Talk—Bill Prost
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OK, well let's let's go ahead with a word of prayer then.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee once again for a quiet rest and a beautiful day. All Thy mercies to us. And now we look to Thee again for Thy help as we open Thy word together. And we do pray for guidance and care, and above all for Thy Spirit working in each one. We pray especially our God for any who may not be saved.
We know, our God, that thy Spirit is working in this world to bring souls to Christ.
And we pray that if there is any here, if there are any here who are not saved.
That in hearing thy word and being touched by the story of the cross, they may come to thee, Lord Jesus. But we do pray too, for those of us who are thine. We pray for thy help, that we may be encouraged and.
If necessary stirred up in our Christian lives, guide and direct us in all things, that we may come to know thee better, our God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. So we command our time together to thee now, and ask all, Lord Jesus, in thy precious and worthy name, Amen.
Well, as I said yesterday, I believe we're going to double up a little bit today on what we're taking up in order to get through the handout. And for those few who may be here today who haven't been involved in some of the talks earlier on, as you can see, the subject we have before us is knowing.
God.
As we pointed out in previous talks, God wants not only to have a relationship with you and me, but for us to know Him as our Father and to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. And that is the only way we can have a relationship with God. We cannot have it any other way.
Men have tried for ages to try and come to God in their own ways.
But there is only one way to come to God, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We get that in the book of the Acts chapter 4. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So God has only one way to be saved, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, today we are ready to take up sections 13 and 14.
Section 13 and 14.
Section 13 is entitled A Still Small Voice.
Let's read about that in First Kings chapter 19.
First Kings, chapter 19.
Just to give a bit of background here.
Elijah was a prophet of the Lord in the land of Israel way back thousands of years ago, and he was a very faithful man.
And he had just won a great victory for the Lord in the 18th chapter of First Kings.
Because, sad to say, Israel had turned to idolatry.
And they had made false gods, idols that they carved out of stone and wood, sometimes silver and gold of course, and so on. And.
They felt they bowed down and worshiped those gods. And this, of course, is still going on in the world today.
Many false idols and many false gods in the world, and Elijah had built altars there and said to the prophets of Baal, the false God. Now you put your sacrifice on your altar.
And call on your.
And I am going to put the sacrifice on my altar and call on the Lord God of heaven, the true God, and the God that answers by fire. Let him be God.
00:05:09
Well, you all know what happened, how that the prophets of Bail stood on their altar and cried and cut themselves with knives and made all sorts of prayers to their alleged God.
And nothing happened. And eventually in the evening Elijah called on the God of heaven, and the fire came down from heaven.
And it not only consumed the sacrifice, it consumed the altar and licked up the water that was in the trench, and so on.
And there was a real victory for the Lord.
And then Elijah acted very decisively. He said, grab those prophets of Baal and don't let them escape. And all of them were summarily executed.
And Jezebel, who was the wife of the king, King Ahab, the one who was behind all those false prophets, said Elijah.
God do so to me and more also if I don't make your life like one of them by tomorrow. About this time and poor Elijah, he fled for his life and let's read what happened. He goes all the way back to Horeb where the law had been given originally to Israel.
Let's read from verse nine, First Kings 19 and verse 9.
And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And notice what he says. 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, and slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away.
And he that is the Lord said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind and earthquake.
But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, a still small voice.
And it was so when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out.
And stood in the entering inn of The Cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And what does he say?
Same thing all over again. I won't read it, but the 14th verse is an exact repetition way back of verse 10.
What was the problem here?
You know, Elijah was a faithful man.
And the Lord really honored Elijah, and he appreciated his faithfulness, and he had, with all his energy and with all his zeal for the Lord, really tried to recall the people of Israel to the law of the Lord and to the covenant that God had made with them.
And now he's discouraged. Why? Because he says.
They're not listening.
They're not listening.
They have thrown down thine altars, broken the covenant, turned to idols.
And I'm the only one left and they're trying to kill me.
