Well, I want you to turn back
to 1 Kings and we're looking at 1 Kings chapter 19 this morning. We were thinking last week about
the end of chapter 18 where Elijah had to pray for the rain that
God had said he would send. And we likened it to signs of
revival. He sent his servant boy. Many people think, and I think
it's quite plausible, that the boy that he sent to look was
the one that was the widow's son who had died and Elijah had
raised from the dead. And he sent him to look. Do you
see anything? No, there is nothing, nothing at all. Go and look again. How many times? Seven times he
went and looked. And then he saw a small cloud
in that blue sky and blue sea, there's just a small cloud. It
looks like a man's hand in the distance. Oh, that's the portent
of what's coming. A great rain is coming. A little
cloud becomes a great rain. Do we see that? Do we see signs
of revival? I think we probably do. A little
cloud. That what's happening via the
internet and via Free Grace Radio and things like that, and by
publishing and by the demand that there is for good material
around the world, is it the portent of a great rain? And if it is,
What do we need to do? Sit back and watch it happen?
No. We need to be much in prayer, because if God is determined
to do that for his people, If he's determined, what does he
say? He says, we must remember that first of all, he will be
inquired of. He will be prayed to for it,
before he'll do it for them. That's what he says. I will be
inquired of, of the house of Israel, to do it for them. God
is going to send revival, his word says it. But he says, I
will be inquired of, by Israel, the house of Israel, to do it
for them. So we need to be much in prayer. And if it comes, And
as we see it coming, wouldn't that strengthen our faith? Wouldn't
that really give us a boost if we saw that happening? If we
saw great things happening, if we could see God working mighty
things, if we could see showers of blessing coming down, if we
could see the gospel being faithfully preached in many, many places
throughout this country. Not having to go hundreds of
miles between one church that preaches the truth and another,
but seeing it. Every few miles there's a church
where God has raised up a preacher of the gospel to proclaim the
truth of the gospel. If we saw sinners hearing and
believing the truth, if we saw evil, the evil that is in society
being restrained, how would we be strengthened in our faith
and service as we walk this life in the flesh? Wouldn't that be
the case? Or would it? Would it? If we think like that,
what are we putting confidence in? What things are we putting
confidence in? I've got three points this morning.
The first is the weakness of the flesh exposed. The second
is God's methods demonstrated. And the third is God's purposes
confirmed. First of all, the weakness of
the flesh exposed. Look at verses 1 to 4 with me
of chapter 19. 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
to Elijah saying, so let the gods, her heathen gods, do to
me and more also. If I make not thy life as the
life of one of them by tomorrow," what's she saying? She's saying,
I'm going to kill you, by this time tomorrow you're going to
be dead, you're going to be as dead as those prophets of Baal
that you've slain. What does Elijah do? Verse three,
when he saw that, he arose and went for his life. He ran for
his life and came to Beersheba, down in Judah, not in Israel
anymore. And he left his servant boy there, but he himself went
a further 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. Oh Lord, take away
my life. I am not better than my father's."
Here is Elijah, the man of God. You'll notice as we're looking
at these chapters from chapter 17, how often he's called the
man of God. Oh man of God, have you come
to call my sins to remembrance. Elijah, the man of God. Elijah
who yesterday was triumphant over idolatry. Elijah on his
own, and 850 prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves,
he was triumphant over them. He was apparently fearless, wasn't
he? Just so full of determination
and confidence in the truth. He was ruthless for the cause
of God's salvation, absolutely ruthless with error and idolatry. And he was no doubt expecting
Ahab to repent, because he'd seen what had happened. No doubt
that's what he was expecting. Ahab will repent, Ahab will silence
Jezebel, he will probably put away Jezebel, and he will return
Israel to gospel truth. What was gospel truth? Gospel
truth was the temple worship in Jerusalem. That he would seek
to reunite the kingdom, bring Israel back to Judah, that he
would bring them back to that line of gospel truth, for the
temple is all about gospel truth. The temple and its sacrifices
are all about gospel truth. They're speaking the gospel in
Old Testament language to the people that saw it there and
believed it. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. Why? Because it speaks of substitutionary
atonement right with God through the shed blood of a substitute
and the animals were just pictures and the temple was just a picture
and the altar was just a picture and the holy of holies was just
a picture of heaven but they were earthly pictures and God
said that's where he will be worshipped and that's the gospel
as it as it was then clearly clearly and surely surely Ahab
will repent and bring them back to gospel truth and it didn't
happen Ahab told Jezebel, and that wicked Sidonian evil Baal-worshipping
woman said she's going to kill him. Despite what he's done to
her prophets, she's going to kill him. And what does he do?
