Address—S. Bambauer
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Appreciate how the brethren here have adjusted and made due.
In uh.
Situation that was unexpected. How the Lord comes in and takes care of things. The Lord is good.
Could we sing number?
331.
And I'll have a brother start that so I don't embarrass myself.
Leviticus 26 verse 10 says in Ye shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of the new. And so I thought we could look a little bit at First Kings chapter 17. Uh, with that encouragement.
The new unfolds the old.
The new is hidden in the old, The old is unfolded by the new. It comes to life all the little stories.
Pastoral scenes.
Family issues.
Journeys.
That we find in the Old Testament have poignant lessons for each one of us.
In chapter 17 of First Kings, we are looking at a.
Period in history about 900 BC.
The Kingdom had been divided for about 100 years.
Things had.
Gone into great declension in the.
Northern 10 tribes of Israel.
And God sends a prophet.
To speak to edification.
Building up.
Comfort. Exhortation. Finding up.
Stirring up so Elijah Elijah does first Kings chapter 17 and Elijah the tishbite.
Who was of the inhabitants of Gilead? Said unto Ahab.
As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be due, nor reign these years, but according to my word.
Sometimes.
In our lives.
Seems like the moisture just dries up.
The enjoyment of God.
And his Son, Lord Jesus Christ.
And there are usually probably issues that needed to be dealt with.
To stir us up.
If he withholds the rain, it's for our good. If he withholds something, it's really for our good. He really wants our attention. He sends the prophet and it says in the word of the Lord came unto him saying.
Now what we hold in our hands in liberty, in our land, and we're thankful for it.
The Word of the Lord.
The Lord spoke by the prophets in the Old Testament.
We have their words.
What God chose to inscribe that for our prophet?
How can we do without the word of God?
To know where we're going.
And why we're going and how to get there.
I remember.
In Naval aviation in the Gulf of Tonkin. Back in the.
Late 60s.
There was an aircraft that came up from Czech down below in the hangar Bay where they were doing maintenance.
And the crew down there, the maintenance crew, said that they needed somebody to give it a check ride.
And I was assigned to that, along with the fellow I flew with. I was in the back seat, he in the front.
So we took this airplane up and shot off the catapult and there was a cloud cover about 6000 feet.
So we went up above that with a solid cloud cover and began to do checks on the instruments.
On the different faculties of that F4 and starting to write down a laundry list of things, we wanted to submit to the aircraft Maintenance Division to have it fixed so that it would be ready for combat.
We intended to get up and fly in a large circle. As we did these checks, we couldn't see the carrier, the tack, and the navigational device was just sitting there spinning. That was one of the obvious things that needed to be fixed.
00:05:10
We didn't have our instruments.
So we just flew in a lot of.
Circle with about a 40 mile radius.
Saundered around up there, writing these things down. Cloud cover 6000 feet. We may be bet 7000 feet.
We were probably up there about 1/2 an hour doing these checks, writing it down. Pretty soon we saw a break in the clouds and we both looked down at the same time. And there was land down there. We had strayed without instruments, right over enemy territory.
And I told my pilot John, we need to point this thing to the east and light fires.
So we did.
Therefore, we didn't.
Got a good meal back on the ship.
We fled from the wrath to come, but the importance of instruments in the aircraft.
When you don't have any other reference points. Now what reference points do we have?
In this life to make our way through it.
Well, we could pick up the Wall Street Journal.
Times, News magazine, local newspaper, listen to the news on the radio, all of these different sources, uh, we could, uh read books on how to get ahead in our business. All of these self help things. We can go to college, we can go to school and some of these things are valuable.
But if we don't have this book?
We're going to be running in circles over enemy territory in a stupor.
The word of the Lord came unto him.
Get the hints, then turn the eastward and hide thyself by the book Heareth that is before Jordan, verse 8. And the word of the Lord came unto him saying.
Get the dazz which belongeth to Zaidan Dwell there God gave him directions in a place.
Place of comfort.
Of encouragement.
There was a widow woman there. I have commanded the widow woman there to sustain thee.
Verse 10 So we arose and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks.
And he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee a little water in a vessel that I may drink, and I wish she was going to fetch it. He called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake.
She was destitute. No rain, three years, no crops.
No rivers to draw from semi arid land.
Drop no deep wells.
No damned up rivers for lakes.
No technology in these things to sustain us through a draw.
Have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel. What a fixture of this world.
Scratching and plowing through here trying to find something to sustain us.
