The recurring image of 'sticks' from various biblical passages to illustrate key spiritual truths. It begins with the severe Old Testament penalty for working on the Sabbath, highlighting that salvation is not earned by works but received by grace through faith in Christ's finished work. The story of the floating axe head in 2 Kings illustrates how Christ's sacrifice, like the branch thrown into the Jordan, rescues lost souls from the depths of sin. The sermon also touches on God's provision for Elijah and the widow of Zarephath as an example of His care for believers, and concludes with Ezekiel's vision of two sticks bound together, symbolizing the future restoration and unity of Israel under Christ's reign. Ultimately, the message calls listeners to trust in Christ's redemptive power and accept His salvation.
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Number fifteen and thirty-two. Just going to read a few verses of four passages, and you can look the passage up when you're at home. Numbers fifteen and verse thirty-two. While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day, and they that found him, gathering sticks, brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. They put him in war, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
The Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stone without the cap. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses. I'm going to read it, actually you don't have to turn to it along this line. It's over in Exodus thirty-one. Speak unto the children of Israel. saying, Verily my Sabbath, ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that shall sanctify you.
Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileeth it shall surely be put to death, for whosoever doeth any work therein. that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Now turn to First Kings chapter seventeen. First Kings seventeen. And verse twelve. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise, and before I am gathering two sticks, notice that the sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
Second King Six. Second King, chapter six, and verse six, and the man of God said, Well, tell it. and he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, take it up to thee, and he put out his hand and took it. And the final text is in Ezekiel thirty-seven. Ezekiel thirty-seven. Let me set this chapter on the prophecy of the Zechariah.
And verse sixteen. Moreover the spouse, son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel and his companions, then take another stick and write upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions, and join them one to another, into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand." I want to speak this morning, as you possibly have noticed, the emphasis upon sticks.
And this is very interesting. One could well dwell upon each one of the texts in one message, but I just want to touch the mountain peaks of these four passages because of the reference made to sticks. In the first one it's a very solemn text. Here's a man, and all he's doing is he went out on the Sabbath day, and of course in those days it was Saturday, the old Jewish Sabbath, because God rested on the seventh day. Today we keep, in the New Testament, we keep the Lord's Day, which is the first day of the week. But in those days, the seventh day, the Sabbath day, was a very important day.
God rested on the seventh day after six days' work. And he made it very plain that he so recognized that day as being very important that anybody who did any work on that day should be put to death. Now that's a pretty severe sentence. And if that were carried out today, there'd be an awful lot of funerals. But back in those days it was very important. And the curse of God fell upon any man or woman who was found working on the Sabbath day.
The honor or dishonor done to the Sabbath day was the test of obedience to God under the law. I'm glad we're not under that law. But in the New Testament, it simply means this, the honor or dishonor done to Jesus Christ. That is the test under grace. It was a day in the Old Testament In the New Testament it's a apostle, the Lord Jesus Christ. This man was working on the Sabbath day. He was just picking up sticks.
And if you were to ask him, why are you picking up sticks? Don't you know this is a day of rest? Well, I'm cold and I need some heat. I'm making a fire just to get a little warm. Or I've got to have something to eat. and so I'm going to make a fire and do some cooking. Don't you know what God says that any man found working on the Sabbath day should be put to death? Well, I've got to get warm and I've got to get something deep. Then let me tell you that was severe and it was carried out, as we read in our passage. The point is simply this, that you can't work your way to heaven.
The Lord Jesus said on the cross, It is finished. The work of salvation is done. Man cannot work his way to heaven. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, if you want rest, as they rested on the Sabbath day in the Old Testament, even God rested on that day. If you want rest today, that is spiritual rest, you'll find it not in the observance of a day, but in accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. The Bible says to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he hath saved us. Salvation by works is a criminal doctrine. And you find over by grace in Hebrews, Ephesians chapter two, eight, nine, he says, by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of work. It's not what you do, and not of yourself. It's not what you are. And you're getting to heaven.
It doesn't depend upon what you are. You may be a sincere, honest man. And you may engage constantly in good works that will never see you to heaven. We're saved by grace through faith. And the curse of God today rests upon all. who seek or presume to get to heaven by doing good works. You're as much as telling God the work of your Son on the cross was not enough. And if a man could get to heaven by doing good works and living a good life, then the coming of Christ and his dying on the cross was an absolute tragedy.
