Address—R. Klassen
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With all our God.
No more.
Is the Lord.
Of glory way from that race of.
And.
Let U.S. Open this very precious book to the book of Romans, Chapter 11.
Romans, Chapter 11.
And we'll begin reading at verse 2.
God hath not castaway his people.
Which he foreknew what she not, what the Scripture saith of Elias or Elijah, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what answer saith the answer of God unto him?
I have reserved to myself 7000 men.
Who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
As I read this portion of God's word.
There's a confession that one feels he needs to make.
In respect to the life of Elijah.
Remember as a young boy hearing this comment made that it's the only sin of an Old Testament St. that is recorded in the New Testament and that kind of put a stigma on Elijah's life in my own heart.
And then after.
Time had passed. Years.
It came so forcibly before me that that dear man stood with Moses.
Speaking with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration of the deceased that he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
And I wondered, perhaps this stigma will have to go.
And to look into why this is recorded in the New Testament, this failure. Now it isn't called a sin here, but we know that it was.
And when we realize when Elijah spoke this, that we would have fallen under that intense pressure.
Moses, you know, he was another one that called God's people rebels and smote the rock twice when he should have just spoken to it, smote it.
And he was not allowed to go into the promised land.
But I think what makes it a sin is this. When we look at Samuel's life and he's in the Crucible of pressure, of having LED Israel before the Lord and seeing them begin to gain and to grow, that then there's a cry out for a king. And Samuel, in that intense moment, he said that ye have rebelled against the Lord. But he also said this.
God forbid.
That I should sin before the Lord.
In praying for you.
Or I just marvel at those dear servants that can bear up under such intense pressure and realize that if ever there's a need to intercede for God's people, it's when the rebellion of our hearts are spilling out and we've become discontent for some reason or other, and we want to change things and set off in another direction.
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But I would like to for the remaining moments, just to highlight a little bit of Elijah's life. That brings us to this moment when the Lord reveals to him that he has a remnant according to the election of grace.
Let us turn back to First Kings Chapter 17.
Now, for the sake of time.
I'm going to draw a little bit on your memory as you have read God's Word and respect to the history of Israel to pick up a little backdrop now.
Elijah was born.
In a place where.
The folks that he was among, we might say, never made the headlines. He lived in Tishbe and Gilead.
And he had the advantage, no doubt, of having the books of Moses.
And as Israel was declining, there he was, a little boy growing up, and he would hear stories that would.
Passed by the older ones and he could tell by the stories that were going that there were heavy hearts.
As Israel was on a course of declension and apostasy.
And one story after another began to have a leavening effect, and it finally got down to the point where it just didn't look like it mattered what you did.
Now let's stop to think of Ahab for a moment. Ahab married into the royalty of the Zidonians, which God had plainly said were a thorn in their eyes.
And the Zidonians were very rich and had colonies throughout the Mediterranean.
And had untold wealth pouring into Zaiden and he marries into that.
Royalty, and I'm sure that there were many in Israel that were excited about this marriage.
And they thought of all the economical benefits that they would have.
You know has already been told.
That materialism.
Is really a vexing thing to the Christian spirit.
And dolls are valid sense of values.
And so the stories would go on. Well, you know what Ahab's doing, why this wealth is pouring in, and he's making him a palace of ivory.
And I just can see Elijah as a young man and every report just driving a shaft of pain through his heart as he was jealous for the God of Israel.
Then he gets the report that there's a bethelite that's going down to Jericho and he's rebuilding the city of the Curse.
532 years had gone by since the curse had been pronounced.
Now there was a system of things that were reigning that really didn't make any difference. You just did what you wanted to do and there was no divine restraint or it seemed that way.
And so there came that day.
When?
Elijah earnestly prayed that it would not rain.
Did he have the word of God to form that prayer?
Or did he just think it up on his own?
I think we know he had the word of God. Let's just turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 11.
To see what that dear man might have read that caused him to pray so earnestly.
