Speaking for the help of the
Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to 1 Kings chapter
19, and reading through our text, verse 12, or the latter part
of verse 12, the words, and after the fire a still small voice. Particularly these words, a still
small voice. 1 Kings, Chapter 19 and verse
12. I'll read the context from verse
11. And he 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 a 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 in of the cave. The context, the overall context
here is in Israel at a time under wicked King Ahab and his even
more wicked Queen Jezebel, that they had gone away from serving
the true and living God to worship the God Baal. And God had sent
from the word of Elijah that there would not be rain nor dew
for those years apart from the word of Elijah, the word of the
Lord through Elijah. And then Elijah was commanded
to go to the brook Cherith, where God provided for him through
the water of that brook, and ravens brought him bread and
meat throughout that time that he was there. Then when the brook
dried up, Elijah was commanded to go to Zarephath, which was
outside of Israel, and the Lord had commanded a widow woman to
provide for him there, and he goes there, the widow woman was
outside the city gathering sticks and the meeting then took place
and by a miracle he provided for her and for her son and for
himself during those times when Israel was getting more and more
dried up and more and more in desperate need of the rain. And
it was then in that time that God said to Elijah that he had
to then go and show himself to Ahab. God used those three and
a half years of famine, of lack of rain, to bring the people,
as it were, to their knees to make them ready to hear the word
of the Lord. Two altars then were set up upon
Mount Carmel, one altar for Baal, one altar for the true and living
God, and no fire was to be put under the sacrifice. The God
that answered by fire, he was to be the true and living God.
The Baal worshippers, they made their sacrifice first, but no
answer, of course, came. The sacrifice remained unburnt. And then Elijah drew near and
rebuilt the altar that was broken down, the one for the true and
living God, and with 12 stones of the tribes of Israel. And
then he prayed that the Lord would send fire, that they would
know that he'd turned their hearts back again. And the fire fell
from heaven and consumed not only the burnt offering, but
the stones, the dust, and the water that they'd poured upon
the altar to make it very sure that it was not set alight by
man, it was from above. Those of you that may have seen,
literally or seen through a video, when lightning has struck, when
fire has come from heaven and hit things below, is the most
fearful sign, when you have suddenly from heaven the fire coming down
and then burning up what it hits. And it must have been a tremendous
sign. And so the people then, they
declared that the Lord, he was God, he was the true God. And then they were willing to
take the prophets of Baal and to kill them, willingly destroying
those that led them astray into false worship. But then Elijah
had to go and pray again and pray that the Lord would send
rain, whereas he prayed just once in the first time and the
fire had come from heaven. This time it is seven times.
Go again seven times before the rain appears. And it is after
this occasion that then Jezebel, when Ahab tells her what Elijah
had done, this is where we began reading, that she then sends
and threatens to have him killed. the hatred, the refusing to bow
and acknowledge the true and living God and uphold the wicked
worship of those that were turning the people of God away from the
Lord. So Elijah, he runs away then
first to Beersheba and then he goes into the wilderness. So this is the context and where
we find Elijah. Well, there's a few things I
want to bring as a lead up to the word before us here, which
is the voice of the Lord. That is the message that is here. Really it began with the voice
of the Lord through Elijah saying there'd be no rain. And then
the voice of the Lord again through Elijah in bringing rain again
and now the Lord speaking to Elijah here. All that had gone
on before in Israel with the lack of rain and the famine,
that had not turned the hearts of the people back, but it was
the word of the Lord that they were to hear. They were to be
prepared to hear the word of the Lord. We would remember what
the Lord said to, in the case of the rich man and Lazarus,
when the rich man felt that if one was to rise from the dead,
then his brethren would believe that the Lord said they have
Moses and the prophets, if they hear not them, neither will they
believe, though one rose from the dead. And so the importance
is of hearing the voice of the Lord, the word of the Lord. But before Elijah comes to hear
this still small voice and the voice of the Lord, we find him
first in a very low place, a very despondent place. And we mentioned
in prayer that which James points out, that he was a man subject
to like passions as we are. God's people do get low, often
thought of John the Baptist in prison and not far from his end. And yet he sends to the Lord,
are there he that should come or look we for another? And yet
he is so clearly pointed out. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. God's people get low. The psalmist
says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.
