Address—Eric James
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.
Shall our comfort be thyself, our hope, our soul desire?
I'd like to look first at a verse in First Peter chapter 4, just for one verse there.
First Peter chapter 4 and verse 10.
As every man hath received the gift, Even so minister the same one to another.
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
And then for two verses over in First Corinthians chapter 4.
First Corinthians, chapter 4.
Let a man sow account of us, as of the ministers, or we could read servants of Christ.
And stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards.
That a man be found faithful.
And then I'd like to turn back to this passage. I really want to cover today some and that's in First Kings.
We can start with the 17th chapter.
I'm sorry, first Kings chapter 16. I want to read a verse there first.
Verse 33.
And Ahab made a Grove.
And Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger.
Then all the kings of Israel that were before him.
And let's skip over to chapter 17, 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, and if you'd skip over to the 19th chapter of First Kings.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by the Morrow 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.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree.
And he requested for himself that he might die and said.
It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an Angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake bacon on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid himself down, and laid him down.
Again the Angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said.
Arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee.
You know, I read those verses first in first Peter and then in one Corinthians.
Because I believe that we have a highly privileged place, ministers of the grace of God, stewards of the grace of God.
Not a wonderful truth. You know, young people, this is a young person's meeting. And I'm, I'm glad that we have some young people's meetings.
I know I've sometimes wondered.
That if, and I don't suppose it's of God, but I've sometimes wondered that if I was a young people today, if I was one of you young people today, whether I'd have the faith to walk in the pathway of faith and blessing. Well, that's looking at myself, isn't it? But what we do know is the Lord has the grace and the strength to carry us through. And that's what I'd like to talk about this afternoon.
00:05:05
The path again, of faith and blessing.
Difficult day and I think we have some lessons particularly from Elijah. I'd like to speak about Elijah and how we see an example, an illustrations of the path of faith and blessing in a difficult day. You know the Lord has called us to this high calling stewards of the grace of God, stewards of the mystery of God, but it's required of stewards that a man be found faithful and you know that is.
The path of blessing to walk close to the Lord as we were singing in our hymn.
You know, I got a call from a gentleman here last week in my Home Office. I workout of my Home Office, not a very fancy place. The man who called is probably the richest man in Spokane, a very, very wealthy man. He's he's, he owns properties throughout the Northwest and in Canada. I'm sure his net worth if that's what we were to look at.
Would be numbered in the hundreds of millions of dollars without doubt.
And he called me up. I'm not quite sure why. I suppose that's why it's so rich. He doesn't pay too much for what he the advice he gets. But he called me up and wanted to visit about some things and talk. And, you know, I thought it was interesting as I was visiting with him, I happen to know two of his sons a little bit too. I've done a little bit of work for them. And I was talking to this man and he was telling me about some of his holdings and it was obvious, of course I'd read about him.
And so on and so forth. Knew how wealthy he was, at least in a general way. But as he was talking about a project he wanted a little bit of advice on, he says, you know, I don't have much time left. And I thought, well, here's a man, he said, I think he was 71, in his 70s. And I was struck, here's a man that's gained great wealth, at least by certainly any kind of standard I've ever known.
And he recognizes that his life is coming to an end.
He has his tremendous wealth, but you know.
I wonder, is that something to seek after?
By a lot of people think that that's the standard we should live by, that that's the measure of success is to have great wealth. But you know, I thought it was interesting as I was listening to him talk, I said, well, I know something about one of your sons and I mentioned some conversation I had with one of his sons and I said, you know, he says he wants to be like you and this man said well.
I don't know that that's a good thing.
Here he is a very wealthy man and he had to admit that maybe being like him.
Wasn't really a very good thing. I happened to know that the son I spoke about and the father haven't spoken together for years.
They live in the same town. They do the same kind of work. When the Sun said he wanted to be like his father, he meant he wanted to be able to accumulate wealth like his father. That's what he told me, the son, when I visited with him. I also happened to know the other son of this man.
And he too, I worked with him a little bit and I know for a fact that he hasn't spoken to his brother for years in the same business and the same town, and yet they don't even have.
Don't even have enough wealth, if we can put it that way, moral wealth, to even be able to visit with one another, father and sons and brothers. Isn't that a sad thing? And so when I thought of the purpose that God has for us, he doesn't have that purpose for us.