Deuteronomy Chapter 11 and verse 16.
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Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived.
And he turned aside and serve other gods and worship them.
And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven.
That there be no rain and that the land yield not her fruit.
Lest she perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.
What a prayer, what an exercise.
And I believe that Elijah had it out with the Lord, perhaps in this way, saying, Lord, thou hast spoken thy word, that if the people go into idolatry, that thou wouldst withhold the rain.
And the rain is still coming, and the people feel that thou hast no care what's going on among his people.
There's one other report that Elijah might have heard.
It was a report that Ahab and Jezebel had.
Build a temple.
To a God and a goddess that represent the inflaming.
Of passion, lust and sin for young.
And for all. And he said, I must act. And we gasped as we think of this mighty tide of evil that was rolling, say, Elijah.
You'll never affect anything, you better back out while the backing out is good, but all the conviction was so deep in his heart that we read in chapter 17 and verse one.
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.
We were talking about virtue, moral courage. Here it is a man speaking to the head of Israel, face to face.
Oh, what courage this is. And I can imagine that Ahab was in a state to say, well, I wonder who this young upstart was?
Pass him off and send him down the road.
But Ahab, after a while, realized it wasn't raining.
Brother was speaking to me last evening in connection with the abundance of rain that was coming down from the heavens. He said, you know, the ground was chapped and was getting cracks in it. Said we're so thankful for this rain. And oh, when the rain is withheld, everyone feels it. And I think of Elijah going to the brook chair, saw that brook dry up.
When he first went there, the animals were coming for their water, but they were dying off.
The people were dying off, the brook dried up, and he was sent to the widow of Serepita, you remember. And here this woman and her son were making their last meal.
Oh, what must have Elijah have thought. I'm the cause of this. I pray that it wouldn't rain and here's such a desperate circumstance.
You know, if we pray.
Sometimes in a very serious way when we see.
That there are things that are moving against God's people, that we may pray in a very serious way, and we must suffer with them.
And there is a need to be for that sometimes.
And so.
It goes on that the burning desire in Elijah's heart is that the altar of God would be established.
And worship to the God of Israel would be recovered.
And that's was his whole aim. And to think of a condition of things that there must have been.
After 3 1/2 years of no rain.
The famine, the pestilence, death.
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Oh hello, the Lord has to bring us sometimes to get our attention as to His divine claims over us.
Now we come.
To his.
Victory, his outward victory over the prophets of Bail slain. 400 of them near their bodies are floating down the brook Chaise on out to the Mediterranean, and it looks like now a victory has come, and he prays it would reign.
Doesn't say freight earnestly, just says he prayed because God's heart was willing to bring the rain.
That the faintest plea, you might say, from Elijah's heart. And at this time when this rain is starting to come down, it's coming down in such abundance.
That Elijah is concerned for Ahab, that he gets back to his house in safety.
I might be supposing a little too much and I'm willing to be corrected, but it tells us that he ran.
He ran from where they were.
To Ahab's palace to make sure that that man got back safely.
And as he ran, he must have ran with the speed of a horse.
And you can just imagine the joy that filled his heart.
As he thought, he could see a turn around and a going in the right direction. But what happens? What happens?
Let us read what happened.
Invert and Chapter 19.
Verse one and Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.
And with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And Jezebel sent a message unto Elijah, saying.
So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I may not any light, make thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there.
What a blow.
That man Ahab went back to Jezebel and he told her in detail everything that had happened.
We say, well, what did he expect? Would she have been pleased with the news?
No way. And it tells us that when Elijah saw that.
His heart failed.
We might have said in the moment of greatest expectation of revival.
Had died and he ran down to Beersheba, the last city of the inheritance.
And leaves his servant there and goes out into the Arabian desert.
To Horeb.
A long, long run.
Why did he go to Horeb? Why did he select Horeb to go to?
He realized that there was divine values there.
It was in that place that there was a burning Bush that was not consumed.
