Address—P. Wilson
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When we're meeting the Bank, December 1964 Address by Paul Wilson, Second King 2.
Gym #52.
Lord, we are thine walk by thy blood.
Once the poor Guild enslaves of sin, thou redeemeth us to God.
And make thy spirit well within.
Now, after our simple wandering, born with love and patience, all divine.
As brands then from the burning torn.
We all, we are holy thy #52.
Turn together.
And the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind.
That Elijah went with Elijah from Gilgal.
And Elijah said unto Elijah.
Very here I praise thee, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.
The life is said unto him as the Lord liveth and his thy soul liveth. I will not leave thee.
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So they went down to Bethel.
And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elijah.
And said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?
And he said, yeah, I know it. Hold you your peace.
And Elijah said unto Elijah, Terry, here I pray thee.
Where the Lord has sent me to Jericho.
He said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
So they went to Jericho.
And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elijah, and said unto him.
Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?
And he answered. Yeah, I know it. Hold you your peace.
The Elijah said unto him, Terry, I pray thee here.
For the Lord has sent me to Jordan.
And he said, As the Lord liveth in his thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they too went on.
50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood the view of far off.
And they, too, stood by Jordan.
Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smoked the waters, and they were divided, hit her and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground.
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elijah.
Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee.
And the life is said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
And he said Thou is asked a hard thing.
Nevertheless, if thou shalt see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee.
Not it shall not be so.
And it came to pass as they still went on and talked.
There appeared.
A chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
The Lysis saw it, 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 wrapped them in two pieces.
And 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?
And when he also had smitten the waters, they were parted. Hit her and thither.
And Elijah went over.
When the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him.
They said the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elijah.
They came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
And they said unto him, Behold now there be with thy servant 50 strong men.
Let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master, lest per adventure the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up.
And cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley, And he said, Ye shall not send.
And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said sin.
They sent there for 50 men and they sought him three days but found him not.
When they came again to him, for he tarry to Jericho, he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?
The men of the city said unto Elijah.
Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord see it.
But the water is knocked and the ground barren.
And he said bring me a new cruise and put Salter in and they brought it to him.
And he went forth and gasped.
Into the spring of the waters.
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Under 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 hence not be from them anymore death or barren land.
So the waters were healed under this day, according to the saying of Elijah, which he spake.
And he went up from thence unto Bethel.
And as he was going up, by the way, there came forth little children out of the city.
And mocked him, and said unto him, Go up thou bald head, Go up thou bald head.
Turned again and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. They came forth to see bears out of the wood and tear 40 and two children of them.
This is a rather remarkable chapter.
In this chapter, Elijah.
Retraces the course of his ministry.
And he takes Elisha with him.
They start on this journey together.
And Elijah said unto Elijah.
Now we know that the name Elijah meant Jehovah is God.
And the life's name means the salvation of God.
Now, Elijah had a very different type of ministry from that of Elijah.
And in this case, as they retrace the journeys.
I'd like to call attention to the various places that they visited.
Elijah said unto Elijah, Terry, here I pray thee.
Where the Lord has sent me to Bethel.
And a life is said unto him, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
In order to understand this portion of the word of God.
I believe it's necessary first to recognize.
That there are a number of towns or locations in Palestine.
That have the same name as Gilgal.
We often confuse them and we only think of Gilgal as the place that was down on the banks of the Jordan.
But this is different. This is a Gilgal that was up high in the mountains of Israel.
And this is the starting point.
Elijah says Terry here I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Gilgal.
Sent me to Bethel. Rather, the starting point now is from Gilgal to Bethel.
Well, what does that take it to? This takes us back to the Lord Jesus and he's coming into this world.
When he came into this world, he came as sent by God.
He came as the sent one.
He came as the Shepherd to the people He.
Came to his own. Came to his own that were in the world. Oh, it's true. The world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Doesn't say his own didn't know him, but they wouldn't have him.
So he was rejected from the beginning, according to John's Gospel.
Now he comes forth from God in type here.
Elijah comes forth with Elijah. They're following together. The one is following the other.
From the high points in Palestine and now for proof of the position.
The last clause of the second verse.
So they went down to Bethel.
If the door is the Gilgal that was mentioned here had been the Gilgal on the banks of the Jordan, they would have had to go up from Gilgal to Bethel.