So precious little was available to her.
I am gathering 2 sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
26 She's gonna rub together and make a fire to hold two sticks, body and soul, together as long as she can.
Natural instinct, But she knew she was going to die, Elijah said unto her. Fear not.
Go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake 1St and bring it unto me.
But a desperate request this woman must have thought that that was.
That he would have.
The first of the menu.
When she was going to prepare it for.
She and her son prepare it for her and her son, and then perish.
Right on the edge of life.
When the Lord approaches to us.
In our desperation.
He wants the first place.
He doesn't come to just do her quick fix it.
He wants a place in our life. He wants communion with us.
He wants us for his enjoyment.
00:10:00
He's not looking for the rich of this world.
They may certainly come, and many have.
It's not riches that impress him.
Here is a soul in destitution.
And he comes to her aid.
But he makes that claim.
How many times?
Do we stagger through life and come to a crisis and then just say, Lord, get me through this one?
Maybe he does, Maybe we don't say thank you.
We get on our bike and keep pedaling to the next crisis, ask the Lord to do it again.
Does he have a place in our lives?
Is this woman going to give it to him?
Satisfy that request. He wants us for himself.
Food and ramen.
He is more than able.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, verse 14, The barrel of meal shall not waste.
Neither shall the crews of oil fail. This is the Spirit of God taking the word of God and and feeding us on the person of Christ. The meal, the fine meal.
To sustain us.
Until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
Until he has finished with this dispensation.
Now you might think it doesn't make too much sense to be talking about destitution.
To accompany a company of us that live in a land of wealth.
Where we eat all we can and then we eat a little bit more.
And we're more than sufficed and we dress well and we're warm.
In the winter and were cooled in the summer and never in the history of man.
Has man enjoyed such affluence and comfort?
As in Western civilization.
And Western civilization has been monumentally blessed.
By the Lord himself.
Well, the Gospel left Jerusalem.
And it went to Greece and became a philosophy. It went to Rome.
And became an institution, got up into Europe, became a culture.
Came to the United States and is a grand enterprise.
But the Lord is looking for reality through all of this.
We noticed my wife and I on a trip to Europe last year.
Going through Paris, Bergerac, Lyell, different areas, London.
Hardly find a church.
Skeletons shelves.
Well, it's not going to go on like that forever.
There will be a shaking.
But she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, she obeyed the obedience of faith.
You might say it doesn't sound logical. Doesn't have to. We don't have to stop and reason when the Lord clearly tells us something. It's the obedience of faith that he's looking for.
She went and did according to the saying of Elijah.
And she and he and her house did eat many days she ate in communion.
With God's messenger. Now Christ is God's messenger.
He came to reveal the heart of the Father.
He shows us.
As he says to Thomas, hast thou been so long with me? He had asked to see the Father. If you had seen me, you had seen the Father.
And there was this communion.
She and he and her house.
Did eat many days.
Do we long for the simplicity of that?
This is beautiful. This is life.
And without Christ, it's empty, in spite of all the wealth. Why are people in such a wealthy situation, as we see running to and fro?
To this dainty.
To that excitement, to that bit of entertainment.
To this bit of ecstasy.
00:15:02
To this thing and that thing.
And yet the soul is lean.
Not so with this widowed woman. She did eat.
And he did eat, and her house did eat.
Many days after day after day, he is faithful.
These are the issues of life and the barrel of mail wasted. Not neither did the crews of oil fail. He's an all the way home saviour. He will be with us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us.
Ah, do we see then in these stories in the Old Testament?
How they're drawn out by the truths of the new.
According to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.
Chapter 18 Then it came to pass, after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah.
And Elijah moved when the word of the Lord came to him.
He could be at the right place at the right time. He could nourish the widow woman.
And her son.
But now he has quite a task. God is going to send him to a different person. Go show thyself unto Ahab.
Go show thyself unto Ahab.
What if he said to me, go show thyself to Richard Dawkins.
Or some curmudgeon.
Political ruler?
But he goes.
Elijah went.
To show himself under Ahab.
I really have a lot of respect for those who are able to do this.
And don't fear, man.
There was a sore famine in Samaria and Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house.
We'll go down to verse.
17 of our chapter.
Obadiah brings Ahab to meet Elijah in verse 16 and in verse 17, and it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah.
That they have said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
The question of is evil. Why must be Elijah's fault?
Things go wrong. People blame God. Why does he allow such evil?
One of the salient questions you ask.
The population today.