Where the Lord had spoken to Moses years ago, asking him to take his shoes from off his feet.
For the ground where on he stood was holy ground, where God communicated his mind as to how he was going to use Moses.
Like to turn to the book of Deuteronomy chapter.
33 to look at this Bush.
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Verse 16. For the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the goodwill of him that dwelt in the Bush.
Let the blessing come down upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
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Oh, I think we feel, we understand why he ran to that Bush. The loneliness, being alone and no one standing with him and he was let down completely.
To go to Horeb, to the goodwill of him that dwelleth in the Bush.
You know, that's a wonderful place for any of us to go. It's in that place that we had have communion as we have had in the last address.
Which is needful and precious to know the mind of God, the circumstances and crisis that we may be in, and decisions that we have to make unavoidable to make them in communion.
With the goodwill of him that dwelleth in the Bush. Do you know when Elijah arrived there?
He arrived in a state of soul that had to be dealt with before God could communicate his mind.
Let us read verse 10.
They're the last part of verse nine. What dost thou hear, Elijah?
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with a sword, and I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
That's self-explanatory, isn't it?
And the Lord said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by in a great strong wind. Rent the mountains.
Breaking pieces of rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind and earthquake, that the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake of fire, that the Lord was not in the fire.
God is very wise in the way he deals with His people, with His servants.
What is the Lord actually doing to Elijah at this point?
I would like to suggest that he's giving Elijah a playback of what's in his own heart.
Elijah wanted revival. He wanted something to be seen outwardly that would be for God's glory.
But you know, there's something that God is more interested in than that, and that is inward reality. If there's inward reality and then there's testimony with it, that's a wonderful thing. But to have an outward thing without there being a work of God within the heart.
There's no pleasure in the Lord for that. So the Lord is saying now, Elijah, what you would really like to see is you'd like to see a Tempest sweep through God's people and just blow every idle down on the ground and shatter it #1.
And the next thing you would like is to see a terrific earthquake that would just shake into the core and bring them to their senses.
And then you would like to have a fire that would just purify him.
I think I understand that.
I think there were days in my life when the Lord had to speak to one on that wise.
To have a playback, sometimes an awful, shocking thing.
Is this really what?
Lodging in the heart, but the Lord can't identify with.
Oh, what a faithful father. We have to change these sense of values that we pick up on the side.
Instead of having them formed by his word being in communion with him.
Now what?
And after the fire.
A still small voice.
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Oh, there's volumes that could be set on that still small voice.
That voice is not heard with the ear. That voice is heard in the heart.
That's Communion.
Sweet communion, have you ever experienced in your lifetime, whether you're young or old, the Lord calling your name just that? As he called Mary of old just said Mary turned around and fell at his feet.
Have you ever heard him say?
It as I be not afraid.
In that extreme moment when you thought you were going to break.
Have you experienced a voice behind you saying this is the way walking in it?
We are traveling the wrong direction. The voice was behind us to turn us around.
Go in the right direction.
That still small voice that never shocks us because it's soft and gentle.
Communion.
Now.
What happens after that verse 13? And it was so.
When Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering into The Cave.
Behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What dost thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous.
In other words, he says exactly the same words that he had just said before all this.
But in a totally different way. Perhaps in a questioning way now.
In other words, the message is starting to get through. But this thought had worn such a deep groove in Elijah's mind, he just couldn't get over it. He had to have an answer for it.
Have we not experienced that feeling that we have a cause that just has turned in our mind for days and weeks and on years and there just isn't an answer for it? There's not a vindication for it?
And we go to the Lord about it, and we press our cause, and He allows experiences to come into our lives, and we begin to say it a little softer.
Say it with a question.
Maybe the day comes when we are just glad to drop it.
Now what?
The Lord is going to deliver his servant.
But he's going to do it in a way that is going to break his heart, he says. In essence, Elijah, you like to do these great things outwardly, that can be seen.
You go and annoy Hazel King over Syria.