He runs for his life. He runs away from her. Now, no
disrespect to women, but you know, here's a man who was strong. And he's running away from a
woman. He's running away from her. Running for his life. And
he's asking God that he might die. It is enough. Oh Lord, now
take away my life. I'm not better than my father's.
End it all. I've had it. Do you ever get
to the point? Have you ever been at that point where you've thought,
I've had enough. I just can't take it. People
do. Tragically, people do. Some people go so far as to take
their own lives. He's asking God that he might
die, isn't it? ironical that he's fleeing certain
death at Jezebel's hands, fleeing it only to go to a place where
he asks God for what? That he might die. He should
have stuck around, Jezebel would have killed him anyway. He's
asking that he might die and yet he's running away from dying.
What irony there is there. What does this show us? Does
it not show us the weakness of the very best of flesh? the weakness
of the very best of flesh. We're so inclined, any of you
do Don Faulkner's daily readings, we're reading the one this morning
on the Psalms 69 to 73, and so clear in that the weakness of
the flesh, the conflict between the spirit and the flesh, the
flesh never gets any better, never, never. Verily, verily,
says the Psalm, Psalm 39 verse 5, every man, and he means woman
as well, every human being at his best state, oh that was a
good man, oh the best, the greatest Englishman in the last hundred
years, oh the, you know, oh how we put men on pedestals, every
man at his best state is, what does the scripture say, altogether
vanity. Oh, those pop stars that we idolize,
altogether vanity. Those people that are super skillful
at whatever it might be, altogether vanity. This is what scripture
says. And Robert Hawker wrote this,
great faith and unbelief are near neighbors in the same heart."
Great faith! Who had greater faith than Elijah
when he called the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel and when
he slew them with the sword? Who had greater faith in the
truth that God had revealed to him? He had great faith and the
next day After that great triumph, he's running for his life, running
terrified to get away from a woman who said she's going to have
him killed. Great faith and unbelief are near neighbors in the same
heart. Do you not find the same? I do. We're hypocritical if we don't
admit it. It's true. There are times when you believe
the gospel of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. You
believe it so clearly. And an hour or two later, you've
got such unbelief that you're cowering away and shy to even
open your mouth in a situation. Is that not true? Remember Abraham. Abraham had great faith. Great faith. What faith? Take
your son, your only Isaac, the one in whom the promised seed
would come to redeem his people from this. Take him and kill
him. Yes, says Abraham. This is the seed that God has
promised. This is the one by whom the sins
of the world are going to, I'll take him, I'll take him and slay
him. Believing, looking by faith to that gospel, looking by faith
to Calvary. He goes there, up that mount
which many think is Mount Calvary. He goes there and there he is
altogether prepared to slay his son. Such great faith. And he
goes down into Egypt. Because of circumstances and
he's terrified of the people because Sarah's quite a good
looker and he's terrified So he says we're going to lie about
this He doesn't even have the faith to trust God for the safety
of Sarah and himself and they lie. about Sarah not really being
his wife, but being his sister instead. And she's nearly taken
into an adulterous relationship because of it. Great faith and
unbelief are near neighbors in the same heart. Think of the
Apostle Peter. In the ship, in the boat, on
the lake, in the storm, at night. And Jesus comes to them walking
on the water. Lord, if it's you, tell me to come, come Peter.
And he gets out of the boat and he walks on the water. Great
faith, great faith, believing, looking to Jesus, he walks on
the water. And then how long later? Not
sure, a year or so? in Jerusalem the night before
the crucifixion, and a little maid says, you're one of his
disciples, and he denies it with cursing. Great faith and unbelief
are near neighbors in the same heart. The lesson of this, we
can never trust self and flesh too little. Don't trust the flesh. We can never trust Jesus too
much. Religion, this is how you can
tell false religion. You know, if you're a true child
of God, if you're one of Christ's sheep, you hear the shepherd's
voice, and when you hear the howling, Speaking to you with
law works, you hear his voice and you know that's not the true
shepherd's voice. Religion loves to promote confidence in the
flesh, doesn't it? Oh, look at this man. Oh, what
a godly man. Oh, what an example to follow.