He doesn't want us to be strive to be wealthy in this world with all the power it seemingly gives them. This man can do all kinds of things. In fact, they're known as being ruthless. They do what they want, and they are quite happy to hurt other people if they possibly can. That's of no account to them, and sometimes they do it purposely. But I thought, for all this man's wealth he has, he's really a very poor man, isn't he?
You know, you people that have families here, you're young people.
With children, you're much wealthier than this man is. But the greatest wealth and the true path of faith is what we're reading about, that we're stewards of the manifold grace of God.
We're stewards of the mystery of God. God has a purpose of blessing for us and he wants us to walk in that pathway. And sometimes we get so confused about this. And so I was thinking we could look at these chapters here for a few minutes. We have.
And get some light for the path of faith and blessing today. You know, it says about Ahab that he was a man of this world. He was an apostate. Really. He was the head of the 10 tribes of Israel. But he only used his power and wealth for his own pleasure. He was a worldly man. He married a woman. Jezebel will talk about her a little bit later, but she was the real influence behind the throne.
00:10:27
I think that Ahab's only desire was just to have money and to have power.
And to please himself, he didn't seem to have any greater purpose than that. You know, young people have often said this.
But I hope that it means something to me, and I hope that it that you'll take it to heart.
I hope you all listen. I hope you'll stop your texting or whatever you're doing right now. Young people and justice listen to this if you don't get anything else.
You know, Satan whispers in our ears, and he tells us if we can only please ourselves.
Will be happy.
That's what Satan whispers into our ears. If we can only please ourselves. If we can only get our own way.
That will make us happy. You know, Satan is a liar and the father of it. That's not the pathway of blessing. That's the pathway of heartbreak and sadness. Those of us that are middle-aged now, we've seen it over and over and over again, haven't we? Those who have sought to have their own way, perhaps insisted on their own way gone off in their own way.
And where does it lead?
It doesn't lead to true happiness. It doesn't. It's not the path of blessing.
But there is a pathway of blessing, and God has entrusted us with a tremendous privilege and responsibility.
And that is, as we mentioned, stewards of the manifold grace of God. What a wonderful thing to represent God in this world, that we might say, you know, I just wish I lived in a different day. I wish I lived in a day when there was big meetings all around. Haven't you thought that sometimes I know I have to confess that I'm guilty of.
Entertaining that thought at times. Wouldn't it be nice if we lived 120 or 30 years ago, you know, in London there was 20 assemblies and that one one that one town at one time. And some of those assemblies, as we're told, were over 1000 people apiece. Tremendous assemblies. We sometimes think, well, wouldn't it be wonderful if we lived in a different time and life would be so much easier?
You know, young people, it's not true. The Lord has placed this in His infinite wisdom.
And for our learning and blessing in this time, in this place.
He wants us to be a light in that. And in the little corner where he's placed this. Isn't that how the song goes? This little light of mine? I'm going to let it shine. And that's where He's placed this and He's placed this for a pathway of blessing and a pathway of happiness. It's the pathway of faith. It's the pathway of obedience and submission to the Lord because He loves us so much and wants our blessing. But I just hope you will listen for that, young people.
Pursuing your own will will not make you happy. It'll make you unhappy, and ultimately it'll lead to a life of unhappiness and a lost eternity. Or, if you're a Christian, it'll lead to a lost life. We've often heard it, haven't we? But we can have a safe soul.
And a lost life. We don't want that pathway. The Lord has a pathway of happiness and blessing for us. Well, Ahab was one of those people. He hadn't. He was just a worldly man. He was.
I suppose outwardly we would say he was a Christian, he was the head of the 10 tribes of Israel, but there wasn't much depth to that. And then we have Elijah. What a different person he was. And we read about that in the 17th chapter. And what does Elijah say? As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be, do, nor reign these years, but according to my word.
Elijah stood before the Lord, didn't he?
He was a true servant of God, a blessed servant of God. And we read in the book of James that he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. This didn't happen overnight. Here he prayed for it earnestly. He had read, no doubt, what Moses had written, that when the people of God sinned and went their own way, that the Lord would send in government and his governmental ways. He would send drought.
