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It is rare that I take two scriptures from the Old Testament as texts because we tend to focus on the New Testament more and so I usually include one passage or both from those books. Most people who profess to be Christians have a very limited knowledge of the Old Testament and there is a growing trend among some denominations today just to ignore it altogether -- there are some churches where you would never hear the preacher take his text from the Old. That's sad first of all, because the Bible says that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for instruction in righteousness" and "all" includes the Old Testament. Jesus and the first apostles only had the Old Testament to preach from and quote and they did just fine. And second of all, the New Testament says that the law of the Old Testament was the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Without the Old Testament helping explain things, the New Testament largely would not make much sense.

The truth that those who largely ignore the Old Testament miss, is that it often portrays principles of the New Testament in story form. They miss that, and in doing so, miss some good stuff, because I am grateful for any picture form of a New Testament truth. And I have learned this: when the Old Testament devotes a lot of time to something odd or to something that at first glance seems unimportant, there is usually a timeless truth hidden there.

Take for instance a familiar example to some here today: the Passover Lamb. In the 12th chapter of Exodus, Moses spends verse after verse after verse detailing precise instructions of how the Israelites are to prepare a meal of roast lamb. And the recipe was very strange indeed: they could not break any of the lamb's bones, they could not gut it or remove any organs but had to roast it whole, and the lamb had to be gone by morning time. Furthermore, they had to take the blood of the lamb and smear it on the doorposts of their house, and if they failed to do this, then the death angel would not Passover their house that night and they would reap the same judgment of God as the Egyptians.

Now I know some of you are very familiar with why these things are so, but think with me a moment at just how odd these instructions of God were for that day. And even odder that Moses would write it down for us to read in excruciating detail. But he did so because this chapter teaches us through story form and an object lesson, very important lessons about Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Just as the Passover lamb could have no bones broken, so did Jesus die without having any of his bones crushed. Just as the Passover lamb was left intact with no organs removed, so was Jesus buried hurriedly without any embalming or removal of His internals. Just as the lamb had to be gone by morning, so was Jesus not allowed to hang on the cross until morning. And most importantly, just as the death of the lamb did no good for the house until the blood had been properly applied, so does Jesus' death on the cross do us no good until we apply that blood to our lives in the proper manner through repentance and water baptism in His name! What seemed like frivolous details in the Old Testament, when you realize that they are there to teach us about the New Testament, suddenly reveal very important and powerful truths indeed! Such is the value of studying and understanding the stories of the Old Testament in light of the truths of the New Testament.

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And so we turn to our text in 2 Kings chapter 2. This is a noteworthy chapter because it records the last day of the prophet Elijah's life, and it will certainly be a unique day because Elijah will not die in the normal sense, but instead his removal from this life would involve a chariot of fire and horses of fire and a whirlwind translating the old prophet directly into heaven. Only one other man had ever left this life this way, the man Enoch, and here on this final day, Elijah would become the second!

What a grand way to go! No hospitals or hospice or arthritis. No car wreck or sudden circumstances stealing youthfulness away. But a divine appointment with a fiery taxi of heaven coming to take you away into eternity! There was a song a few years back that came out that said "I want to go out like Elijah" and that's the truth. If you've got to end this life and go into eternity, then I say do it with style like Elijah did!

And let me say that I do plan to do just what Elijah did! Because there was a third man who just disappeared into the clouds like Elijah and Enoch and His name was Jesus Christ. And He told His followers that just as they had seen Him go, He would return for them one day! Paul wrote about this grand final day in his letter to the church in Corinth:

And in the letter to the church in Thessalonica:

What a glorious promise! And Romans 8:11 reveals that the Holy Spirit is our taxi that will take us out of here and into glory on that day. No wonder that throughout the Bible, the Holy Ghost is represented by fire! I hope you have it and it is burning bright today, because it will be fiery vehicle that transports us into eternity in style! If you want to go out like Elijah, get the Holy Spirit and keep it burning bright!

