x Welsh Tract Publications: SERMON: II KINGS 19:15 (ELDER CHET DIRKES)...

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Historic

Sunday, September 2, 2018

SERMON: II KINGS 19:15 (ELDER CHET DIRKES)...

“And Yehovah said unto him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive, anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shall you anoint king over Israel and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, shall you anoint prophet in your place” (I Kings 19:15) [Sermon preached at Welsh Tract Old School Baptist Church by Elder Chet Dirkes today]


The work which Yehovah God had appointed unto His servant Elijah was approaching a conclusion as the time of his habitation was nearly over. Almighty God was not sitting back in anticipation for the next servant to rise up and answer His call nor was He anxious about the progression of His creation as it unfolded in time. Elijah had experienced amazing things by the power of God being made willing and able in the time of that power to perform and complete incredible works which reshaped the country-side, agitated the nation and disturbed many people; but he had fallen into a deep bout of self-pity and personal depression which caused him to lament his station in life and call for his own demise. Thus Yehovah dispatches this servant with his orders to specific locations where he was to meet certain individuals whom the Lord had predestined to do His will, show forth the power of His name and make known the greatness of His might.

The first individual was to be found in an ‘uninhabited large tract of land’ where grief, sorrow and pity had longed been silenced; the wilderness of Damascus. Here social justice ran ramped as the merchants of the world dealt in the commerce of the land for profit and power and the respect for the common man or the decency of respect had been supplanted by avarice. But there was a man ‘whom God sees’ (Hazael) who having no mind for the things of God or any delight in the kingdom of light was to be designated and consecrated as an ‘exalted’ king (Syria). He was not a man of great statesmanship or a compassionate leader. He was a ruthless man who would destroy many people and when he came to give his respect to Elisha, the prophet of God wept for the atrocities that this man was ordained to commit against the children of Israel (II Kings 8:12)

Had this man lost his way and surrendered to the power of the carnal will of man so that he strayed from the commission he was given only to become yet another heartless dictator and ruthless overlord? Or had Yehovah God ordained a judgment against the nation of Israel to show forth His long-suffering on the vessels outfitted for destruction and His mercy on the vessels afore prepared unto glory. Elijah told this ‘one whom God sees’ that his sword was to be bathed in the blood of many people but he was not the destroyer of all people (I Kings 19:17).

Once again the testimony is presented that the Great King over all the earth, afore prepared a select and particular subject of His creation to rise up in the appointed hour and facilitate the manifestation of the perfect Will of God on earth. This Will is the deliverance of His people and the praise of His name for which God created all things. He thus moves that which He has created in the manner commensurate to His good pleasure for the purpose of the accomplishment of His will, and none can stay His hand. There is no praise to the tool in the Master’s hand or admiration for the work he has performed. He was ordained as a seed in Adam for the time of his habitation and in the fullness of time became a passive recipient of the commission of God, which was assigned to him in the beginning. His vessel was properly outfitted for the work as he received the power to perform that which he was ordained to do before Adam was formed from the dust of the earth; every last things that he did was in the perfect will of God who put it in his heart to fulfill His will.

Elijah supposed that he was alone in this world as the only true and faithful witness for Yehovah God. God exalted Hazael to perform as he did because Yehovah God had a remnant according to grace which had not bowed the knee to Baal or kissed him. Thus this ruthless avenger had the rod of the Lord in his hand to execute justice upon the corruption and guilt of the people for the purpose of delivering the Sons of God from the vanity of this world

Oh how the mind of Adam wags his head in disbelief in a doctrine that would endorse such a perceived injustice imposed upon this man that the liberty of his free will would be overruled and contradicted as his power of choice taken from him; certainly such a doctrine make God a violator of His own Law. Thanks be unto God that He has interwoven all things into the fabric of His creation that He has decreed necessary for the perfect performance of that purpose which He purposed in Himself before the will of man could interfere with it or the choices of the vessel from the dust could overrule them. The Creator made everything in His creation suitable, willing and able to think, do and perform that which He has decreed proper and good and there is nothing set apart from His perfect sovereignty. He has made that which is crooked because a crooked portion, element or object was needed in His creation. He created the light and gave it the authority to shine, with certain intensity, where He appointed and He ordained the night and the darkness thereof to cover the face of the deep. He fashioned the good and made the evil as essential components of the life for welfare of His children whom He has made subject to the vanity of this life in the never ending pageantry of His gracious manifestation of the deliverance of His people; “And in those days, Yehovah began to cut Israel short and Hazael smote them in the coasts of Israel” (II Kings 10:32).

