Miracles of Elisha, Message 4 — Ed Miller

Well, thank you, sister, for sharing. We see not only what God has done, but the method by which He did it is quite a miracle, and we rejoice with you. Amen. And thank you, Ben, for sharing. Amen. Let me ask you, Ben, maybe I misunderstood.

Did you say there's more interaction between the pupil and the professor? Professor? Did you use that word? What are you professing? Before we look at our indispensable principle, I see my friend Steve Ward is here tonight.

He's going to discover I gave him the wrong text to study in advance. So either he's going to have to come back tomorrow or he's going to have to share with me before I speak tomorrow what light he got on that text.

Reliance on the Holy Spirit in Bible Study

As we come to the study of God's Word, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable. And that principle is total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. I hope you don't get tired of hearing me say that, because whether you are with me or not, I say that every time I come to the Bible.

I need to remember that only God can reveal God. Only the Lord can unveil Himself in this precious book. One of the studies we're working on in Newport, we're going through the wonderful book of Acts.

And in the book of Acts, we're up into the teens now in our preparation. We haven't talked that far, but I'm preparing and going on ahead. And one of the things that gripped my heart is in Acts chapter 16, where Paul received that prayer, the Macedonian prayer.

Do you remember that? The man from Macedonia. And one of the questions I asked was, who was that man from Macedonia? And I found out it was Lydia. First one, but I think it was bigger than Lydia. I'm sure it was you.

I think that's where the gospel started to move west. And that's the man from Macedonia. Anyway, in connection with Lydia's salvation, there's a wonderful verse in the Bible. You know, we've been talking about having our eyes open.

But let's say God opens our eyes and we behold the Lord and wonderful truth. What's next? Listen, please, as I read to you Acts 16, 14. God opened her heart to respond to the things that were spoken by Paul.

He not only has to open my eyes to see, but then he must open my heart to respond to the things that he has shown me. Will you bow with me as we call upon the Lord to open our eyes and to open our heart to what he speaks?

Father, we thank you so much that you're the one that does the opening. We ask you again, Lord, to minister yourself, your life, through this precious book. Show us in a fresh and in a living and in a transforming way the Lord Jesus in his wonder and in his beauty.

We pray as we hear the truth from your word that your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts and then open our hearts to respond. We want to receive Christ as you propose him to us. I pray for everyone in this room and I pray, Lord, that by your grace, you would, even as we studied this morning, you would feed us and protect us from anything in the stew that is not from you.

Put your word in the stew that we might receive a healthy portion. We thank you, Lord, in advance that you're going to meet with us tonight because we ask it in the worthy name of our Savior, our Lord Jesus.

Amen. Welcome again and let me just, by way of a quick review, tell you where we are. We're looking at the wonderful servant of the Lord, Elisha, his life. The approach we've taken because of God's presentation of Elisha in the Bible.

Elisha as a Picture of Christ

The one who went unto his own and his own received him not. The one who wept over Jerusalem. The one that healed the leper. The one that multiplied loaves. The one that raised the dead. The one that through his death brought life to others.

He's the man that looks like Jesus. And that's why we're studying the Old Testament, the seed form illustration of the new covenant Christian. In the New Testament, Elisha is in the Old Testament. He's God's illustration of what it means to be a person, a man, a woman, a young person like the Lord Jesus.

And so we've been studying this wonderful life and ministry of Elisha. The message that Elisha had is the new covenant. Those are miracles of life, miracles of resurrection. And so Elisha's the man like Jesus, and the message he has is the gospel.

And we have this in picture form. Now in our discussion, we've divided up these five sessions this way. The first two sessions, we looked at the man, the man that looks like Jesus. And then in the next two sessions, we were looking at the message of the man that looks like Jesus.

And Lord willing, tomorrow we'll summarize it. God brings the whole thing to a marvelous clincher. And we'll look at that in the morning using Steve Ward's text that I announced. In our first two lessons when we looked at the man, I'm just going to run over these principles just so you have it in your mind's eye again.

God put his mantle on Elisha when he called him. But it was almost ten years later that the mantle that was on his shoulder was in his hand. And before the mantle could get from his shoulder to his hand where he could become a man like Jesus, God had to accomplish certain things in his life.

