Brother Trevor Howard and Elder James Moseley | 06-28-2026

Brother Trevor Howard - Romans 5 - The Necessity and Success of the Sacrifice of Christ

Elder James Moseley - Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 2 Kings 2:11-14 - Passing down and Picking up the Mantle

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I take great joy in telling you today that you are the Lord's people. I can think of no other title uh more precious than that. Um quite a charge there, brother James. It's uh something I try to do, uh in my at least to myself each time I'm uh to get up, and it's to remind myself of what I just told you, that who I'm gonna be standing before is not just anybody, it's the Lord's people. Uh you belong to the Lord. He bought you with his own precious blood, and because of that, uh he has charged the ministry to uh preach the good news to you, to tell you who you are, to tell you where you are, that you're in Christ Jesus. And I want to do that today. If the Lord will bless uh for a little while, uh then uh this will be a benefit. Romans chapter 5. I'm right-handed, Brother James, but I'm gonna try and read from my left through the water, so uh just to make it easy or difficult, I guess. Romans chapter 5. I'm gonna start reading in verse 6. The Apostle Paul's writing, he says, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if we for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also, by whom we have now received the atonement. Um there's a lot jam-packed into this. Um what's been pressing on my mind um since the last time I filled the pulpit is um uh what I'll just refer to as two aspects of Christ, or what I'll say are two aspects of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And uh, you know, we we sometimes talk about how to how to sort of summarize doctrine, people talk about tulip doctrine or something. Um I'm I'm not gonna get into all of that, um, but what I do want to try and nail down if we can is two aspects of the uh of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I'll introduce this thought by asking you a question. Do you believe, do you believe that your state without God was such that it necessitated Jesus Christ? Do you believe that you, without God in your life, without the grace of God in your life, without the Spirit of God uh dwelling in you, do you believe that you were in such a state that you could not save yourself? Not that you had some strength, but you had no strength. You could not save yourself. See, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was necessary for you. It wasn't just one of the options on the table, it wasn't a last-minute plan that was drawn that was drawn up. This was determined before the foundation of the world when God chose his people, that there must be a sacrifice for sin. He knew his children would sin. He didn't cause them to sin. Don't ever let anyone tell you different. He did not cause man to sin. Man chose, Adam specifically chose in his own free will to sin and thereby plunged us all into sin. But God, knowing this, he uh set in motion his purpose to save his people from their sin, and that was by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So you see, it was necessary for a sacrifice to take place. If we pretend that our sins really aren't as bad as they are, we are in some sense saying that I don't actually need a savior. I have some goodness of my own that I can offer the Lord. That maybe I have a little bit of strength of my own that I can offer the Lord. It doesn't say that. It says, for when we were yet without strength. No strength. None. Have you ever been without strength? Have you ever worked really hard? Maybe you've built a fence all day or you've mowed yards or something, and uh, at the end of the day, you just you couldn't lift your arms anymore. You're trying to make dinner for yourself or something, and you can't lift the jar of whatever it is you're making, right? It's just so hard. Uh even in those cases, you have a little bit of strength left. There's something you can do to kind of mosey back to bed and get a long night's sleep. This says that we were without strength. That's another way of saying that we were dead. You know what a dead person doesn't have? Strength. They can't do anything. They can't do anything. They can't by their own will. They don't have a will, really, uh, but they can't uh uh of themselves lift something or lift themselves up from the ground or something. They are dead in trespasses and in sins. In a natural sense, you uh a dead person can't lift anything. In a spiritual sense, a person that is dead has no strength. They can't do anything. This is what uh the uh uh uh the apostle Paul is telling the church at Rome is that you without God have no strength. This is what we call total depravity. That word total depravity doesn't just refer to, that term total depravity, doesn't just refer to your sinfulness. It does refer to that. But it also refers to your incapability of saving yourself, that you are without strength. That doesn't mean you're running on fumes, it means you have nothing. For when we were yet without strength, in due time, not in your time, not when you believed, not when you were baptized, in due time. Christ died for the ungodly, and when he died, you were saved. Again, not when you believed, not when you were baptized, not when you lived a good and full life, and the Lord said, Well done. You were saved when Jesus Christ died, and Jesus Christ died in due time. At the Lord's appointed time. He says, For scarcely for a righteous