00:15:04
And so he prayed earnestly. It tells us in the 5th chapter of James.
That it might not rain? Did it rain? Not for the space of three years and six months. It's a long time, isn't it? You farmers particularly?
Know what that means? If you didn't have any rain for three years and six months, it'd be absolute disaster. And so it rained up for three years and six months. And then what happens to Elijah?
Well, we're not going to go through these in detail. We don't have time. And I do want to get to the 19th chapter in a little more detail. But what what happens is.
The Lord tells him right away in verse three. Get the hints and turn the eastward and hide thyself. What does he do with Elijah?
He's going to continue to put him in the school of faith. He's going to pass them through the exercises of faith. He sends them to a little Creek, little brook called Cherith. Now I tried to figure out exactly what the meaning of cheerith was. We had several sources to look at. Apparently comes from the word for cutting off or to cut.
Some think perhaps it means gully, or another suggested that perhaps it means separation.
And I suppose that's probably the thought here. He was hidden in a place of quiet separation, you know, young people.
I know that I'm not real good with a lot of electronics. I can work the computer OK. I still haven't figured out how to use my MP3 yet. My kids gave me for a birthday almost a year ago, but one of these days I guess I'll figure that out. Vernon Clark has so hopefully I can do it too. But but nonetheless, one thing I want to say is that it seems like people never spend time with alone anymore.
It seems like people are never quite anymore. You see somebody out on the road.
Jogging or riding their bike, they always have something in their ear and they're filling their heads with certain things. You see people even at work a lot of places they, they have their their earbuds full and their ears and they're listening to their own music or whatever they happen to be wanting to listen to. You see people walk down the street and hear somebody talking and you think, well, maybe he's talking to me and here he is talking on a cell phone and it seems like people.
Never spend time in quiet anymore.
And we need to do that. We need to spend time with the Lord in quiet, with the distractions away.
And spend time in the Lord's presence because that's the he's the source of blessing and we need to spend time, quiet time in his presence. Set that time aside at least and set that time aside to spend quiet time all the other distractions. I know some of you sisters that have families and how busy that can be when I remember when our children were younger and I know some that get up very.
Very early so they can spend some quiet time with the Lord before all the activity of the day. Once the day starts, it seems like it never stops.
And you have to make that time. You don't, you don't. You don't find that time, do you? You make that time. And I want to encourage you, dear young people, if you want to be blessed by the Lord, to spend quiet time with the Lord, make a time to be quiet with him. So the Lord put the Elijah chereth, fed him by Ravens. You know, God's ways are not our ways, Raven.
Unclean bird, A Raven would normally eat any meat if there's carrying around to eat it, but nonetheless, they brought meat to Elijah every day, twice a day, and they also drank out of the brook. And then the time came with the drought ongoing.
That the brook dried up. So we have in verse 7. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up. But God's mercies are not God's mercies.
May be withdrawn, but God remains and is faithful. Faithfulness remains. He sends him to a place called Zarapeth. And it's interesting, Zeropath was actually in Zaiden. That's a very, that's a Gentile place. The very, the very province from which Jezebel came. As a matter of fact, she was a Sidonian Princess. And so of all places, he sends them to a Gentile place. So God's ways are not our ways. We can't predict the Lord all the time.
Many times he surprises us by the means he uses. But we have to wait on the Lord for that, don't we? Zarapeth means a smelting place, a place of smelting. And so the Lord is passing us through the trial of faith. Sometimes again we wonder, well, why does the Lord allow all these trials? I know some people.
00:20:16
And my heart breaks when I see what's happened to them in their lives.
They thought they made the right decisions and it appeared that they did. And yet things have turned out so badly. And we just, we just wonder, can can that really be the Lord's pathway? Well, there are trials of faith.
And so Elijah was led to the place of smelting, you know, where they refined or the refiners place where they refined silver and gold. That's what Zarapeth means. It's a place of smelting. And so the Lord leads us through smelting, doesn't he? You know, he has a purpose, a blessing for us. I have a little comment I just like to read to you. I read it from Mr. McIntosh wrote on this and it really impressed me. Sometimes we think, well, why does the Lord?