And even if your earthly life ends before that day, as long as you die righteous and right with God you will still join us in our Elijah-esque escape! You must never forget that if a person dies with the Holy Ghost fire burning bright, death cannot hamper or put it out. The dirt piled on top of your grave cannot extinguish that flame! And so you will join those who are alive at that time in the fiery entrance into heaven!

I must say this: there is not a person alive that does not want their end to be like our text! But if you want to go out like Elijah, then you've got to live for God like Elijah! Elijah stood up for the one God of Israel and refused to believe in multiple gods even when it was the national decree to do so. Elijah was sensitive to God's Spirit and did God's will even when the crowd around him did not. Elijah persevered in God's will even when great trial and persecution tried to discourage him.

In our other text, we read the words of the wishy-washy prophet Balaam when he had been hired to curse Israel but God only would let him bless them. After his conversation with one of Eeyore's kind, the spirit of the Lord came upon Balaam and showed him the end of those of Israel who would die having been faithful to God in their lives. And Balaam was so moved by the glorious ending of the righteous, that he proclaimed:

"I want my ending to be the same as the righteous in the sight of God!" And I believe that Balaam was sincere. But when you read Balaam's end, he is killed in Joshua as an enemy of God. Like everybody in the world, Balaam wanted to die right. But if you want to die right, then you've got to live right. If you want to go out like the righteous, then you've got to go about like the righteous. If you want the end of your life to be like the end of the righteous, then you must follow the example of living righteously! Just wanting to die right, doesn't make it happen, Balaam, but if you would change some of your lifestyle habits, you would find that God is no respecter of persons -- if you will obey His word and His will, then you will find that you too can end this life with style!

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And so we return back to the story of Elijah's last day. You now know how it turns out, so that should draw your attention even more closely to the events of that day preceding his final flight. Now throughout this story, we have Elisha -- Elijah's protégé' -- following closely because he wants a double portion of the man of God's power. And that is usually what preachers preach about when they preach from this story. It's powerful stuff and I've preached on it before and I'll preach on it again, but we don't have time to get into all of that double anointing stuff, today. I'll leave it alone except to say this one thing: if you think that God is not going to have a people and a ministry and saints that live for Him and have more power than those of yesteryear, you need to think again! Peter and Paul and John and those guys had only a portion of the glory and power that God is wanting to reveal to this end time generation! It's God's will for the latter to be greater than the former and for us to have a double dose of Holy Ghost power! Don't read the pages of the book of Acts and long to be back then, because if you knew what God has in store for the Apostolic church of today, then you would realize that Simon Peter would give his eyetooth and throw in some pork chops to boot to be alive today -- but God has chosen you and I to experience it!

I got word yesterday that one of the truly great prophets of our day, Elder T.W. Barnes, died this week, but can I tell you that the mouthpieces of God may change, but the work of God continues! There are people in this generation that will pay the price and be as sensitive to the Holy Spirit and as full of faith as Bro. Barnes was, even to a double portion! But I digress from my point. . .

What I would have you notice today is the curious things that Elijah did on his final day of this life. It is notable to realize that the scriptures spend two verses detailing the miraculous events of Elijah's fiery taxi, and yet spend ten verses detailing what he did earlier that day. That's strange in itself, but it is even stranger when you realize what it is that he actually did that final day.

Elijah was a man of God and a prophet who followed the leading of God's Spirit, so his actions that final day were a result of what God was telling him to do. And at first glance it seems that the Spirit of the Lord spent the day sending Elijah on "wild goose chases." In our text, they began at the place called Gilgal. In verse 2 of the chapter, Elijah tells Elisha that "the Lord is sending me to Bethel." And so Elijah travels from Gilgal to Bethel and does nothing. And then in verse 4, after hanging out at Bethel for a while, God speaks again to Elijah and commands him to go to the city of Jericho. And pretty much nothing happens there except that some of the sons of the prophets who lived at Jericho came up and talked with them. And then the Spirit of God speaks to the prophet again and instructs him to go to the Jordon river. There they cross the Jordon river by the miraculous means of using Elijah's mantle to part the waters and when they crossed to the other side then Elijah's fiery ponies appeared and he was translated up into the sky.