Those that were in Babylon, they required of them a song to sing
the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's
song? in a strange land. There's sometimes
that we may come to the house of God, but we cannot sing, we
cannot join with the people of God, because we're sad, we're
low, we want to be there, we want to hear the word, but our
hearts are heavy and our hearts are sad. And here is Elijah,
even desiring that he might die. He requested, verse 4, for himself
that he might die. He said, it is enough. Now, O
Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. Are we low? Do we get low? Can we come in with Elijah and
say, here is one that has walked a path like we have, that speaks
of things like we have felt and gives utterance to it. Towards
dear people, do get low, do get despondent. This was more that
Elijah was susceptible to than later on with Elisha. They both had very different
dispositions and we all have different dispositions. Some
will look at the same thing and one will see a half empty cup
and the other one will see a half full cup, and one will see some
encouragement in it, and the other one will see discouragement.
We'll have Manoah and his wife, Samson's parents, and they both
hear the same things, see the same things. Manoah says, we
have seen an angel of the Lord, therefore we shall die. But his
wife says, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, why would he? have
shown us such things as this. Why would he have received a
sacrifice at our hand? Why would he have told us such
things as this? And she's able to put a much
more positive thing on the same thing that they'd seen. And it
is encouraging to us to see how the Lord handles and manages
his people in their different frames, how they are. We think
of Jonah. the Lord's messenger and bless
to the people of Nineveh and yet he sits out in the city and
he's still angry and he's still angry and he seems to be left
like that and the disposition the Lord is able to manage his
people not just to go along with them but to show them that his
purposes they go on and they're not touched they're not changed
by his poor people in all the weaknesses that they have. He knoweth our frame, he remembereth
that we are but dust. Elijah here was used greatly. He came suddenly upon the scene,
the Lord used him, owned his word, and before all Israel owned
him as a true prophet of the Lord, sending the fire from heaven. And you might say there was results,
there was the willingness to kill those prophets of Baal. But it didn't seem that it went
that far. Immediately, Elijah, he cannot
see all of those encouragements. In fact, part of his loneness,
he said, is the only one left, and they're trying to take away
his life. The Lord tells him there's 7,000. Yes, the Lord knew all of those,
not Elijah. But if Elijah had great expectation
of results, that the whole nation would turn, that they'd get rid
of Jezebel, that they'd deal with it. Well, a little while
later, we find that Ahab can't have Naboth's vineyard, and so
Jezebel arranges that he is slain. There's still corruption. There's
still, even right at the end of Ahab's life, there's still
400 prophets of Baal. They've got others there that
weren't slain and they're still prophesying. And there is one
prophet of the Lord, Micah, and Ahab says, I hate him. He never
speaks good concerning me. You think, was there really that
much revival, reformation, blessing through Elijah's work? Nothing
you'll find in Much of the work of the Lord's people, there is
blessing. There are beautiful types in
this passage, certainly. And the Lord was honoured and
glorified right through all that had happened here. But sometimes
we can have an expectation that things will be a lot, lot better. And it will go on to be a real
big reviving. You think of when the children
of Israel came back from 70 years in bondage in Babylon, and you
think, surely then there's going to be a great reviving. And yet,
we find in Nehemiah's day, the wall's still broken down, and
still many are opposing the work. It was a very gradual, very slow
building up. And so we do need to be careful. We think of Naaman, the Syrian,
what his expectation was that the way that he would be healed
would be in a dramatic way. And it wasn't. So at first he was angry. Those
of you familiar with the account will know what we mean there.
