Elijah came to this cave after
40 days and 40 nights of traveling. And he had not had any food.
He had gone on the strength of the food that was brought him
by the angel of the Lord. And after those 40 days and nights,
he came to this cave and lodged there. And hence the question, Elijah,
what are you doing here? The Lord never told him go to
Horeb and live in a cave. But there he was, and when the Lord asks him, what
doest thou hear, Elijah, look at verse 10 again, and he said,
I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the
children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine
altars and slain thy prophets with sword, and I, even I only,
am left, and they seek my life to take it away. Elijah's in
a bad place, and you and I have been in a bad place more than
once, many times in our lives. He's physically exhausted, no
food for 40 days. He traveled all that time. And by what Elijah said in verse
10, we know what his state of mind was while he was traveling.
What a rare and instructive insight the spirit of God gives us here
into Elijah's state of mind. And when we see what he said,
the words of the angel that he spoke to, Elijah earlier echoes
in our minds, the journey is too great for you. We journey through this life,
the Lord having accepted the sacrifice. Remember what Elijah had experienced
before this and shown himself to us to be God. He's revealed
himself that he is God and he consumed the sacrifice in our
place. And yet, we're so weak, we're
so easily discouraged, we're so prone to think the worst,
even though it's not true, and ready to quit most of the time.
Why is that? Because the journey is too great
for you. And the sooner you realize that,
the better. The Lord has not given us business
that we can conduct successfully, not in this flesh. Elijah had gotten as far as he
had on what strength. He was ready to quit back 40
days ago, was he not? He asked politely that the Lord
might take his life. Let's just end it. But he went on what strength?
What did the Lord do that got him up and going? He spoke to
him and he fed him. Same for us. Same for us. The journey's too great for us.
You know what we need? We need for the Lord to speak
to us and to feed us. We need to hear from God, we
need to be fed upon the bread of life because the journey's
too great for us. What about the world, how do
they get by? How does the people that don't even have a care for
God, what sustains them? They're not even on the journey.
They're not even on it, they're not headed where we're headed. Had Jezebel and Ahab repented
when God answered by fire, that Ahab was there when it happened.
Had Jezebel and Ahab repented and built a nice home for Elijah
and reinstated him as prophet over Israel, not that it was
in their power to unstate or reinstate Elijah, that was God's
business and always is. But if they had done that and
made sure he had everything he needed and wanted, but had Elijah
been the kind of person to even allow that, to indulge his flesh,
then he would not be in the state of mind he was in in our text.
He wouldn't have been wanting to die. He wouldn't have been saying,
this has all been a failure. Israel's a total loss. And it's the same spiritually. We have the flesh to contend
with. If you're in this world and you
don't know from right side up or upside down, and you're going through this
world and you got a good job and everything's going fine,
you're gonna have hardships and things like that, but you're
pretty happy overall. A believer has a lot to contend
with. The journey's too great for us.
We have the flesh to contend with constantly. Fighting yourself
every day can be a little discouraging, can it not? You see where Elijah
is? When you're your own worst enemy
and you know it, that's exhausting. When you desire to honor the
Lord as Paul did, but like him, how to perform that, you don't
see within you, you don't find the capacity within yourself
to do that, that which is most important to you. As a believer,
we want to honor the Lord. When you're an utter failure
at what you desire most to do in this life, that can be crushing. In fact, it's too great for us. What's the answer? How are we gonna get on? How
are we gonna, where are we gonna find the stream?
God's gonna speak to us and he's gonna feed us. He's gonna, when
I say feed us, you know what that means in spiritual terms.
Christ is the bread of life. and we are sustained by his strength,
by his power, by his love. Love can go a long way on a journey,
can't it? And when it's the love of God,
you're gonna get there, aren't you? Not on your own. to hear from God and to be fed
with manna from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we are
able to make this journey. To be fed by Christ with Christ
is to know that the journey is too great for you, but there
is a yoke. There's a yoke. There's the yoke
of faith unites us to Christ and being yoked to him, The journey's
easy. He said, my burden is easy. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. What was Elijah's problem in
our text? He had too many eyes. And that brief answer in verse
10, he said, I three times and my once. And all the other words were
about him too. He spake of the children of Israel
and what they were doing, but he was saying it with regard
to how that affected him. So it was all about him. That's what he was complaining
about. My, me, mine. And whenever somebody, whenever
a believer gets in a bad place, gets discouraged, gets broken,
gets down, what's the problem? Where are you looking? Who are
you looking at? I, me, mine. That's the problem. And when you're looking to self,
everything's gonna be about self. We're selfish. Let's just be real about that
too tonight. We're selfish. Look what I've done for you,
Lord. Look how jealous for you I am.