They talk of their progressive sanctification. They talk about
their gradual exercise in subduing the flesh and its sinful lusts. And they pride themselves in
their law-keeping, that they're getting better and better at
it, even though they're actually deluding themselves. And they're
anticipating greater and greater degrees of reward in heaven,
because their sanctification's getting so good, they're getting
so much better. And they write biographies about
one another. Really. Biographies. Beware of
biographies. Really. I don't know if there
are any good ones, but I don't think I've ever found any. You
know, you compare the biographies in the word of God, of God's
saints, with those of Christian publishing organizations. Compare
them. You know, when you're reading
the scriptures about Abraham and his faults, about Moses and
his temper, about David and his lust and his sin with Bathsheba,
you know, it doesn't hide The great patriarchs of the scriptures,
their sins are not hidden in the biographical accounts in
scripture. But oh, you look at the biographies that Christian
publishing produces about godly people. Do you know, they've
all got flaws. Like James says about Elijah,
do you know what James says about Elijah? Elias was a man of like
passions as we are. I tell you, they're all of like
passions as we are. All flesh is flesh at the very
best. And the best of flesh is altogether
vanity. It never gets any better. These
biographies come along and they airbrush out the obvious flaws
that there are. And they make them seem as if
they've made themselves better and better because they've been
better and better in the flesh at obeying God. It's a complete
delusion. Flesh is weak. Here, in one of
the greatest examples of the faith of God, here is the weakness
of the flesh exposed. Flesh never gets better. Flesh
is always corrupt. Paul said this, Romans 7 18,
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. No good thing. Philippians 3
verse 3, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Do you know why I keep stressing
that? It's because religion doesn't believe it. Religion tries to
delude us into thinking that you can have confidence in the
flesh. No. No confidence in the flesh. As
Paul says again in Romans 8 verse 8, they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. In the flesh you cannot please
God by your flesh works. Religion exalts the capability
of flesh to please God, to choose that which is right, to be persuaded
as they say, to accept God's free offer of salvation. Flesh
is corrupt altogether. In the flesh you cannot please
God. In appealing to the flesh, it
corrupts the true gospel message. It's bound to do. Whenever you
see that they've changed their methods to the methods of the
world, you know they've changed their message. It corrupts the
true gospel message. It resorts to methods that are
utterly contrary to God's method of simple preaching. Just go
and proclaim. For why? It is by the foolishness
of preaching that it pleased God to save those who believe.
Ah, you say, don't the New Testament gospel precepts in the epistles,
don't they appeal to believers for sanctified behavior? And
the answer is, yes, but the appeal is to the new man, born again
of God's Spirit. Not to the old flesh, to get
it better. In the most eminent of God's
saints, flesh remains flesh, and incapable of choosing that
which is right in God's sight. There we see it, the weakness
of flesh exposed. But then we see God's methods
of working demonstrated. Remember the context, I said,
wouldn't it be good, wouldn't our faith be boosted if we saw
God working, and we saw great revival happening, and we saw
these things going on, oh, wouldn't we be so much stronger in the
Lord? And I question it. Would it indeed? God is now going
to show Elijah how he really works, how he does really work. Verses 5 to 15. First of all,
verse five. As Elijah lay and slept under
a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said
to 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 him down again. And
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. And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength
of that meat 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God.
God ministers to Elijah's bodily needs. God knows what we are. Here he is, he's terrified, he's
weak, he's hungry, he's exhausted, and he lays down under a juniper
tree and he sleeps. He's been fed by ravens, God
said, go there and the ravens will feed you. Then he's been
fed by a widow woman. Go there and the widow woman
will feed you and sustain you until the drought is coming to
an end. And now, he's fed by angels. Angels. Elijah, come and eat.
And there's a cake baked on the coals nearby. And there's a cruise
of water for him to drink. God knows the weakness of our
flesh. God knows that we're body and
spirit. God knows that. God knows that we're not, we
cannot be separated from our bodies as long as we're in this
life until the day we die. We're flesh and bones as well
as spirit and soul. He knows our frame. Psalm 103
verse 14. He knows our frame. Does this
not encourage you? God knows what we're like. He
knows, He remembers that what are we? What are we made from?