And we can. I think, well, if the Lord is
here, if the Lord is blessing us, if this is of the Lord, then
all of these things will happen, and this will be the end of it. But sometimes like this, really,
this whole account that we've just briefly rehearsed and read
part of, great things were done. The Lord was lifted up. He was
magnified. Even if there wasn't flowing
from that, a real reviving reformation throughout Israel. Elijah then comes to this place,
to Horeb, that is Mount Sinai, some 350 or so miles away that
he had to go, would have been 40 days, nine miles, nine miles
a day he would have had to walk, and comes into a cave, again,
could say a low place, dark place. He comes where the law was given,
the law of God given on Mount Horem, Mount Sinai. And there the Lord has a word
for him there. What was God's aim with Elijah? What was the Lord to do with
Elijah? In bringing him there, he was
going to reveal how many were left in Israel. He was going
to give him a helper in Elisha that would be right with him
until he was taken up into heaven. Oventhorpe had a wonderful kindness. Elijah who was low, despondent,
given, as it were, a best friend, a close friend, one And you read
that last time as they went from city to city until Elijah was
taken up, and there is Elisha with him, with him, all the time. And it's a wonderful provision. And also, his work was not done. There was work for him still
to do. Still those that he had to anoint
and had to give the word to. And also, he was able to see
there was a prospect of a continuing. That when his work was done,
the Lord had raised up another to carry it on, and another to
carry it on. And that can always be a cause
of encouragement to the Lord's servants, the Lord's people,
to see a generation after generation. And so the Lord had an aim In
bringing him to this place, yes, he questions him, what doest
thou hear, Elijah? We may wonder why we're in a
certain place, but the Lord knows why he brings us to places. And here especially, he came
here to hear the word of the Lord. The Lord was to speak to
him. And so the words of our text,
this still, small voice. I want to look then, firstly,
at the voice of the Lord, then secondly, the voice of the Lord
in the Gospel, and thirdly, the voice of the Lord in direction. Firstly, the voice of the Lord,
and there's four things Notice under this first heading. The
first is this, that the focus is on the voice, not on the speaker. The voice, not the speaker. A still small voice. The Lord has so ordained, especially
when we think of this in gospel days, that his word comes and
it comes through his servants, it comes through those that speak
the word of the Lord. The Lord himself is not seen. Now God is the invisible God,
the true God, the eternal God, but he is given to man the word
of the Lord. Later on with Elisha, we mentioned
Naaman, and the message to Naaman was given through Elisha's servant. And the word then comes from
the Lord to Elisha, from Elisha to his servant, from the servant
to Naaman, but it doesn't lose any of its power and any of its
authority. The Lord says that he so receiveth
you, receiveth me, and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that
sent me. If they have, when they receive
the word from the servant, then they're receiving the word of
the Lord, and it doesn't lose anything in its transmission. So the focus is, with the voice
of the Lord, it is focused on the Voice, not the speaker. That is a good sermon, that is
a good hearing time, when they saw no man but Jesus only. When the people go home and say,
not, oh, that was a wonderful speaker and wonderful eloquence
and wonderful sermon, but how lovely the Lord Jesus Christ
was and how he saw his beauty and heard his voice and heard
his direction, heard his guidance. Remember the Lord says, my sheep,
they hear my voice. Not they see me or see some image
or see some apparition or something like that, but it is, no, mine
ear hath he opened. And they hear, they hear voice. And this is the voice of the
Lord. So may we ever be mindful of
that when we hear the word preached, when we are reading the word
of the Lord, that it is on the voice, it is upon the word that
is heard, rather than a person seen, or the speaker and the
means. You know, we could think of Balaam
coming to curse Israel, and the Lord causes him to bless them.
A wicked man blessing Israel. They heard the voice, but they
weren't to say, well, because it was through a wicked man,
we won't receive those blessings. No, it was the voice of the Lord
that was to be focused on, not the actual speaker. The second
thing is this, the voice after. The voice after. In our text, after the earthquake,
a fire, But the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire
a still small voice." There was three things that happened before.
There was the wind, and then the earthquake, and then the
fire. And those things, they happened. The Lord brought that.
