we understand that obviously at the end of the day?
This is referring to Jesus Christ, but there's so many more applications that we can put to this and so I'll stop right there
We're gonna go over the next
about six miracles
Next week. All right, let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word. We're so thankful father God for
The deep truths of the Bible and the miracles that we see and more important than the actual miracles themselves
Are the spiritual truths that they illustrate so many times people want to emulate the literal miracle today
when really that's not really what matters the what matters is the spiritual application of it and
I pray God that you continue to open our eyes to help us to understand the Word of God so much more
Blessings as we go on our way in Jesus then we pray. Amen