What did Adam, what did God make Adam out of? The dust of the
ground. And do you know something? That's
dead right, scientifically. The atoms and the molecules that
make up your body and mine are just exactly the same things
that's in the dust of the ground. The elements and the molecules
of this earth. He remembers that we're dust.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray. What? Give us this day
our daily bread. He knows that we have physical
bodily needs. He knows that. We know that we
read in the scripture, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. But it doesn't
say that man doesn't need bread. It says man shall not live by
bread alone. Man needs bread. We need food. We need drink. We need these
things. God cares for his people's physical needs. Give us this
day. All things work together for
good. All things that happen work together for good. He tells
us to be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication
make our requests known to God. He tells us to take no anxious
thought for tomorrow, for He'll take care of it. He says He feeds
the sparrows, and He says you are more precious than many sparrows. Godliness with contentment is
great gain, for He cares for our physical needs. That's a
lesson here. God quietly works. Don't in all
of this excitement about what God might do forget the fact
that God cares for the needs of His people. He doesn't suffer.
I've been young and I've been old, says the psalmist, but I've
never seen God's people begging bread. His children don't go
begging bread because He cares for them. He cares for our physical
needs, but then he speaks in the spirit. He ministers to the
body and he goes 40 days in the strength of that ministration
of that food and drink and then God speaks to Elijah. He journeys
40 days to Mount Horeb, the Mount of God. Verse 9, and he came
thither into a cave and lodged there and behold the word of
the Lord came to him. The word of the Lord came to
him. Some think that this cave is the cave where Moses in Exodus
33 asked God to show him his glory.
And God hid him in the cleft of the rock, in the break in
the rock. He hid him in the cave in the
rock and passed by and showed him his glory and said, this
is my glory. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion. Is this the cave where Moses
stood as God's glory passed by? God says to Elijah, What are
you doing here, Elijah? Why are you here? You know the
other places that Elijah went? Why did he go there? Why did
he go to the brook Cherith? Because God had told him. God
said to him, go to the brook Cherith, and I've commanded the
ravens to feed you. Why did he go to Zarephath, to
the widow? Because God told him. Why does
he come here? He hasn't consulted God, he just
ran for his life. He didn't consult God. What are
you doing here, Elijah? Who told you to come here, Elijah? What are you doing here? And
so Elijah replies, and he says this, doesn't flesh always do
this? Doesn't flesh always do, you
know, when you're accused of something or when you're put
in an awkward position, oh, he says, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken
thy covenant and thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets
with the sword and I, even I, only am left. And now after doing
all of that, in the name of your kingdom, in the name of the truth
of the gospel of grace, to get re-established, remember why
Elijah did it, that the line might be established that would
lead to the seed that God would send, the Messiah that God would,
and why must there be a Messiah? Because without law satisfaction
God cannot save his people. And he cannot satisfy the law
in his people, they must only go to hell for eternity to satisfy
the law. But in Christ, the Messiah who
would come, the seed who would come, the law would be satisfied. Justice would be satisfied. The
people would be justified. The justice of God would be honored.
They'd be taken to heaven. Sinners would be taken to heaven
because their sins were to be put away. But it would only happen
if that line was preserved. Oh, this is what Elijah had wanted. But they'd walked out on it.
They'd thrown down the altars. And now they're even seeking
to kill him for all of that. He tries to justify himself.
a bit like Job, you read the book of Job and you see Job until
about three quarters of the way through he tries to, he says
this is not right, these, and he was right in this, the bitter
friends that he had who would come, the three friends and they
were telling him that surely he was in that state because
of something he'd done and he was saying well I might have
done things but I'm nowhere near as bad as you lot are and he's
trying to justify himself in the face of these others. It's
the natural tendency of the flesh to try to justify itself. But
then God says to him, go and stand before the Lord. Look,
he says, verse 11, God says to him, go forth and stand upon
the mount before the Lord. Go and stand out there before
the Lord. I'm going to pass by. the Lord
passed by. Behold, the Lord passed by, and
a great and strong wind, and so on and so forth." How does
God speak powerfully? Has God spoken to you? How does
God speak powerfully? This is so poetic, it's so dramatic. Artists have tried to represent
it in great works of art. I'm sure there's something in
the National Gallery, a great painting showing Elijah and the
earthquake, the wind and the fire. All these great demonstrations
of the power of God in creation around us. You know, we tend
to think that with all of our scientific knowledge and all
of our command of technology, that everything is within our
grasp. And an earthquake comes and kills
thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And a tsunami comes,
you know, one of those undersea earthquakes, and sends a wave
in 2004 around the Indian Ocean. And what was it, 140-odd thousand
people killed? The power of God in creation
is tremendous. Here he comes as the Lord's passing
by. There's a wind, a great wind. It was such a strong wind, it
broke the rocks. Even the rocks were broken. It
bowled over great big rocks and broke them. It was such a strong
wind. And there was an earthquake which shook the earth. I've never
experienced an earthquake. I've spoken to those that have
and they tell me it's an utterly terrifying experience. Because
all of a sudden, that which we regard as the most solid starts
moving around underneath you and great cracks open up and
buildings fall down on top of you. A terrifying situation.