The Lord caused that to come. His word was not in them. His
blessing was not in them. The focus was not on them. It
was after. We mentioned what had happened
before, the three and a half years of famine. And after that,
then the altar set up, then that which is sent from heaven, the
fire from heaven, and that they would know that the Lord had
turned their hearts back again. And we should always notice that
which follows after. If we were to look, we won't
turn to it now, but John 6, we read how the Lord fed the thousands,
and then went over the sea. And the day following, there
were those that came after him. And the Lord says to them, you
see me not because you saw the miracle, but because you ate
of the loaves and were filled. labour not for the bread that
perisheth, but that which endureth to eternal life." And in that
day after, we have not the feeding, not the miracle of the feeding
of 5,000, but we read of the spiritual instruction, the manna
from heaven, the Lord giving that long address, except you
eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man and you have
no life in you. And the Lord does prepare the
way for his word. If you and I have things you
might say, I don't know why this has happened. I've had this trouble,
trouble with the car, trouble with the house, trouble with
health. All of these things, they don't seem to work for good. Might even make us feel more
hard and more rebellious. But just think of this. You have
these great dramatic things first, and you say, the Lord is not
in them. And you say, yes, I know that. In my life, the Lord was
not in these things. I received no benefit, no blessing,
no help in them whatsoever. And Elijah didn't, with the wind
or the earthquake or the fire. But there was an after. and after. So do remember that. When we
have trials, when we have those things that come, wait for, judge
nothing before the time and wait for the afterwards. You think
of in Hebrews 12 with chastening, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. The third thing is that here
we have a contrast. It is the voice of contrast. The voice of contrast. You would
think that if you had the great wind, the earthquake and fire,
then there should come this loud and powerful voice. in accordance
with what had happened before, but instead a still small voice. What a contrast, what a difference. You know, if you have a white
piece of paper and you put something white on it, there's not the
contrast, you can't see it clearly. If you put a bit of coal dust
on it, black, then you can see it very clearly. In our lives,
all the time, We need contrast to be able to see something clearly. And so with the truths of God
as well, there's need of a contrast. Our Lord hardly ever told a parable
or teaching whereby he didn't do a contrast. Here is the wheat,
here is the tares, you see them both. is one that is the Lord's people,
is the ones that are not the Lord's people. There's the contrast
between the publican in the temple, God be merciful to me a sinner,
and the Pharisee speaking to the Lord of all what he done.
You have on the cross our Lord in the middle, we have a thief
each side, And what a contrast. One, if thou art the Christ,
save thyself and us, come down from the cross. The other, Lord
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And you have
all the time the two sides. The parable of the five wise,
five foolish virgins. Not told just one is a contrast. One that has oil, one that does
not. Notice that throughout the Word
of God, how the Lord chooses to do that. He'll do that in
our lives. He did that with Elijah here.
And in the after, there is the contrast, something very different. You think of some of the contrasts
we know, to know those times maybe under those things that
we'd been brought into, and we felt so hard, hard soul, can't
pray, angry with the Lord. And then the Lord blesses us
and he softens our heart, melts our heart, shows us our sin. The contrast, the difference,
how we feel and how we view the Lord is so great. Those times
when the heavens are shut up, we do not hear his word, we don't
hearken to him at all. And those times when he opens
the ear and those contrasts are to be marked in our lives. You
think of, in the experience of the Apostle Paul, someone might
say to him, you're mad, rehearsing what you'd see. Well, Festus
did say that when he rehearsed his conversion on the Damascus
Road. But Paul could say, look at the
contrast, what I was before, what I was afterwards. and so this is a voice of contrast
as well. May we think of those times that
we don't hear the word, that the Lord yet is laying up in
store a contrast, that when we come into the house of God we
do hear, and though it is like a still small voice gently distilling
into our songs, May the Holy Spirit bring to our remembrance,
after we've left the house of God, the word that we've heard,
and the contrast in softening our heart. And that is the fourth
thing I bring before you. It is a voice with an effect. The Lord says, my word shall
not return unto me void. It shall accomplish the thing
whereto I sent it. Where the word of a king is,
there is power. And the voice of the Lord, it
has an effect. My sheep, they hear my voice
and what? Just say, well, that's the voice
of the Lord, the voice of the shepherd. No, and they follow
me. When the disciples heard John
speak, behold the Lamb of God, they followed the Lord and the
word of the Lord. will have an effect, even if
it is a still small voice, you might think, was that really
the Lord speaking? Was that really his voice? Years
ago, over in my office in Australia, the Lord spoke to me there, yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. And almost as immediately it
went, And for many years I thought, did the Lord really speak that
to me? Was it from the Lord? Was it
His hand? I never can forget the actual
in the office and the circumstances where it came in. But I had to
wait many years, wait until we came over to this land, wait
until we got our first car, and the car went wrong and I had
to take it down to Hayward's Heath, four hours drive. And
I was working for Australia at the time. It was going to be
a loss of half a day's work. And at first, I fretted, what
a waste of time. And then I thought, no, the Lord
knows this. May I redeem that time. And I
began to pray that I'd be given meditation upon the Lord, his
blessing on that time. And you know, as I drove up past
the common in Hawkhurst, Just four miles from here, the Lord
spoke that word again into my soul. Same word, yay. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with love and kindness have I drawn thee.
