Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to 1 Kings chapter 19 and verse
12, the last part of that verse. A still, small voice. A still, small voice. The whole
verse reads, and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not
in the fire, and after the fire a still small voice. In this account that we have
read of, we find some very striking contrasts. And really, the Lord
right through the Gospel, right through the Word of God, gives
to us many contrasts. We have it here with the answer
on Mount Carmel. Before, where we started reading,
we had the altar of Baal and how the prophets of Baal sought
and sought that there might come fire from heaven and an answer
from their God. But although there was so much
demonstrative, crying and cutting themselves and seeking unto their
God, yet there was no answer, no fire, nothing at all. And then we have where we took
up our reading with Elijah calling the people near, and it is done
so that there can be no question that the fire was kindled miraculously. The water was poured on three
times so that it was without doubt that it could not have
been kindled by a natural fire. And Elijah, there is no great
fanfare or anything, there's just a sober setting up of the
altar, drawing near unto the Lord, and making that one petition
to the Lord. Verse 37, verse 36, he says,
and he comes before the Lord, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and
of Israel, Let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel,
and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things
at Thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou
hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord
fell. And we read how that it consumed
everything, the altar, the burnt sacrifice, the stones, the water,
everything. It must have been a most fearful
sight to behold that fire coming from heaven in that way. Sometimes
we may have seen those pictures that have been taken, or video
that have been taken, where there was one recently, clear blue
sky, no thunderclouds, anything like that, and suddenly this
bolt of lightning comes, strikes the tree, and the tree just splits
in half, just in the middle of an estate. And her most fearful
sight, and to have this come and consume that whole altar
like that, What a contrast between what they had seen for many hours
at a time, the fruitless efforts of those prophets of Baal to
get any answer at all, and yet this answer, so great, so consuming,
and they'd had this contrast here. Then we have the contrast of
Elijah In this he prayed but once, but they still hadn't got
rain. They'd still had three and a
half years of drought. And so then he goes up to, after
they had slain the prophets of Baal down at the brook, he goes
up to the top of the mount again and bids his servant to look
toward the sea while he prays. He said, go up now, look toward
the sea, where the blessing would naturally begin to come. He looked,
he said, there is nothing. He said, go again seven times,
just like one praying seven times. You might think if we've had
an answer very quick for prayer that the next time will be the
same. But with Elijah, that which was so vital that be given had
to be sought for again and again, and looking again and again. Maybe we have that contrast in
our lives now. We might be in the middle of
it, had an answer very quickly, and now we pray and pray and
pray. We wait for the Lord, wonder
whether he will answer the trial of our faith. Dear friend, may
you keep praying and keep looking as well. This servant did. He didn't change the place where
he'd look either. He still kept looking there.
And there's only one place where we can look, and that is looking
unto the Lord. And looking unto Him is able
to bring the blessing down and to answer our poor petitions. But what a contrast then, even
in prayer, from one prayer to another prayer. But then we have
another contrast, with Elijah here before wicked Ahab, before
all the prophets of Baal, through before all the children of Israel.
And he is strong and he is bold and he praying unto the Lord
and he's giving directions. And then we have in the next
chapter, Jezebel sends a messenger. One messenger, one word from
Jezebel. So let the gods do to me and
more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them. That's
one of the prophets of Baal that they slew by tomorrow about this
time. And immediately Elijah, he seems
to have lost all of his strength. He flees, went for his life,
we read here. When he saw that he arose, went
for his life. A day's journey into the wilderness
and there he lies under a tree and says he's no better than
his father's, wishes that he might die, requests that he might
die. You think, how come one of the
Lord's dear servants, one that was so greatly used and this
fiery prophet that has stood so boldly before Ahab, How could this change happen?
Is this the same man? We're told in the epistle of
James that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. and how that he prayed, and we
haven't read this part, that it might not rain for the space
of three years, six months. Then he prayed again and the
rain came. But here we see him as a man
subject to like passions as we. We find him just as fearful,
just as soon cast down, discouraged, Now we might find it through
a phone call, through a letter, through someone speaking to us,
things what people do, and so suddenly come from a height of
strength to cast right down really low. And here is this place with
Elijah. What a contrast. Do we have contrasts
like that in our lives, in our feelings? Do we reason with ourselves
in a way? How can we be like this? One
moment and another, and Satan will say, well, there you are.