He stood up against 450 prophets of bail, boldly displayed his confidence in the Lord, and the Lord honored it and destroyed those, all those prophets of bail. And then when Jezebel says, Elijah, I'm going to get you for that, he runs for his life. And he says, Lord, take away my life, what good is it? I'm not getting anywhere. Nothing's happening.
00:10:03
What does the Lord have to tell him?
Notice verse 18. Yet I have left me 7000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to bail, and every mouth which has not kissed him.
Was Elijah the only one left? No, he wasn't. There were 7000 there in Israel.
That had not bowed down to those idols. Now, were they as prominent as Elijah? No, they weren't.
Where were they? Many people didn't know. Even Elijah didn't know. The Lord knew where they were, but many others did not. Maybe no one else knew who they were, and they should have been more prominent. They should have been more out note for the Lord. But the point is, they were there.
And poor Elijah has become so discouraged that he does something that he should never have done.
He intercedes against the people of God instead of for them.
If you remember the life of Moses when the people disobeyed the Lord.
When they murmured against the Lord, when they turned to idolatry, making a golden calf. And the Lord says, Moses, let me get rid of all those people, and I'll make of you a great nation.
Moses says, Oh no, Lord, don't do that. Don't do that. They're your people. Don't do that.
But Elijah essentially says they're a bad lot.
And I'm the only one left.
The point is that the Lord allows all of these strong things to come about.
First the wind, then the earthquake, then the fire.
And the Lord was not in any of those three. And then there was that still small voice.
What's the lesson for you and me in that?
You know, as natural human beings, we like the display of power.
We like the display of noise and power, don't we? We like to hear trumpets blaring. We like to hear.
Guns going off. We like to see displays of power and glory.
And that may have its place when the Lord Jesus comes in power and glory in a coming day to take his rightful place.
There will be displays of power. But what Elijah did not realize was.
That when all of that display of God's might and power was given.
The Lord was an innate. Why?
Because God's power could be known by the wind and the earthquake and the fire.
But not his heart.
And what does the Lord tell Elijah to do? We didn't read it, but notice.
What he says in verse 16. The latter half of the verse.
He tells them to anoint Hazel to be king over Syria in verse 15. He tells him to anoint Gu to be king over Israel in verse 16. And then he says, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahola.
Shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room?
Oh dear, he says. Elijah, with that outlook on things, I can't use you. Why?
Because Elijah was going at it.
With law and power, and he was seeking to draw the people back to the Lord with that human energy.
But what characterized Elijah was grace. What characterized Elijah was grace.
And dear Elijah needed to learn that. And in that still small voice.
I believe Elijah.
Finally learned the heart of God.
We don't have time to go into it.
Look at it a bit more on your own. Because God gave Elijah a reprieve.
00:15:00
You know, if you look at the history, God gave Elijah three things to do. He told him to anoint.
Hazel to be king over Syria. He told him to anoint Jihu to be king over Israel and he said, excuse me.
And he said, anoint Elisha to be prophet in thy room instead.
Elijah did only one of those things. The only thing he did was to anoint Elisha to be prophet in his stead.
Because what the Lord said to Elijah, I believe broke his heart.
It's been well remarked that this failure of Elijah is the only failure of an Old Testament believer.
That is recorded and referred to in the New Testament because it was serious.
And I believe Elijah took to heart what the Lord said to him. He basically said, and I hesitate to use the words, but it will make the point.
The Lord essentially said to Elijah, you're fired. Is that fair? That's about what he said when he said, Elijah, you're fired.
Go and anoint your replacement.
And Elijah, he does that, but I believe the Lord granted him a reprieve.
And if you look at the time frame and do the math.
Elijah was allowed to carry on for another 10 years.
And Elisha followed him and became his servant and learned from him because Elijah, despite his failure, had a lot to offer. And sometimes, as one of our old brethren said, a broken vessel is sometimes better than one that is still in one piece, because a broken vessel realizes its weakness and failure.
And acts accordingly, and I believe Elijah did that and as a result.
We know that Elijah was carried up to heaven in a whirlwind. He never died, he never went through death, and Elisha carries on. But he carries on as the prophet of grace, not of law.