Passes through these trials of faith. We're going to get to heaven anyway. Why do we have to go through all these trials? Why can't he just give us an easy life and then we get home to heaven? Well, first of all, I suppose the answer is that he wants us to be a testimony for him. This world rejected the Lord, and so we're going to be rejected too, or for faithful. So we need to expect that.
But there's also another reason.
We're in the school of God. He's preparing us for the place he wants us to occupy when he takes us home from this place. I want to read a comment that Mister McIntosh and he's written a very helpful article in Elijah. You might read it on your own. Here's what he says it. It was a help to me and I thought I'd pass it on. It said the Lord sees our need.
Of being exercised by roughness and hardness.
Not only that we may find the rest the more sweeter at the end, but also that we may be the more affectionately trained and fitted for the place we are yet to occupy. True, we shall have no need for trials in the Kingdom, but we shall have need of the graces and habits of soul which.
Were formed amid the trials and sorrows of the wilderness.
Isn't that good? Let me just read that last sentence again, if I may. True, we shall have no need for trials in the Kingdom, but we shall have need of those graces and habits of soul which were formed amid the trials and sorrows of the wilderness. The wilderness is God's school. He's preparing us to take the place.
That He's prepared for us during the Kingdom, and for eternity for that matter too.
We don't just automatically become spiritual giants, but He's preparing our capacity. He wants us to be a blessing and to be well suited for the place that He has prepared for us. And sober in God's school. When we think it's rough, let's remember that the Lord is preparing us for a place of of great honor and great privilege and great responsibility, and He wants us to be diligent students.
Well, I know it's it's true that it's difficult, but Elijah passes through that time. It's interesting. We won't go to the details, but remember that Lady that that widow of zeropath, she was just about out of meal, just about out of of her food there and a little bit of oil and a little bit of meal. And it didn't fail, did it?
Meal speaks of Christ, doesn't it? There was a meal offering we read about in Leviticus, sometimes called the meat offering.
That speaks of Christ in his humiliation. That's a subject. He's a person that always feeds our soul. He always feeds our soul to occupy ourselves with the person of Christ and the oil. That's the Spirit of God. Again, not seeking to find our own will and force our own will in this world, but to act under the direction of the Spirit of God.
And then we know that what happened was the.
This woman's son, she had one. This would a woman had one son, and he fell sick and died. That's a heartbreaking thing, isn't it?
And there is real heartbreak in this world.
00:25:01
As I say, I have experienced in my own immediate family some real heartbreak.
And.
It's hard to imagine. We don't know. We don't understand it. But the Lord has it all under control, doesn't He? He has a purpose of blessing and encouragement for us. We can't understand it now. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. The Lord will explain it to us someday. But there is real heartbreak, isn't there? Well, there was with this lady. She was a widow, had one son. The son dies.
And that was a great turning point in her life. She says in verse 18. And she said unto Elijah, What have I done unto thee? O thou man of God, art thou come unto me to call my sins to remembrance, and to slay my son?
Trials often bring out the state of our soul, don't they? I suspect this woman hadn't really turned to the God of Israel yet.
And so this broader sins to remembrance, and trials often do that, don't they? They bring our sins to remembrance.
They test our state before the Lord. And so she was going to find something wonderful, and so she does. And so Elijah, as we have, he cries to the Lord in verse 20 and verse 21. He stretches himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord, and said, Oh Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come again unto him. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came unto him again.
And he revived.
They had to learn, didn't think that our God is a God of resurrection. It's not in this present scene that we're going to find happiness and blessing by looking for those things that men seek after, the way of this world. But it's in the God of resurrection. It's in the heavenly places where Christ dwelleth. That's where true blessing is. God is a God of resurrection. And if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
That's where the path of faith and blessing is, is in that new creation, not in the present creation which is under the curse of sin. Well, in the next chapter, not to spend too much time again on it, but we find that the word of the Lord comes to Elijah and he tells him to go show himself to Ahab again after 3 1/2 years and he meets this man Obadiah. You know, Obadiah's name is interesting.
It means Jehovah's servant.
You have to read it a little bit more to see if you agree that he lived up to his name or not. But I think he was a believer, but he was a believer of mixed principles.
He served. He was the what does it call him here? He was the governor of Ahab's house. How could a consistent Christian be the governor of Ahab's house? Ahab was an apostate. He brought bail worship into Israel under the influence of his wife. How could how could a man that was a believer be be the be the governor over his house? Well, he was.