Why would Jesus Christ come into this world and die upon the cross if man could get to heaven by his works? If there could have been a law given that could have given life, then righteousness would have been by the law. But there's no law given that gives man life. Man is under the curse of the law. I hope you see that. You cannot work your way to heaven. And yet today there are people by the millions, hundreds of millions, who are trying to get to heaven by doing the best they can, trying to live a good life, sidestepping the cross of Christ and His precious blood.
Then you're under the curse of God. Right now, for curse it is every man that continue up not. all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. And you'd have to keep all the law. And even then you wouldn't be righteous. For righteousness today is a person. Righteousness today is a life. It's the life of God. It's not doing right things. Now, all that's in your Bible. And I hope you realize that. You cannot work your way to heaven. It's absolutely impossible. Then we come to our second text, and then in Second Kings, six.
If you had the curse in the first one, you have the cross in the second. Now here you have in this passage a number of divinity students, and they've outgrown their building. And so they thought they should expand. And they spoke to the prophet Roger about it, and he agreed. So they decided to go and cut down trees down in the Jordan Valley, and to get those trees, make lumber, and build an expansion on their building. Why one young fellow, a husky young student, he would bring down that axe with all the strength he had, and the axe head flew off and it landed right in the river Jordan at muddy swift stream he said alas master it was born now you know this is an amazing incident what's going to happen well Elijah he says where did it fall he says right there Well, it may have been carried down a number
of feet or yards, hardly seen, maybe not seen at all, because of the muddiness of the water. And what did Elijah do? He cut down a branch, and he cast it in, and the iron came up. The iron did swim. And the prophet said to the student, Reach out thy hand and take it. And he did. Now that's a miracle. And that axe head came up to the surface to where the branch was. And the students have got his hand, put out his hand, and he took it.
This is a beautiful picture of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, when the axe head flew off the handle, sometimes that's used about people losing their temple. Well, they have separation. The axe head fell off or got off the handle. The young fellow wasn't watching. Which is the most important? The axe head or the handle? The axe head is the most important. He could wail the way all day with the axe handle. There wouldn't be any chips flying or trees cut down.
The most important thing was down in that river Jordan. The most important thing about you is your soul, not your body. And this hammer of the axe could well refer to your body. It was dead. The most important thing about you is your soul. And it was lost. in death the River Jordan. And friend, if you're not born again this morning, a separation is because you have not been born again and your sins have separated between you and your God.
And you are like that, Acts said, you are lost, lost in sin. And because you're lost, you're useless, just like that Axe Handle is useless without that axe head. Your body is useless to God without your soul being saved and associated with you. And yet there are people today that are whaling away with an axe handle. And there is no so-saved soul associated with all that labor. Now that's the story you have here.
Here you find that axe head and it's in death. Jordan. Not only so, it's in darkness. It's down at the bottom. And the further down it went, the darker it got. And the tendency of that axe head was to go down. Because iron is heavier than water. And therefore the law of gravity just was carried out. The axe head went down. just like if you were to jump off a ten-story building the law of gravity would take over and you'd go down and hit the concrete and that would be it breaking the law of gravity and that's what happened here the axe head went down the bottom of the ribboned gordon it was lost there's really wonder you find in the bible about things being lost the last the lost son to the lost son.
Ephesians speaks of those who are lost. They're without God. They're without Christ. They're without hope in the world. And this axe head hit the box. It stopped. It was at the end of its rule. A crisis came. It couldn't run. It didn't have the power to rise. It hit the bottom. Friend, there comes a crisis in every person's life before they get saved. You hit the bottom. It may be a funeral that will bring you to an end of yourself.
It may be a serious illness on your part that may bring you to the end of yourself and you'll hit bottom. It may be an accident that's waken you up and bring you to which end corner. There comes a crisis in every man and woman's life who is saved when they've got to make a choice. Except Christ or not, and that's the biggest crisis that can come in any man or woman's life. You're confronted with God's salvation through Christ. or rejecting it.
Maybe you're at the crossroads this morning and you're just helpless at the end of your rolls. You're at the point of no return. There you are. What are you going to do? You know what the Republican did in Luke eighteen? God be merciful to me, listen. This is where a man gets saved when he comes to the end of himself and realizes how helpless he is. Now that axe head could no more lift itself up to that surface of that river. It was at the bottom.
It was helpless. There it was. Something was keeping it down too. There was the waters. And something's keeping you down too. And that's the pressure of your ship. And there you are, just as helpless as you sit in those seats. If you're not a Christian, you're just as helpless as that axe head in the bottom of that river. It couldn't lift itself up, and neither can you. When a person comes like the prodigal to the end of his tether, as they say, this man said, alas, alas, when are you going to say, Alas, Lord, I'm lost.