Everybody else has denied you, but not me. Does that sound familiar? That rings a bell. But the new man is not selfish. And that's the journey. You're carrying that old man
with you and we don't, we speak of him that way because Paul
did. It's not me, it's the flesh. Well, it's the flesh me. There is a journey for the believer. Given by the Lord. And the flesh fights us every
step of the way and the journey is too great for us, but I can
do all things through Christ. which strengthens me." Listen
to a different perspective. Here's Elijah. I'm jealous for
you, Lord. I've done everything I can, getting
no cooperation from anybody. I'm fighting, but it's over. Nobody is with me. I'm all by
myself. Listen to a different perspective
in Judges 13.22. Turn over there with me if you
would. Judges 13.22. There's another man that had
a very negative take on the Lord appearing to him and speaking
to him. It sounds like he had a good
wife. which is very, very vital. Judge
1322, Judges, and Manoah said unto his wife, we shall surely
die because we've seen God. There they are rejoicing. Surely
the Lord had, he hadn't come to them in wrath and harsh language
and he showed them some glorious things, some wonderful things.
And there's Manoah, he's like me, you see. It's always bad,
it doesn't matter how good it is. There's something bad about
it. He's gonna kill us now because we've seen God, we can't live,
there's no way, it's not gonna work out. But his wife said unto
him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have
received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands.
Would God have answered by fire if Israel was a lost cause? You
reckon he would have done that in front of the children of Israel
and in front of Ahab and by Moses, by the means of Moses' instrumental
part in that? He accepted the offering. That's
a good thing. It's not time to hang your head
and think about how bad everything is when God answers by fire and
shows himself to be God and shows that Christ, shows that there's
an acceptable offering for sin that God will accept on behalf
of a sinner. Neither would he have showed
us all these things. Nor would, as at this time, have
told us such things as these. Do you see anything in God's
dealings with Elijah? Yeah, he had a tough journey. And there was somebody trying
to kill him, that's not pleasant. But do you see anything with
God's dealings with Elijah that says, this is all a waste of
time? Israel's a lost cause, let's
end it and take our losses. Much different circumstances
in Manoah's case, no question about that, but could not Elijah
have reasoned similarly? If the nation of Israel was a
total loss, God would not have answered with fire. Would he
have brought them this far? Look at the history of the children
of Israel. He brought them through the desert.
He released them from the bondage of Egypt. He gave them a king
after his own heart. Were there not promises from
God to Israel that Elijah had apparently forgotten? Or maybe,
knowing ourselves, maybe the evidence of his own eyes and
heart were greater in Elijah's estimation than what God had
promised. I know what God said, but look
at what's happening to me. I know everything's working for
my good, but no, everything's working for your good. There's
no but to that. I know the Lord doeth all things
well, but some bad things are happening to me. No, they're
not. No, they're not. Now we're not saying could Elijah
have reacted differently because we would have. We're not criticizing
Elijah's selfishness because we're not selfish. But can we
learn, by God's grace, can we learn from Elijah and Manoah's
wife? Because we don't want to be selfish.
By his grace, we don't want to be. We want to honor the Lord. Lord, increase our faith. Lord,
never let us take our eyes off of you. Never let it be I, me,
mine. God forbid. Verse 11 in our text,
and the Lord said, go forth and stand upon the mount before the
Lord. Go forth. He's in this cave now.
And the Lord's saying, go forth out of this cave, stand before
me on the mount of 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.
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 so when Elijah
heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out.
He ain't gone out of the cave till now. Now the Lord spoke
to him in a still small voice. When God comes in a tornado,
are you gonna stand before him on the mountain? But now Elijah,
The Lord has spoken tenderly to him and quietly and softly. And here comes Elijah steps out
of that cave. He wrapped his face in his mantle.