And his main name means.
A servant of Jehovah or Jehovah's servant. He did serve the Lord in some small ways.
But he was not a consistent Christian. He was a Christian of mixed principles. You know, there's a great contrast here between Elijah and Obadiah, isn't there?
Elijah was going through the trials of faith Obadiah chose even though he was a true child of God, I believe.
He chose not to go through the trials of faith and as a result.
He missed all the blessings of faith, too.
Isn't that an important lesson? Perhaps we can insulate ourselves from the trials of faith.
Perhaps we strive to live just a comfortable life in this world. I know too many people who do that. And I know my own heart well enough that that's a too often a motive is just to get through this world and live a comfortable life, not have the trials of faith. But you know, that's what Obadiah did. He lived close to the king. I'm sure he had a comfortable lifestyle. He was right next to the throne of power. And yet he was a man that was as, what do they say, as skittish as a cat on a hot tin roof. You could just read.
About him, he was almost afraid of his own shadow and Elijah. Elijah says to him.
Your Lord is Ahab.
What a sad thing to be said to a Christian.
Your Lord is an apostate man. Your Lord is Ahab. That's what he says in verse 8. And he answered.
00:30:03
This is Elijah telling Obadiah, and he answered him, Go tell thy Lord. Behold, Elijah's here. Well, you can read about Obadiah and how skittish he was. He had no faith in the Lord. He had no trust that the Lord would bless him. He thought the Lord would. He would go tell Ahab and the Lord would. Spirit of God would ****** Ahab away and then oh, but I would be killed.
Ahab would cut his head off. That's what he was. He see all these things he had dreamed up, that would be a problem. What faith was there? He didn't have any faith, did he? He was perhaps prosperous in this world. If that's what we want, that's where we'll probably end up. But because he had not gone through the trials of faith.
He didn't receive any of the blessings of faith either, and as a result he had a bankrupt life. Well, Elijah does meet Ahab. Remember the great challenge there was between the between the prophets of Baal and the prophets of and the and the and Elijah.
You know, we sometimes hate to go against the flow, don't we? I know there's a great tug in our day to go with the great crowd of Christians.
You know there was 450 prophets that came at the call of Ahab, Prophets of Baal.
There was one prophet on the other side. That was Elijah.
The path of faith is sometimes a lonely pathway, isn't it?
One prophet on one side, on the other side 450 But we know what happened. The Lord vindicated himself, and Elijah is his true prophet. All the 450 prophets were killed and as a result, Elijah. Look at verse 42. Elijah now is going to pray again that there would be blessing.
Sent and he did four things. Elijah verse 42 of First Kings 18 So Elijah so Ahab went up to eat and to drink. That's what Ahab was all about.
Eating and drinking a comfortable life. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth.
He went by himself. A quiet place.
And put his face between his knees.
He fell on his face before the Lord.
That's what we need. He didn't want his own will, but what the Lord had. These, by the way, are the means of effective prayer.
First, holy retirement with God.
2nd, humility. Thirdly, we say in verse 43, go up, now look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said there is nothing. And he said, go 7 * 2 more things that are means of effective prayer watching.
And perseverance.
And so we know the rain came. Well then in verse chapter 19 that we read, all of a sudden things seemed to change 180°, don't they?
Jezebel comes to the scene. Who is Jezebel? You know her name Again, it's a little bit difficult to find out exactly what her name means, but one meaning is chaste.
Somebody else said the meaning was unchanged. So I suspect when it says chaste, it's somebody who really was not chased at all but makes that pretension. And so Jezebel is a figure of wickedness in Scripture, a figure of religion from which there can be no repentance. We have her name mentioned in the New Testament, don't we? Revelation chapter 2. I gave her space to repentance. She repented not.
Jezebel is a figure of a religious system which will not repent in the church history. We had that period, didn't we? Church history went on and there was possibility of a recall back to the first principles, back to the original condition of of Pentecost. But the time came when Jezebel was so deeply entrenched that there could be no repentance anymore.
And you know, that's exactly what we have here.
Elijah's mission. Let's just look at what Elijah's mission was. Let's look at the last two verses in the Old Testament.
And we'll find out what Elijah's mission was. And I think this explains why he got so discouraged.
Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall hears his mission. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, in the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
00:35:13
You know, I believe that Elijah in that quiet time he had with the Lord, his prayer would that his prayer was that Israel would be restored to the Lord, that they would truly turn again in repentance back to the Lord. And here he exercised his faith, and they had this great choice between the Lord and Bale. All the prophets of Bale were slain 450.
And yet, Jezebel.
Is unmoved. She's still in power. She's still in control. The power behind the throne. And Elijah gets discouraged. That's the way we feel sometimes, don't we? We feel like the whole world's against us. Even other Christians are against us. Why is it? Isn't there a pathway? Sometimes we feel like giving up, and that's what Elijah did.
And so she sends to him in verse two, she was going to take his life just as the life of the.
Prophets that a Baal had been slain. Notice what it says in verse three. And this is we're not by any means pointing fingers at Elijah.
These things are written for our learning. They're not written to criticize some dear saying of God, but they're written for our learning. And here's what it says in verse 3. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life.
Elijah does what we do all too often, doesn't he? He walked by sight, not by faith. Remember we were saying in our meetings earlier today, was it in a prayer meeting, that our danger is that we look at the darkness of the day rather than at the brightness that's just about to happen? Remember when David was pursued by Saul? Remember what? The last thing, I think it was the last thing before he was raised to the to the throne, last thing that happened.
Was they went out on his men spoke of stoning him. That was a low point in David's life.
They went out and all their children were carried away by the enemy, and he came home and they were their goods and their children were all gone. And the men wept and they were, they spoke of stoning David. They were about to give up, just just at the time when the Lord was about to raise David to the throne of Israel. And brethren, I feel that is a great tendency today. We're like Elijah, we look at things, we walk by sight, not by faith.
And when we do that, we get discouraged.
We look at the darkness around just like David's men did. We say, what's the use? Look how bad things are. They've been like this for a long time.
But we walk by faith. We know that the Lord sits as ruler on the throne and doeth all things well, as the poet says. And so we sang this morning in our prayer meeting about the victory that the Lord has already won at the cross. And very soon he's going to enforce in the government of this world.
And we're living in the very last hour. Let's not give up.
Let's walk and be faithful as he's called us to be. And so we walk like Elijah, don't we? Too often? When he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba that belongeth to Judah and left the servant there. He was running as fast as he could. He was like Peter. Remember Peter when he walked on the water in Matthew 14? Peter walked on water. You can't walk on water.
Naturally speaking, that's a miracle. That's what life is, is a miracle for the Christian.
But then when he saw the waves in the wind and started to look around, all of a sudden he started sinking. And that's exactly what we do, don't we? We walk too often by sight, not by faith. And so that's what happened to dear Elijah here. He walked by sight now, and he noticed what he does in verse four. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.
And came and sat down under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die.
And said it is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, I am not better than my father's.
Notice what it says there.
He asked for himself.
You know, I think the motto for the Christian.
Is what we have in Galatians chapter 2.
It's not I, but Christ.
That's the secret. That's the model for the Christian, not I, but Christ. And so often we fail, just like Elijah, don't we? We ask for ourselves. We start to think about ourselves and what we want, what we hope to gain, what we hope to do during this lifetime, and so on and so forth. But no, the real secret, the Christian's motto, is not I.
00:40:21
But Christ.
That's the pathway of true blessing. And so he asked for himself that he might die. He was tired out. He'd fought the battle too long. Why is that? Well, I believe again that he had thought that all of Israel would be restored, that this great moment that he had waited for all his life, this great contest between bail and and Jehovah would end up in a great triumph, and that all Israel would be restored. And it didn't happen.
His mission was a failure.
He was prepared for a lot of things.
But he wasn't prepared for the failure of his mission. And so he is tired. And he says, Lord, I'm not better than my father's, I suppose. I'm not sure exactly what that means. I suppose they failed. And he says I'm going to give up too. I'm not any better. Who? Why do I have to work so hard? Who says I have to be an overcomer? And sometimes that's the way we feel too, don't we?
He asked for himself, What did the Lord do?
Well, he lays down under this juniper tree, and again, we could identify with this, can't we?
And he just wants to die, you know?
Elijah asked to die.
But he's one of two men.