And immediately brought back to remembrance the office and
where it had first been spoken. And the Lord impressed upon me. He gave me that word in Australia. He gave me that word here. And
that text, it bridges and being brought from Australia to this
land. But until it was repeated, I
always held it uncertain in doubt whether it was really the Lord's
voice. And sometimes we might have doubt,
but the Lord speaks it again. And maybe not cast away what
the Lord has given us, that we remember Puzzle over, you think
of Mary, she pondered these things in her heart, whether they were
of the Lord or what our Lord had said, what had happened when
Jesus was 12 years of age. She had a way, you know, from
what the shepherds said some 30 years, 33 years, before she
really clearly knew what things had been said. So may there be
things laid up with us. things that we ponder, things
that we think of, words, hearing times that we won't let go, can't
let go, that we ask and say to the Lord, Lord, remember the
word unto thy servant upon which thou hast made me to hope. So the voice of the Lord. But then secondly, the voice
of the Lord in the gospel. One thing we said of the voice
of the Lord was of the contrast. And there's a great contrast
between the law and the gospel. The law by Moses came, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. The great contrast when The scribes,
the Pharisees, brought the woman that was accused of adultery. Moses says, you should be stoned,
but what sayest thou? The great contrast, how it should
be dealt with. I was struck reading of that
which our Lord said in instituting the Lord's Supper, that this
is my blood. my blood of the New Testament. I thought, what a contrast, what
difference. Not the blood of Abel, not the
blood of bulls and of goats, not the blood of all those that
died under the wrath of God, Christ's blood of a New Testament,
a different covenant, very different covenant. So we find in Hebrews
12, where it is said, in verse 18,
for ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched,
that is Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, where Elijah was, that burned
with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and
the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they
that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to
them anymore. What a contrast on that very
mountain You read in Exodus, that voice in the trumpet got
louder and louder and louder, and they couldn't endure that.
And we have that here. For they could not endure that
which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touched the mountain,
it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. So terrible
was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake,
but ye are come unto Mount Zion. known to the city of the living
God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of
angels. And then it comes to this, to
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. This is the voice of the gospel. Law and terrors do but harden,
all the while they work alone. The law says, obey. Obey in every point, disobey
in one point, and you are condemned. Whoso offendeth in one point
is guilty of all. The law was given that the whole
world might come in guilty before God, but the gospel is different. The gospel points to our Lord
Jesus Christ coming as the sinless, spotless one, that one that was
prefigured upon Mount Carmel. We think of our Lord as representing,
or as the altar representing the Lord, the sacrifice representing
the Lord, His humanity, His divinity as it were, His whole being,
and the fire from heaven consuming Him. No, that fire did not fall
upon the Baal worshippers, it didn't fall upon the idolatrous
Israelites, It fell upon the altar, and how clearly it sets
forth. And what did Elijah say? When
they saw that, that the Lord had turned their hearts back
again, I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men
unto me. The Lord, in his work upon the
Calvary, enduring the wrath of God that was due to his people,
it is in that that there is the voice of the gospel. And the
Lord then chooses in this instance here to bring Elijah to where
the law was given. And then he is to hear this still
small voice, not these terrors, not those things that once shook
and convulsed that mountain. Yes, those who figured that,
but then the still small voice. and right the way through the
Scriptures. This is the contrast and this
is the message of the Gospel, the peace-speaking blood of our
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This is what speaks to sinners,
not to condemn, but to give them hope in Christ. It is Christ
that died, yea, rather that is risen again, that sitteth on
the right hand of the throne of God on high. His sacrifice
was a propitiation for sin, a wrath-ending sacrifice. It was a sacrifice
accepted by God, the same as Elijah's was. It was a sacrifice
of which there was the evidence of in the empty tomb, a risen
Saviour. He hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Dear friends,
do we hear the voice of the gospel? You might have read the Old Testament.