You go on a night Jehu the king over Israel, the annoyed Elijah.
Broke his heart.
He barely did one of them.
But as we have this very crushing thing come upon Elijah, God often gives a very black backdrop to set the diamond. What's the diamond here? Verse 18 Yet I have left me 7000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto bail, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
What a revelation to Elijah's heart.
When he felt so alone, says where are these men? I didn't know there was 7000 that hadn't entered into idolatry in any form.
The question is to be asked.
What was it that sustained these 7000 men?
Still small voice.
That's what was sustaining those in the land of Israel when idolatry was running rampant.
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What a wonderful discovery to realize at any given time in the history of Israel or the Church.
That God has always had a remnant according to the election of grace.
Why didn't they identify themselves with Elijah? Why didn't they come out and show their colors?
Because they knew better.
They were enjoying that still small voice that meant everything to them, precious Holy Communion with the God of Israel that kept them from the corruption that was in the world through lust.
Now the Lord is going to take his servant by the hand. Crushed, He's going to begin to introduce him.
To that remnant, the first one he comes to is Elijah.
There's one.
All to begin to meet God's people.
Find that heart that is in fidelity to His divine claims over us is like finding He had treasure.
To be enriched with a fellowship that comes from that remnant.
That so appreciates God's wonderful grace. And if there's an Elisha, there must be his father and mother.
And it's been a thrill to my heart from this point on, going on through first, the rest of first Kings, going on into second Kings and finding these one surfacing.
Oh yes, there's a captain with 50 men that are supposed to take Elijah and bring him down, and he falls down on his face and he says, let my life be precious in my sight and those with me.
There's one man with 50 men and not bowed in need of Baal because if they had of bowed the knee of Baal they wouldn't have bowed it to a light Elijah.
An absolutely incongruous to the will that is set in darkness.
You go on to this unamite woman and her son. There's a man from Bail Felicia.
Bringing where he came from. Where that place is, I don't know, but he comes and he brings food.
To Elisha when there's a famine.
And then there's something very special to my heart as you get into the 5th chapter and there you learn about the Syrian maid that was taken captive out of the land of Israel.
Somewhere between those two golden calves in Israel, there was a family.
That did not bow down to those golden calves. They walked in the fear of God.
And they raised their children in the fear of the Lord. And when this young girl is taken captive and taken into the Syrian country.
Want to tell you, I don't think she was ignorant, nor was she young, very young. I believe she was a teenager. A teenager in that age when she'd like to assert her own will and have her own way and show herself.
You don't do it under these circumstances, raised in a home where she submitted to that captivity and the blessing that flowed from her words, from her mouth, the blessing that flowed after that. Why, it's just wonderful to read in God's Word the effect it had even in Syria, to the extent that Elisha could go to Damascus without fearing for his life.
Having such a rich exhibition of God's grace shown to the Syrians when they should have been dead and been destroyed.
All that remnant according to the election of grace. Dear ones, as I look out over this company, it thrills me to think that I'm among that company that have answered to the call of God in grace, a heavenly calling. And we cannot stay here. We cannot entrench ourselves here because there's nothing to satisfy our hearts. And we're moving on home to glory and we're looking.
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For the moment, we're going to look into the face of that one that made it possible for there to be a remnant according to the election of grace.
I trust that the stigma.
Has somewhat been removed from Elijah's life for you.
And that you would be encouraged to draw from this life those things that are necessary to give us light and guidance through the remainder of our journey here before we enter yon shore.
And so the chain goes on and on. You can go through the kings and justice mark out.
But there was a remnant and they showed up here from all walks of life, all ages, all circumstances.
God is sovereign.
So may we just be encouraged.
To praise him as we have reflect upon him what it means there in the book of Romans.
A remnant according to the election of grace. Shall we sing the last verse #36 in the appendix?
Old man, brown lover.
Horror.
Dead River.
The songs of joy and praise.
Shall we praise him again?
Our God.