In the Old Testament, who never died, he never did die. He was taken home.
To heaven and a chariot of fire. And that's often what happens to us. He didn't know the blessing that the Lord had for him, but he asked to die. He got his eyes on himself. He walked by sight, not by faith. And too often we do the same thing, don't we? But the Lord took care of him. You know, the Lord is gracious. He loves us. He knows we get discouraged sometimes. He wants to encourage us.
If we only look to the Lord he will and so that's what happens. They prepare him and then in verse eight, I guess we didn't read that and he rose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights into Horeb, the amount of God that was Mount Sinai, remember?
Where the law was given. That's what Elijah wanted to do, was recall the people back to the law. He wanted to see all of Christendom come back to the original days. And isn't that what's happening today? Isn't that probably the greatest trend in Christendom today is to bring all Christians back together into a great mass movement?
But it's not of God because Israel had sinned. Jezebel was behind the power of the throne.
She's corrupted religion that will not repent and the Lord could no longer.
Identify himself with that corrupted system. So Elijah has to learn that.
Verse nine And he came thither unto the unto a cave, and he lodged there. New paragraph. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
When we have our quiet times with the Lord, sometimes does the Lord ask us that we followed our own way? We kind of forgot about the Lord, and it's good when the Lord asks us that, isn't it?
What are you doing here?
Didn't get there by the Lord's direction. He got there by his own will.
And he's in the wrong place.
And so he says, What doest thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous of the Lord God of hosts. True he had been.
For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, And I, even I, am only AM left, and they seek my life to take it.
And he 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, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not on the wind, and after the wind an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a still small voice.
You know.
We like to see God's power manifest, don't we? We like to be part of a group that fills a stadium with 10s of thousands of people and shouts the name of the Lord. We like to be part of that kind of thing, don't we? Naturally speaking. And that's what that's what Elijah saw. He would have liked to have seen that. He would have liked to have seen the Lord's power demonstrated again. He had seen it some. That's what he liked. He was enamored with God's power.
00:45:26
But you know, there was a great earthquake.
There was a great fire, there was a great wind, but it says the Lord was not in those things.
Same thing in our day, dear brethren. So often there's great outward appearance of power, and we're attracted to that naturally, aren't we? But what we need to do is listen to the still, small voice.
That's how God speaks in a day of our own and a day as ours is, in a still small voice. It's not in the great powerful movements where men have not sought God's mind, really.
But it's a still small voice. He speaks through His word and by His spirit, but it's in a still small voice. That's how he works in a day of ruin. Our brother Bob Tony mentioned the ruin of the church. That's the ruin of the outward testimony of the church. He speaks now in a still, small voice. It's not in the great movements of the day.
It's in quietness.
And stillness. And so we hear Elijah in verse 13 again. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in the mammal and went out.
Stood in the entering of The Cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said same question.
What doest thou hear, Elijah?
He still was in the wrong place.
And he gives the same answer. And verse 15 Now the Lord says to him, notice how gracious the Lord is to him. The Lord is gracious with us.
You know, we see others that have disappointments in life. We see others that go down a bad pathway.
And if we're honest with ourselves, we have to say, as has often been said, but for the grace of God, there go I. We know there's times when we were following our own will.
Seeking our own happiness.
And the Lord and His grace stopped us, didn't He?
We know it's true.
And so it is here the Lord is gracious with us. We don't have anything to boast about.
But the Lord is gracious.
You know God is not only light, which is true, He is holy and he is going to judge this world in righteousness.
By that man whom he hath ordained, but at the same time God is love.
And he was not going to let the prophets impatience determine when he was going to judge Israel. Israel deserved judgment. Elijah wanted to see him judged. It was time the rejection was complete. But God is gracious as well.
Remember in the meal offering, we talked about the meal offering in Leviticus? It's a beautiful picture there, isn't it? It speaks of the fine flower. God is love and God is light, and there's a perfect balance there. So often we get that out of balance, but the Lord Jesus Christ as He walked through this world was a perfect manifestation and perfect balance.
That God is light, that's true.
But also that God is love. God is love.
He wasn't going to let the prophet dictate to him when he was going to judge, but rather he was going to show grace for a time. And here's what he says. Verse 15. The Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way. He had to go back where he came from. That's the path of blessing, isn't it? Judge what we've done wrong and go back. It's humbling, but that's the path of blessing. Go back, by the way, to the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint has ailed to be king over Syria.