And then there's a fire. What that fire was, I'm not sure
what it was. But it says that God was not
in any of those things. God was not speaking powerfully
in any of those things. Not in the earthquake, wind and
fire, but look. Where is it? At the end of verse
12. 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 the still, small voice, that he wrapped his face in his
cloak, in his mantle. He hid himself. He wrapped his
face in his cloak. You know, to stand before the
presence of, you see, he'd seen all this power and God was not
speaking in that. No, no, don't expect big, dramatic
things for God to speak. Don't expect big, dramatic, flashy
things for God to speak in power. God speaks by his spirit in the
quiet of the heart. This is why I say, it's on my
mind a lot, it's not in the words of the preacher. It's not in
the words audibly read. It's not in the power of the
singing. It's not in the numbers of people that come. It's his
God speaking in the heart. deep in the inner man. Is God
speaking there? In a still, small voice. That's
when Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle. Because there
was the presence of God. There was God speaking powerfully.
In a still, small voice. Like Job said, Job said, I've
heard of you with the ear, but now my eye sees you. Not in a
dramatic way, now my eye sees you. It sees me, I, the self-righteous
me, I abhor myself. What is God saying to Elijah
and to all his saints? What is he saying to us today?
He's saying this, God doesn't do his mightiest work by impressive,
external, flesh-appealing displays, but by his spirit speaking inside
a person. There had been that great descent
of the fire of God on Mount Carmel that had vaporized the sacrifice
and the water and the stones and all of those things quite
miraculously. But this is where God did his
greatest work, speaking in the heart, in a still, small voice. Don't look for God to work in
a dramatic way. Be wary of those who claim that's
how God speaks. I'm thinking of all the charismatic
nonsense that there is all around us. These great big churches
in Welling Garden City taking over big office blocks because
there's so many people go along and they're whooping and hollering
in the aisles and they're falling flat on their faces and being
slain by whatever spirit it is. It's not the spirit of God that's
slain them. Charismatic nonsense. Celebrity gimmicks. Getting along
celebrities to try and persuade people that they should be Christians
too. Oh, we'll get a Christian sportsman
to come. That'll persuade people that
they ought to be a Christian. It's enticing trickery. God doesn't
work through it. When Peter and John were going
to the temple, there was a man sat there begging. And he held
out his palms and he asked for alms. And this is what Peter
did say. Silver and gold have I none,
but such as I have, give I thee. the word of God. In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Not in flashy
things, but just in the word spoken. Still small voice. What
does it say to God's true church today? God works, most tellingly,
in a quiet way. Do any of you make bread? We
have a machine that makes bread, but it's the same principle.
You know, you put this teaspoon of this funny powder into the
flour and water and salt mix. And what do you do with it? You
just leave it. You don't listen to it. You don't
listen to it. Apart from the motor of the bread
maker going on, there's no noise. You get very, very close, you
might hear gentle bubbling, very still, small voice, but the next
morning you've got a lovely big lump of dough that cooks into
a nice loaf of bread. See, the leaven works very, very
quietly on his own. This is how God works, so often.
Don't depend on the dramatic fire, you know, like Elijah saw
on Mount Carmel. Fire from heaven, a great rain,
the earthquake, the wind, the fire, but depend on God to be
working out his unchangeable purposes. He'll work them out,
his unchangeable purposes, in mostly quiet ways. He does act
dramatically at times, but mostly, most of the time, God works in
quiet ways. So for us, depending on him,
seeking faithfully to preach the true gospel. And what is
the true gospel we preach? It's this. It's sovereign grace
and particular redemption. What's the absolute irreducible
minimum at the core of it that distinguishes the truth from
error? I'll tell you what it is. It's
that the atonement that Christ made was only for the elect that
the Father gave him before the beginning of time. Our Lord Jesus
Christ did not produce an atonement which is of sufficient capacity
to save the whole world if only that world would believe him.