“And they said; Tell us now is this false? And he said unto them, Thus and thus spake he unto me, saying, Thus said Yehovah, I have anointed you King over Israel” (II Kings 9:12)
The second man that Elijah was to encounter was Jehu the son of Nimshi. This man was ‘rescued’ or ‘drawn’ to God being preserved for a most unpleasant yet necessary task (Nimshi) for ‘God had judged’ the nation of Israel and the house of Ahab (Jehoshaphat).

He was called forth to rise up in the place of the most wicked king of the land and make such an open display of the righteous judgment of God over the king’s family and the apostasy of the land. There was no pretense about this mane whose name means ‘he is Yehovah’ and his actions in the land caught the attention of the people.

Such an arrogant presumption to name a child ‘he is Yehovah’ for it insinuates that this son of the dust is the all-knowing, ever present, self- sufficient King of Kings who is seated in the heavens ruling over the kingdoms of this world. But the name was ascribed for the purpose of the nature and characteristics that God placed in this being. He went forth, after Elisha made it evident by the anointing that he was king and by the power of the Spirit, through the deception of lies, he slew Joram, the king of Israel with the bow and Ahaziah the king of Judah with the sword. He threw Jezebel from the window for the dogs to eat and invited the seventy sons of Ahab to a party; “So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his kinfolk and his priests until he left none remaining (II Kings 10:11). In the arrogance of his import and the pride of his accomplishments, Jehu rallied the people saying, “Come with me and see my zeal for Yehovah” as he went to Samaria where he continued his slaughter of the house of Ahab and all the prophets and worshippers of Baal thus Jehu was presented in the eyes of the people to be the deliverer that should come and free them from the tyranny of oppression and the heart of the people was drawn out after this messiah; “Howbeit, the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made all Israel to sin, Jehu did not depart from after them, the golden calves that were in Bethel and Dan” (II Kings 10:29).

This servant was charismatic in his actions as he caught the attention and admiration of the people but he took no heed to walk in the Law of Yehovah God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sons of the contention of the people. The people had hope in him and when after he completed his ‘good works’ for God he was set up as the King over Israel, the hearts and minds of the people were even more convinced that Yehovah God had blessed this man. He ruled for twenty eight years over the land as the champion of justice for he vanquished the house of Ahab and rid the land of the followers of Baal.

Although he was indeed set up, empowered and made successful in his work yet he was not Messiah. The Kingdom of the Redeemed of Yehovah does not come through bloodshed and aggression for it is a kingdom of peace. The blood of the Lamb satisfied the Law of God for the forgiveness of the sin of His people in Adam and by His faithfulness, they have peace with God. Even though daily the wrath of God is poured out upon the ungodliness of man as the Refiner’s Flame consumes the wood, hay and stubble of the house of Esau and the works of man, yet there is no condemnation to the children within the afore prepared vessels. God has not called His people to take up arms against the ungodliness of man or against the apparent injustice of the world. Only the perfect righteousness of God has the right and the authority to identify, condemn and execute His justice against the inability, corruption and guilt of man and no man, save the Son of Man, can take that privilege unto himself.

Jehu, like Adam in the garden, took it upon himself to be like Yehovah; this also was ordained of God. He went forth in the power of the Spirit of God as the king of Assyria, with the rod of God’s anger and the staff in their hand is My indignation (Is. 10:5) but he was neither a child of grace nor a tool worthy to be praised.

“…Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shall you anoint prophet in your place”
The time had come when the manifestation of the sovereign command of Yehovah God as the God over Israel would give place to an equally important manifestation of God as the deliverer of His people. The one cannot be without the other for if God be not the only God then He does not have absolute power. If Yehovah is not self-sufficient in Himself then He needs to join with another to perform His will and if He be not sovereign over all His creation then neither His word nor His work stands sure for there exists one great than He that could divert, augment and change what He purposed to do. God first made an open show before all the people, who openly testified to the truth but never repented of their ways that He alone is God and there is none other. Now because of this, He began to show that He alone can, did and does deliver His people in all things.

Elisha was given the reigns over Israel and not just the ten northern tribes. He was plowing the field, which is the earth, with twelve yoke of oxen representing the twelve tribes of Israel but his hand was upon the last, which is Ephraim. Ephraim had become the epitome of the corruption of the children of Israel as he was a cake unturned and wholly given to idolatry. The fact that the hands of ‘My God delivers’ were upon the twelfth oxen presents the picture that nothing that Israel/Ephraim had done was outside of the eternal decree of He who causes all things to come to pass by the power of His will. The people indeed had followed after the lusts of their hearts as do all the sons of Adam but the hand of the Ruler of the Universe is not slackened or inhibited by these actions; rather He has ordained them, whatsoever comes to pass.