Present God to them. Why did he allow the Holocaust? Why did he allow?
Hurricane Katrina. Why did he allow the oil spill?
You know, some of these evils are man made.
The whole created scene. It says in Romans 8 groans and travails until the redemption.
Sin has affected the whole show.
Ahab has the temerity to ask.
Elijah.
This is your fault.
The man will say it's God's fault.
How did this happen?
You know, the population of the world, I suppose, is seesaw, So I read.
From the beginning of man to 1900 was about 6 billion people.
And then in the population explosion of the 20th century.
There were that many in just the 20th century, 6 billion people.
For an accumulation of 12 billion people.
About half of which are here now.
12 billion people.
I'll have sinned.
All have sinned.
00:20:08
Number of sins committed by man on this earth in the history of man.
To do the math.
You need a calculator.
How many?
Of these things have we added.
Well, with God there is forgiveness that he might be feared.
But there are consequences.
And evil ravages. Here the Prince of Peace came. He was cast out.
And man has the audacity to say, Why does God allow evil?
Sin shakes things. It tears things. It gouges things. It rips and bites things. It's savage.
It destroys relationships.
It does so even among believers, if there's carelessness and if we don't keep short accounts.
This is the human predicament.
Adam sinned. We received Adam's nature and we fall to it.
That was the first Adam. The last Adam came.
Born of the Virgin.
Wholly pure, no sin in him born a man.
Of Adam's race, but not of Adam's nature.
Sinless one. That's what the virgin birth was about, so that he would not inherit.
Adam's sin nature.
And he came to restore that which he took not away.
The ravishes of this poor earth.
And he was cast out.
There are consequences for that.
But as many as received him to then give you the power to become the sons of God relationship.
He finished the work.
I don't know how many billions of sins we got to.
As we began A feeble attempt to calculate.
He died for all.
And that he died for all.
All we're done.
He bore the sins of many.
He died for all his propitiation.
He died for the sins of many. That's substitution.
Well, you get this beautifully pointed out.
In Leviticus, I think it's chapter 16 with the two goats.
And the scapegoat Aaron took put his hand on it and confessed the sins of the people. Israel's picture of God's elect.
Let that go into a land uninhabited.
Christ forsaken on Calvary's tree.
It was 1/5.
Man, there was no other.
The Blessed Lord Jesus.
What beautiful pictures in the Old Testament to illuminate these truths?
And then the grace of God brings the word of God.
To the rebel against God.
Who says art thou that troubles Israel?
And so there's going to be a demonstration here.
I have not troubled Israel, but thou verse 18 and thy father's house.
Forsaken, the commandments of the Lord followed Balaam.
This is the cause, root cause of evil in the world.
And it affects.
Everybody.
We all live here.
Ahab had 450 prophets.
Of the Groves 400.
They ate at Jezebel's table. That was their nourishment.
False religion.
Sensuality.
Disobedience.
Self will.
00:25:01
Man's ideas how all of these things come together to form.
400 and 400 and 58150.
How many times?
As man engineered some kind of a religious idea, pawned it off onto infatuated man and gotten the following.
There is none other name given a man among men under heaven, whereby we must be saved.
God has sent one man.
And he is the object of faith in God because he is God's provision.
And as I said, that goat into a land uninhabited the Lord Jesus.
Taking our sins upon himself, all those sins, as Aaron put his hand on the goat and confessed them there, everyone laid upon him at Calvary as he bore them there in that three hours of darkness.
All the sins of the believers.
From Abel on to the end.
How many sins would that be?
I don't even know how to calculate that.
And I doubt that there are as many of the elect believers in all the dispensations as there are the multitudes.
But what a burden of sin he bore.
On Calvary.
So Ahab sent all unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, how long halt she between two opinions.
What a statement.
Choose you this day who you will serve, we often hear.
If it be the Lord God follow him, but if Baal follow him.
And there's no response. The people answered him. Not a word.
Then set Elijah on to the people.
I only remain a prophet of the Lord, but veil prophets are 450 men.
Well, there's no use flowing with the majority.
We want God's word.
We must have God's word.
In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Beginning We were created in God's image and likeness.
Images to represent unlikenesses for communion.
What a privilege for us as redeemed.
What an occupation.
To enjoy.
The Lord and to know that he enjoys our company, that we're not putting him out.
We're not wasting his time in his presence.
He's not condescending.
To put up with us, it's his joy.
It was the very purpose.
Of creation in the 1St place, and so he has restored.
Everyone that comes to Christ.
