Open—J. Kemp, R. Boulard
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Hello brethren. I'm not going to speak too long. I have a call that has settled in my throat, for one thing.
So I can't.
Proceed for too long a period, which is an advantage, but.
Been a wonderful privilege to be here over the word of God.
And to be encouraged in the things of Christ. But remember.
We're going back to assemblies.
I understand there's about 25 assemblies represented here.
We're going back to the same situation that we came from. We only have a conference once a year, 5151 weeks of the year we don't have a conference. So what is on my heart to present briefly is the importance of continuing on in the past that the Lord has marked out in His word for us.
We're living in difficult times. We're living in days when the truth has been assailed on every site.
When there's been a giving up.
Of fundamental truth.
And.
Those special revelations that we have in the ministry of the apostle Paul, such as the Lord's coming, which has been before us.
The truth of the Church of God.
The truth of the Body of Christ.
And the rapture and so on. These truths have been lost in the ecclesiastical rubbish that prevails in Christendom today.
And the Lord has gathered us out from the systems of men.
And.
According to the word of God, there's been a recovery.
There's been a restoration. It's very similar to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
There was a remnant that had returned from the corruption.
That was in Babylon.
Not everyone came back to God's center, Jerusalem. Really, only a remnant came back.
Quite a few were were content to remain in the comforts of Babylon, but some had an exercise to return to God's center.
And, uh, there's been a movement.
In the last couple of centuries that is very similar to the days of Ezra.
You know, there's a great deal of ruin in the Church of God today. It's just like Jerusalem. The walls are broken down.
The stones have been buried under a pile of rubbish.
And here we are, part of the ruin ourselves.
We can't lift our heads very high, brethren, because we have to acknowledge that we have been unfaithful.
We're part of the ruin, but God in his grace has raised up a testimony to these precious teachings that are being given up in the camp today. They're not recognized and we have the.
Bringing in.
Wrong teachings so-called covenant theology or what what whatever you might call it, reformed theology, which is really.
Confusion and no recognition of the dispensational teachings of the Word of God. I just want to look briefly at the Prophet Haggai, chapter one of Hagee Island.
You'll remember that, Hegeia.
Had he was the Lord's messenger?
And he had the Lord's message too. We don't read a lot about Hagia. We don't know what tribe he was from, more much about his background.
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He was in Jerusalem.
He had come from the captivity, no doubt with Zerubbabel and uh, in Hagee aisle we have a man who reached the conscience of the people. Zerubbabel was there, but Zachariah is a little different character. In Zechariah he prophecies of the the coming glory of the Kingdom and the appearing of the Messiah, but not so much with Hagiah. Hagee Ayah was raised up at a time.
When things were in a very.
Lethargic state. There was a lot of self seeking among the remnant that had come back. A remnant had come back. They had started to build the temple, you remember, with the authority of the king. But then for 14 years they neglected.
The building of the temple and.
They were looking after their own interests, they were seeking their own comfort and pleasure in Jerusalem and the Lords House was being neglected.
It didn't have the importance that it should have had, should have had in their souls.
Umm, we'll read a few verses in the Book of Hagei Ayah chapter one.
The in the second year of Darius the king in the.
Six months in the first day of the month came the word of the Lord by Hagei I, the Prophet.
Undo Xerubable the son of Chile, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josadec the high priest, saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts. Saying this, people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lords house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Hagee, eye of the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye?
To dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste. All right, there was a neglect.
In regard to the Lord's things, they were in the right place. They had been brought back to God's center, no doubt.
But there was a lot of rubbish to be cleared away. The stones of truth had to be recovered. We find that in Nehemiah.
They had the Lord's authority to build the temple, and they commenced with that work. But then.
Self seeking came in self pleasing.
And they became.
And a state of apathy. And that's a danger, brethren, for anyone of us.
We are gathered on scriptural ground.
But Hagee Aya had a message for the conscience of the people here.
He wanted to exercise them about their ways.
What they were going on with.
Uh, their attitudes. Look here in verse 5. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Consider your ways.
Ah, you have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but you have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.
What should have had the first place in their thoughts was being neglected.
The Lord's things were secondary. They were occupied with their own interests.
And their own progress.
And the thing, the things of this world, and they did not have the blessing of the Lord in their lives. Well, I think this speaks to each one of us, how easily the world can come into our thinking, how easily we can live for the things down here as our brother brought before us. The fine gold can become dim and.
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We don't give the Lord.
His rightful place in our lives, in our assemblies.
In every aspect of our life, whether it be commercial life or home life or assembly life or the work of the gospel.
I was reading recently.
The last words of our brother.