The God of salvation had revealed Himself in this servant because He has already judged His people (Shaphat). The judgment seat of Yehovah God, which is His Anointed Salvation, has the names of all for whom the blood was shed as they are one in Him. There has never been nor ever shall be a time when the children of the King shall stand before the King to give account of the works done in the flesh for not one of them has any spot or blemish. While in the habitation of this dwelling, the blood of the Lamb has been struck upon the doorposts of these earthen vessels so that as the Messenger of the Lord passes continually over the land, He sees the blood and does not hurt those who have been so sealed. The Advocate of the children, who have been made subject to the vanity of this existence and the bondage of the corruption of the body of this death, stands before the Father, who has seen the travail of His soul and is well pleased, and neither He nor His children have anything to answer for before the perfect throne of judgment; even though, after the flesh, the children walk after the course of this world, following after the lusts of the flesh and the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

God sent forth His Son, who is the fullness of the Godhead in the bodily form, to make an open manifestation before all the world that he alone is the Salvation of His people and that His people alone are the recipients and benefactors of that deliverance. Yet in this time He has prepared His servant Elisha as a type of that Messiah who should come.

Elisha is from Abelmeholah or ‘the pasture of dancing’. This is the plain or meadow which the Lord has prepared for His people where He leads them and causes them to find rest (Ps. 23:2). It is not of this world. No man can build a structure that could resemble it and no group of people assembled could simulate this place where the company that is named in heaven, is assembled together rejoicing in the finished work of the Lord; which is the deliverance of His people. This is a place where Adam is not aware of neither is he welcomed to enter into for here the pure language is spoke whereby the children call upon the name of the Lord aright and sing His praises forever more. The name of Adam is not spoken here for each of the sons of God have a name, which no man can know, given them of the Father, inscribed upon the palms of the Perfect Sacrifice for sin which is a Rock clean and white.

The salvation of Yehovah, who unto His people is the testimony that ‘My God delivers’ is then hope that dwells within them. It is not a hope in a new beginning for Adam or of repentance from his ways for it is the deliverance from the body of this death. These three men stand together in the representation of this deliverance as the whole house of Esau is under consideration. The eternal hatred of God upon Esau is because of His sovereign will and perfect righteousness for he is of the earth and can never hit the mark of perfection as demanded by the holiness of God. This was the intent of God when He formed man from the dust of the earth that no man should glory in His sight and the wrath of God is poured righteously against this quilt.

He has called for the one whom He has foreseen to be the rod of His anger against those whose consciences have been seared with a hot iron. He has raised up the zeal of man to vanquish the enemy and take dominion over the inherent inabilities of man but the heart of this man cannot be separated from his nature; thus Jehu walked in the sin of the people. But there is One who has walked the path and endured all that His children shall ever endure. He made Himself of no reputation and has experienced all the trials and the pressing down upon Him and the contradiction of inability against Himself; therefore He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He came in full demonstration of the fact that salvation is impossible with man for it is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent and no man can duplicate, impersonate or counterfeit the truth of Elisha; My God Delivers.

These four men are sons of the dust and their antics give ample evidence that they have no worth before God, but they represent the salvation of Yehovah. Only He stands before the Father as the exalted King of Kings and Lord of Lord for the Father has given Him a name that is above every name; “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of all in heaven and all in the earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10).

He alone is Yehovah as the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Him. He is the child that was born and the Son that was given; He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of peace and of the increase of His government there is on end. He draws all men by the cords of men and with the bands of love, though they know it not (Hos. 11:4) and no man comes unto Him save the Father draws them (John 6:44).

There is no man capable of his own salvation nor can assist in another’s deliverance from sin for every seed of Adam knows not he is guilty before God. There is none that seeks after righteousness and none that looks for the kingdom of light; for men are lovers of darkness. Therefore the Mighty God brought salvation unto Himself and by the strength of His will He delivered His people; all this was finished before the foundation of the world. Therefore the testimony of the children of light is that Yehovah is My God, I have been and always shall be before His face as His salvation as He draws me through the steps of time to fulfill His Will. He alone is the Lord God Almighty and there is none that can stay His hand therefore He has righteously judged all men and concluded His children perfect, granting that they should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. My God is My salvation for there is no other than Yehovah, Lord of Hosts.

Your servant in Christ,
chet

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