In the beginning was the word.
Where is that beginning?
God in Trinity, in communication.
In enjoyment of each other in eternity.
I had a little boy ask me once, what do you do in heaven? Will I take my puppy there?
Will I get bored?
What's gonna occupy Occupy Us There?
We have just a little glimpse of it now.
In human relationships, husband and wife.
A father and a son.
These times and these things are precious to us.
God in communication in the beginning was the Word.
Man created after his image.
A speaking species and articulating species, the only one of its kind.
This is a great mystery. This what we're doing here.
We have an alphabet of 26 letters and each one has a certain sound described to it. We learn those sounds 2-3 years old, four years old, kindergarten. We write them down. We learn what they sound like.
00:30:11
ABCD and so on. 26 of them comprehensive. Three or four. We couldn't make too many sounds.
We put them together in an aperiodic sequence that is not just say VAVA, where we get Bah Bah Bah Bah, from which we get the word Bah Bah long and it doesn't mean anything.
So we learned how to put these sounds together to form words and that in an aperiodic.
That is not a predictable.
Or a repetitious way.
We put them together, not haphazardly.
But in a specified way.
And outcomes. A word followed by a word making a sentence, making a paragraph, telling a story, communicating one to another.
How complex this is when we stop to think about it.
And as I have been speaking here for a little over half an hour, all of these words flowing out the reading of the scripture.
Some thoughts about them coming out of the mind through these vocal cords. That's not enough. There has to be a wiring diagram to the mind.
Poly wanna cracker, just won't do.
If I stood up here and said Polly want a cracker 700 times, wouldn't be saying very much.
To traffic in these deep thoughts.
To speak of God.
To speak of love concept, how do you define love? I don't know how to define love.
But I know it by experience.
How do you how do you define light? I don't know how to define light.
God and nature is light and love. Can I define God? No. Can I enjoy God? Yes.
In communion with him on his terms.
Marvelous.
Man scratching around down here looking for the essence of life, the reason for life, the purpose of life. Trying to figure out how we're to behave with each other. Building laws, trying to sort that out.
Trying to figure out where we came from, where the whole show came from, Where is it going? When is it going to end?
And none of those questions can we answer not one.
Until we find the answers right here.
Here is we get where we get the answers to the very issues of life.
Our origin?
How did the organic spring from the inorganic?
How did that happen?
How did particles marry the laws of nature so they got animated?
And move and form.
And make things and do things.
In the beginning was the Word. He is the Creator God.
God has created all things by his Son.
All those intricate, delicate questions that have no answers are found right here. The very first statement in the begotten in the beginning. God.
We find in John 11, that's the Lord Jesus, that person of the Godhead created.
Out of nothing.
The heavens.
That's the whole expanse of space and all that's in it.
And the earth.
This little.
Marginalized place in the universe.
That is hospitable to man with atmosphere, all of the physics that go to make up.
How the Earth moves where it is the third one out from the sun.
How it rotates its angle. We call this the entropic principles, those.
Things that come together.
That make it just right to support life on this earth by accident.
We have a master designer.
And all of these things are mere creation.
The human being. What an intricate being.
00:35:04
What is man? David said as he sat out under the stars and looked up and got a glimpse.
Of space.
And Infinity, and in eternity, and said, What is man that thou art mindful of him?
That he would come down to commune, that he would take that journey that led him knowingly to Calvary's tree, and he set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem.
And there he went, knowing full well what was before him submitted himself.
To the hand of ruthless, savage man.
In all his enmity toward, God submitted himself to that that he might go to Calvary's cross to glorify.
His father, and to redeem a bride for himself.
Does the love of Christ constrain me?
Well, it certainly should when I stop to think about these things, but you know.
How it is if we absent ourselves.
From the reading of the scripture, if we're not diligent in these things daily in our own lives and with our families and in a collective way in the assembly, the reading meetings.
The times together.
Will wither.
Because we are dependent.
And we cannot do without this nourishment any more than we can do without our natural food.
And we would wither if we didn't take our natural food, and we will wither in our souls.
If Christ is not the object of our readings in Scripture, to see His beauty and His glories.
To answer to his request, as we did this morning.
To have our hearts touched.
Every Lord's day we need it, but it is also.
What God delights in.
To see the response of his own to his matchless grace, to answer to his request, his simple request, this do.
In remembrance of me and how we need that remembrance.
What the Lord Jesus went through for me, for you?
How long hauled she between two opinions? No response. They answered him, not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people. Verse 22. I only remain a prophet, 450 men.