He realizes who he's dealing with now. And went out and stood in the
entering into the cave and behold, there came a voice unto him and
said, what are you doing here, Elijah? Same question. Now the Lord's
answer to Elijah's selfish, self-pitying complaint is go forth and stand
before me. Elijah needed to realize who
he's dealing with. What are you doing here is not
a question from God that you answer with, oh poor pitiful
me. That's a question you answer
with something like, Lord, what would you have me do? Again,
we're not picking on Elijah. We're just seeing what we are
and how gracious the Lord is. The Lord repeats himself. Did
you know that? Not in the way of a parent that
says, now you do what I say or there's gonna be a problem and
then they do it, not what you said. And there's not a problem. There's you just saying that
again. That's not what I mean. I mean, he's gracious to tell
us over and over. He just says one thing in this
book. Do you know that? Just one thing. How many times
has he said it? How many times has he tenderly
and quietly and softly spoken to our hearts concerning his
precious son? Go forth and stand, he didn't
say, I like this, he didn't say come forth, he said go forth. The Lord Jesus Christ was in
that cave with Elijah. just as sure as I'm standing
here. Go forth and stand before me. And before Elijah could go forth
out of the cave, the Lord brought a great storm. Can you imagine
the mountain being rent by wind? That's a great tornado is what
it is. The rocks themselves were breaking into pieces because
of the wind, it says. I could see the earthquake doing
that, but the wind? Now the Lord sent the wind, but
he wasn't in the wind for Elijah. Aren't you glad the Lord doesn't
come to us that way? in raw, overwhelming, destructive
power. If he did, who's gonna stand
before him? But he commands that you stand
before him. You're gonna have to stand before
God. You can hide in this life for a while, as long as he allows
it. But you're gonna have to stand before God someday. And
I am too. But you're not gonna stand before
him when he comes like that. You're done, you're a goner.
And so where are you safe? In the cleft of the rock, that's
where. That's the only place. That's
the only place. The only way Elijah survives
that wind at all is by hiding in the cleft of the rock. And God sends an earthquake.
He sent that earthquake now. He was in it in the sense that
he brought it It accomplished what he brought it to do. It wasn't mother nature. But the Lord is not in the earthquake.
Where is the Lord? He's with Elijah in the cleft
of the rock. He is the cleft of the rock.
Only in Christ can we survive the power and wrath of God. God demands that we stand forth
in his presence. We are accountable to him and
we will stand before him, but he shows us that we can't stand
before him. We have no ground upon which
to stand before God. We've got to hide in the cleft
of the rock as Moses was hidden there and God covered him there
with his hand. Some say it was that same cave
where Moses was when the Lord covered him with his hand. The
Lord passed by. It says he passed by Elijah here,
just like it says that in Moses' case. God sends fire, but he's
not in the fire. He doesn't come to us as a consuming
fire. If he does, who can stand? Where
is our hope if he does? Our only hope is that like with
the ark, The storm beats upon him who is our stronghold, and
we're safe. The earthquake shakes the rock,
and the fire of God's wrath is poured out upon him, but we're
hiding in him, and we're safe. And then the Lord speaks to us
in a still, small voice. He comes gently and quietly to
us and speaks peace to our hearts. The storm is gone now. The earthquake
has calmed. The fire is quenched. And we
rest in God's word concerning his son. He speaks to us with compassion
and with condescension. And look where Elijah is when
the voice comes, he's in the rock. He's in the rock, but when
Elijah hears what God says, and there's a peace and a calm and
rest in his soul now, he's not afraid now because God has come
and spoken so that Elijah could hear and not cower, so that he
could be comforted and not afraid. And Elijah's able to stand in
the presence of God on the basis of mercy, on the basis of God
coming where we are and speaking to our hearts, peace in the blood
of his son. And we, because the Lord Jesus
Christ commands the winds and the seas, because when he shed
his precious blood on Calvary, there was a great earthquake,
but not since. Not since. Not like that. Because the fire of God's wrath
was poured out on the Savior, but instead of the fire consuming
the sacrifice, the sacrifice consumed the fire. Because of
Christ and Him crucified, we can stand in the presence of
God on His mountain. Who shall stand on His holy hill?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. As all of the Bible
says, those who are in Christ, that's it. That's who has clean
hands and a pure heart because God looks at the hands of our
Savior, not ours. He looks at the heart of His