You're not really helped by the Lord. You're not one of the Lord's
people. How could you be changeable like that? They that have no
changes fear not God. Dear Elijah didn't stand in his
own strength. He stood in the Lord's. Paul as well. He says, I laboured
more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God
that was with me. The strongest man, as it were,
without the Lord's upholding and strength and help, will wilt,
will fear, will flee when no man pursueth. The Lord often
did that with Israel as a nation. There were those times He was
with them, then with a few, Hundred, as in Gideon's time, chased away
and destroyed the whole of the Midianites army. But then there
were times when the Lord said he would forsake his people because
of their sin and iniquity. And the enemy but then had a
few hundred and they chased them and they destroyed their many
thousands of Israel. What a difference it makes. whether
the Lord is with us, whether we have his strength, his power,
his might, and God's people will have to remember, and they learn
by experience, that he's not in me. They can be strong like
Samson, and he can go and he can slay a thousand men with
the jawbone of an ass. And he said, with the jawbone
of an ass, a thousand men have I slain. He casts away the jawbone,
no need of that anymore. But then he thirsts. And he cries
to the Lord, he said, Thou hast given me this great victory,
and now shall I die of thirst. And the Lord cleaves the hollow
in the jawbone of the ass, and there he has water and is sustained. Even Samson knew that contrast
in a very short space of time, great strength, great weakness,
great conquest, and then as if ready to die. And we find that
here in this account. And yet the Lord then came, or
the angel came and strengthened Elijah, touched him, raised him
up, gave him the cake that was there baked on the cold, a cruise
of water is his head. He did eat and drink, lay him
down again. Then the angel of the Lord came
again the second time, touched him. Rise and eat, because the
journey is too great for thee. What a contrast. He goes from
now, so weak, so dejected, he goes on a 40 days, right into
Horeb, the Mount of God, Mount Sinai, where the law of God was
given. And so we have a contrast again. between his weakness and then
strengthened and what he was able to do with the strength
the Lord gave. And then we have the contrast
in our text. The Lord appears to Elijah in
the cave and he asked him, he said, what doest thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very
jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy
prophets with the sword. And I, even I, only am left,
and they seek my life to take it away. The Lord then said to
him, go forth, stand upon the mount before the Lord. And then
we have this contrast. Behold, the Lord passed by, No
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 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 and it was then when Elijah heard that, he wraps his face
in his mantle, he goes out, stands at the entrance of the cave. Those great signs, those fearful
rending of the mountains, the fearfulness of the wind and then
of the earthquake and then of the fire, All of those things
and then suddenly a stillness and a still small voice. What
a contrast that is here. I remind you again where Elijah
is. Elijah is where 590 years before
the Lord had appeared on this Mount Horeb to Moses and had
given the law of God. That whole mountain had quaked. The sound of the trumpet, it
sounded long. It thundered, the sight was so
fearful that even Moses said, I do fear and quake. We read
of this in Hebrews chapter 12. We are not come. unto the mount
that might be touched, 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 any more. That's not a still
small voice, is it? They could not endure that which
was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch 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.