If you look at a map of ancient Israel, you will realize that Gilgal -- where they started from was not all that far from the Jordon river -- but God sent them on a broad circle of places only to return to the Jordon and then traverse to the other side. Why would God send the prophet on a final trip on his last day from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and back to Jordon? And why would God spend more of His Word detailing that strange, four-stop journey than the actual miraculous event of Elijah's translation? There has to be a reason, for God does nothing by accident.

And so after such a lengthy introduction, my message is really simple: if you want to go out like Elijah in the Rapture of the church at Christ's return, then your final days from this point on must mirror the events of Elijah's final day. The Lord's meandering instructions may not have made sense to Elijah or Elisha that day, but they make perfect sense to us today because they graphically represent the journey that one must take to go out like Elijah. If you want to one day fly away into eternity in style, then you must too make a journey from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the crossing of the Jordon. Following Elijah's last day is the key to your ending being like his! Let me show you what I mean:

If you study Gilgal in scripture, it reveals nothing positive about the place. It was the final camping place of Joshua and the Israelites in the wilderness before they crossed into the Promised Land. It was the last day that they had to spend wandering in the wilderness as a result of lack of faith. Gilgal then pops up again in scripture as the scene of King Saul's horrible rebellion against God's commandments. It was at Gilgal that rather than obeying the commandment of God to destroy all of the Amalekites, Saul saved the enemy king alive and the best of the sheep and oxen. It was here at Gilgal that the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen gave his rebellion away. It was here at Gilgal that the prophet Samuel revealed that God would take the kingship away from Saul. It was here that the Amalekite king was hewed brutally into pieces by the incensed prophet. It was here at Gilgal that Saul became a God reject and the judgment of God was poured out upon his house.

And things do not improve in scripture for Gilgal. Read the small books of Hosea and Amos and you will be struck by how many times they denounced Gilgal and prophesied judgment upon it because it had become a place of idolatry and of rebellion against the God of Israel and a place of wanton sin (see Hosea 4:15; 9:15; 12:11 and Amos 4:4; 5:15). And so Gilgal represents living in sin and open rebellion to the things of God. It represents not caring what God has said and disobedience to His kingdom. It represents doing things your own way and idolatry and putting other things first in your life beside Him.

And so it is no accident that it was from Gilgal that God directed Elijah to leave on his final day of his life. Because if you want to one day fly away into the heavens through the fire of the Holy Ghost, then you too must begin now by leaving Gilgal. You've got to be willing to start walking in God's will and under God's direction and the first thing He demands is that you walk away from sin and the things of this world. This is what repentance is. Repentance is more than just saying "I'm sorry" but is acknowledging to God that you want a change of scenery and you want to follow His will. It's more than just saying "forgive me of what I've done wrong" and involves leaving some things of this world behind. If you want to fly away like Elijah, then you've got to follow the last steps of Elijah's last day. True repentance is where you start: repentance is leaving Gilgal.

But it's not enough just to leave and go any old where. When you make up in your mind to leave Gilgal, you've got to head where the Spirit directs you to go and the Spirit is telling you to go:

The significance here is easy to grasp because Bethel literally means "the house of God!" When you make up in your mind to leave Gilgal, the house of God is the place to go! Go to the place where God often meets with His disciples! Go to the place where God's Spirit moves! Go to the place where His Word freely and purely flows forth -- when you are leaving Gilgal, head straight to a genuine Bethel. A real Bethel: not a religious institution where men's traditions are carried out -- but a place where you can come in contact with God!