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And so this brings to mind the fact that when the Lord Jesus came into this world, he came to his own, He came to Israel. Now what does Bethel mean? If we go back to the book of Genesis, we find Bethel, we find Jacob learning that the place was the House of God.
And there he worshiped God. Bethel.
There's much said about Bethel, meaning the House of God.
Well, he starts out and he comes down to Bethel.
Well, you trace them, the height, the the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the heights of glory down into this poor world. But when he came, he didn't come to the world at large.
He came to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He came with a divine Commission, the 11Th chapter of Zechariah points out plainly.
That God had commissioned him to feed the sheep.
But they wouldn't have him in that same chapter tells us that the people that refused him, whom God sent as their shepherd, will yet end up in accepting the Antichrist that he is called in that 11Th chapter of Zechariah the idol Shepherd or the Shepherd of nothingness.
Who will leave the flock? Leave the sheep? And so he's also the same man that's referred to in the 10th chapter of Guns Gospel, the hire layer, the hireling fleet and leave with the sheep. And so the poor House of Israel, they had the Lord Jesus presented to them in due time according to all the promises and the prophecies of the Old Testament.
He came in by the door into the sheepfold. He came in according to those promises. He came in as the whole thing had been marked out in before He came, and He came to that people, but they rejected it.
And they have reaped and they are reaping the consequences of it to this day. But the worst is yet to come.
I cannot have any sympathy with these so-called Christians who are interested in sending the Jews back to Palestine.
Where we learned from Zechariah that 2/3 of the Jews in that land are going to be cut off and die in the terrible tribulation that's coming. Only one third will be saved. So if a if a Christian were interested in sending the Jews back to Palestine, now he's sending them back to one of the hottest spots on the earth. Soon to be so.
When the Lord Jesus came to Israel, he came to the place that was the House of God. You remember in the Gospels he he speaks out the House of God as a Father's house says the zeal of thy house has eaten me up. He also speaks of it as as his own house.
But then when he leaves it.
He changes it all and he says your house is left to you deserve. What was it if it were up there? Only a building. It could be a fine building. It could be a marble temple. But it were, it was desolate when he went out and departed from it. Well, they're going to get the Antichrist. And incidentally, that Antichrist, that man that's coming is going to head up.
Apostate Judaism and apostate Christianity in himself.
And there will be the combining of all that is apostate under that man.
The Antichrist, rather than we're approaching that day, that day is coming on as a pace, and the earmarks of it are on every hand. Everywhere we look, we find the word of God is rejected. We find the truth of God is rejected.
Now.
We go on.
Third verse.
The sons of the prophets. I would say a word about these sons of the prophets. They were not literal descendants of the prophets, I take it.
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They were those younger men who were taught in a school of prophets.
I would call them.
In the ecclesiastical school of the day.
They were part of that, but we find as we go through this chapter that the sons of the prophets.
Were far from knowing the truth of God. They were far from it.
The sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elijah. They could talk intelligently on some of these things and said to Elijah, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, yeah, I know it. Hold you your peace.
Oh, this is a testing point for Elijah. He's following now that one that has made the descent from the rolling hills of Palestine down to Bethel, that place that was called the House of God.
And now Elijah said unto Elijah, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.
You know how I view these expressions in this chapter. Terry here I pray thee.
They impressed me somewhat. Like the word in the Psalms. Selah. A pause, stop and consider.
Here is something for Elijah to consider.
Is follow the license now from the from the rolling hills down to bevel?
Elijah says Tarry here I pray for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.
Thanks be to the to God that when the Lord Jesus came into this world, He didn't stop with coming to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
For the next step in his downward course was The Lord has sent me to Jericho. Now where is Jericho? Oh, that's down, Lowell. That's down there by the Jordan. That was the place that resisted the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan.
With Joshua and the city was destroyed.
And God had pronounced a curse on the place, and God had also said be cursed, be the man that rises up and buildeth Jericho.
Well, we find in the first book of Kings that there was a man that rose up and built Jericho.
But it's also important to notice when that man built Jericho, he did it in the days of Wicked King Air.
When wicked King Ahab reigned.
This man and his and he was a Bethelite. He was a man from the House of God.
If we take the meaning of the name of Bethel in his days, did Heil the Bethelite rebuild Jericho?
And when he set up the foundations, his first born died. And when he completed the work, his youngest died, just as it had been predicted.