That's the one contrast. That's like that which was passing
by, the wind, the earthquake, the fire. But ye are come unto
Mount Sinai, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, to innumerable company of angels, the general assembly,
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirit of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
the new covenant, the gospel. And so what we have here with
Elijah is a contrast between the law and the gospel. Between that which had no softening
effect whatsoever with Elijah but filled him with fear and
drove him back into the cave. And then we have the gospel that
brings him out of the cave and to listen to this still small
voice. a still, small voice. So I want to look with the Lord's
help this evening, firstly, at before the still, small voice,
and secondly, the still, small voice, and lastly, the message
of the voice. And I want to look at it in a
gospel way, in a way that mirrors the experience of the people
of God. I trust and believe it mirrors
mine as well, and many of the Lord's people. With the hymn
that we have sung as well, we had the lines of that hymn by
Joseph Hart. The rocks can rend, the earth
can quake, the seas can roar, the mountains shine. Feeling
all things show some sign but this unfeeling heart of mine. And he goes on, thy judgments
too unmoved I hear. Amazing thought which devils
fear. Goodness and wrath in vain combine
to stir this stupid heart of mine. A realizing of how unmovable
The heart is, we had this morning the M76 judgments, nor mercies
ne'er can sway the roving heart to wisdom's way. And so we had
before the still small voice, before that which bent and softened
Elijah, there were those things that went before. We are told
very clearly that it is the Lord passing by. It is not something
that the Lord has nothing to do with at all. He is passing
by. But it's said He is not in them. He is not in them to bless. It is not the end of the Lord,
it is not the purpose of the Lord to bless in that way and
in that manner. Maybe another illustration would
be when the children of Israel were to come out of Egypt, and
the Lord then gave not three things as here, but nine great
wonders in Egypt. Now the Lord never intended that
any one of those nine should have the effect that Pharaoh
should let the people doing those things, he brought them to pass,
but he was not in them to deliver the children of Israel. He said,
I have hardened Pharaoh's heart, he will not let the people of
Israel go. He said, for this purpose have
I raised thee up to show forth my power and might in thee. And Pharaoh, he hardens himself
again and again and again, and yet he doesn't prevail against
the Lord. The Lord adds one burden, one
trial after another until his advisors, they say to Pharaoh,
knowest thou not that the land of Israel is destroyed? And it may be that you're walking
in a similar path like this, and you have the Lord bringing
things into your life, things that are happening, things that
you think, surely I should bow before this, surely I should
tremble, surely it should make me serious about eternity, surely
it should make me to pray and to seek the Lord and to earnestly
bow before Him. And it might for a moment or
two, but then soon wears off, and the heart seems as hard as
it ever was. And you think, what will be needed?
Something else comes, and that doesn't have any effect either.
And you think, what will happen? And your mind is going the way,
and you're thinking, well, the Lord is going to continue on
in this manner and in this way, and it's going to get worse and
worse, And what hope is there for me? Because all I see in
my own heart is hardness and hardness and distance and refusing
to bow. However many times the Lord does
this, it won't be any different. It's still going to be the same.
It's still going to be the same result. You think of another example.
When the Lord would deliver Israel in the time that the Philistines
challenged Israel with Goliath and Goliath came out, not one
day, but 40 days. 40 is a sign of a trial of testing. The 40 years in the wilderness,
40 days the rain upon the earth, 40 days up in the mount twice
with Moses and our Lord in the Wilderness to be tempted of the
devil and here Elijah, 40 days journey as well to Horeb. And
40 days, Goliath comes, where is
the challenge? Where is one? King Saul, are
you able to come out to destroy me? If you can find one to fight,
he doesn't need everyone to fight. If your champion can overcome
me, then we will be your servants. But if Goliath prevails, then
you will be our servants. And for 40 days they had to realize
there was not one in all the warriors of Israel that was able
to go against Goliath. Did it mean that that was going
to continue to go on and on? And the Lord had no provision,
no hope for Israel, no way of escape, no. God sends, through
Jesse sending David, one that shall deliver. And he laid the
foundation of that with David, realising, knowing the power
of the Lord in saving him from the poor of the bear and the
poor of the lion before. And he says, that same God will
deliver me out of Goliath's hand. And so those 40 days, the Lord
was in it. The Lord's work was there, but
he wasn't in it to bless, he wasn't in it to bring a deliverance,
it was to test, it was to show there is no help but in David's
great antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, and with the children
of Israel in Egypt, it was that there is no help in any other
sign and wonder and great thing, except the blood was shed. It
must come to the Passover. It must come to the offering
of the lamb, the Paschal lamb. It must come to sheltering beneath
the blood, a slaying of the firstborn. And then there is a deliverance.