And we looked at those three principles. Number one, he had to respond to the grace of God. And he had to respond in a total mission to that call of God. And we saw in 1 Kings 19 that he did that. And then God had to plant in him a hunger, a desire.

And in those ten years, God so worked in him through his servant Elijah that when at the end Elijah laid before him a blank check and said, you can fill it in. Before I leave, what do you want? Without hesitation, he said, a double portion.

And you remember the double portion had to do with the firstborn. And it was that desire to have everything God wants to give so that I might be God's instrument of manifestation so the whole world can look at me and know how God wants to meet them, treat them, bless them, deal with that.

That hunger, that desire. And finally, the last thing God worked in his heart was focus. But if you can see me, if you can look beyond the physical into the spiritual realm and stay focused on that realm and see me when I'm taken up, it shall be so.

And God did allow the distractions. The tornado came, and you know how that would cause you to turn your head. And then the fiery chariot came and the horses in front of him and between him, but he stayed focused.

And when he was caught away, he saw him. Because God had worked in him the ability to respond to grace and planted in his heart a desire to want God's everything and a focus to keep his mind, his heart on the Lord, on spiritual things.

When that mantle came down, he reached down, and now he becomes a man like Jesus. And so that was the preparation. And then in our second message, it was sort of an overview, the way God has laid out those next four stories.

If I actually pick up that mantle, what will my life look like? What will my ministry look like? Illustrated by the opening of the Jordan River, the first miracle after he had the mantle in his hand. If I'm like Jesus, God, the Lord will be opening the path before me.

And all the days of my life, he's going to be opening the way, removing the obstacles, removing the hindrances. That's what the man's life who looks like Jesus will be. And what will my message be like?

Illustrated by the healing of the water of Jericho, God will use me to bless those who say yes. He'll allow me to go to the spring and put in the salt and watch barrenness become fruit. But for those who say no, illustrated by the men of Bethel, the same one that brings a blessing will bring a curse.

And then God will allow me to be available to all those that need to be restored. God for that ministry. Then this morning we began to look at the message. The message of the man of God. I attempted this morning through the four stories to show you the chief characteristic of the message of the man that looks like Jesus.

Christ as the Message of the New Covenant

And the chief characteristic is this, and by the way, we're going to look at more characteristics tonight. You can forget the ones I do tonight if you remember the one we did this morning. Because that's the main one, that's the chief one.

And that is our message is a person. It's Christ Himself. It's not a philosophy. It's not a doctrine. And even though I love to use the word principle, it's not even a principle. It's Him. It's Christ.

The oil that we have in our house. What do you have in your house? Life. Who not only gives life like He gave that little boy to the woman, but He is the one then that sustains that life by the power of the resurrection.

God gave a supernatural birth and then a resurrection. He's the one who feeds the hungry with a living word from heaven and purifies the whole stew and provides for those that are hungry in secret places.

That's what we looked at this morning. And so the chief characteristic, what's the message like? It's a person. It's Him. It's the Lord. It's Christ. It's the second person of the Godhead. It's our Lord Jesus Himself.

Now, this evening, it's going to be my assignment to present other characteristics. And by looking at other characteristics, the problem will be, of course, not to present them in a way that they're not related to the characteristic.

Nothing is gained if you leave this place and say, I can name five characteristics of the new covenant. I can name six characteristics. Who cares? You can name four or five or six characteristics. But if seeing those characteristics, in your heart, the reality of those and how they relate to Him, who is the sum and substance of it all, to Christ, then that message becomes a precious message indeed.

So this is the man that looks like Jesus. And this is the message He's embraced, that He proclaims, that He holds forth to bring life and hope to others. Let me lay before your hearts in advance the four characteristics that we're going to look at in terms of these next four stories.

Once again, I sort of have to apologize every time we get up here because there's just not enough time. We've got to leave so much behind. But if you'll be patient with that, I know you've studied and you're anxious to hear what God has given you and someone else has seen it.

Say yes. And many precious, precious truths. Don't put this section of Scripture away after Joshua. May the Lord help you to get into it and meditate on it. There's so much here. But as I understand it, each of these next four stories gives a truth, which I'm just calling, for the sake of analysis, a characteristic of the message.