man. This is not a common thing that happens, but it does happen sometimes. He says, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. Maybe, just maybe, you can find an example where there's a good man that you would die for. I I there's a lot of close relationships in this room. Some are family, some are long uh longtime friends, and no doubt you would lay down your life for your brother or sister in Christ. I would lay down my life for many of you. I would lay down my life for my wife any day of the week. Uh, it's it's something natural that's that's born in us. But the fact is, is um God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, God didn't look at us and say, Oh, there's someone worth dying for. There was nothing in us that would cause the Lord to want to die for us, and yet he chose to do it. He set his love upon you. I'm fond of reminding the Lord's people of this. He did not fall in love with you. See, I fell in love with my wife because she had qualities that are attractive to me. The Lord did not fall in love with you, he set his love upon you. He chose to love you. He chose it. He purposed it in his own mind, and then he did it. That is different than what uh the God that many people put before us in this world is not like that. It's a God that might love you or will love you if you do something. That is not the God that is put here in the Bible. The God of the Bible uh chose to love a people, and he chose to love a people in spite of them. He didn't leave it up to them to figure out that they need to be saved and then to do something, and then he'll respond in kind. That's not how it works. It's not how it works. Uh, parents understand this very well. If your child is in a burning building, you don't ask to go save them. Hey, would you like me to come save you? You just do it, don't you? You just do it. You'd run in uh without fear and go and do it because you love your child. Parents understand this. You know, God is no different. He loves his children. And he didn't ask to come save you. He just did it. He just did it. Do you not rejoice in that? There's no greater truth than this, in my in my estimation. Because it just reminds me of how unworthy I am of the love of God. In my sinfulness, in my weakness, he chose to love me. He chose to love you. He put you in his son. And he purposed to save you by the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. That sacrifice was offered, and I'm pleased to tell you that sacrifice was accepted. The Lord has saved his people. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was necessary. It was not, again, one option that was on the table as if there's a sacrifice you can offer to save yourself. Oh, there are sacrifices that we offer to the Lord by way of presenting our bodies in church to show the Lord that we love him and that we want to worship him. But that's not what saves you from your sins. There's one sacrifice, yea, one sacrifice that saves you from your sins. And that is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was necessary. There is no other way. There's no other name. Oh man, I'm going to get this quote incorrect. But he says, there's no other name given, there's no other name among men given under heaven by which we must be saved. It is Jesus Christ and him alone that has saved his people from their sins. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was necessary. It was necessary for us because we couldn't do it ourselves. But now I'm curious, I've already uh uh stolen my own thunder a little bit, but now I'm curious, was the sacrifice successful? See, that's really the next important question. We know there was a sacrifice that was required, was it successful? Did he successfully save his people from their sins? You see, those two aspects of the sacrifice of Christ are essential. Because if we know who we are by nature, not by our nature that God has given us, but by the nature we receive from our Father Adam, all the way down through our parents, down to me and you. If we know who we are by nature, then we know that we need a sacrifice. And if we know what the Bible tells us, and what the Lord more specifically has told us in our heart, that Jesus Christ has succeeded. He has finished the work. He successfully saved you from your sins. The fan's turning my page. He says, Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, there's that word, we were not friends of God in eternity past. The Lord looked down through. I'm gonna turn very quickly to uh the 14th Psalm. This is a uh a common one that uh that gets referenced, um, but it's it's what the Apostle Paul likes to quote there in the third chapter of Romans. Psalm 14, I'm just gonna turn it very quickly. He says, The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. This is what happened in eternity past. The Lord looked down from heaven. The scrolls of time, as it were, were unfurled before him, and he could see all that was before him. And what did he see? Good little boys doing good things, good little girls doing good things. That's not what he saw. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no not one. I mean, that's that's pretty black and white, is it not? Makes it kind of easy for people like me who really like simplicity. You know, complexity likes to um we like to stroke our our own egos with really complex things, but the beauty of the Bible is that it's simple is simple. And it cuts through that intellect that we like to stroke in our own minds, right? It cuts through it, it reveals to us that the most important, the most important truth is the simplest truth. And that is that Jesus Christ has successfully saved these people from their sins. That's important because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was necessary. He says, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. This is not just a salvation that was a one-time, you know, uh a temporary salvation. He says we shall be saved by his life. I think this is talking about this final manifestation of the salvation of God when Jesus Christ comes back again. Uh the the the the the the the Lord's people have been saved from their sins. They are legally in Christ, and inasmuch as they've been born again, those who have come and gone, and they were born again, they have the Spirit of God in them. Vital life has been applied to them. But there's an aspect of salvation that hasn't yet been manifested yet, and that's when all the dead shall rise. When the Lord comes back again, we'll see all of this salvation completely and wholly manifested before us, before the Lord. We shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Our sins have been atoned for, they've been paid for. We know that Jesus Christ was successful. This passage tells us two very important things. Number one, that we needed a sacrifice, and number one, that we got it. We received it. We got it. In the beginning of this uh chapter, he says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We've been made perfect by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We've been brought nigh unto him. And I rejoice knowing that. I rejoice knowing that Jesus Christ is our all in all. He has reconciled us to God. And that word reconcile is an accounting term. Is it not? It's a term you might see in retail business, right? If you're in retail business, you're going to take inventory. You're going to take inventory and you're going to make sure that everything lines up. We think we have this much on the shelf, and now we're going to take count and make sure that it's all there. The books have been reconciled. They've been made whole. You've been made whole with the Lord. The Lord has reconciled you to him. It has been shared up. You now stand in a position that is at peace with God. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Imagine being an enemy of someone, and then by their own will, they have made peace with you. Now imagine that you have nothing, you never had anything to offer that one anyway. We had nothing to offer the Lord. We had nothing to offer him. The Bible says that our righteousness is as of filthy rags. There's nothing good there. It's quite nasty. That doesn't sound pleasant. That sounds kind of gross, doesn't it? And the Lord says, in spite of that, I loved you. And I drew you to me. I reconciled you to me. It doesn't say that God was reconciled to us, it says that we were reconciled to God. God didn't abandon his post and come down to us. He didn't budge on his standard, as it were. You know, sacrifice some of his own holiness so he could be more like us. He brought us to him. The only way he could do that is if righteousness is imputed to us. And that is no less than the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That has been imputed to you. You have it. It's yours. You still have a sin nature, so do I. So we have to fight that each and every day. But we fight that knowing what the Lord has done for us in eternity, and we will experience that in eternity. We have the righteousness of God in us. And we can rejoice knowing that. We can walk each day knowing what He's done for us. We can lift our head up and walk boldly, not in ourselves, not in ourselves, but in what Jesus Christ has done for us. In Hebrews, he says we can come boldly before a throne of grace. Boldly. That sounds a bit presumptuous, doesn't it? I don't have anything to offer the Lord. No, you don't. But you don't come to the Lord in your own name. You come to the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. We don't pray in our own name. We don't pray boasting of our own works. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ and we boast in his works. That's the only room that we have to boast. That is the only room. Anything we do in life, we give God the glory and praise and honor for it. I'm not saying the simple things that we do, I'm saying those things that we are blessed to do. You lift someone up, you encourage them, you give the Lord the glory for that. If you're blessed to help someone that's in need, you give the Lord the glory for that. You don't get to take credit for that. It all belongs to the Lord. It all belongs to the Lord. If you have been blessed with material things, those don't really belong to you. It all belongs to the Lord. You praise the Lord for that. You thank the Lord for that. But more than all the things that we might experience out in the world, all the things that we own, the material things, we have righteousness. We have it. It's been imputed to you. It belongs to you because the Lord has said it belongs to you. You give it back to the Lord. You let your light so shine before men that others may see your good works. And you let your light so shine before men that those works may glorify your father, which is in heaven. Men might not see your works and glorify your father which is in heaven. They might not care much about those works. It might bother them, in fact. But those works that you do will glorify your father, which is in heaven. They will. Even if men don't have any glory to give you, it's not for you anyway. You give it all back to the Lord. I pray that this was benefit to you. And uh if I've uh stumbled on my words, please uh accept my apology for that. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