And then there is immediate deliverance. They went out from Egypt with
a high hand. Delivered not in a weak way,
but in a very strong way. And so we have here that which
is going before the still small voice. And it is things that
are very remarkable. They're things that are very
much to be noticed. They're fearful things. And you
might be having that in your life as well. Things that you
hear of, things that you see, Things that you think surely
they should have an effect with me, and all it seems to do is
harden you more, and you seem to be further off from the Lord
than ever you were at the beginning. Law and terrors do but harden,
says the hymn writer, all the while I work alone, but a sense
of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves a heart of stone. And there was
this then that was going before. And there is that which the Apostle
Paul says goes before the gospel as well. He says, I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. And that which was ordained unto
life, the commandment was, or the work of God was ordained
unto life, I found to be unto death. Because the commandment
came and it slew me. It took away my hope. It took
away my expectation of deliverance from that way. Now by nature,
we do expect that we can fulfil the law. We expect that we will,
if given enough warning and given enough things happen in our lives,
we will turn over a new leaf. We will change. We will be different
people. Give us time. Give us time. Give
us some opportunity and we will do this. But the Lord will prove
to us and show to us that however much time we had, all we do is
to sin more and more, and more and more, far off than ever we
were before. The law says the apostle was
our schoolmaster unto Christ. It was to teach us that in ourselves,
that is, in our flesh dwelleth no good thing, that salvation
does not come from the law, that by the deeds of the law shall
no man living be justified. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. The law can only condemn, can
only bring in guilty, and it can only show us what we cannot
do. You have in Romans 8, that beautiful
chapter, that what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The law is
not weak in itself, it's holy, it's just, it's upright, it's
good, and the Lord Jesus Christ He magnified the law. He made
it honorable. He showed it could be observed. It could be completely fulfilled. You could live a spotless, pure,
holy, perfect life, not fallen man, but sinless, spotless man,
man as he was created. The law is good and holy, and
the Lord magnified that. But for us, we are to prove that
our first parents broke the law, we are under the sentence of
death, and we cannot now go back and seek life under the law. There was the angel that was
to the cherubims to keep the way of the tree of life, and
man was banished from the garden. There's no way back that way,
but there is a way. through our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. And I say then, if you're walking
this path, may you see this evening the preparation work of the Lord. You may have come despondent,
discouraged, disheartened, feeling there is no hope for you, feeling
that you're completely out of the secret, that whatever the
Lord does, it does not move your heart, is not effectual, and
you just wonder where the scene will end. You wonder what will
the Lord have to do to ever bend your heart, and your mind is
going along these same lines. If it is going to be that the
Lord was ready in effect, as rent the mountains with a strong
wind, Or has he brought an earthquake and the fire? What will be the
next thing? And your mind is thinking, whatever
will come next? Is he going to deal with someone
in my family? Is he going to deal with me like
Job? Is he going to cut me off? What is going to happen next? Well, there was a really big
contrast here then for Elijah. that after these things, instead
of something more and something greater, there is a still small
voice. Where the Lord intends to bring
the gospel, then he'll prepare the way in this way. Where he's
going to open a man's eyes. That man had been born blind
and he was then of age. All that time, never had that
been known that happened before. The woman had the issue of blood
12 years, and it's as he heals her after she looked for physicians
in vain for all that time. Just one touch and she's made
whole. In the meanwhile, Jairus with
his 12-year-old daughter She's now died. Is there no hope then
for her? But the Lord comes and raises
her up. One had been afflicted with the
issue of blood 12 years, the other had lived 12 years, but
now had died. But nothing was too hard for
the Lord. How often in Psalm 107, they
fell down, there was none to help. Then they cried unto the
Lord and he saved them out of their distresses. Take courage and be encouraged. If the Lord is dealing with you
in this way, don't look for deliverance in that way. And where the Lord is teaching
you the desperate wickedness of your heart, the helplessness
of your spirit, the inability to bow and humble before Him
and to change. And these things that have happened
have highlighted more than ever, even before they began, how far
off, how hardened, how unmovable your heart is. Then may you be
encouraged to look outside of self, and to what is set forth
here with the still, small voice. And after the fire, a still,
small voice. I want to look at this in the
second place. The character, really, of the
gospel is very, very different than the law. is illustrated
when our Lord was on earth and the scribes, the Pharisees, they
brought a woman that was taken in adultery in the very act.