It's at this house of God that you will meet the One who died for you! It's at the house of God that you will feel God's presence! It was at Bethel that Jacob, the deceiver, found a God full of mercy and grace and truth and power to transform him into a prince with God! It's at the house of God that you will hear about the power of the name of Jesus. It's at the house of God that you will hear about amazing grace. It's at Bethel that you will discover that your past can be buried in the waters of baptism. It's at the house of God that you discover that you can receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. And you can receive the true revelation that the One God of Elijah is the One God who died for you! And where you can find hope and deliverance and peace and help and strength and power and forgiveness and joy! It's all only going to be found when you make up in your mind to leave Gilgal and head to Bethel! Whatever you do on this life's journey from this day forward, don't circumvent or leave out stopping at the house of God!

How wonderful that we can come to the house of God and experience so much, but you cannot stop there in your relationship with God. Just coming and experiencing His power and love and Spirit at His house is only the step to get you to the next place. From Bethel, the house of God, you must hear the Spirit's call to go:

Jericho was the ruins of the town that was the first stronghold of the enemy conquered by Joshua. It was around Jericho that the Israelites obeyed the strange command of God to march daily around the great and immense walls silently. And then on the seventh day they marched seven times and then in one accord gave a shout of praise to the glory of God, and when they did so, the walls of Jericho miraculously fell down! And the stronghold and pride of the enemy's control of the things that God wanted in their lives was broken and great victory was given to God's people at Jericho.

Jericho, then, represents the power of a combination of three things: obedience, unity, and praise. They had to obey the Word of God exactly, they had to join in obedience with their fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, and they had to become outward praisers of God Almighty. When those three things: obedience, unity, and praise came together, the result was a mighty showing of God's power and complete victory over their tallest and strongest walls in their life!

Leave Gilgal, come to Bethel, and receive forgiveness from your past and the Spirit of God living within you. But by all means continue on to Jericho! Let your life be changed so that your actions only reflect obedience to everything in God's Word. Let your everyday walk be according to what He has commanded! Let your everyday walk be in unity with the other believers and with the army of the Lord! Let your everyday walk follow in the footsteps of the ministry that is ahead of you leading the way! And let your obedience result in the ability to praise God with all your heart, soul, and mind with no misgivings! If you do these things, then your walls will fall down! Obedience, unity, and praise: we've got to go to Jericho if we want to follow in Elijah's footsteps and have Elijah's ending!

Unfortunately, I've known many believers to leave Gilgal and get to Bethel and never make the trek to Jericho. They obey the initial plan of salvation of God but do not move on to obeying His Word in all other areas of their daily walk. There are some of you here today that are like that. I thank God that you left Gilgal of your old lifestyle. I thank God that you are in Bethel today filled with the Holy Ghost and baptized in Jesus' name. But what about when you wake up in the morning and begin your daily walk? What about obedience in that? What about joining in unity with fellow believers and becoming a regular part of what God is doing in this spiritual family? What about becoming a vessel of praise and worship to God Almighty!? Thank God you are not what you used to be, but there are still some things that need to come down if you are to be everything that God has planned! And there are still some places that you need to go if you are going to make your appointment with leaving as Elijah did! You've got to go to Jericho! You've got to combine obedience, unity, and praise in your life! Don't stop halfway in Elijah's last day, but move toward the finish! Allow God to bring complete victory in your life!

And after Jericho, hear the Spirit bidding you direction. You've come a long way, but there is still one more trip to make! And the vast majority of what we would consider the "regular saints" in this church are in need of hearing this final call of the Spirit on Elijah's last day. You've gotten as far as Jericho, now it is time for:

To Joshua, the Jordan river was the far boundary of the Promised Land that God desired for them to inhabit. To get from the wilderness into the promised place of God's will and rest and power, Joshua and the children of Israel had to use supernatural means to cross the swollen banks of the Jordon. Likewise, Elijah had to cross the Jordan on that final day, to position himself in the place of his promised ascension. And when Elisha received the mantle of Elijah and stepped out in faith to fulfill a new ministry, he had to first cross the Jordan river.