A precious truth. A fact. And then God, as He seemed to say that He would be afraid we would mess it up, but so that the fact would be driven home to our hearts, sometimes He just gives you a principle, and then He lets you apply it.

He said, there's the truth. Now, when you share it, apply it. And so you have to pray and say, Lord, how would I apply this? But what God has done in these four stories, He gives a truth, and then He applies that truth.

He gives an application of that truth. Now, He only gives one application to each story. But there are other applications. That's why when you study the Bible, ask the Lord not to help you apply what you read.

Because if you apply what you read, you'll have one or two applications. Don't ask the Lord to help you apply what you read. Ask the Lord to show you the principle involved, and then apply the principle.

And you'll have unlimited applications to that principle. Because a principle is true in every age and generation in every part of the world. It'll never change. So ask the Lord to give you the principle, and then get into application.

Because if you just try to apply the scripture, you're stuck with only one or two applications. So in case you are planning to fall asleep during this message, let me just tell you up front, here's story one, here's the fact, here's the application.

Here's story two, here's the fact, here's the application. I'll give it to you right up front, and then you can check out. I'll keep talking and let you know when you can leave. The first truth is this, what does our message look like?

Pure Grace and the Forgiveness of Sin

What's the message of the man of God look like? Here's the first truth. Our message is the message of pure, but he chooses one. Forgiveness of sin. The cleansing of Naaman the leper. There are many ways to illustrate the pure grace of God, but he chose this illustration.

Cleansing. Forgiveness of sin. The second characteristic is this. What does our message look like? It's not only pure grace, but it's a message himself, his work. We can't do it. Now there's many illustrations in life of, he's got to do it, I can't do it.

But the one that he chooses is Christian service. By the miracle of the floating ax head. And so we'll look at that as an application. You could illustrate it other ways, but he chooses that. What does our message look like?

A message of pure grace. A message of the power of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord doing everything. Our message is a message of revelation. Open it to us. Open our eyes. God has to show up. Illustrate that.

Victory over the enemy as his illustration. Victory over the Syrians. That's the story Brother Bill was referring to this morning. That's his illustration. And finally, the last story. The fourth characteristic of our message.

It's not only pure grace. It's not only that God must do it all. The mighty power of God. It's not only revelation that God must open our eyes. But the last story illustrates the absolute certainty of God's purposes.

The absolute certainty of God's purposes. Now there are many illustrations of that. He decides to use restoration as his illustration. The chapter 8, 1 -6. The full restoration of the inheritance of the widow and her son.

And so that's our message. You say, what's our message? Well, it's praying. The message of the man who looks like Jesus. His message is a person. It's the Lord. What's the message look like? Oh, you listen.

It's pure. The message of the man that looks like Jesus. It's revelation. It's from Him. He's the one that opens it up. Faithfulness of God. All His purposes are certain. All His purposes are sure. That which He designs will come to pass.

God will bring it to us. As I said, there's other things to illustrate these things. But perhaps, even in this place, maybe somebody needs to know that they can be forgiven tonight. So we'll stick with His illustration.

Maybe somebody got so burdened down in Christian service that they need to know God must. Maybe someone is so overwhelmed by the enemy in their life that they need to have their eyes open to a few things.

Maybe someone is getting discouraged because their path has gone and they're wondering, where's the Lord? Is He still on His throne? Does He still care? And so we'll see. May God help us as we look. Now you know what we're going to look at.

Pure grace. Since God has chosen forgiveness to illustrate it, I want to describe His pure grace then in terms of the story of Naaman. If you'll turn to 2 Kings chapter 5, please. It's not an accident that this is the only story of Elisha that's mentioned in the New Testament.

It's in Luke chapter 4 and verse 29. Otherwise, you won't see Elisha in the New Testament. And why does Jesus mention this story about Elisha? Because this miracle is a missionary miracle. Not every miracle was a missionary miracle, but this one was.

And here the Lord, in His mighty power, goes outside the boundaries of Israel and reaches into the heart and into the land of the Gentiles. So now let me tell you the story, and I'll just pick isolated verses and you follow along.

The principle is the grace of God. The pure, unadulterated grace of God. That's what we believe. That's what we hold. That's what we preach. That's what we proclaim. That's the message that God has given.

It's Christ, and because it's Christ, it's the free grace of God. Let me break it down. One illustration of the grace of God in this story on forgiveness is this. The grace of God always seeks out the sinner, the leper.