Andrew Miller, who you will recognize as being the author of Miller's church history and many other good expositions. And he mourned at the end of his life the apathy that there was in giving out the gospel because he had a real heart for souls. Though he was a very gifted teacher, he never preached the gospel without tears. That's why he saw fruit.
But he mourned at the end of his life.
That the gospel was being neglected? Well.
We have that wonderful opportunity to spread the.
Word of God in these dark days to hold forth the word of life.
We have that privilege, we have that responsibility, but here in the days of Hagiaya.
Covetousness was coming in, worldliness was coming in, Self seeking was evident there. Unholy things in our lives perhaps, that no walls can keep out.
We need self judgment, and this was the call of hagee ayah, self judgment in the lives of these people who are in the place of privilege and yet we're not answering to the mind of God.
When you read the book of Malachi.
You even see a worse state of indifference. Umm.
They were in the right place, but what a sad spiritual condition they were in.
Just read the 1St chapter of Malachi Well.
This is certainly a summons to self judgment. This is what Hagee I have presented. He was the Lord's message, the Lord's messenger, the word of God on his lips.
And the power of God, the Lord in his life, in his ways. And he stirred up these people. You know, we need to be stirred up, brethren.
Ye that speaketh, he that prophecy us speaketh unto men gratification, exhortation, and comfort. Edification is building up.
Exhortation is stirring up.
And comfort is binding up. We need those three things in the ministry.
And may the Lord help us to uh.
Apply these things in a practical way. There needs to be practical holiness in our lives.
How often trifles will keep us awake from the meeting. We don't attend the prayer meeting. Sometimes I think that attending the meetings is a matter of convenience. If it's all right and I don't have too much work, I'll I'll be present at the meeting. But if I have something else on, I won't be.
How often these things come into our lives and we don't, uh.
Put the Lord's claims first of all.
You know, everything that we have belongs to him anyway. I often say to the boys and girls, I say, who does this money belong to? Well, they said it belongs to you.
I was speaking in Brazil recently and I asked that question, Well, boys and girls, this money that I have in my pocket here, who does it belong to?
Well, of course they all said it belongs to you. I said no, you're wrong, it belongs to another man. I'm just a steward to use it here for his glory. Well, there was a real work in the souls of these people and in less than a month they rose up in spite of all the rubbish and the and the drought and the barrenness that was in their lives.
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Because they did not give the Lord his rightful place, they rose up as a company and began to build. And the last part of the chapter shows us Hagia giving them.
A cheer and encouragement, O brethren, may we continue on.
In that path the Lord has marked out for us. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, I know that's often applied to our joy, and I would not detract from that. We certainly have a joy in serving the Lord.
And the Lord can open doors for the gospel, you know, in a remarkable way. I was down to Brazil for five weeks with my Good Wife, Eleanor there recently. And we used to pass by a large high school there. I said, look at Eleanor, all these thousands of students that are pouring out of here. Is there any way that we can get the gospel to them? Oh, she said, you know, they're very restrictive in the schools now, and they have.
Introduced brought in regulations about preaching or bringing religion into the classroom.
Well, I said, all they can say is no, let's try anyway. So we pulled up the car in front of this high school, huge high school, I suppose a couple of thousand students during the day because they have three sessions. We parked the car behind a big bus that was standing there and I said, now let's have a word of prayer before we go in. So we had a word of prayer and asked the Lord to.
Direct our steps and if it was his will to open the door. And I opened my eyes and I looked on the back of the bus and it said with God all things are possible. So I said this is an encouragement my dear, let's go in here. So we went in and contacted the administration. The door was widely open. We visited every classroom in that school and preached the gospel in every.
Room.
And gave out these beautiful laminated texts that our sisters endorphy and other places labor so hard to prepare. They went out to every student anyway. The Lord can open the door if it is his will. Well, there was a response here and.
We find that there was blessing in the.
In the lives of these people and.
The leaders obeyed the voice of the Lord.
And the work was resumed.
If you look in verse 12 Then.
We're still in chapter one. Then Zerubbabel the son of Sheila Teal, and Joshua the son of Josadec the high priest, with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the words of Hagi the prophet is the Lord, their God had sent him. And the people did fear before the Lord, and spake Hagee I, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.
What an encouragement that is the Lord is in the midst and this remnant was willing to work and in 24 days, less than a month after Jehovah had spoken through his servant Hagel.
They had commenced the work and.
There was blessing and.
God was glorified. Well, the joy of the Lord is our strength. But to finish what I was thinking along that line, we often apply that to ourselves. But I think that the main meaning of that expression is that the Lord finds joy when He sees His people responding to His love, obeying His Word.
Energetic, putting forth the energy of faith in the service of the Lord.
Or in the attendance at the assembly meetings.