Now, did that mean everything suddenly turned around? Not entirely. Did it mean that Israel suddenly gave up all of their idolatry? No, it didn't. But it meant that Elisha was more effective than Elijah because he was the man of grace.
And in the still small voice, I believe eventually Elijah learned about God and his character and his heart. That's what we need to remember.
Again, I say again, as natural human beings, we like the noise, we like the.
Display of power and everything like that. And the Lord said, as it were, if you want to see power, Elijah, I can show it to you. I've never yet seen a wind that broke rocks in pieces, but here it was. And then an earthquake, and then a fire.
All powerful things in their own right, but in the still small voice. Elijah, I believe, learned the heart of God. Maybe not right away, but he learned it. And eventually, as I said a moment ago, the Lord granted him a reprieve. And for another 10 years, the Lord did use him. But.
In an entirely different way.
Well, let's go on now.
Elijah had to learn the heart of God in contradistinction.
To the legality with which Elijah was pursuing his work for the Lord.
And don't blame him too much for that, because after all, this was the Old Testament.
The full light of God's grace was not coming through yet. That wouldn't come until the Lord Jesus Christ came. The law was given by Moses, it says in John chapter one. But grace and truth.
Came by Jesus Christ.
But now we come to the next section, Section 14.
00:20:02
And this, I believe, goes at the whole thing in a slightly different way, but teaching us the same lesson.
Let's read from First Corinthians 15.
And here Paul is talking to believers, but going at things in a little different way, but yet from the same point of view. 1St Corinthians 15.
What was wrong with the Corinthians?
They were a wealthy city, a very wealthy city. The the city stood right at the isthmus between the northern part of Greece, the northern Peloponnesus and the southern Peloponnesus. And there was a little isthmus there, about four miles long. And it was a very wealthy area because all the trade that went east and West had to go across that little isthmus.
Eventually they built a canal across there because the sea voyage down South and around was a very dangerous 1. The Greeks used to have a saying, he who sails around the southern Peloponnesus let him first make his will with obvious implications. And so the trade and commerce across that little four mile strip of land.
Was a very profitable and the Corinthians did well on it they were and educated people they were a proud people but they also had a lot of confidence in human wisdom and.
They needed to learn a few things, and the Apostle Paul spends most of the first epistle to them going over one after another of the various errors into which they had fallen into the various bad practices.
Into which they had fallen. But then when he gets to the end, Paul finally uses one last error. Some were saying the resurrection is passed already and Paul picks up on that.
To tell them what was really on his heart. He wanted to show them a risen Christ in glory, their heavenly calling, all of the purposes of God in Christ. And he does so right on through the Millennium, all the way to what we conventionally may call the eternal state.
Excuse me?
But Paul gives them a warning here, and it's a warning that you and I need because the society in which you and I Live Today is much the same as what the Corinthians lived in nearly 2000 years ago. And notice what Paul says in verse 32.
1St Corinthians 15, verse 32.
If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, that was when there was a huge riot in Ephesus. What advantage is it me if the dead rise not? And here's the way he puts it. And this is the way a lot of people look at life today. Let us eat and drink.
For tomorrow we die.
Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners.
A week to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
Elijah was having to deal with a legal attitude. The Corinthians were having to deal with a worldly attitude.
And both have one common denominator.
They do not know.
About God.
Elijah had to learn the grace of God. The Corinthians needed to learn the holiness of God.
00:25:10
And we cannot take one aspect of God's attributes and use it against the other.
Someone has said the heathen world.
The heathen world that worships idols, which is what they were doing in the Old Testament, has forgotten that God is love.
Christendom today has tended to forget that God is light.
And it goes all the way back to the Corinthians.
What was the problem? They were surrounded by a world of licentiousness.
Lasciviousness, which simply means unbridled lust. They were surrounded by a world of unrighteousness.
And what characterized that world was what affected their Christian lives.
In the Roman Empire at that point, which was perhaps at its height.
Things didn't look very good. The Roman Empire, in one sense, was doing well.
But the morality of the Empire was going right downhill, and the attitude of many people was enjoy life, take it easy, have a good time. The Epicurean attitude. Because after all, you're only going to die someday. You might as well live it up.