I'm a church member. I've been baptized. I've lived as good a life as I know how. But I don't know I'm saved. If I breathe my last now, I'd go straight to head. You're lost. You've got to come to that point. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. They're the only people he will see. And I reflect upon my own life brought up in a Christian home. It was only a few nights before I got saved I laid awake under conviction and it dawned upon me how helpless I was.
For if I were able to get saved by crawling on my knees from here to Jerusalem If that could be possible, that wouldn't save me. I could give everything I've got. I could expend all the strength and energy I've got in twerking. I could join all the churches in Stratford. That wouldn't save me. And it dawned on me for the first time how helpless I was. If God didn't save me, I was lost. God didn't save me. I'd be in hell forever. Friend, God doesn't save you.
That's where you'll be forever. You cannot save yourself. It's an absolute impossibility. Now in America, what happened? Elijah didn't say, well, I've got the axe handle. You say the axe had went there this year yet. He didn't fill in the axe handle. It was dead. What did he do? He cut off a limb of a tree. It had life in it. He threw it in. On Rome that he did, the axe head came up, drawn up by that miraculous power in a living branch.
The prophet just said, Friend, how amazing in your Bible the Lord Jesus referred to the branch four times. And to show you the importance of that word branch, twice the whole word is in capital letters, V-R-A-N-C-H. Once referring to the branch, the branch of righteousness, that too is in capital letters. And the other time, the word begins with a capital letter. And where you'll find that, first in Jeremiah, twenty-three, five, I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and the king shall reign and prosper.
Repiring to the Lord Jesus Christ as the righteous branch, living, Jeremiah thirty-three, fourteen, in those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment. And righteousness in the earth. God is referring to Jesus Christ as the coming king. Then you have over in Zechariah three. I will bring forth my servant the branch. There again. and before Zechariah six twelve, before the man whose name is the branch, he shall go up and build the temple of the Lord.
All four references are to Jesus Christ the branch. And you know the branch had to be cut off. It had to be cut off from that tree. Jesus Christ had to die. And that's exactly what you read in the Bible. He shall be cut off out of the land of the living, and for the transgressions of my people was he stricken or cut off. Now you read that over in Isaiah fifty-three. Jesus Christ was cut off for who? The transgressions of God's people.
And also Daniel says in his prophecy, He says, after the sixtieth night year, week of years, after the hundred and four hundred and eighty-three years, Messiah shall be cut off, not for himself. And that exactly took place in the time given to build a temple until Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was cut off, not for himself. He had no sin. for you and me. He was cut off. Here is the cutting off of that branch.
That was amazing, wasn't it? When he threw that branch in, that living branch, the iron came up. What magnitudes and what power must have been in that branch? When you consider today the power of Aronautics, you saw, evidently, some of you, that plain, with Columbia on its back. Well, I thought, how on the world is it going to get off the ground? It is. That huge plane with another plane on its back, and some have heavy loads of that, and they take off. Of course, a plane is heavier than air, and if the motors stop, it comes down.
What is it that enables a plane to break the law of gravity. It's because of the power of aeronautics. That's it. And let me tell you, friend, the power of gravity has that axe head down on the bottom of the liver. But the power of God from above because something from above hit the top of that water. It was a branch. And the axe head came up. What lifted that axe head up?
A fire from above. What lifts up and saves two of our sinners down in the depths of sin, in the river Jordan Death, the power of God, as seen in Jesus' cup. This is the power of the cross. That's some power. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And the only way you're going to be saved is by God using His mighty power. And don't forget the same mighty power that God used when He created this world and called it into existence.
That same power has got to be an operation to save your soul. That same power. It takes the power of God to save men and women. Jesus Christ of the cross. He suffered. He was the branch that was cut off that he might lift poor men and women up out of their sin. He says, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. Here is the magnetism of Christ on the cross, dying for sinners. The prophet said to the student who have lost the accent, When he saw that were at miracle, the accent came to the surface, touched that living breath.
The eyes of that servant must have popped out. He stayed in college a long time before he'd learn anything better than that. That was a miracle. Father says, preach out your hand and take it. And he reached out his hand and he took that, which was lost. Now he could put it on the axe handle. It's useful. He can go to work. Reach out your hand and take it. God's salvation is available for you this morning. All you've got to do is reach out the hand of faith and take it.
You can buy it. You've got to take it. It's there for you. There it is. The student couldn't explain it. He couldn't understand it. But he did it. He reached out his hand becoming, you may not understand all the gospel, and yet it's simple. But because the Bible presents it in simple forms, why don't you take it? It will take all eternity for us to fully understand that the glorified body and mind will understand completely God's wonderful salvation.