By the word of God. But now in this descent, as this blessed one came down from God, from the heights of glory, saw man in his, in their ruined condition, his first stop, his first mission was to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. But they rejected him. Well, God's love was not repelled. God didn't stop there.
Many of time we would have thought that God's love would have been cast back. No, he goes right ahead. And now the Lord Jesus makes another descent, as we have to typify it here in Elijah. He says the Lord has sent me to Jericho, down to the place of the curse, down to the place of the fall. And so the Lord Jesus went all the way down.
So we get that blessed verse in John 316 for God's soul of the world.
All, not just Israel. Now God so loved the world.
And He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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So they go on their journey.
6th verse. Fifth Verse. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha and said, Noah, thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today.
And he answered. Yeah, I know it holds you your beast.
And Elijah said unto him, Carry, I pray thee here, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan.
That's further down. That's still lower, going down to the river of Jordan.
And we know that the Jordan River is a figure of death. There wasn't all new good. The Lord Jesus came down from the heights of glory.
To the lost sheep of the House of Israel, or to the lost people everywhere?
He couldn't. He couldn't redeem them unless he first went down into death.
If he had gone back to the glory short of going down into death. If he'd gone back then.
We could not have been saved but he says, Jerry here, pause here, I pray, stop and consider that the Lord has sent me to Jordan.
When we go down to the 7th verse, and 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood the view of far off.
Now these young men, these sons of the prophets, were stalwart young men, they were.
In the forefront of ecclesiastical position, they could talk of these things, and somewhat intelligently.
But their hearts were far from it. They can stand the view of far off.
And they too stood by John.
Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided. Hit her and thither.
So that they too went over on dry ground.
What a remarkable thing. Now the now Elijah. Elijah has gone down into the river.
He's smitten the waters and they've divided and they 2GO through on dry ground.
What a sight, you know the individual finds a lot of fault about the.
River Jordan backing up and letting the Israelites cross.
But sometimes I think they have missed this place, because here the River Jordan is divided twice right in this chapter.
1St for two men to walk over on dry ground and then for one man.
Sometimes they overlook some things.
It came to pass when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elijah, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee.
And Elijah said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
You know, we find out in Scripture.
That we often discover.
The state of a man's soul by his request.
Solomon was asked in a dream what he would ask of God, you know, and he asked for wisdom.
His state of soul was revealed in that request.
Now here's another request, another statement, he says. You asked for something.
Ask what I shall do for you. What did he ask for?
And this is the worst. It's primarily before me to see this afternoon. What did he ask for?
Oh, he says. I just want to be more like you.
He says, I want a double portion of thy spirit. I suppose the double portion as reference to the portion of the first born.
But he says, I just want to be more like you.
I want a double portion of thy spirit. What a nice request that was. Here's one Elijah who was attached to Elijah, and he's retraced all that journey down, down, down.
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Elijah. Elijah has gone through the river and he's over on the other side now. He's on the other side of having passed through the Jordan. And he says now what can I do for you before I'm taken?
All he says I only have one request.
I want to be more like you.
And dear young people.
What are your requests?
Do you ask the Lord to give you more money?
He asked the Lord to give you a better position.
Is that your real object? Is that what you're asking?
I'm not saying there's anything wrong in the proper use of money.
But the question I'm raising is this.
What is your object?
Each one of us has a certain amount of a goal and certain object, a certain objective in life.
Just what is it?
Well, for the Christian, I know what it should be. For the Christian, it should be just this spirit of Elijah. I just want to be more like my master. I want to be more Christ.
Well, Elijah says thou has asked the hard thing.
He'd asked a hard thing.
But he says nevertheless.
Now notice the key to this. If thou shalt see me.
When I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee. It shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so.
It all depended on the license, seeing that one would come down from the rolling heights of Palestine down to Bethel.
Down to Jericho, down to Jordan, down in the Jordan and now is on the other side of it.
It depended on his seeing him going back.
Dear young people, most people in the world today do not know what Christianity is.
They talk about it as though it were a certain creed or a certain system that will eventually improve the world.
But let them soberly consider that the world is getting worse, not getting better.
And is getting worse, rapidly, in fact. The wise men of this world wonder what's next.
We're approaching of the day when men's hearts will fail them for fear of looking on those things that are coming upon the earth. Christianity has not.
Changed the world.
What is Christianity?