Take two bullets, Let them choose one for themselves. Cut it in pieces. Lay it on wood, Put no fire under. I will dress the other block. Lay it on wood, put no fire under.
And call thee on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord.
And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.
And all the people answered and said it is well spoken.
At first, in the end of verse 21, no response that was to their conscience.
Now to their test. It is well spoken.
We'd be willing to see this display.
And Elijah said unto prophets of bail.
Choose you one bullet for yourselves and dress it first. Your many call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
They took the Bullock which was given them and they dressed it and called on the name of Bale from morning until.
Morning even until noon saying O bail hear us there was no voice.
Nor any that answered.
Mute gods made of stone.
They leaped upon the altar which was made.
Religious activity.
It came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said cry aloud, for he is a God.
Either he is talking or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey or prevent per adventure you sleep with and must be awake.
And they cried out, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till blood gushed out upon them.
How savage man is to himself.
How masochistic man is to himself, cutting, bleeding, crying, calling.
Blood gushing out.
This is involved in many religions.
00:40:01
Not just back 900 BC, still in many religions, and it came to pass, when midday was passed, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any answer, nor any of that regarded the plaintiff's time was given.
And Elijah said unto All the people come near unto me.
We're gonna get near enough.
To the Lord to hear his voice.
From his messenger.
The one he has sent, the one has spoken. The faithful witness. The faithful and true witness.
Come near unto me, and all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
Now when we look at Christendom, and I don't want to make blanket statements, there are many, many that love the Lord and mean business.
But Christendom?
As we often say, the church is in ruin.
And there are so many egregious things that go on under the umbrella of Christendom.
That you could hardly count them even if you wanted to.
And we probably shouldn't want to.
And they were cutting themselves.
You know, life without Christ is hard.
It's hard.
Life is hard enough. We live in a violent scene.
But he's been here and he's been through it and he escorts us all the way home.
Elijah verse 33 put the wood in order.
To put an order, there's order could go to the New Testament, especially to the Epistles.
The Gospels tell us about the death of Christ on Calvary's tree, his life here.
The epistles the consequence.
The result? The reward.
Puts the wood in order. Cut the Bullock in pieces, laid him on the wood, fill 4 barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood we are going to see here now that.
The story that we read here that God gives us the account.
Of what is, what is his mind? What is real is not just a natural phenomenon that is the result of time and chance and history and movement and people and ideas coming up with another religion.
Fill 4 barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. This is not going to be natural, for this is a test of fire to see which is acceptable before the Lord.
And he said do it the second time. And they did it the second time and said do it the third time And they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar and filled the trenches about there with water.
And it came to pass at the time of the offering of that evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near. And he said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel.
And that I am thy servant.
God is Christ came, and Mark is the perfect servant.
In John he is the Son. In Matthew he is the Messiah.
And Luke is the son of man.
He fulfills all of these things.
God, manifest in flesh, have done all these things at thy word. How important that is.
Then he makes a short prayer in verse 37. He is the dependent man. Hear me, O Lord, hear me.
That these people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart.
Back again.
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice.
And the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water.
That was in the trench.
My God. My God.
Why hast thou?
Forsaken me.
The fire of God's judgment comes down.
00:45:04
And he has made sin for us.
And God turns his face from his Christ.
And he bears my sins in his own body on the tree.
I have a substitute.
I can say that he died for my sins and he bore them.
I can tell the lost. He died for you. You may come.
Otherwise, you will die in your own sins. You have no substitute. You will come and be saved, or you will restrain and find excuses.
And be lost and die in your sins, and be judged for your sins.
And just as they were in life.
Cutting themselves, weeping and wailing, gnashing their teeth at God. So will it be an eternity in the lake of fire. Weeping sorrow, wailing, desperate sorrow. That's at the end of Isaiah 17.
And gnashing of teeth.
Enmity against God as the Eternal Ages roll.
This man on Calvary justified God in his humiliation. His judgment was taken away.
The Sinner will never be repentant, even in the depths of judgment.
No, not in time or eternity.
So there is no escape.
And that's all there will ever be.
And it is a place of darkness, outer darkness, because there is no light there. God is light. Christ is the light of the world.
They are in separation from God and there is no light there. They are an outer darkness.
What have we been saved from?
What did we trade?
A few ephemeral pleasures for a season.
For the very meaning of life.
And it's not that we have to say, oh, I got to not do that. I got to not do that.