But you can't believe it. And that's what it takes to be saved. Just like someone drowning and a man throws a light belt to him. What does he do? She pushes aside or says, I'll make it myself. But he's drowning. He grabs us. You're also out in deep water and you're drowning and a light bolt comes along. What do you do? You grab it. You grab the light bolt. Or maybe you're in a ten-story building that's on fire. And you look out, you can't get on the elevators, they're not operating. And you look down, and you see a big circle.
And there's a voice coming over the loud speaker. Jump! And you look down, you see something that looks the size of a dime. But it's the fireman's nets, encircled by firemen. Your only hope. your only chance to escape the flames that are closing in, jump. And you do. The fireman's net will save. Jesus Christ, friend, is ready to save. All you've got to do is trust him. Just like that person passed the life death or the lifeboat or the fireman's death.
It just came into my mind last night. something I heard many, many years ago and may have told. A man was dying with a strange disease, and he was complaining and blaming his parents they never should have been married because of the disease he had received from them, hereditary, and it was a slow process. But he pumped into a man one day and he got chalky. This man said, he bumped into, he said, you know, I had that very same disease. And he said, in fact, I was worse than you.
And he said, I heard of a certain medicine. And I went and got that medicine. I got three bottles. I drank it according to orders. And he said, I got over that disease, and I'm healthy today. And he said, I'm so... confident. It'll do the same for you. I'll go and get you a few bottles. And he did. He went and got three bottles of this medicine. He gave this man, and I said, if you take this medicine, like it says, you'll be as well as I am. Well, I have the same trouble as you. And I went and got the medicine. A month later, he looked in the newspaper.
He saw this man and died. He thought that strange. He hurried over to the family and sold them. He looked up on the mantelpiece in the bedroom and there was the partial. Not even the wrapping was taken off. He didn't take the medicine. He could criticize all he liked. The remedy was put in his hand at no expense to him, and he refused to take it. Let me tell you, friend, I was just as sinful as you, and just as sick in sin as you.
And God offered me the remedy. The remedy was the precious blood of Christ, what he did for me on the cross. God says, you take that, then you'll be saved. I took it. and I am saved. You do the same. You will be saved if you reject the medicine that's been purchased. God gives it to you, offers it to you, three. You too shall be saved. So surely will you be saved that you will know it, but you most surely will die in your sins if you reject it.
And who will you blame? No one. That man who died, couldn't blame anybody. He left the spedison right on the ship. Are you going to leave what you're hearing this morning? Right here at the top. You're not going to let into your heart take it home. Here you have this wonderful provision. God has made it for foolishness. All free won't cost you a dime. Then you come to the... Third thing, the cared of God, the curse of God, the cross, now God's care. And this wonderful story, how he had the prophet, and he was in a situation for which he was responsible.
In other words, he prophesied there wouldn't be any rain for three and a half years, and that was true. But God saw to it that he would be cared for, because he went down by a little river. and he drank with the book and the ravens of all things, unclean birds. The ravens boil them a piece of flesh and morning and evening, a piece of bread. And he ate on those days. That's how he survived. My must have been something to see those ravens come down and bring us breakfast, bring us the moon meal, bring us evening meal. He drank with the book. But, That was God's care for his servant.
The book dried up and the ravens stopped coming. That's source on survival left. But God says to his prophet, he says, you go to Zarephath, I have commanded a widow woman there to feed you. Well, that wasn't too promising. She wasn't the rich widow either. But when the prophet arrived there, he saw a woman picking up sticks. and he approached her about giving him some tea. And she said, all I've got is some meal in the bottom of a fowl, enough for one cake, a little oil in the crew.
And she said, my son is starving to death, so am I. And I'm going to take that little bit of meal at the bottom of that fowl and that oil and I'm going to make a cake. My son and I are going to eat it and die. The Prophet says, hold on, you make that cake, but you give it to me first. That was a discourage, selfish thing for the Prophet to tell a widow. But she did it. She went and she scraped the dowel, got the meal out, she got the oil, she made a cake.
And as God had told the Prophet, That violent meal shall not fail, or that oil in the crude shall not fail, until I send rain upon the earth. Three and a half years, it was a famine. And every day, this is day by day your daily bread. She took the last of that meal out. And all that rest of that day, she said, well, I don't see there will be any meal out. I took it all out yesterday morning. She went peeped in, same amount the next morning. She looked at the bottom wall, same amount as yet anymore. And she lived, her son and the pot, and the famine was over.