Christianity is a is to be the followers of a rejected Christ. There was one that came down from golf scent of golf down into this world where man was in sin and a far from God is strange from God and he came down and he went all the way down into death.
He rose triumphant out of it, and he's gone back to heaven. And Christianity, properly speaking, does not begin until.
Christ is in glory.
One another is said Christianity proper begins on the other side of the cloud that received him out of their sight. That's Christianity. But Christianity has not taken all the Christians out of the world.
Remember this, dear young Christian, when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, your justice fit for heaven as you ever will be.
But God hasn't seen fit to take all the Christians home. As soon as they accept Christ, all the saved ones are are not taken away. He's left them here. He's left them here to represent him. When the Lord Jesus was going back, he said unto the disciples, As my Father has sent me, so have I sent you.
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That's why we're here. And so now there is one expression I want to read a little further down.
It's in the 18th verse.
When they came again to him, for he tarried at Jericho.
Elijah, now the follower of a rejected master.
Who has gone back to heaven?
Elijah now as the follower.
Carried at Jericho, You and I, dear young Christian, are left in this world.
This Jericho is a type of this world hundred sentence of judgment. The judgment of God hangs over this world.
Well, they're decorating the world and they're improving the world, but they're only decorating it for a funeral.
They're only decorating it for trouble, for judgment.
For he tarried and Jericho.
Now then, dear young Christian, may I ask?
About your object, your objective in this world, I desire one thing.
Of you and I desired for the Lord's glory and for your own good.
For your own happiness that you would desire to please the Lord.
Our desire, as we read in the Acts, that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord.
That's why we're here.
All the Lord may trust you with a certain amount of money while you're here, or he may give you.
Good position that you might be able to use even an honoring the honoring humanity.
But is that the thing that we're here for?
William Kelly said in one of his books.
It wouldn't make any difference what kind of a professional man had.
He says it's to be nothing but a bread trade for him to earn his money, earn his living at while he's going through this world. That is my expression. That was William Kelly's expression.
A breadth for a profession.
Or anything we do is to be done for the glory of Christ and to live for Him. And I know that the enemy is trying hard to turn the dear young people out of the path of obedience.
There never was a time in the history of the Church on earth when the attractions of the world were so manifold.
So gilded and so dressed up as to attract the young people.
If it isn't one thing, it's 500 or more.
Oh, when I was a boy, there weren't nearly as many attractions. I'm not saying that the world didn't have its attractions then, but every year these attractions are being multiplied.
But are we willing to, just as it were, cast them to one side as we get in the Epistle to the Hebrews about weights and about sin, all the just lay aside these things as weights or sin? Well, what's the weight? Well, the weight is anything that would be a hindrance to me and running a race for we're not left here to be stationary. We're left here to get through this world and to get through it to God's glory.
Now, if I found anything was a weight that would keep me from running a race that I wanted to win, I'd toss it to one side as of no value. If it hindered me in winning a race that I was bent on winning, I just talked to one side. Just drop it.
Oh, dear young Christian. The devil will load you down with weights. He'll load you down with anything and everything that will hinder your making progress. We're in an endurance contest. We're in an endurance race, and I might also call it an obstacle course. For the devil is going to put everything he possibly can in your way to keep you from getting on.
It isn't that we don't know the truth. The question is, are we willing to live in the truth?
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Are we willing to walk according to we talk about this world as a wilderness wide, How much do we believe it? Oh, I'm not sure but what the Lord may let us taste what the world is as a wilderness. Why before he comes for us.
I'm not so sure that things aren't getting to the point where it may cost you something to be a Christian into this work in this world, to witness for the Lord Jesus may put you in prison yet someday.
Are you willing to count the cost? Are you willing to count the cost now?
All dear young people.
Your whole future life down here depends on your decision to live for Christ.
To live for him, I want to be more like him. That's the language that we read here.
I want a double portion of Thy spirit to be upon me.
Well, if we're going to have that, there will be many things that we'll have to discard.
Because there are many things that will SAP our spiritual energy and will hinder us in this in this race.
Now I want to mention that.
Going down in the chapter.
50 young men of the sons of the prophets went and tried to find a license. Elijah.
Where were they trying to find?
Here on Earth.
But he was gone, you know, it said of Enoch that he was not found, for God took him.
That he was not found indicates that they went looking for.
One of these days the people in this world are going to be looking for us if we know Christ.
Wouldn't it be an awful thing to be?