We turn our eyes to God, and in doing so, as the Thessalonians did, they turned from idols. Christ is enough.
But we need to be diligent. You and I both know that. We all know that there needs to be a diligence.
Day in and day out, putting 1 foot in front of the other and taking the pathway that leads to eternal life.
Hand in hand with the Savior that accompanies us, never leaves us, never forsakes us, and is waiting too for us, that he'll receive us unto himself there.
The hearts of these people are turned when they see this great sacrifice.
According to Elijah's.
Elijah's prayer that thou hast turned their heart back again.
The fire fell consumed.
All that was there, he was reduced to ashes for us.
When the people saw it, you know, the first time. Verse 21, no response.
End of verse 24 about the offering. It is well spoken.
But now here is yeah and Amen.
They fell on their faces.
It was not the voice of the philosopher who got a vision.
This is the voice of one prostate before God.
The Lord He is thee, God, not one of the 450 or 851 of many.
He is be gone.
They say it again, the Lord he is the God. Verily, verily.
Truly, truly, and they add their Amen.
And when we add our Amen to the work of Christ on Calvary's tree, we can say verily, verily.
God hath raised him from the dead.
He seated him at his right hand.
By his resurrection life there, he intercedes for us, saves us day by day.
Keeps us all the way home.
00:50:01
Will, gather us together there. What a grand reunion all the people saw. It fell on their faces.
And made this response they didn't see.
I don't have I I know I got to say the Lord, He is gone. It's expected of me. I got to do that. It's a requirement, Law says. Somebody told me to say that this is a spontaneous response from a renewed part that has come to Calvary and seen.
The work of Christ.
There for him, not for the masses.
Though, but for him.
Elijah said unto them, And now there is a turning to Christ. There's a turning from the idols. And he says, Take the prophets of Baal. Let not one of them escape. They took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook, Kaishan, and slew them. There there was a complete work.
It's not one foot in the world.
And one foot in eternal life. They meant business.
They destroyed that which was previously their occupation.
That meant so much to them that had kept them and blinded their eyes from the things of God.
Elisha said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat, and drink, for there is a sound.
Of abundance of rain.
Verse 45 The heaven was black with clouds.
Wind and there was a great rain.
Ahab Rd. and went to Jezreel.
The hand of the Lord was upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran, and we are running the race.
In 390 BC.
The second hegemonous nation of Daniels 4 The Needs and Persians came down to attack the third Hegemonous nation of Daniel.
The Greeks, you know there were four.
Babylon, the Medes and Persians, Greece and Rome, and then the Messiah.
And then he was cut off.
The battle as the Medes and Persians under Darius.
Came down man is always, he's never satisfied with what he has always wants as the rich man said just a little bit more that'll suffice just a little bit more. So it is nationally.
Hegemony just means the most powerful nation on earth in that day.
Right now it happens to be the United States, and that day it was the Medes and Persians. The tide was going to shift to the Greeks.
390 BC.
Little town north of Athens called Marathon.
Darius shows up with his troops. The Athenians show up with their troops and the battle is engaged and it's fierce.
And at the end of the battle, after several days, the Athenians had conquered.
The Medes and Persians.
Although outnumbered, they conquered the Meats and the Persians.
Good news.
The fellow named Philippides.
A messenger there at the army, he runs from Marathon back to Athens.
You know how far? 26 miles.
That's how long a marathon is. It's where we get that he runs 26 miles back to Athens.
He runs into town and he draws the crowd.
And he.
We won.
And he keeled over and died.
The cry of victory from the cross is it is finished and he bowed ahead and gave up the ghost.
He laid down his life, and then he took it up again.
And as our Savior in the glory our High Priest, there he brings us.
All the way home, and rightfully so, with every right to do so in view of the work that he did, God adding his Amen to that work and raising him from the dead and exalting him to that place.
00:55:05
At his right hand. What a savior we have.
Our God and Father, how we thank Thee to be able to draw out from these passages these.
Eternal truths to be encouraged to put away the idols, to look to Christ.
To turn to God, turn our back on the things that don't matter.
Help us now our God and Father, in view of all that thou hast done, and thy matchless love, and sparing not thy beloved Son.
To draw us on, We thank thee for thy grace, thy thoughts toward us. Thou hast so much invested in US that thou wilt never let us go. And we thank thee. We thank thee for the day, the time together.
The provision here by undertaking for our dear brethren here for all the ministry, the word of God, the fellowship together. This Father indeed is our life, and we thank thee for.
The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.