We need to be aroused, don't we, brethren? We need to have that purpose of heart to serve the Lord, that that quiet determination that we're not going to depart from the things of the Lord and from the assembly where we are gathered according to the authority of the Word of God, where the Spirit of God is in the midst. As we read here, are we going to drift away from the gathering center? Many have done so.
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To their loss I feel, but may the Lord stir us up as Hageaiah stirred up the people here to judge ourselves and.
To own the Lord's claims upon all that we have.
And all that we do.
If you're going to look at the 2nd chapter.
Of the book here.
You have the coming of the Lord brought before us, His coming in person.
Not only the Lord's presence by his Spirit, but also his coming in person. And it speaks here of a little while. And these people, their hearts were lifted above their circumstances and.
They had before them the hope of the Kingdom being established when the Messiah himself would appear. Well, these are just a few thoughts, perhaps feebly presented.
And I trust will be a blessing in encouraging us.
To press on in the path of faith and faithfulness. And the Lord blessed them materially too. They had a lot of barrenness and drought. Their money didn't go very far. When they only used it for themselves and they didn't think of the Lord's interest. Their money didn't go very far. They were putting it into a bag with holes. But when they gave the Lord his rightful place.
What blessing there was.
And what glory was brought to God in in the work that He had given them to do. May the Lord bless His word to us today.
Let's turn to the Old Testament again in First Kings.
Chapter.
19.
Just to get the connection of what I have on my heart this afternoon, maybe we could read chapter 19 from verse 9 down to the end of the chapter.
I Kings 19.
Verse Nine. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodge there.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.
For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain.
Thy prophets with a sword, and I even I only am left.
And they seek my life to take it away. And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by in a great strong wind. Rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, a still small voice. And it was so.
When Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering of The Cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant.
Thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with a sword, and I even I only am left.
And they seek my life to take it away.
And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on my way.
To the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest anoint Hazel.
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To be king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elijah the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahola, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that him that escape at the sword of his ail shall Jehush lay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elijah slay. Yet I have left me 7000 in Israel all the knees which have not bowed.
Unto bail, and every mouth which has not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaytat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he with the 12Th.
And Elijah passed by 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 to do? 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 then just a couple of verses in second Kings.
Chapter 2.
Verse one.
And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elijah from Gilgal.
And Elijah said unto Elijah, Terry, here I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, 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 ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him.
Elisha Terry here I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho, and the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha 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 ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee hear.
For the Lord hath sent me to Jordan, and he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
And they too went on, and 50 men and the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, and they too stood by the Jordan.
And Elijah took his mantle, wrapped it together, and smote 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, And Elijah asked, What I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee? And Elijah said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. 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. And it came to pass as they went, still went on and talked, that behold their period. A chariot of fire and horses of fire imparted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elijah saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the charity 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. And he took also 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 parted, hit her, and thither and Elisha went over.
And the sun, when the sons of the prophets which worded you at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elijah, And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
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Five, this passage before me, these couple little passages because we have here some principles in connection with how God raises up different ones young men and aligns them, if I could put it that way.
Educates them, trains them, and makes them useful in association with those that are older. It's always a principle with God that he never sets aside the old oversight and the assembly, if I could put it that way. And that raises up a younger generation to take their place and to.
Usurp their place. But there's a training that goes on. And here we find with Elisha.
That as a young man he walked with an old man.
It says that in verse 21, chapter one, Kings 19, verse 21 Says then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him. And so we're introduced to Elijah. Now he had a little bit of a different character to his ministry than Elijah did. Remember Elijah, His ministry was to recall the people of God who had really forsaken the Lord and to recall them to the God of Israel.
To stir them up, even as Haggy Eye had stirred up the children of Israel or the children of Judah that had settled down in Jerusalem and really had become.
Apathetic, as our brother pointed out, and we're building their own houses. They really weren't too interested in the work of the Lord.
But in Elijah's day, the people of God and the 10 tribes had become idolatrous. They had no use really, if you could put it that way, for the God of Israel and God raised up Elijah among those 10 tribes, and he stirred them up. We know he was used mightily of God. But we read this afternoon here, beginning at verse nine, and we read about a very discouraged Elijah.
God had used them mightily.
And I thank God for the memory of my older brother. Some of them here.
And some that have gone to be with the Lord, and some of them perhaps had faced times of discouragement as they saw a younger generation and not grasping the truth and holding that fast which they had and the knowledge of the truth that they've been brought into and the treasures of.
The mystery of Christ in the church and all of the heavenly position, heavenly blessings that we've been brought into and living in a worldly way and really not recognizing the rights of Christ in their lives. And I think of how perhaps some of them might have been disheartened. But I want to say here this afternoon that it's the sovereignty of God.