The Bible presents Naaman as a Gentile seeker. And if he's a Gentile seeker, as Luke says he is, then how's God going to reach him? Skeptics love to ask that question. Now what about the heathen? What about those who don't live in a gospel country where they can hear it on the radio or someone can tell it or there's a church on every corner?

What about those who live in South America or in Africa or some savage or aborigine in Australia? Or what about those tribes in New Guinea that have never heard? What about those? You see, God doesn't clear his throat when he answers a question like that.

He says, anybody who seeks me is going to find me. Anywhere on the earth, there's no excuse. Anybody who seeks me is going to find me. Now I'm not going to get into Romans 1 and all the lights of creation and conscience and the word of God and all of that.

But just know this, that every place on the earth there's a seeker. God will provide a human instrumentality in some way so that that person can come to the Lord. Now how did he do it for Naaman? Look at chapter 5, verse 1.

Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, or Syria, was a great man with his master and highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper.

Did you notice that expression in verse 1? By him the Lord had given victory. Now that's an amazing verse. A passage like that, God gave victory to this man. He didn't know it. He didn't think it was God.

I'm sure Naaman, he got famous for this. He became a hero in the land because of the victory he had. And when he came back, they gave him great honors after that war. And he didn't say, you know, the only reason I got these honors, God gave me the victory.

He didn't have a clue about that. And what did Naaman do when God gave him the victory? Verse 2. Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife.

That's what happens in war. They take prisoners of war. And so in this war, God gave him victory. He went up against God's people, against Israel. They invaded the land, and they took POWs. They took prisoners of war.

And one of the prisoners of war was this little Israeli girl, maybe 8 or 9 or 10 years old. And they took this little child back. You say, what happened to her family? The Bible doesn't tell us what happened to her family, but if I were writing the Bible, I could guess what happened.

They were probably killed trying to protect that little girl. If it was my little girl, I'd be dead before they took her. If it was your little girl, you'd probably be dead before they took that little girl.

He calls attention to this little maiden being taken away as a prisoner of war. Say, that's the most natural thing in all the world at time of war. Yes, but from God's viewpoint, it's also the most supernaturally natural thing in all the world.

The Lord is behind this because God looked down from heaven and saw a seeker in Syria. And He said, according to Luke, that's why He did it. There were other lepers, but they weren't seeking. This one was a seeker.

And God knew that, and so He had to send somebody. And on the level of earth, and from the standpoint of man, it's a terrible tragedy. Our baby has been taken, our little girl, and we may never see her again.

Can you imagine the family? And this was not only one, it's the only one that we read about, but others were taken as prisoners of war as well. But if it was a tragedy, it's a missionary tragedy, because the Lord was behind it.

And so, we read in verse 3, She said to her mistress, I wish my master were with the prophet who's in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy. Boy, God had really worked in this girl. I don't have time to discuss the girl, but what a harm.

If that was me, I'd say, you leper, I'm glad you're a leper. I hope you die a leper. You took me out of my mother's home. But this little girl's different. Boy, there's something God did in her heart.

This little girl's testifying. She said to her mistress, She said, I wish your husband could only go to Israel, because there's a man there just like Jesus. And he could cure him of his leprosy. That's a step of faith, because don't forget, the only leper up to this time that had been cured was Miriam.

She was on brand new ground. Faith, and what if it didn't work? You come back after going on a long trip, come back, how are you going to treat your servant girl who told you that lie? It's amazing, this little girl was tremendous.

And that's the grace of God. Usually, unless it's in the Lord, that's what John chapter 4 is all about. How water goes after thirst. He's the one that seeks out thirst. And he saw this one, this man hungry.

And because of the testimony of this little girl, Naaman was saved. And Israel was called to repentance. And the king was made aware of God's power in Israel. And probably thousands will be in heaven because of this story.

And the testimony of that little girl. That's the grace of God. He initiates and goes first and seeks out the sinner. But the grace of God levels pride to the dumbest man down to nothing. Naaman, look at verse 1.

He was a proud man as the world would look at him. A military force in favor with the king. Respected as a national hero. Brave. A valiant warrior. Probably very wealthy because of the spoils of war and so on.