And they said to him, the Moses in the law commanded that such
should be stoned, but what sayest thou? Does the Lord have a different
standard than the law? Is he against the law? Is he
teaching contrary to Moses? They thought in his day he was. But the way the Lord dealt with
it was to convince all the accusers that they also were as guilty
as her. If they were going to apply the
law of Moses to her, then they needed to apply it to themselves
as well. And after he had then said, he
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her. And he began then to writing
on the ground, They all went out, one by one, from the eldest
to the youngest. He lifts up his head, he says,
Woman, hath no man condemned thee? No man, Lord. Neither do
I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. The effect of the gospel, pardon,
forgiveness, and also to turn away from those sins, real repentance,
The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to give repentance and remission
of sins unto Israel. We have in John 1, if we confess
our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blessing of the Gospel lays
the wrath upon the Lord. One of the words that was so
blessed to me, and I think it's one of the first verses, if not
the first verse, I ever preach from in Psalm 80. Let thy hand be upon the man
at thy right hand, the Son of Man, whom thou madest strong
for thyself. And the picture of the Lord's
hand in judgment, in wrath, raised up, and the boldness of the psalmist,
to say, let thy hand not be on me, but on him. Let thy hand
be upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast made him strong for
thyself. Let him bear my punishment. Let him stand in my place. What
a bold plea to make. And yet that is the gospel, that
is God's provision, that is God's will, that the Lord Jesus Christ,
for an innumerable multitude, should bear their sins in his
own body on the tree, that he should bear the wrath of God
in their place, and that he should then bless them with that sweet,
blessed word of forgiveness. that their sins which are many
are blotted out, that they are pardoned and that they are forgiven,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, which they
have done, but that which the Lord has done, that which he
has accomplished. And the message of the gospel
is telling what is already done, what is finished, what is accomplished. Now the poor sinner is looking
for something to do. That is what the law says, do,
do, do. The gospel says, no done, there
in the Lord Jesus Christ, there at Calvary, finished, it is finished. What did the Lord mean there?
It is finished. He yielded up his spirit unto
the Lord into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Gave up the ghost. Do you know the Lord God the
Father accepted that sacrifice and he raised him from the dead,
an empty tomb. This is the gospel and it is
a great contrast between the law and the message of the gospel
is a message that comes and it comes with life and peace, and
it comes with authority and power. It does not come like the law,
but it comes gently. But what an effect with Elijah
here. He wrapped his face in his mantle,
went out and stood in the entering of the cave. The Lord opens the
ears of his people, stills the storm, the tumult, the troubles. Then they hear his voice. My
sheep, they hear my voice. Sometimes we're so filled with
clamour, trying to do our own works. The Apostle Paul says
that in Romans 10, that they had a zeal of God, but ignorant
of God's righteousness, going about to establish their own.
And all the while they were doing that, they couldn't hear the
gospel. You think of when the children
of Israel were in Egypt and all those signs and wonders were
being done. And Pharaoh was making their
tasks harder and their burdens greater. Moses was trying to
tell them, the Lord is working, he will deliver you, he'll bring
you out. But they were so much in grief that they would not
hear. They couldn't hear those good tidings at all. The Lord knows how to bring about
a quiet, and then to hear his voice, a still, small voice. If he give quietness, who then
can make trouble? Mine ear hath he opened, and
opened to hear the gospel. Now when the Lord was first dealing
with me, wherever I read in the Word of God, in the Gospels or
New Testament or Old Testament, everywhere condemned me. Wherever
I read, it brought me in as a guilty sinner. But the time came that
the Lord then in effect closed that, opened my eyes to the Gospel,
opened my ears to the Gospel, and all I read, Old Testament
and in you, there was hope for a sinner. There's hope in Christ,
and I saw him, and I saw him in the times, in the shadows,
and saw him in the gospels. And how good news that was, how
precious, how lovely that was. And when it is seen, it is accompanied
with power, it's accompanied with a sweetness and savour,
that has a real softening effect, a drawing effect, that which
gives a love to the Lord Jesus Christ, that which brings sorrow
in realizing what he endured, what he went through because
of my sin and what I did. If we know the gospel, we will
know a contrast, we'll know a difference. the peace-speaking blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the message of salvation through the Lamb
of God. You think of the type that our
Lord refers to in John 3, that as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
What happened there in the wilderness? They're all bitten by these serpents,
they were dying all around. Moses was commanded to lift up
a brazen serpent. What did they have to do? Just
look. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.