Isaiah was going to be a great thorn in Israel's side. There was going to be judgment on Israel. Not the final judgment yet of the Assyrian, but there was going to be judgment on Israel.
Secondly, verse 16 and Jihu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel. He was going to judge Ahab in that wicked Jezebel.
And Elisha the son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholith, shall be thou a point anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass the hymn that escapeth the sword of zail shall ye who sleep slaying, And him that escapeth the sword of Jihu shall Elisha's slay. Yet I have left unto me Notice this verse, yet I have left me 7000 in Israel.
00:50:23
All beneath which have not bowed under Baal.
And every mouth which hath not kissed him turn, if you would, to the.
Spirit's commentary on this in Romans Chapter 11.
When there's failure of the great outward testimony, what does God do? Well, let's read what the Spirit of God says. Elijah thought that the Lord should judge all Israel right now. But no, God is gracious, even though that's what they deserved. God has a path of grace. It's the path of faith, the path of blessing.
Romans Chapter 11 I say that hath God castaway his people. That's what Elijah wanted.
God forbid I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not castaway his people which he foreknew.
What's he not? What the spirit of Scripture saith of Elias. That's Elijah, the Greek form of Elijah, How he maketh intercession to God against Israel. We dare not do that. Our brother Hail used to tell us that the only failure of an Old Testament St. recorded in the New Testament was Elijah because he spoke against God's people. Let's not be guilty of speaking against God's people.
Verse 3 Lord, they have digged down my, They have killed thy prophets, and dig down thy altars, and I am left alone. He was wrong.
There were 7000 still, and they seek my life. But what sayeth the answer of God unto him?
I have reserved to myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. I don't say that they were had a very bright testimony. They must not have. But in the following chapters in First Kings, you'll see that there are other prophets to come out. Elisha is one, Micah is another. We see a various prophets. We see the the schools of the prophets. There is a much more brighter testimony among this remnant that comes out.
And then notice in verse five of Romans 11 Even so then at this present time.
Also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
So when the outward testimony is in ruins, God maintains a remnant that's faithful to 1St principles. That's a powerful principle, brethren, but that's how God acts. That's the lesson that Elijah had to learn. And so he starts in verse 19, back in first Kings 19. So he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with his 12 oxen. Here's one he didn't know about.
One of the 7000.
Plowing is a brother. Lundin says that his little book on Elijah is a picture of repentance.
Here's a man that was plowed up in his soul, ready for the service of God.
Elisha 12 yoke of oxen before him, and him with the 12. What's that mean?
Well, 12 is a picture of administration, governmental administration. It's the most divisible of the number. 7 is the least divisible of the prime numbers. 12 is the most divisible. It shows administrative completeness. Elisha is with the 12Th. The way God had been governing Israel was about to end.
He was number longer going to try to restore all of Israel back to their original condition.
But he was going to bring out a new thing, a remnant testimony. And that's what we have in the following chapters, begins with Elijah. The Lord has called us to a remnant testimony separated from the Mass. And so he's done it with Christendom. So he did it with Jeremiah. Jeremiah's a parallel passage. And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said.
Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again.
For what have I done to thee?
Perhaps there was a question as to his full devotedness. But then in verse 21 we see light, Elisha's full devotedness, his consecration. And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah.
00:55:08
And ministered unto him.
While our time is gone, I hope we can learn that there is a path.
For faith and blessing in our day. It's not in the great movements of Christendom. God gave up the great testimony of Christendom in the days of the Roman Catholic Church back in the 15th, 16th century.
And since then it has actually had a remnant testimony, been a remnant testimony in one form or another. God doesn't call us to form this great ecumenical movement. He calls us to be a separate part from it and to be faithful to Him as he's called us to be stewards.
Of the manifest grace of God, and of the mystery of God. What a privileged position, what a Lord Grant that we might be faithful to him. Brethren, His coming is right at the door.
And as we mentioned this morning, it's always darkest just before the break of day. We live in that day. The Lord wants to encourage us to go on, to be faithful to Him. He wants to bless us abundantly, not just now, but in the time to come. Let's bow in prayer.