That anyone of us is here, the sovereignty of God. That any one of us is saved by the grace of God.
None of us had anything to do with our salvation except that we were responsible. But in the sovereignty of God, He quickened you, gave you life so that when He spoke to you, you could hear His voice. And He gave you the faith to believe. You received Christ as Savior, and then by grace, the sovereignty of God. He brought you into the knowledge of the truth.
And in the sovereignty of God.
He desires not only to give us the knowledge of the truth, but a desire to buy it. And that's what Elijah had to do here. He had to buy the truth. He had to leave his occupation. It cost him his occupation to walk with God. It caused him his family. It cost him.
Those that one yoke of oxen, it says in verse 21, he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh.
With the instruments of the oxen, he burned his bridges. He wasn't going back to plowing.
He paid a price to follow Elijah. Really a type of Christ.
Well, you know some of those older brethren.
Saw a generation coming up and they wondered whether the truth of what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name would continue. They wondered perhaps as they looked at me.
As they looked at you, they wondered whether the world would have such an attraction.
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That we would be lost for the truth of God, lost to maintain the testimony.
And that the enemy would gain the upper hand. It's a sovereignty of God.
If you're gathered to the Lord's name, it's not because you're smarter than anyone else or.
I'm not gathered to Lord's name. It's this because of any intelligence or I figured it out. It's the sovereignty of God. And when you get to heaven and I get to heaven, we fall on our faces before the Lord and we recognize what He did in our lives by saving us in His sovereignty, in His sovereignty, giving us the knowledge of the truth and an enjoyment of it in some small measure, a desire to buy the truth in some small measure and gathered us out.
From the confusion of Christianity, all around us gathered us by His Spirit under the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
There's going to be a song of praise on our lips, in our hearts. There's going to be worship that wells up from within our hearts as we recognize we had nothing to do with it. And it was this sovereign goodness as grace, as kindness. Well, I just point this out in connection with Elijah. He was disheartened and discouraged and the Lord met him where he was. I trust there are no older brethren here that are disheartened, discouraged. I want to tell you as as I travel about the country.
About North America, God is raising up young Timothy's, He's raising up young people, young sisters that have a desire and exercise of soul to learn the truth of God and recognize the sovereignty of God in gathering out to the precious name of the Lord Jesus around himself. And they're desiring to go on for the Lord, while Elijah didn't see it.
He thought he was occupied with himself. He says. I have been very jealous in verse 10 for the Lord God of hosts.
For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, you and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away while he was dead wrong.
He didn't see it, but there were 7000 that God had preserved in his sovereignty.
You know Mr. Darby made this comment in connection with some of his.
Writings in Genesis, he said that there are two things that went side by side a line of truth throughout the entire Word of God, and that is the sovereignty of God.
And the responsibility of man and they go side by side and it looks in the distance like a railroad track that they somehow merge, but they don't. They keep going side by side all throughout the word of God. Mr. Darby or Mr. Kelly made this comment in his writings. He said all would be a total loss in this world because of sin, apart from divine intervention, the sovereign intervention of God and so.
Marvelous to think of, how?
We can thank the Lord even today where you sit in your seat, for the sovereign goodness of God.
And even though we may not see all that the Lord is doing, why, we know that He is preserving.
The people of God, He's preserving the testimony that belongs to him and He's doing the work. He's raising up and preserving. While there were 7000, perhaps they were what you might call the sons of the prophets. I don't know if they were all sons of the prophets, but there were those that were being preserved. Elijah didn't see it. He didn't even know Elijah. It doesn't appear that he knew Elijah until the Lord pointed him out and he says in verse 16.
Elisha, the son of Shaytat of Abel Mahola, shalt thou anoint to be prophet my room.
Well, it was something that.
Perhaps in natural things you might say Elijah was growing to be an older man and.
His mission was pretty well over.
But there was a younger generation that he was going to influence.
And he was going to have that opportunity, that responsibility, that privilege of spending some time with Elisha. And I think this is nice that he goes right to where Elijah is. And Elijah was plowing.
All these little verses of Scripture, these little expressions that the Spirit of God uses.
Are very, very important. And Elijah wasn't just.
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Unoccupied. He was gainfully employed and God calls busy people.
He was plowing. He was a farmer perhaps, and it appears that he was a prosperous farmer because there was 12 yoke of oxen. Perhaps he came from a family that was well off.
But he was plowing.
But more than that, I enjoyed this is that he was in the 12Th yoke. He was right at the back end. And I'm not much of A farmer. I've only worked on the hay fields a little bit when I was a young boy and a young man.