I am so thankful to the Lord for the sweet, beautiful teaching and preaching that we've enjoyed this morning. And um, I wholeheartedly agree with you, Brother Trevor, that there is simplicity in the doctrine that we just were blessed to hear. There's simplicity in it. Is it simple and basic? No, there's a wonderful depth to it. There's such bright and vibrant colors to it. It's beautiful, but it's simple. It's a simple truth that of the necessity and the success of the sacrifice. We we find in his word that he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. It was successful. The very fact that we worship and serve a living God, a living Savior and not a martyr. See, there's some that go after and are motivated by a martyr that they had had seen and were motivated by. That's not the one that motivates us and drives us as a martyr. He's not a martyr. He's a savior who died for us with great, that was great need. But he was raised again, showing out for all to see that the sacrifice of himself was accepted by the Father. The very justification that his work was successful and the Lord was satisfied with it. And in that we find if all the sins of all his people were consumed on the cross of Calvary, how much of it lay on our charge anymore? No, no more. It's all been wiped away. It's all been wiped away. And we're still motivated to follow after him and follow his words and his statutes. What wonderful truth in that? Simple. You know it's not? It's not new. That truth is not new to us. That is not the 2026 version edition of the truth of God. That is as true as it's ever been. That message that we've enjoyed today, have you heard that truth before in your life? Sister Caitlyn, you've heard it your whole life. It's been true whether you've heard it or not. It's been preached. That same message is the same thing that I trust the Apostle Paul preached to people who were gathered together to hear the word of God. It's the same truth that preachers have been preaching, uh, if led and following the truth throughout all ages. It's something that has been held on to and preserved, if according to his word, with at which is preserved. Just as much as we are preserved in Christ Jesus, his word, his truths are preserved. Um I believe that ties really closely with what I have on my mind. If you'll look with me into the sixth chapter. Chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, the children of Israel had gone through many episodes, many things, and they had a tendency, they had a tendency to commit to follow the Lord's ways, his statutes, his laws, what the Lord said from his word, you are my people and you are to do things his ways. And it was continually repeated to them that this is how we're gonna, this is how you're gonna do things. This is what the Lord expects of us of how to live our lives. It's the Lord's ways. See, by our nature, we don't we don't we don't come up and follow the Lord's ways. That's not in our nature. We're we tend to go the opposite direction, but the Lord has one truth and one way, and he expects his people, um, his redeemed people to follow after his ways, the motivation we see here in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. So kind of as a jumping-off point, um let me read verse six and seven. Be praying, please. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and well when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. The words that the Lord would command unto his people, the children of Israel, his chosen race, the ones he loves, the ones he cares for, the ones that Christ would go to the cross of Calvary for and die, redeem, and uh raise again for their justification. Tell them his ways. The Lord has established ways. Brother Seth, the ways of God are no different now than they were as they walked through the wilderness. His ways are consistent, they're steady, they're steadfast. He's immovable, he's immutable. It's the very character of God, is that God is and his ways are steadfast. And he expects his ways to be followed, but to be followed, they have to be known. He expects here in these verses the kind of the theme right here in these verses is have them to know my ways. But don't just tell them one time. Tell them repeatedly. Tell them throughout the day, it says, and thou shalt teach them diligently. Diligently. Think about that that thought of a diligence in thinking about and talking about and passing on from age to age, from father to child, from mother to child. There's a passing down of God's ways. That's expected. Brother Bobby, you didn't stumble upon these, thank the Lord. You could have. The Lord could have led you to it, but you were passed down the truth and God's ways from people, from good brothers and sisters who held those things very faithfully. You sat in a church building as you were growing up, and you had good brothers and sisters, faithful brothers and sisters, who knew the truth, who had been delivered that truth, who cherished the truth, and they passed it down. They shared it. The Lord is telling the leaders here, the older of the children of Israel, that his expectation is that the passing down of the Lord's ways is what he would have them to do. That they were good for them, and they're going to be good for your children. And they're going to be good for your children's children, to pass it down. But it's not a one-time thing, like