God's wonderful care for his beloved people. And the God and the Christ we preach to you this morning. the same God who puts the curse on all those who are trying to work their way to heaven. He presents the cross as seen in the branch that was thrown into the Roman River of Jordan, the cross. And after you accept the Christ of the cross, then He'll care for you. He's promised to do it. Casting all your care upon Him. for he carried to you.
He's wonderful. He's been taking care of me for these fifty-one years I've been preaching. I have missed a meal. And at any time, I couldn't tell you where the next meal was coming from. I was like the old widow. It always came. What wonderful care. The last one is the crowd, that passage in the thirty-seventh of his Ezekiel. What you have here is a sad story. Here you have two tribes, Judah, spoken of Judah. Then Israel, ten tribes. The nation had been split. God said, Ezekiel, I want you to take the stick representing the two tribes and the stick representing the ten.
And he said, I want you to bind them together. That they may become one. And he's speaking of the future and he's speaking of the last days. What does this speak of? It speaks, friend, of the time when union and restoration and the re-establishment of Israel under their king will take place in the land of Palestine. And God is bringing his people back. The amazing thing is today, the Jews have been going back since the turn of the century, the Jewish nation. They don't know today who's of Judah and who's of Ephraim, who's of Israel.
Levi, they know what tribes they've come from, but God knows. But they're coming back as a nation, and there they are in the land. The most powerful nation in the Middle East, they'll rip any other nation single-handed. Unless they all gang up on them, For God's with little Israel, even though they're still rejecting his son, but the times come, going to come, and signs are evident that it's not caught off. Of course, we don't go by signs, but we see the signs of Israel. When Israel is going to be united, and they're going to look upon Christ whom they've pierced, and they shall receive him, as their Messiah, and a king shall reign in righteousness.
Christ will reign over Israel. And that's for the latter days and will not fall off. So you have these sticks. The first is the curse of God upon every man or woman who is trying to work his way to heaven. The cross for all those who want to be saved are the sticks. in the second phase. The third, care of God for all those who are saved. After you're saved, you did give. But there's the crown in the future.
The two sticks bound together, Israel united. And that's what we're waiting for when Christ shall come. One of the first things going to happen for the Christian, he's going to be at the judgment seat of Christ, he'll receive rewards for things done in the body. Crowns, even crowns, the Bible says, but he's going to cast those crowns at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And the day he's not far off when Christ is going to be crowned. That's the lesson of the fourth stick. in Ezekiel thirty-seven.
And when Jesus Christ is crowned, the Christians will have their rewards and they shall reign with him. Which class are you in? Are you under the first class, the sticks of disobedience under God's curse, refusing to believe his word and receive his son? Why are you in the second class? You've found the Savior. As a lost sinner, you know your sins are forgiven. We're on the way to heaven. If that's so, you're in the third class.
You're the object of His care, just as God took care of the prophet and the widow and her son. And you're also waiting for the coming king to be crowned in the day of his espouse. And when He reigns, you reign with Him. And when you think of reigning, you think of a crown, don't you? Which class are you in? You're in the first one. You are in bad shape. You're in your sins like that axe head at the bottom of the river. You need to know the power of the gospel to lift you up.
And if you are saved, Then you're in the second class, you're enjoying the third class, the care of God, and you anticipate the thought, the coming of Christ and His reigning on the earth, and you may live. May God have you, except Jesus Christ was born, as your personal Savior. You may not understand at all, but you understand this, you're a lost sinner, and you understand that Jesus died for you. The Bible says he accepts him, you shall be saved. You believe him, you will be saved. That's what the Bible says. Truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We thank thee for thy holy word. We thank thee for this ample provision thou hast made, for poor sinners to be saved. but also thy wonderful care that will follow that experience of salvation. May someone this morning trust the Savior and be saved. Down in death and darkness, away from God, oh, that they might trust the Savior and come to the light, come to Christ and be saved. We ask it in his name. Amen. Let us sing three, five, six.
three hundred and fifty six. Have you any room for Jesus, he who bore your root of sin? As he knocks in our submission, sinner, will you let him in? It's all up to you. He's standing on the threshold of your heart's door. He wants to come in, only a step, and he'll come in. Room for Jesus, King of Troy. Haste and knowledge, word obey. Swing your heart's door wide open, let them enter while you may. So we stand and sing. If you let them in, come and tell us, if you haven't want to, come and let us know.
Music Thank you. I'll sing the last verse, and I hope you'll read it. Think over it while we're singing it. Room for time. Now give to Jesus.
Soon will pass your day of grace. Soon thy heart left cold and silent, and thy Savior's pleading sick. Come to Christ, we sing the last