That's what error teaches and that is just what I said. Error. Error. So what do we do? We keep
preaching the true gospel. Sovereign grace. Particular redemption. Without flashy... I know there's
some people are nicer and easier to listen to than others. But
we don't rely on impressive oratory. or any other worldly gimmick.
Why have so many departed from the truth? Why? Isn't it just
because they see an apparent lack of results from faithful
preaching? And they resort to erroneous
ways to try and make God work. No, God works in slow ways, in
quiet ways, in the still small voice. This is what this is saying
to us. Let's not get all excited that
there might be a great revival, and then get all disappointed
when we don't see what we expect. but let's understand. God works
in his own ways, his wonders to perform. In his own mysterious
ways, in his own quiet ways, and he speaks in that still small
voice. And then, God's purpose is confirmed. Look at verse 15. You see, He
says in verse 14, at the end of verse 13, he says, what are
you still doing here Elijah? He asks him again, what are you
still doing here Elijah? Why are you still here? Having
seen what you've seen and heard what you've heard, a clear display
of God's sovereign rule over all things, why are you here?
And Elijah repeats his excuse of earlier, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts and for the children of Israel have
forsaken your covenant and now they're seeking my life to take
it away. He repeats what had brought him
there, but no further excuses. And in verse 15, God doesn't
say anything to him about it, but he just tells him what to
do next. There's no further reasoning,
there's no further explanation, but he says this, just go. The
Lord said to him, go. Now the Lord's speaking, go.
Go and anoint this one in Damascus, Hazael, king over Assyria. Go
and anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, to be king over Israel. Go and
anoint these, and you say, what's this got to do with anything?
What's this all about? Why is he telling him to do that?
Just go and do your ministry. And then go and anoint Elisha.
You know, you've asked to be taken away. Anoint Elisha to
be prophet in your place. Anoint kings and a prophet to
follow you. What's the purpose of that? It's
all for the purpose of ensuring that the line will be maintained.
You know, God had promised that he would bring a Savior through
a particular line, and by God telling Elijah, go and anoint
these men to be kings, and Elisha to be prophet in your state.
That that line would be preserved, that Christ would indeed come,
that the Saviour would come, the promised Messiah would come
and save his people from their sins. That line would be maintained
to bring forth the seed that was promised to Abraham. So go
and do it. Just go and get on with your
ministry. And what are we told? Just go. Don't make it dependent
on seeing big revival, just go and carry on with your ministry. Don't try to do things to make
results happen. Don't try to do, just carry on
faithfully proclaiming the truth as it is in this book. Don't
mind what others say to you about it, what they might do, they
can go their own way. But God helping us, let's stick
to this. And verse 18, and there's an,
oh by the way, I love this, I love this verse. Verse 18, God says
this, oh yes, and by the way, you know Elijah you've been saying
I even I only am left, well there's only us here in Datsworth just
this little handful of us I mean you know there's nobody else
anywhere is there really not at not at all God says this yet
I have left me seven thousand in Israel all the knees which
have not bowed unto Baal haven't gone after false gospels and
every mouth which has not kissed him seven thousand you know what
I think about that You know what I think about that? I mean, it
might literally mean, literally 7,000, but I tend to think if
it's a number like 7,000, it has spiritual significance. Like all the number, you know,
the 144,000 in the book of Revelation does not literally mean 144,000.
It's got relevance. It's 12 times 12. Why 12 times? 12 patriarchs,
12 apostles, 12 times the church. times a thousand. What's a thousand?
Ten, times ten, times ten. What's ten? God's number of completeness. A thousand is God's number of
completeness cubed. Ten times ten times ten. God's
number of completeness. It's the church in its completed
state. That's what 144,000 means. I
tend to think 7,000. Seven? God's number of perfection. God's number of perfection thousand
completeness God's perfect completeness do you know In England, in Britain,
today, God has his 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
We don't know literally what that number is, but we can be
assured of this, it's God's perfect, complete number that have not
bowed the knee to Baal. However alone we may think we
are, those that are listening on your own, it may seem, we
think we're lonely, it may seem awfully more lonely to you listening
on your own. But God has his perfect, complete
number. And whether it's just a handful
today, or whether it's hundreds of thousands, millions, if he
sends a revival, it's his perfect, complete number. And we just
trust him for it. What are we to do? Faithfully
proclaim the gospel of grace. Are we the only ones left? Even
here today, in the UK, God has his 7,000.