we've talked about the doctrine of election. We've talked about it, so we're good. Let's move on. No. No, Sister Pam, it's to pass it down and do it diligently, to return to it, to go over it time and time again, to hear the same sweet gospel that we've heard this morning, that we say, I get tired of hearing about predestination. No, I don't get tired of hearing about predestination. I want to hear about it again and again. There's diligence to repeating those things. That if there's a brother or a sister who feels uh moved by the Lord that they might write a song, that they learn the things maybe as we did this week, and they're like, you know, I feel motivated to write poetry and put it to music, and that the Lord, uh Lord's people might be able to have that sweet gift, that those words are based in truth. That they're the things that were passed down to them that they might continue on. Brother Jay, I don't know if you realize this. I did as you were you were leading. You led two songs. Two songs. The first one, Oh, mercy is my only plea. Have nothing else to pay. The heavy debt I owe to thee. Um mercy, Lord, I pray. It's about mercy and grace. Do you know where that song got originated? Do you know who wrote that song? Brother J. A. Rao here at this church. He was a pastor of this church for many years. Right here in this place, in this sweet Bethel spot where so many memories have been had and shared. But you know, it wasn't just the natural friendship and sweetness between one another. It was because it was based in the sweet love and service of our Lord and Savior. That's what makes this uh this plot of land feel very, very special. That's what makes it feel like home. It's the memories. Uh, Sister Julie talked about the treading of the path from that door outside, and I'm like, I know exactly what you feel. See, it's not about the natural building or the natural land, it's about what happened here. It's about what was spoken about, it's about what was saying about, and how it filled our hearts with that sweet that heart burning within us because it was based off the very truth that was diligently wrote about, sing about, preached about, prayed about. It's what was passed down from good faithful sisters and brothers from age to age. There was great diligence here in this place and throughout all this country and the places that we go and the relationships that we have. It's the sweet gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth and his word and his sweet simple doctrine. He expects us to pass those things down faithfully. So, with that thought about um teaching, well, let's read it here. This is important. Diligence unto thy children. I'm gonna challenge uh us to think about that. Is he reserving us to pass it down to our natural children only? Like I'm responsible to pass it down to Jay and Cooper and Anderson, but not Sister Peyton. Not not all of you. Teach it to your children. No. I I would that's not my my understanding of that. It's my responsibility now that it's been uh I've I've enjoyed it and received that, it's my responsibility to pass it down to those that are younger, maybe in the faith, younger in the understanding. And if there's somebody that had the Lord has brought into his house, in his kingdom, and you're newer to it, it's my responsibility to pass it down to that individual, whether they're younger than me in age or whether or not they're not, to pass it down. Passing it down to one another. To encourage for me to even pass it down to somebody who, if I, if the Lord shows me some light on a particular scripture and um and I have the opportunity to maybe share it with like maybe my dad, who's a lot further along in the ministry than I'll ever be, it's my responsibility to pass it down to him too. It's for us to share it one with another and to do so diligently. And then it says, and shall talk. See, there's talking, there's an opportunity for us to talk to one another, for us to have conversations about these things, and to do so in the love and the grace that the Lord would have us talk about these things. I had conversations this week about the challenges that I face with talking about things. All kinds of the Lord's ways. And it comes from my own weakness and my own nervousness. But I'm telling you, when we get out of our comfort zone and we start talking to our brothers and sisters, not just of our same age range, but of those maybe that are younger than us or older than us, have the conversations. Have the conversations about football and sports and job. No, that that that that you can get to that, but talk about your Lord. Talk about the Lord's ways. Talk about the Lord's scripture, ask a question about scripture and let the Lord move that conversation. And then we're doing exactly where uh verse 7 is talking, it's talking diligently about him, talking diligently about his ways because the Lord will uh shine a light upon it and it'll become a sweet treasure to you. And then there's some passing down that that and that responsibility, um, most certainly, if you've received what you've received, we ought to pass down. Right? Um I hesitate to mention this, but it's impactful for me, so I'm going to. Uh, there's a particular song that's a secular song that I I know and enjoy, but it one of the one of the parts of the verses says something that hits me. It's like, if you have something that's worth keeping, something that's precious, something that's meaningful and valuable to you, if you have something that's worth like really cherishing and keeping, don't keep it to