To be among those that were left behind.
So how to be those left behind when the Christians are all gone?
I wonder how many would be left in this room if the Lord would come at this moment.
I wonder how many be left behind, left in their seats, if we'd hear that shout and the Lord had called us home right now. Oh, I know for many of us that that would be a happy thought, Happy thought to be instantly away from a scene where we're talking about the Lord and his glory and his things and be transported into the into his presence instantly. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
But here, here these fifty young men want to find Elijah on earth.
And that's the whole character of Christianity Today. They're trying to reject the resurrection of Christ.
They're trying to reject all the supernatural and they're trying to connect a Christ on Earth with Christianity.
All they can put up all the decorations they want at this time of the year.
And talk about Christmas.
But how many of them know Christ?
Very few that take the name of Christ on their lips at this time of year.
No, Him is our savior.
What got the world would like to press on and talk about a Christ that will embellish the world, that he that will accredit their system and improve the situation as they want?
50 young men stole were young men and the world, the religious world is filled with these stalwart young men.
They're trying to connect Christ with the world.
All but the Christ we know is the one that died from the world crucified, and he was cast out of the world. We're followers of the of a man that they hated and the man that they cast out. And if we're faithful to him, they won't want us either. That's what the apostle Paul found.
Now we see another thing here.
Minute in its 19th verse, the men of the city said unto Elijah, bold I praise either situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord see it. The water is not the ground barrier. Now Elisha was tarrying there. He wasn't a citizen of the city. He wasn't like Lot sitting in the gate of the city.
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But he did. He did show mercy. He did his.
Is acts were acts of blessing.
In this chapter.
Well what a wonderful thing it is. The world is blessed by Christians presence in the world.
They don't know it, but the very forbearance of God that holds off the coming judgment is due to the fact that we're here.
All the judgment of God can't fall on this Christ rejecting world while we're here.
But soon we'll be gone.
It was salt here.
New Testament read. We read that we're the salt of the Earth.
Brethren, salt will not always preserve this world from judgment.
But the waters revealed now in closing, one more thing. 23rd verse.
And he went up from said unto Bethel.
Going back now, he's gone up to Bethel and as he was going in the way, there came forth little children.
And I think if you would turn to the revised standard, no, nothing.
The American revision.
American Revised. That was one that came out in about 19-9, wasn't it?
Somewhere about there I think that they render this.
Older man, these were not children, not little children. I take it that these were roadies.
I take it that these were the result of rejecting the word of Elijah. Elijah had spoken for God and they had seen him go and now they say of the one that's left to represent him they say go to. We don't want to go up thou bald head.
This is a language of grace despised, and if you want to know what judgment is, you'll find it when you see grace despise, because grace despise brings judgment, and this is the only act of all the miracles that Elijah performed was one of judgment.
For it was the despising of grace nee curse these these young men. 2 sea bearers came out of the wilderness, and tear 40 in two of them. I remember I knew of a man by the name of John, John Kouser. He's a dear Christian man.
And he had. For a time, he was living in a rooming house.
And there was a man that came into the rooming house occasionally and he had a great lot of fun making sport of the Bible.
And he took this verse one night when he was in the adjoining room where this Christian was, and he had the mall laughing, talking about two sea bears eating 42 Children. He says, my, what stomachs they must have had.
Mr. Kauser picked open the door and he went out with his finger in three or four places in the Bible that this man had called in question, and he answered every one of them by a quotation from Scripture. And then he read this and two sea bears tear 40 and two children. He said they didn't need big stomachs to turn.
Oh, how the Word of God contradicts the vanity of these infants.
But that's not forget that God has put it in here for our learning and it's a solemn thing to reject grace and that's why this for judgment fell there to think of the testimony of Elijah. Think of the testimony of Elijah.
The life is showing blessing and then to know that Elijah was gone, you know there's a day coming when the Christians are going to be gone and the beast, the head of the revived Roman Empire, is going to lift up his voice and blasphemy God and them that dwell in heaven.
Won't be able to put his hands on us. He won't be able to touch us, but he will use his tongue. He'll blast steam them the dwell in heaven. He'll say they're gone. And a good ribbons. Oh, I believe the devil will have lies like that ready As soon as the Christians are gone, they'll they'll control themselves that those that trouble the world are gone. And a good riddance it is. That'll be their attitude.
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But all the judgment that will fall when grace is despised.