Some preachers preach the Promised Land as a type of heaven, but I do not think that accurate. Heaven and eternity will not have devils and giants to face. Heaven and eternity will not have an enemy to drive out before you can settle into your mansion. Furthermore there will be no need to guard against idolatry and sin in heaven because there will be none of that there. The Promised Land better represents a level of anointing and blessing and growth that a believer can receive on this side of eternity.

Crossing the Jordan river, then, represents moving from an ordinary walk with God to the extraordinary. And for Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, crossing the Jordon represented believing that God can move through you supernaturally and miraculously as He has done for others. It represents your stepping out in faith in belief and expectation of the power of God being manifest through your actions. Joshua had to command the priests with the ark to step into the river and only when their feet hit the water did God roll the waters back. Elijah had to take his mantle and strike the water expecting it to roll back. Elisha had to do the same for himself without Elijah around. Crossing the Jordan represents your stepping out in faith and believing God for the miraculous that you have only seen others experience!

And so there are many here today that you have gone as far as Jericho, but the Spirit is speaking one more time for you to move on and to cross the Jordan. You've seen others teach Bible studies effectively and win souls for Christ, now it is time for you to step out and teach someone and pray and fast over them until they began the walk for themselves! You've seen others pray for the sick and they be healed, now it is time for you to act in faith and pray for the sick! You've seen others pray people through to the Holy Spirit, but now it is time that you pray the prayer of faith. You've seen others mightily used by the Spirit of God to minister to others, but not it is time for you to step out in the Spirit and be used! You've seen other people used in the gifts of the Spirit and as prayer warriors and as lead worshippers, but now God is calling you to step out and act and experience such things! The call is to cross the Jordan for yourself. The call is to allow God to work through you as you have seen Him do through others! It's time for you to obey the voice of God for the miraculous, Joshua, just as you have seen Moses do! It's time for you to throw the mantle across the stream, Elijah, and see the waters part for you as you have heard they did for Joshua. Elisha, now the mantle is upon your shoulders, and what you have seen in Elijah's ministry and heard of Joshua's, it is now the will of God for you to experience! It's the will of God for you to become for the next generation of converts what the previous generation was for you. It's your time -- hear the voice of the Spirit speaking -- it's time to cross the Jordan river! It's time to realize that God can use you mightily just as He has others! The God of mighty works and miracles is looking for a willing vessel to use for His purpose!

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So as I come to a close of this message today, everyone under the sound of my voice has one thing in common: you are somewhere on the journey of Elijah's last day. Perhaps you are still in Gilgal and still bound to sin and living without any regard of what God's Word has said. Or maybe you are tired of Gilgal and have come this morning intending to go to Bethel, the house of God, and desiring to experience the forgiving and saving power of God in your life. Or maybe you have received the Holy Ghost and been baptized in the name of Jesus and yet you need to head to Jericho and implement obedience in your daily walk, unity with fellow believers through getting involved in the local church, and to make it priority to become a passionate praiser and a worshipper of God. Or maybe you've been at Jericho for a while and have been wondering what the next step was, if so, then hopefully you have hearkened to the voice of God calling you to cross the Jordan and step out and experience what you have only seen in other's lives. Wherever you are, you stand today somewhere on the journey of Elijah's last day.

But I sincerely hope that there is one more thing that we all have in common: that we desire that our end might be as Elijah's end! That you desire to be ready to fly through the air when Jesus Christ comes back more than anything else. He is truly coming. And you've got to be ready. Jesus Christ said:

Jesus also said:

You've got to make sure that you are ready; you've got to position yourself for the day of your translation into glory. And that is the call to everyone here: make sure you're ready for that great moment and ending! How do you make sure that you are ready to go out like Elijah? By following Elijah's last day's journey. Wherever you are, the Spirit is bidding you to come to the next place. Those who are in Gilgal, need to come to Bethel today. Those in Bethel need to move on to Jericho. Those who have made Jericho need to cross the Jordan river. Such is the Spirit's bidding to your heart today. God is calling for us to position ourselves for a great and glorious entrance into eternity that will happen shortly: follow Elijah's last day, today!