I have allergies and the dust that would be kicked up and so on just gave me an allergy problem immediately almost. And I would just be struggling trying to breathe, picking up hay and with an old hay baler, pumping out those rectangular hay bales and dropping them on the field. And, and I'd be working on the stacker, trying to get those hay bales onto the stacker and into a stack that could be pushed off and in off of the end of the stacker and.
Sometimes throwing them onto a baler wagon. But to be at the back end was the dustiest, dirtiest work. That was the hardest work. And here Elijah, the Spirit of God records that he was doing the dirtiest work at the back end of this.
All these auction that we're plowing and he was working for his father. He's know, knew what it was.
To do a work of service. In a natural sense, he was busy. You know God called busy people.
David, as a young man was keeping sheep and.
God called a little a young boy, a shepherd and he was able to deliver the people of God. We know the story and he eventually became the king, but he was a busy young man and we know that the fishermen that were called of the Lord, they were doing the lowly work. I want to just say this as an encouragement to you that are younger.
There's a great movement to get a college education, university education, even for the sisters. Does that push?
And it's not entirely always necessary.
To have a view of that day, that future day, and what really matters.
In life.
If the Lord has given you the calling to be an accountant, and you need to have an education to be able to go to university to get that, that's one thing. But perhaps the Lord isn't calling you to that kind of work.
And it's all right to take up a work that is less demanding, perhaps in time, and to not to be immersed in the world of Pharaoh and all of his designs to take up our time. So this man Elijah was plowing and his work was going to be a work of manifesting the grace of God in a time when things were broken.
You know how Elijah was saying it? He says that.
He names different things. He says the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant. He was right. They throw him down 9 altars. That's true. Slain thy prophets with a sword. It's true. Well, he didn't have it right when he said I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
Everything was broken.
Everything was broken.
And he looked about. He saw the ruin.
And he got his heart, and as he saw the ruin, and he forgot about the Lord, the difference was that the Lord desired to bless His people and desired desire to encourage His people, to strengthen His people. And in the sovereignty of God, His people were going to be fed. Now I don't have it. It's not my intention here to speak about the divine ground of gathering. I believe there is a divine ground of gathering. I believe the Lord Jesus is in the midst that He gathers.
We don't gather ourselves together. That's a wrong principle.
It's the Spirit of God that gathers. Nothing would happen apart from the sovereignty of God.
And so he gathers. But as a young man, I was brought up in a division among the Lord's people.
And I thank God for the reading meetings that I went to in that division. It was an imitation of the truth of God, that whole system that had been raised up. A man went out in division and he was a gifted evangelist.
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But I was saved in the sovereignty of God in that system.
I was fed in my soul at the reading meetings and I learned something of the truth of God.
And the doctrines of Christianity when I went to those reading meetings to make the system right. Why? Thank God for it.
And let's not despise our dear brethren that aren't gathered to the Lord's name, that are in those systems of men in some sort of an imitation. They don't have the real thing.
But uh, by grace, if they have something of the truth of God and God raises up different men in the camp that they might have food for their souls in a place in a world, in a Christian world that's all broken, Let's thank God for the whatever truth they have. Let's thank God that the gospel of the grace of God goes forth and that souls are saved. They might not have all of the truth.
But let's thank God for what they do have, and let's thank God that we have the energy, if there's any energy, to try to help and to strengthen the things that remain.
Well, Elijah here was plowing. He left the oxen.
Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. It was really a sign, perhaps an outward sign, to Elijah that Elijah was going to take over.
In that in fellowship with Elijah that he was going to.
Take up a work among the people of God.
I want to say what I say carefully.
I want to ask you young men here.
This afternoon it rejoices my heart to see you here, rejoices my heart to hear you talk about the Lord's things.
Rejoices my heart as I enter in a home and I see a couple of young men.
With their Bibles open.
It rejoices my heart when I see young men and I come into.
The situation where I see some books of ministry and they're reading something and studying the scriptures and desiring to know what the truth is.
Just rejoices my heart, but I want to ask you this, are you walking in fellowship with your older brother?
We are striving against your older brethren. You know, Elisha could have said Elijah, Why, you know, he just, he just made all kinds of mistakes here. He just, he just, he didn't have it right. He thought he was the only one and the Lord had to call him out on it. It wasn't all these miraculous circumstances that proved the presence of the Lord. Not the earthquake, the great strong wind. That was a small voice.
The Lord was speaking in a quiet way, and He will speak in a quiet way, but the point is here.
That Elisha.
He went, he rose, and he went after Elijah.
And ministered unto him.
And I just want to say this is an encouragement to you and I trust and encouragement to our older brother. And I say, older brethren, could I name a couple of names?
Those of you that are investor, do you come and you sit a little bit with brother Steve?
You said, those of you in Smith Falls, can you go and spend a little bit of time?