But in spite of all that authority and all that honor, he fought. But he was a leper. And a grave for his life. All of the accomplishments. Everything he has. All of the honor. Grace humbles the proud.

I don't know if it was humbling for him to hear the word of that little maiden girl. That was his slave. Maybe it was. But anyway, he acted on it. At this point, he doesn't have a clue about the grace of God.

All he knows is, I've got a big need. I am a leper. And she says there's hope. And I haven't heard anybody else say there's hope. And this little girl has given me hope. So we see him show up. But he shows up like a proud man.

And he's got a great price in his hand. Verse 5. The king of Aram said, go now. I'll send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed. And he took with him ten talents of silver. Six thousand shekels of gold.

Ten changes of clothes. This is a king's ransom. And now this leper goes because he doesn't know about the grace of God yet. God begins to bring him down because the grace of God always humbles. And when he arrives at the king's palace, he learns that the king can't do anything for him.

And he's told to go to the prophet's house. That's sort of humbling. And so with his royal entourage, and according to this, it says his horses and chariots, plural. He didn't just come by himself. He didn't just come with an attendant.

There are chariots involved. And so all these chariots, one after the other, pull up to the prophet's house. And did you notice how verse 10 begins? Elisha sent a messenger to him. The prophet didn't even come out himself.

He sends a messenger to him. This important man. This great general. This captain of the army. The one who has all this money in his hand to give. That's humbling to this leper. And then to cure his leprosy, the messenger says, Go down to the river Jordan.

You know the story. And dip seven times into the river. Well, listen to the response of the proud man. Verse 11. Naaman was furious and went away and said, Behold, I thought he'd surely come out to me, stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.

Are not Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? And he turned and he went away in a rage. Proud man. The grace of God. He uses humble means to reach us.

He refuses everything we bring in our hand to pay him. He doesn't recognize our importance. Seems like he calls on us to do unreasonable things. God doesn't come with bells and whistles and signs in the sky and all that kind of thing.

The grace of God waits to meet with a leper. God has a great salvation for lepers. But he has no salvation for captains. He has no salvation for lepers. But he has no salvation for generals. God brings them low and brings them down.

He came as an important person, but he won't be helped until he's a leper. Not only does the grace of God seek out the seeker, not only does the grace of God bring down the proud, but this is the point, the wonderful point, the grace of God pours out his blessings for free on those who will receive it.

Who can read these verses without being moved? 13 and 14. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?

How much more when he says wash and be clean? And so he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

What a word he'd been given in verse 10. Elisha sent a messenger saying, Go wash in the Jordan seven times. Your flesh will be restored to you. How simple is that? This is our message. God will seek you out.

God will bring you down. And then God will bless you when you're down. That's our message. I think it went something like this. Servant says to him, If he gave you some tough thing to do, if you had to crawl on broken glass and Bermuda shorts so many miles, you'd do it.

He said go down and dip seven times. Why don't you do it? All right. I've got to get in that muddy, that silty, that rushing river. We've got better rivers in my land. What am I doing here? God said seven times.

Okay, okay. I can picture him going down. Now we don't know what stage his leprosy was. I've got a vivid imagination. I don't think he had a nose and he didn't have toes. I'm kidding. I don't know how advanced it was.

Probably not that advanced because he was still in contact with people. And later when Gehazi got leprosy, it said the leprosy of Naaman clinged to you, and he was just white as snow. So probably that was the stage of his leprosy.

I don't know. But I picture him going down, dipping underwater all the way down. Okay, okay. And all the way back up again like when you were baptized. Right up. If I were Naaman and that skeptical, I would have gone.

And he changed. The man of God said seven times. He comes up. Up he comes the third time. This is stupid. This is silly. Why did I let myself be talked into that? The man of God said seven times. And so he goes down again.

And he goes down a fifth time. And he goes down a sixth time. This is not going to work. The man of God said seven times. And he goes down the last time. And he comes up. You think there was any shouting at Jordan that day?

Can you imagine? And he comes up and the Bible says that he was clean. He was clean and his flesh, verse 14, was restored like the flesh of a little child. This was no gradual healing. He wasn't 80 cured or 90 cured.

And then he had to go get some seeds implanted to take care of the rest. It wasn't like that. Get a chance. Now, any baby will do. But you'll probably want a whole Sarah, my granddaughter. Studying this.