And many people today, sad to say, many young people are looking at life like that in North America. They say, what kind of future is there? Everything looks black. Things aren't working out very well. We've got shootings on every hand. We've got huge.
Dissension in the population of the country between liberals and conservatives. We've got the COVID pandemic and no one knows where that's going.
We've got trouble spots all over the world and as fast as they try and put out one Bush fire, another one comes up. Life has no meaning. Let's do what we want, enjoy life. And after all, if we do things that are a bit on the edge and a bit dangerous, well, So what? We're going to die anyway. We might as well die having fun.
Isn't that the way people look at things?
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
And they forget the solemn words that God gives us in His precious word.
As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, Oh yes, death is not the end of all things, as men would like to persuade themselves.
There is judgment after death. Thank God those who know Christ as Savior, the judgment is passed and I love what a dear brother in Christ said who was on his deathbed. Another brother came to visit him and his comment was he said.
Isn't it wonderful to know that judgment is behind me and not ahead of me?
Why? Because judgment for him already took place at the cross of Christ. The judgment for his sins was already met.
But if you don't know Christ as Savior, the judgment is beyond death, a solemn thing.
Then going on here, it says be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. In simple terms, that means that the world in which you and I have to live and move has its effect on all of us. And if we're not careful, weak, we can fall into a pattern.
Of thinking and acting like the world around us instead of according.
To what God gives us in His Word.
We can't always get away from those evil communications, can we? We have to live in this world, we have to work in it, we have to earn a living, we have to rub shoulders with ungodly people. And it's not right to go and hold ourselves up somewhere where we have no contact with the world.
00:30:02
The Scripture teaches separation, but not isolation. There is a big difference. We are to be living witnesses to this world of the grace that brought us to Christ, and you can't do that in isolation.
But we are to walk in separation from the course of this world.
What does that mean if all day long I have to be subjected to the?
Evil communications of this world.
On the other hand, I need to be more and more in the Lord's presence. I need to be more and more reading the Word of God. I need to be more and more in prayer before Him in order that.
I might have what I get in Ephesians 5, the washing of water of the word. I constantly need to have my.
Heart, if I could use that term, my soul cleansed by the washing of the Word of God to wash away the defilement that I continually get when I live and work and get educated and all the rest of it in this world.
And so it says here verse 30.
Verse 34 Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Did that mean that they had?
Apostatized from Christianity? No, they were believers. I believe they were. They weren't atheists. They hadn't turned away from Christianity. But what were they doing?
They did not know, they did not understand properly.
Who God was, and as we said again.
Elijah needed to learn the grace of God. The Corinthians were using the grace of God as an excuse to sin.
And they needed to learn the holiness of God.
Well, we don't want to say too much more about that, except to point out that Scripture speaks constantly about sanctification, and sanctification simply means to be set apart from this world. And when we come to Christ and accept Him as our Savior, we are positionally set apart.
But then that process needs to go on continually.
I continually need that washing of water by the word.
And if I neglect the word of God, I will find to my shame that I don't have the knowledge of God. I will find in my shame that those evil communications will corrupt good manners. I will find in my shame that in my contact with the world.
I am allowing things in my life that are not pleasing to the Lord.
And so let us remember those things and remember that I cannot.
Really have the knowledge of God unless I.
Understand that God is love and God is light.
And at the cross, as you and I know, both of those characters of God came out, and as the words of the hymn says.
Are the words of the hymn say.
Nor does the creature guess.
Which of the glories?
Brighter, Sean.
The justice or the grace, both shone out with equal brilliance at the cross, the love of God.
Sorry.
00:35:07
The love of God.
Or the holiness and justice of God. Both of them shine out and we need both of them in our Christian lives. Well, let's leave it at that, because our.
Are we satisfied with light instead of cultivating the love of Christ? Just go over that one more time. Unruh Handout.
Well, I probably should comment on that quotation. Thank you, Dan.
I put a quotation in there, and you'll notice the initials Ed after it. That refers to Edward Dennett, one of our good writers from the 1800s, and I'll read that quotation. Are we satisfied with light instead of cultivating love for Christ?