yourself. That's sometimes what we do. Sometimes we want to keep things to ourselves. Maybe not just the Lord's truth and his word, but maybe a particular role in the church. Maybe whatever, whatever it might be. If it's a sweet blessing from the Lord and it's from him and it's his ways, pass those things down. I'm thankful to be among a group of churches in the state of Texas that it's our culture to have the young brothers get up and lead songs. That does not happen everywhere. And I'm not saying that other places are wrong for not, but Brother Trevor, it's a sweet blessing when you have a little um young one who's growing up in this place and they get called to lead songs because that is passing it down. That is passing down that duty. Brother Aiden, it's a duty to get up and lead and work in the Lord's church, to put our hands to the plow and not look back. We ought to work in the Lord's church. Put them to work. It's a sweet blessing to work in the Lord's church. I I think about when we were at members over at Little Vine, and I was at an age, you know, my 20th and young family, and I just wanted, I just wanted to work in the Lord's church. And then that church gave me an opportunity to mow grass. Something as simple and maybe superficial as getting out and mowing the grass on Wednesdays. What a blessing. I went out there with my family. Sometimes we met other people out there, and uh we worked in the yard, and there's no sweeter work. There's no sweeter labor, manual labor, than to work on the property of your home church or the property of another church. That's a sweet. It's not laborious, it's not hard. There's there's men, there's young men who worked hard yesterday, young women who worked hard yesterday. Was it hard? Was it like, oh, I wish I wasn't doing this? You're like, I'm thankful I get to do this. That was you're passing it down. That experience, that opportunity to say, this is my home. This is my home, this is my family, this is my people. Like Ruth, you are my people. Where do you go? I will go. Where do you live? I will live. Where do you die? I will die. You are the people of God, and I can but be with you. Entreat me not to leave thee. The Lord has allowed you to find this place, find this home, find this sweet parcel of ground, and whether it's here or somewhere else. That's not where, that's not what makes the church. It's the pe it's the Lord's people that make the church. Because that's where the Lord is, that's where the home is, where he is, that's where his family is. Put the children to work, give them an opportunity, encourage them. And sometimes that means you're gonna have to let go of it yourself and whatever you feel like you might be getting out of it, but what you might be getting out of it as you pass it down will become different, but just as good, probably better. Right? Encourage growth. Conversations, talking. So that's the passing down. That's the passing down. I'm running out of time. Okay. Um Proverbs and uh what is it? Proverbs 22, it says, train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old, he shall not depart from it. Now that's that's that's wise. Proverbs is a book of like wisdom, like statements. That's a wise statement. It's to train up your children. Again, your natural children, yes. Other children, yes. I have fathers, I have many fathers. Of course, I have my heavenly father, I've got my natural father, and then I've got other fathers. Brother Bobby, you're a father to me. I consider you a father. I look to you for your wisdom and your guidance and your patience. You're a father to me. You've trained me in many, many things, right? Brother Ryan, your father is the sweet, sweet father to me in the ministry. And on and on. And that's just me. Let's just move on from that. I have many fathers and they have trained me. And the point is, is diligently, uh, what does it say? Sittest in thine house, walkest by the way, lies down, yes, riseth up, yes, all day long, every day, all day, every day. 365. Don't stop. Keep a going. Right? Fathers train up your children in the ways that they should go, and when they're old, they shall not depart from it. It sticks. The Lord has it to stick, right? It's one of those things, it's like you get out of something what you put into it. Right? Pour into the training, pour into the passing down those sweet blessings of the Lord, the Lord's ways, the Lord's truths. Talk about these things, work on these things, pass them down. I mean, just try to heap it on them. Heap it on them. That so as I think about this, I'm like, I'm not doing a good enough job. I need to do more. I need to do more. Very intentionally, I need to do more. I need to have more conversations on and on. That's our responsibility. If you're if you're thinking of yourself in like the father-mother responsibility side of this equation, good, right? That's that's great. Now, if you're thinking of yourself as the child in this equation, and again, I'm like, I'm in kind of in both camps, right? I see myself in the responsibility to pass it down, I'm also in the category still of the child part, the child position. You know there's responsibility there too. Young people, listen, it's your responsibility in this thing of passing it down to receive it. To receive it, to take it up. Right? Look at that. I think it's really well illustrated in uh 2 Kings chapter 2. Go there real quick. This is a beautiful picture illustration of something that really did happen, just like this. I don't think this is a parent, this is real. This is a real narrative of something that really happened. Okay, 2 Kings chapter 2. The prophet Isaiah, who was endued with power and um leadership, and he operated by the Lord's power and in the great mighty works that happened in his presence. It wasn't Elijah's power, it's what was given by God to him. He wasn't some special man who was above natural any other, any other individual. It was because the Lord gave it to him. See, we can only give to our children what the Lord has already given us. It never, the source is never us. The source is always God. Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from inside of you in your own. No. Every good gift, every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness nor even shadow of turning. It comes from God above. It's a heavenly gift that comes down. But now that he's given us that, he's uh endued us with that, now with that sacred trust, we are to pass it down. Elijah, what he received, and all the things that we read about that Elijah did, it was because God gave him that. God working through Elijah. Okay? So here in the second chapter of 2 Kings, we'll uh kind of have to kind of abbreviate it a little bit. We'll go down to verse 11. He's there with Elijah, who would be like the, I think it's successor, like the one who were to come after, like a protege, like teacher, student, father, son relationship, right? And this, the passing down is gonna be Elijah, the prophet Elijah. And the one who is to receive it is Elisha, right? Okay, verse 11. And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, which means, what does that sound like? When they walked by the way. When they went. When they went and they talked, that sounds a whole lot like diligently when you walk by the way. Like, all points. They're talking about the Lord and the Lord's ways. They were doing that very same thing. See, Elisha might have might have been asking questions like, well, tell me about what you know, what that happened. And Elijah was like, Let me tell you about it. Let me pass down what the Lord did, and I'm gonna share that with you. And you're gonna see how the Lord works mighty in people's lives, and in in and through his work uh people are delivered, and great power is demonstrated in these things. It says, as they stood and they went on and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up in the whirlwind into heaven. So there we see uh a picture of something that really did happen on this earth. We've got kind of this father in the service of God and son in the service of God, and they're talking and enjoying each other's company, and there's some passing down that's happening naturally, and then all of a sudden, there's a chariot of fire, horses of fire, that come and kind of peel the two apart. And now how they've been walking together and enjoying each other's company, and there's been some exchange of God's ways, all of a sudden there's a change, and no more can they have that. No more can they do that same conversation. They had had his last conversation with Elisha. And it did not happen gradually, it happened all of a sudden. Brothers and sisters, sometimes that happens. If somebody you just, that somebody is a source of somebody you are gathering, getting, learning, learning, growing, and then all of a sudden you don't have that person anymore. But see, that doesn't cause all of that you've received to be lost. You have what was given to you. And they're sweet and they're precious. Okay? And then look at this. It says, and Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father. Is he saying, my father in heaven? I don't think so. I think he's crying towards Elijah, who he saw as a father. As he saw as a father in this in this um relationship of passing things down from one to another, from one generation to the next generation, like generation one prophet, generation two prophet. The Lord is gonna need to be with both of them. He was looking and crying out, I believe, to Elijah, his father, in this experience. Says, the chariot 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. Right there, we see his heart breaking. This physical rending of his clothes is an outward expression of what his heart is doing. His heart is. And he's expressing that about as best as he can. Right? But then look at this. It says, He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan. And then beautiful things happen after that. Please go read that a little bit later. Brother Robert, what does that even mean? That he sees his like father, his like lead, like somebody who had he had been following and learning from, get translated up into heaven in this miraculous way. He's gone now. But we see that his mantle, Elijah's mantle, fell from him. I can kind of see it. He's like flying away in a chariot of fire, horses of fire, and then down comes his mantle. What is a mantle? It's a piece of clothing. Think of it kind of as like the last uh layer of clothing, like a coat, right? It's what Elijah had been wearing. It's not just the thing that Elijah had been wearing, it is what God was actually kind of using through Elijah when mighty works had happened. And there's things, you can go study it. There's things that Elijah did with that mantle, with that coat. He would take it off. And he, right before this, he struck the water, right, of Jordan. Boom! He hit it. And the water like stood up. And they were able to walk across dry land. Did you know there's another time when they walked across dry shot? It wasn't just the Red Sea. It wasn't just the children of Israel going over to Jordan. Right here.

