And the Iron Did Swim — E.A. Johnston

Elisha and the Floating Axe Head

In 2nd Kings, in chapter 6, we find the prophet Elijah out in the forest, chopping wood with his disciples, the sons of the prophets, and an accident occurs as we see picking up the story in verse 5, a Buddhist one was fell in a beam, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed, and the man of God said, Where fell it?

And he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and iron did swim. I remember years ago I was standing beside a lake with a man whom I'd been witnessing to for some time, and he just refused to believe the gospel or God or Christ or anything.

He was a real skeptic. Finally, he pointed to a picnic table and said, I'll tell you what, if God can make this picnic table float up in the air and spin around, then I'll believe in Jesus. Well, it's not that.

God couldn't make that picnic table float after all. He made the iron to swim for Elijah, but it's probably a good thing God didn't make that picnic table rise for that man, because if he had, he would have probably given him such a jolt that he'd had a heart attack and just end up going to hell quicker than his usual time.

Skepticism and Unbelief in the Modern Church

Now, we church folks are like that skeptic because we can read a Bible story about God making an axe head float for Elijah, but we don't believe he can do that today for us. Why is that? Isn't he the same God today as he was back then?

Isn't our God the God of Elijah? We only partly believe it because if we really believed in a God like the one in our Bibles, there's no telling how much trouble we'd give the devil and how much we'd shake the community in which we live for God, but we just don't believe God can do those kind of things anymore.

The Early Church and the Power of the Holy Ghost

I'll tell you what I mean. I was sitting for my oral exam for my Ph .D., and I was being interviewed by two of my seminary professors, and I made the comment to one of them that in the book of Acts, the early church acted differently than us today.

Why, they even went out and turned the world upside down because they were so full of the Holy Ghost, and I said, why can't we do that today? And my professor answered me matter-of-factly with the words, that was for that time.

God doesn't work like that today. You know, friends, that's the general consensus today in our churches. Well, that might be the case here in America because of our unbelief, but God is making the iron swim in China and Africa and Afghanistan where Christians believe that with God all things are possible, but we don't believe that God can make the iron swim in our churches today.

We don't believe He can make the iron swim in the salvation of our young people today, but I believe, friends, if we got serious enough with God and believe God to be the one who He says He is, that the iron will swim for us today, but we have to believe.

Faith, Desperate Prayer, and God's Saving Power

It's like the question Vance Havner used to ask, if we serve such a dynamite God, why are so many of us living firecracker lives? Listen, friends, God isn't deaf, and He ain't broke, and He ain't dead, and His arm is not too short to save, but we have to believe God is He, is who He says He is, and we must lay hold of Him by faith in desperate prayer, then expect Him to do what we can't do, even with all our money and manpower.

God is looking for faith, 2 Chronicles 16 .9 declares, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show themselves strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.

Self-Sacrifice and Lives That Bring God Glory

Listen, God's eyes are continually searching the earth for those rare individuals who believe God's word is true and that God is true to His word, men like Moses and John the Baptist, Luther and Calvin, Whitefield and Wesley, Finney and Moody, men who live in a different atmosphere than other mortals, men who have annihilated self with the cross and whose lives are broken alabaster boxes from which fragrances rise to the heavens from the broken pieces of selflessness, self-sacrifice, and self-crucifixion.

God is always on the lookout for such men, and I believe that God likes to make the iron swim because every time He does, He receives glory from it. He's looking for some men and women today of faith to see Him bear His arm and show Himself strong, brother pastor.

Revival in the Church and the Salvation of Souls

The reason why the iron isn't swimming down the aisle of your church is because of your unbelief, but if you let God get a hold of you like He wants to get a hold of you and have faith, there will be some explosions in your church that will awake your people out of their slumber because God is a dynamite God.

He's looking for a fuse to light. Will it be you? I believe our young people today would like to tell about the time that when the church stood on the brink of eternity and heaven sat down in the sanctuary as God moved in their midst and they saw the iron swim while God was at work in the salvation of souls.

Let us pray.