I'm just rubbing her leg. He was better off than before he got leprosy. He went down and came back with the flesh of a little child. What a cleansing. That's the message we have. That's the message we preach.

And it's all free. Verse 15. When he returned to the man of God with all his company and came and stood before him, he said, Behold, now I know there's a God. There is no God in all the earth but in Israel.

Now, please, take a present from your servant. And he said, As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will take nothing. And he urged him to take it. And he refused. Free. I don't have the time now to tell you the story of Elisha's servant.

Gehazi. You can read it. He tried to put a price tag on the grace of God. And when he tried to put a price tag on the grace of God, you know what happened to him. And it's all written in that chapter.

The last two verses. When Naaman left Israel, look at verse 17. And I have found new ground to stand. And he wanted with him. That's our message. That's our message. It's the message of the grace of God.

The message that God will seek you out. The message that God will bring you down to nothing. The message that God, no matter how ugly, no matter how repulsive, no matter how deep the dye, no matter how indelible the stain, He'll wash you as white as snow.

Nothing in my hand I break. Simply to the cross I cling. Naked, come to Him for dress. Helpless, come to Him for grace. Fly before I die. Don't answer. Anybody need cleansing tonight? See, there's other ways he could have illustrated the grace of God, but he wanted to use this illustration.

Come as a leper and leave as a little child. He's inviting you to do. Well, let's move on. Chapter 6. The sons of the prophet said to Elisha, Behold, the place before you where we are living is too limited for us.

God's Power in Christian Service

Please let us go to the Jordan, each of us, and take a beam and let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live. And he said, Go. Then one said, Please be willing to go with your servants. And he answered, I shall go.

And so he went with them. And when they came down to the Jordan, they cut down trees. And as one was felling a beam, an axe head fell into the water. He cried out and said, Alas, my master, for it was borrowed.

The man of God said, Where did it fall? He showed him the place. He cut off a branch and threw it in there and made the iron float. He said, Take it up for yourself. And so he put out his hand and took it.

The second fact of our message is this. It's a message on the power of God. Not by might. Not by power. That's the message that we preach. It's not in us. It's in the Lord. And as I said, that message can be illustrated a thousand ways.

But he illustrates it with this Christian service. The sons of the prophets are experiencing growing pain. Picture a seminary, a Bible school. They're in Bible school. And evidently, a lot of people have signed up for the next course.

Someone's teaching apologetics. Right, Steve? Steve's going to be teaching apologetics. He's been discussing with me, Is that a scriptural course I'm teaching? They're signing up. They want to enlarge the school.

And it's a legitimate thing to do. It's a Christian service. And so they're given permission to go and enlarge the facility. This service, in the middle of this service, meant that what was used to perform the service was all of a sudden irretrievably lost.

You see, the goal was to fell a beam, not lose an axe head. And somebody was chopping, and when he was chopping, the axe head fell off and went into the Jordan River and sunk. In the middle of the work, in the middle of the labor, somebody flew off the handle.

Something happened, and the instrument that was doing the service was lost. Don't read that la-la-la, because I'll tell you, thousands and thousands of Christians go out to serve the Lord. And in the middle of the work, those who are serving the Lord find themselves in the bottom of the Jordan River and wonder what in the world happened.

I know a little about that. That happened to me in 1965. I got so involved in ministry and so involved in the work of the Lord, when that axe handle fell off, I was so stupid I started chopping with the handle.

I kept serving until God let me know that it was all in vain. Anyway, it's a beautiful picture. They bring the man of God into the picture in verse 6. He says, cut off a branch, a living branch, not a dead stick, a living branch, and throw it in.

And when the branch was thrown in, almost like a magnet, the iron did swim, and that axe head came right up to the branch that was floating in the top. This is all Old Testament. This is all seed form, but it's the secret of our message.

Who's the branch? Zechariah 6, verse 12, 13, 14. The man whose name is the branch, he will build the town. That's Zechariah 6 and 12. The man whose name is the branch. The secret of Christian service, that I can't do it.

There's got to be something more than nature, and when I identify with the living branch, a resurrection takes place. The axe head is brought up again, and now the same axe head that sunk can get involved in the service, and they continue the Christian service.