With brother Bill Wood.
With brother.
Bruce Wood.
Could you come in in Paul Meyer, Could you sit with brother Bill Maus role say, let's have a coffee. Let's let's talk about some of the things. I've got some questions. Could I could I just sit and talk and just open up the passage of Scripture? And I think this is the way it was with Elijah and Elijah because you know, after verse 21 here, you don't read about Elijah at all until chapter two of second kings. So there were some time spent alone.
And Elisha was learning something of the ways of God. He was with the man of God.
Really a type of Christ. I want to take it up in a practical way this afternoon and that is that.
Elijah went after Elijah. He spent time with them.
And God honors that.
Would you forgive me for just giving a little personal?
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Illustration.
I valued the fellowship of different rather than older brethren in past days, days past sometimes, and I can remember at a Dorothy conference walking around the ball field with Chuck Hendricks and discussing passages of Scripture that were a little bit perhaps difficult for me to understand or to enjoy. I can remember spending time in the presence of.
Brother.
Albert Hale, he skipped the meal so that we could just talk about things. I skipped the meal too, but he probably felt it more than I did.
Just skip the meal and we talked for a little while and he gave me some wisdom. We just didn't. We just enjoyed some of the things that got together that we couldn't enjoy in another venue.
When Gordon and Pearl got older, they would come to our home after breaking a bread and hammer Bay. They got to be a little more tired and they would perhaps come to our home, have a little bit of lunch and then lay down in our bed.
And then at 3:00, there was a meeting in the afternoon.
I still remember some of the things that we talked about.
I've never forgotten.
Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to see the young men walking with the older men and learning the truth of God and valuing the truth of God and recognizing the sovereignty of God, to maintain a little testimony of those that are gathered at the Lord's name, and to go on together without strife, just in sweet harmony.
To go on together and to walk together well. Elijah recognized that there was going to be perhaps a struggle with Elisha. Elisha says, you know, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. He said unto him, go back again, for what have I done to thee? You know there are hindrances for us to walk in the truth of God.
There are hindrances, sometimes there are family hindrances.
The call of family, perhaps responsibility. We know that he offered this, doesn't say that he went back to his father and mother. I'm thankful for that.
In the things of God, similar to the natural things. You know what it says in the scriptures that social a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh, not one person, but one flesh, two people.
And I have observed.
That those young men that do not leave the mother and the father.
In Cleveland, to their wives, that there yet to be a little bit of difficulty sometimes. Strife in the family, strife in the home.
And they have to recognize that there is a new family unit, a new unit responsibility.
A new household that's responsible to the head and glory. And the man of the home is as the head of that home, responsible to the Lord for the order of that home. And it's the wisdom of God that the man leaves his father and his mother, and he cleaves unto his wife, and he honors his father and his mother, but he takes the responsibility of this home, and it's necessary in the things of God.
Not to allow natural relationships to interfere. And this is one of the things that was going to be a test with Elijah and he asked her permission if could use that term to kiss my father and my mother. Then I will follow these. You know, we all have an excuse for why we shouldn't go right now, why we shouldn't do it right now. Let's just turn to I think it's Luke's Gospel Chapter 9.
And.
Let's read verse 59.
Luke 9.
And verse 59 And he said to another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou, and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit.
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For the Kingdom of God. I wonder sometimes whether he was referring to Elijah.
Doesn't say here, but you'll notice that little term me first.
No, nothing will be right in your life or mine, except it's Christ first, that in all things He might have the preeminence. And here Elijah wasn't going to tell him what to do.
And your older brethren are not going to try to run your life as young men. They're going to seek to present Christ to you. They're going to seek to present the truth to you. They're going to minister the truth in the assembly, and they're going to cry to the Lord that you have desire to buy it.
And to walk with the Lord and to walk in fellowship with the oversight that he has raised up in the assembly, and to go on sweetly and fellowship one with the other until the older brethren are taken to be with the Lord. And then more responsibility comes. Well, let's look at that chapter, chapter 2, Second Timothy. I'll make just a few comments. Or Second Kings, I'm sorry, Second Kings, chapter 2.
Elijah went with Elijah.
From Gilgal.
Now, isn't this quite an expression?
Wouldn't you write it if you were writing it? Wouldn't you say Elijah went with Elijah?
I looked it up in the new translation.
And it's written the same way. The Spirit of God says that Elijah went with Elisha.
From Gilgal.
Well, I think this is sweet to think of an older man walking with a younger man and the younger man as a servant.
Just walking in fellowship with that two of them together and the Spirit of God can record this.
That the older man went with the younger man.
They were of the same mind, they were going in the same direction and they went to Gilgal it speaks of.