And that was effectual because the Lord had commanded it so.
Many years later, in Hezekiah's day, they were making that a
matter of idolatry. And you know, he ground it to
powder, he called it an ahustan, a piece of brass, that's all
it was. But in that time, it was raised
up as a type, the command was given to it, and it was a factual,
but it was a time, they had to look past, and those that lived,
they lived because they looked past the time to Christ being
lifted up. And so in the gospel, the Lord
clearly identifies it, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but should have eternal life. The still small voice of the
gospel. We don't look for great things. You might think, well, I want
to be saved with a nice way as a great demonstration of wind
or earthquakes or fires and then I'll know I'm saved. No. The Lord speaks salvation, peace
and blessing into your soul and that will do it. That will do
it. And you know you might explain
that or try to explain it. To those who haven't known it
and you think, what a poor experience that is. If I had to write it
down or tell, I'd be almost ashamed of it. I hear of others being
able to give a good experience, but how can I describe this? But you know, if you describe
that softening and warmth of grace and the humbling and what
views you've had of the Lord, those that have known that They're
not relying on what you're telling them. What you're telling them
is like a key. And they interpret that from
what they have experienced. They recognize you have experienced
what I've experienced. You felt that. And that knits
the heart of the people of God together. We read, the secret
of the Lord is with them that fear him. And to them, will he
reveal his covenant. It is a secret and it is a blessing
of the Lord that maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow within.
I want to look then briefly last at the message, the word that
was brought here to Elijah. Because when the still small
voice came and was when Elijah heard it and
the effect he comes to the cave. The Lord has the same message,
the same word that was before, a question, what doest thou hear
Elijah? And he brings out the same response,
all that he's gone through, all that has happened. You might
say Elijah is still low for the same reasons. As if all that
has happened, it hasn't had any effect on Israel, and he's the
only one left, and there's none other. He's a prophet of the
Lord, but his work has been ineffectual. Nothing will proceed from here.
But no, the Lord says, no, I'm going to tell you what is going
to happen and give you a message for those nations round about
to Syria, and they're going to be my messenger to deal with
Israel. And Jehu, he's going to be the
king over Israel and he will deal with it. And then there
shall be one that shall replace you. And in a way, from this
time forth, the Lord gave Elisha to walk with Elijah to the end
of his days. Elijah had a very different temperament
to Elijah and so suited to balance him, to be with him, to be a
helper to him and to minister to him. And we read that Elisha,
he was given that double portion of Elijah's spirit, twice as
many miracles did Elisha do. But what a word at the end there.
Yet I have left me 7,000 in Israel. We might think of these times,
you know, get very low. You think, what is the Church
of God doing? It's pulling itself to pieces,
fractured, getting low. Where are the Lord's people?
There don't seem to be any left. We might be despised. And yet the Lord knows where
his are. The kingdom of God stand us sure
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. If Elijah
didn't know of 7,000 in Israel, it wouldn't be surprising if
he were to say, well, in England, there's a lot, lot more than
that that we don't know of. We only know just a few of the
Lord's people scattered right through these aisles. There's
some 21,000 non-conformist places of worship in England. You know,
if there was only one person in each one of those little chapels,
that's 21,000 people in England if they were the true people
of God. And the Lord said here, there's
7,000 for Elijah. We have the same God as Elijah. And the same message for his
people is, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of
the world. And that's not come yet. What reason there is to be encouraged
in the Lord, to wait upon the Lord and to look unto him The
Lord knew exactly what Elijah needed and he gave it to him
and he gave it to us as a illustration right there on Mount Sinai of
the blessed message of the gospel and the hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord's kingdom will come,
his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May the Lord
add his blessing.