You might have read specific chapters or parts of it. You
might have thought, how severe, how terrible, how hard can this
be from God? You know, right at the very beginning,
our first parents sinned. We sinned in them. The condemnation
was there. The sentence of death was there.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No hope
there at all. There's only one name given among
men whereby we must be saved. The Old Testament emphasises
how rigid, how strict, how severe, how much there is condemnation. What a contrast with Romans. Eight, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. What a difference. The Gospel,
it speaks of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Atonement
for sin, a debt that is paid, a redemption that is brought
about to loose a people from their sin and to loose them from
Satan and loose them from the world and to prepare them for
the Lord. The Gospel is good news of salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we are to remember that as
we read the Word of God, like in the passages here and in the
Old Testament that we often preach from, the beautiful types and
the shadows, the gospel in their day, but it also had the severity
of God and the law of God and what we cannot fulfill ourselves
and it is pointing to the Lord. If you and I are to be saved,
it will be through the voice of the gospel. Faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. It shall be through
this means and this way that we are saved. My sheep, they
hear my voice. They hear the voice of the gospel.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest
unto your souls. But then thirdly, the last point
is the voice Direction. Indirection. We have our Lord speaking to
Elijah as to what he should do. And from verse 15, he is told
to go, he is to anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, even nations
that are not of the children of Israel, the Lord had direction
for Elijah in that. Then concerning Jehu, then there
was that concerning Elisha. The Lord had direction for him. This is one of the lesser things
for the people of God. He doesn't leave them without
a guide, without direction in providence and in grace. And it's a blessed thing to be
guided and directed by the Lord. How shall that be? Here it is,
the voice of direction. We know the Lord brings things
together, not only the voice of direction, but also providence,
because Especially in the case of Elisha, we find that he departed
thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat. There will be
a bringing together in providence. If someone, for instance, has
an exercise and believes that the Lord will provide a certain
job for them, They can say all they like that the Lord has told
them they'll have that job, but if that job is not open to them,
then that's a shut door. Where the Lord is in it, he'll
incline their hearts to it, he'll show them it is consistent with
his word, and he'll open the door in providence as well. Those things will flow together,
they'll work together, You see the end result later on when
Jehu was anointed, then he took that up and he fulfilled with
zeal of the Lord, sadly not having the real truth in his own heart,
but the word of the Lord was confirmed. And in the Gospel
day with the disciples, we read, they went forth everywhere preaching
the word, confirming the word with signs following. One thing
just to briefly notice with Elijah and Elisha. Remember when Elisha
accompanied Elijah and he desired that he might have a double portion
of Elijah's spirit. And Elisha said that was a hard
thing that he asked, but if he saw him when he was taken up,
it would be so. Well, Elisha did see him. And I think you'll find that
Elijah worked eight miracles, Elisha 16, double. And we have the parallel when
our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up into heaven, the disciples
saw him taken up into heaven. And our Lord raised the dead. The disciples raised the dead.
The Lord healed the sick. The disciples healed the sick. And they always did it in the
name of the Lord. But the disciples had a success,
you might say, the Lord did not have. That on that day of Pentecost,
3,000 believed. And later on, there was some
5,000 added unto the church. And that blessing of souls, Paul
says in Ephesians, it is the same power that God wrought in
Christ when he raised him from the dead, is to make a believer.
And that power the Lord gave to his disciples. He confirmed
that with signs following. I just mention that as an aside
really, a real parallel between Elijah and Elisha, the Lord Jesus
Christ, his people. And it will be a voice of direction.
Our Lord clearly gave direction to his disciples, tarry at Jerusalem
until you be endued with power from on high. When they persecute
you in one city, go to the next city. Whosoever believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall
be damned. He gave them what to preach,
He gave them what to practice, He gave them where to go, He
gave them how they were to know when they were to move from one
city to the next. He didn't leave them without
direction. And that was through the voice
of the Lord. He's a blessing for us. Not only
we receive the gospel at the voice of the Lord, but we receive
direction and guidance as well. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. I'll guide thee with mine
eye. Or Isaiah 30, verse 21. May we read in thine ears, shall
hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way. Walk ye in it
when ye turn to the right hand, when ye turn to the left. May
we know then the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord,
in the gospel, in the voice of the Lord, in direction. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.