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Elijah the prophet, just those two. Father, son, hit the water. Boom! With uh with the mantle. Was there any power in the mantle itself? No. It was in God. Just as Moses' Moses' rod, it wasn't a magical rod. It was God working. And that was just a demonstration. Right? But it was an outward representation of the God. He had the Lord's power. And also of this like leadership position and what the Lord had given him to be a faithful steward of. The sacred trust that Elijah had. And that mantle fell, landed on the ground, ground, I believe, maybe. But I do know this. Elisha, kind of the one who's been receiving these gifts, who had been faithfully delivered these things, he physically took it and he took it up. And now the mantle that was a kind of a demonstration of the Lord being with Elijah, Elisha now was in possession of. Elisha was in possession of. And he took it up. And with it, great responsibility with that mantle. That outward thing. And I believe he probably must have just put it on. And he says, now what he had had and received from God and he has passed down to me, I'm going to take it up. I'm going to take it up. And the Lord is going to work through these things as he did with Elijah. He's going to work through his works, and we're going to see that the Lord is going to do mighty things through Elisha. Like double the amount. If you were to quantify it, like double. Why does that matter? Why are you telling me the story about this clothing? It's because things have been passed down to you, and the mantle falls to you. Children, the mantle is faithfully falling to you. You need to pick it up. You need to take it up. Take up the responsibility. Take up the duty. Take up the importance and the reverence for what has been faithfully passed down to you. Take it up and faithfully go forward and see the mighty works that God will work in your lives and in others. Have conversations now, what you have been blessed to receive faithfully from generation to generation. Take it up and go forward. Take up your cross and follow after Christ. And what you have received of him, the truth that we've enjoyed this morning, take that up and defend it. Let it be the very guiding thing in your life. I've received the great word of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Take it up. Don't leave it on the ground for somebody else to come along and be blessed by you. Take it up. There's work to be done. Just like yesterday, there was work to be done. This week there was work to be done. And there was some eagerness. There were some young people who had good examples that they had seen. And they're like, now it's my time. It's my time to take up the mantle. What has been led and been demonstrated, I'm taking it up. I'm going to work. I'm going to press. I'm going to pour myself into it. There's work to be done. Take it up. And then faithfully care for it. What's on the other end of that? Of taking it up. What's on the other end of it? Go down the timeline. All of a sudden, the Lord is going to put you in a position for you to be the father and the mother. Right? The experienced ones in the kingdom, the sweet, sweet mothers in Israel. The Lord is going to have you to pass it down. If you have something that's worth keeping in the church, in this particular grace Primitive Baptist Church, if you have something that's worth keeping, don't keep it to yourself. It's your responsibility to pass it down and take it up. Young people, take it up. Get to work. Pray to the Lord that you don't mishandle it. Do things his way, his statutes, his laws, his ways, his um, his him. Take it up. Cherish it. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. It's not it's not all due, man. It's enjoyable. What we have here, we enjoy. But it does take responsibility on both ends. Wherever you are in this, in that diagram, whether you're like the one doing the responsibility of passing it down, or you're in the one that's passing up, in my case, and probably mostly everybody's case, in both, right? Do it, do the best you can looking to the Lord to guide you to do it the best you can, because what the Lord has for us is a sacred truth, a sacred way that has been preserved throughout all ages. And it will be preserved throughout all ages. Until the Lord parts that sky and shows himself, this will continue. His ways will get passed down. Will it get passed down in this church body? I pray. It doesn't have to be, but it will happen. Right? Be a part of it. Continue to be a part of it. I love you so, so dearly. Thank you so much to this church for all that you have done all the time, specifically this past week, and allowing so many people to take mantles up. To take mantles up and get to work. I love you. If you have a desire to take up your cross and follow Christ, and you have not done so, there is no better time. Don't wait, don't put it off. Elisha did not wait. Picked it up, got to work, got to move, and smote that water again, crossed over again. 37. Number 370. We'll stand in the scene for the line of the fellowship. 370.