The more light the better if affection goes with it.
But if light is held without the heart.
It will not benefit us.
The Corinthians had late in that sense, but they had forgotten that that light has to be lived out with affection for Christ, and if there is no affection for the Lord, that light will not do us any good. And so the Corinthians were an intelligent lot, and Paul commends them for that.
In many ways they were more intelligent than perhaps will say, the Philippians or some of the other epistles.
Rather the other assemblies to whom Paul wrote epistles, but they were using that intelligence as an excuse to do things which were not according to the mind of God. And in that sense, Paul says to them, you don't really have the knowledge of God because you have light, but there's no affection with it.
If I really love someone.
I will want to do what pleases them. But if it is merely a matter of an intellectual knowledge, which is what the Corinthians had, and the display of the sign gifts like the gifts of tongues and so on, that was the kind of thing they liked, outward display, the things that correspond to the earthquake and the fire and the wind.
But they didn't really know the Lord. They didn't really know what God's character was.
There really wasn't the love for him that there should have been, and in consequence, there wasn't the display of God's holiness in their lives that there ought to have been. So I just put that quotation in there because sometimes, and I'll speak very plainly, those of us that are gathered to the Lord's name may have a fair amount of light.
If we hear the word of God read If we go to meetings.
If we go to Bible conferences, we'll hear a lot of good things, and I have heard, dear brethren in Christ, well able to bring out some of those things and refer to them and talk very intelligently. But sad to say, I have seen some things in their lives that were not very pleasing to the Lord.
Let me tell you a story.
My late father-in-law told me this story.
And I have absolutely no idea who the other brother was. And this took place many many years ago. My late father-in-law has been with the Lord for 40 years, so this has to be more than 40 years old.
He was invited by a local brother in an assembly he was visiting to have lunch with him, and this brother ran a business and so he was to meet him at his place of business and then they would go to a nearby restaurant to have lunch.
Well, he got to his place of business. The man ran a good business. He had a private secretary and when my father-in-law went in.
Introduced himself. The secretary knew the name, was expecting him and said yes, Mr. Ayo.
00:40:03
I don't even know the name of the brother, I never heard who it was, but she referred to her boss and said he's just talking with.
A business associate or some business connected connection in his private office there. Just have a seat here and he'll be with you.
In just a few minutes.
Well, the walls didn't have any insulation in them, and my father-in-law couldn't help overhearing the conversation that went on between that brother and the businessman that was in his office with him. And he told me that there were some pretty strong words said, and some rather.
Rough language and some things said that at least on the part of the brother in Christ that were most unchristlike. And eventually whatever was supposed to be settled got settled. The other businessman came out and went his way, and the brother in Christ came out. And as you may well imagine.
Was rather shocked.
To find out that my late father-in-law had been party to the discussion and could not have helped hearing what was going on.
And he apparently said to my father-in-law, well, Albert, he said, I guess we have to realize that our Christianity is one thing, but on the other hand, business is business, isn't it?
Ouch.
My father-in-law did not say what the sequel was to that conversation and whether he addressed the issue with that brother over lunch. Knowing my late father-in-law, I rather think he probably did, but he did not tell me what he said. But that, I believe, is a little indication of what we're talking about here.
In other words, do I show one face to my brethren when I go to meetings or when I mingle with them?
And another face to this world. Do I show one face when I'm dealing with one aspect of my life and another face with another aspect?
Something that we all need seriously to consider, don't we? And understand clearly before the Lord. And so let us remember that at all times and everywhere, the Lord Jesus Christ was the same whether he was in the temple.
Whether he was with his disciples, whether he was meeting the scribes and Pharisees, whether he was alone with his God and Father, the Lord Jesus was the same at all times. And you and I, I believe, need to remember that and that if we really know God, then we will seek to display His character.
At all times. Will we do it perfectly, sad to say.
I speak to my own heart.
And as I look back on my own life, it's with sadness that I see so much failure. But it ought to be the desire of our hearts to do it, rather than allowing those evil communications to corrupt good manners and compromising our Christian testimony.