Really, 4 little lessons here, maybe four big lessons that Elijah was going to bring before Elijah.
Just before he was taken to be with the Lord.
And the first one was to go to Gilgal, and we know that Gilgal speaks of self judgment.
Unfairing self judgment. And remember the first encampment of the Children of Israel when they crossed the River Jordan.
Was at Gilgal and it was very close to Jericho, but that was the first encampment.
And Elijah knew.
That Elisha's ministry among the people of God would be useless.
If it was done in the energy of the flesh.
In the wisdom of the flesh.
Wouldn't it would be useless?
And if we could just impart a little wisdom, a little instruction.
A little encouragement in the right way. Young men have a lot of energy.
Young men have a lot of natural energy and I'd like to get things done. I like to get things done right away, and they can see things that are broken and they want to fix them right away. And I'm no different, particularly when I was younger. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time for the Lord sometimes to get things prepared so that He can fix them.
And so the flesh interfering into the things of God isn't going to bring profit. So Elijah had to join Elijah and they had to walk together in self judgment.
That is judging the flesh. You know the Lord Jesus said 4 words.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
And I said before that you're saved and I'm saved. It's not because we're smarter than anybody else. The flesh would have never, ever, none of the flesh in your eye would have ever reached out in faith to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior. It was an act of God that we're saved. Well, and then he brings them to Bethel.
N Bethel is really a place where God had blessed Jacob.
We don't have time to look back there, but he had blessed Jacob, and in sovereignty his desire was to bring the people of God into blessing, and it was also the place that's called the House of God.
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So he needed to learn that God was going to bless his people.
In that place, then he comes to Jericho.
Learned a little lesson there, and he encountered the enemy. He encountered opposition.
That's where the enemy opposed the Children of Israel as soon as they wanted to enter into the land.
And remember, Joshua, the book of Joshua is perhaps the new, the Old Testament equivalent to Ephesians. And so they were going to go in and possess the land, and Jericho was there, the city of the curse, a picture of this world. It's also a picture of the good life.
Jericho was the city of palm trees. You like palm trees?
If you like to see the.
Tourist magazines and they have palm trees and a couple of palm trees and a hammock swung between them both and people sitting there lying there and with a nice drink and it's great.
That's hysterical. City of palm trees, luxury vacations, luxury cars, luxury homes. Jericho.
That's a hindrance to the people of God. That's a hindrance.
To your life and mind, prosperity, Jericho, the good life. Then they came to Jordan really speaks of death.
Death to the world, there's a river of death and really they were going to cross that river and it's a picture of going across into death. I'm not going to get into that whole type, but.
They both died, if you will, and went across the river.
And Elijah was Elijah was taken up that chariot of fire.
My father, my father, the charity of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. He saw him no more.
Elisha had to come back, came back across that river and he was going to have knowledge that man risen, He was in the glory, and you and I have the Lord Jesus in the glory.
So we're still down here, we still have work to do, those of us that are here. And Elijah was going to represent really in type. He's a picture of Christ as well. But he was going to do a work among the people of God. And he had these four lessons that he needed to learn before he went to begin his service. One is that he had to exercise self judgment, connection with Gilgal, and he had to recognize in Bethel that God was sovereign. He was going to bless his people.
Because he is God.
And in sovereignty, he was going to do it, and then he was going to.
Pass through Jericho and recognize the opposition of the enemy. Then in Jericho or in Jordan, a type of death, really, a separation between the believer in the world.
And he was going to need to learn those four lessons to be of any use to the people of God. Then I want to just point out verse three, the sons of the prophets. You'll forgive me for mentioning them again here, but I think it's necessary.
Sons of the Prophets.
Those that knew the truth knew something of the truth. They knew that Elijah was going to be taken up. They said to Elijah, don't you know that?
Let's see verse 5. Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, yeah, I know it. Hold your peace.
In a sense, they were going to hinder him, he says. Hold your peace. I know about this.
Don't bother me. Don't bother me with those details. I know they knew something.
But they would only stand far off.
And Jericho. And they would watch. They didn't go. They wouldn't walk as closely with Elijah as Elijah did. They are sons of the prophets.
Maybe they hadn't bought. If I could use New Testament terminology, they hadn't bought.
All of the truth for themselves. They knew some of the truth and they were. They did have some desire to walk with the Lord and Elisha has a relationship with them.
Their first mention in First Samuel in connection with I think Saul, King Saul has he ministered among the prophesied, among the prophets?
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But the sons of the prophets.
There are sons of the prophets here. They are daughters of the prophets.
There are those that have grown up in the assembly.
And they have a If I could say this, you have been brought up in a place of privilege beyond every imagination possible.
There are some first generation believers in this room, First generation believers at the Lord's Table.
And it costs something to leave the system that they were brought into.
Brought up in to leave that system and to come out to be gathered to the Lord's name.
Some of the things that you, perhaps that are sons of the prophets never ever had to experience.
And some of those that are had to come out of the systems of men and Baptist system, some some out of the Pentecostal system, some out of open brethrenism, some out of division.
Had to pay a price.
Let's say at lunchtime I was speaking with brother.
And remembering the time.
1969 that we came out of the vision.
And it was the most painful experience I have ever gone through. It wasn't. I don't know what a divorce is, and I don't ever want to know what a divorce is. But I liken it to perhaps the pain of a divorce.
It was difficult. It was there was a price to pay in friends.
And fellowship. There was a price to pay him, something that occurred during that time.
That is inexplicable, but a price had to be paid to leave that system and to come out and those I can look into your faces, some of you, and you know what I'm talking about. But there are sons of the prophets.
That are spoken of that have never paid a price. Perhaps I should say might not have paid a price to come out and to be gather to the Lord's name. Well, in the grace of God we're given that instruction in Proverbs chapter 23.
By the truth and sell it, not buy it for yourself. What is it that's going to hinder you? What could have hindered Elisha from following the Lord as a young man? Were those oxen?
He sacrificed those oxen and he took the instruments that were used. It wasn't like he could just get another.
Set of oxygen and use the same instruments. He burned the instruments. He couldn't go back.
And he decided he was going to follow God's man. He was going to go and follow Elijah.
And he did, and he was mightily used of God.
I just want to ask you this afternoon, what price did you pay to sit in the seat that you sit in here this afternoon? Did you pay a price?
Did it cost you anything to come to sit in that seat?
Have you been really before the Lord as to what it cost, perhaps your parents, perhaps your grandparents to be gathered to the Lord's name? I'll just close with one little illustration in that connection.
In Hammer Bay we have a brother, very quiet brother, Brother Ian Hurlbut.
And one year he was plowing my lane. He stopped the truck in front of the door. We went out and talked a bit and shut the truck off. And I said, Ian, I never heard about how you came to be gathered with the Lord's name.
How your family came into the assembly.
He said, well, my great great grandpa Clinton Hurlbut in Myrtle, Ontario, was walking by on the street in Myrtle, Ontario. He was walking on the street in the summertime, I believe it was. And he saw a door open and there was a Bible reading going on and there were chairs set like this. And he was a member of the Methodist Church.
As a young man and he went in, he, he wondered what this was all about. He went in and he sat down and he heard the truth of God, ministered some of the truth of God at a reading meeting.
And he thought this was very interesting and he went back again.
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And very shortly after he discerned what it was to be gathered to the Lord's name and that he felt that it should take his place at the Lord's table. So he went to the minister at the United at the Methodist Church. And he said to him, he said, I have decided to rescind my membership at the Methodist Church.
And I'm going to take my place at the Lord's table. I want to remember the Lord in his death.
In the midst of this, minister tried to talk him out of it, told him it was just a sect and so on.
No, Clinton said. That. I'm determined. I'm going to remember the Lord in his death with these people. I'm going to take my place at the Lords Table.
So he didn't. He took his place at the Lord's Table and he was working in leather.
He was a Shoemaker as well as repairing leather goods and so on. And so the Methodist minister shortly after stood up in his pulpit and he said to his congregation, you know, Clinton Hurlbut no longer is a member of this congregation. And he said, we're not going to use his business anymore for leather repair or shoes and so on.
He said.
Let's just not frequent his place of business.
And so.
His business collapsed. He lost his business.
And a little later on, I believe he lost his house. He ended up having to move, start another business that cost him his business.
It cost him his home.
To be gathered to the Lord's name.
When I was a boy, I lived in a house that my grandma and Grandpa Hoole had built in the early 50s, and it was built in a Roman Catholic area in the Roman Catholic Quebec.
And the Roman Catholic priests said to the people, those people don't go to the Roman Catholic Church.
Don't go into their little business, their little convenience store and buy anything. They don't belong to our company and so.
They starve them out of business and the Roman Catholics started. Another Roman Catholic man started a business across the street, a convenience store that was prosperous even in the day that I lived in that house in the 60s, dear friends.
My beloved brethren, this afternoon.
To be gathered to the Lord's name cost something.
And if you occupy a position that you haven't paid for. If you play.
Yeah, if you are gathered in large name and you've never really bought the truth for yourself and I've never taken and paid something for it.
Set aside family relationships, occupation, whatever it might be, paid something for it.
You may be in danger of giving it up and setting it aside as something that's not valuable. I just plead with you.
To search your own souls, search your own hearts, and bide the truth as Elijah had to do himself.