Son and not mine. and he's well pleased for me. Now unto him who is able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. The only way you're gonna come
forth and stand before the Lord in the mountain is if you're
faultless. And that happens by the Lord
speaking to you in a still, small voice. It's not the volume of it. It's not the fancy words. It's
not the enticing words. It's who's speaking and what
he has to say to a sinner like you. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever,
amen. The Lord repeats the question
now, and though Elijah says the same thing, this is just me talking
now, and I'll tell you that every time it's just me. You know when
it is, because you know, you know the gospel, and this is,
Not vitally relevant to the text, but I've got a feeling. Let's
see if you think this. That though Elijah said the same
thing, I think it was with a little different attitude. Because what
he said was true. It was true, except he underestimated the grace and the power of God who had
reserved 7,000 who had not bowed their knee
to Baal nor kissed his mouth. He said, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts. I'd give him that by God's grace. He had stood there on that day
and said, your God must be on vacation. Mine's not, mine's
not. because the children of Israel
have forsaken thy covenant. And they had, generally speaking, thrown down thine altars and
slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left."
He believed that. By all appearances, it looked
that way. And they seek my life to take
it away. That's true too. The only thing he was wrong about,
he underestimated. Is that us? His grace is so amazing that when we think it's over,
when we think there's no way, he speaks in grace and power. And he reveals to us that everything
is exactly as it pleases him who doeth all things well. It's
exactly. God's speaking to us and making
us able to stand in Christ before him does not make us supermen
now. It doesn't make it so that the
journey is no longer too great for us. It still is. We need the Lord
Jesus Christ as much right now as we did the day we met him. And Elijah did too. We still get confused. We're
still wrong a lot. We still need to hear from God,
that's what we need. and we need to feed upon our
Savior. Mean indeed. Except you do so, there's no
life in you. That word by which we're saved is that word by which
we are sustained. The scriptures made me wise unto
salvation when God gave me faith to believe that Christ is my
righteousness and my sin offering. And now on the journey, the manna
for my soul which makes me able to go 40 days and 40 nights on
the strength of that bread is that Christ is all of my righteousness.
And he's my sin offer. The same bread, the same bread
from heaven. So what does the Lord do? He's
dealing with Elijah now. What does he do? The Lord said
unto him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus,
And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. You know, God didn't just appoint
the king over Israel, including Ahab. He appoints every king. He appoints all authority, all
authorities of God. Everything is of God. And Jehu,
the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel,
Think about that. You know how Ahab and Jezebel
are. You know the power that they
wield in Israel now. God just says, go anoint somebody
else to be king. How would you like to be on that,
have that task to perform? Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt
thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Lashi, the son of Shaphat
of Abel-Meola, Shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room, and
it shall come to pass that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael,
and he's talking among the children of Israel, there's gonna be a
reckoning. And I didn't mention this, but
you saw it, that in Elijah's words, and it says where Paul
quotes this passage of scripture, The way Paul characterizes this
is that Elijah spoke against the children of Israel. And that's
inherent in his words is that he's saying, they've forsaken
you, they're idolaters now. There needs to be a reckoning.
It's almost like he's telling God, you need to deal with this,
questioning God. But God tells him, there's gonna
be a reckoning. And whoever Jehu, whoever Hazael
doesn't kill, Jehu will kill, and who Jehu don't kill, my prophet
will kill them. They're idolaters, they're God-hating
idolaters. Yet, that's generally speaking,
the children of Israel are a bunch of idolatrous, blasphemous, God-hating
rebels, yet. Yet I have left me 7,000 in Israel,
all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth
which hath not kissed him." He didn't say, I've got a bunch
of them left. He said, I've got 7,000. Go, Elijah. and perpetrate, arrange for the
perpetuation of the truth in Israel. Anoint a prophet in your
place. Make sure that my people are
gonna hear the gospel when you're gone. Make sure of it. Perpetuate the truth and the
worship of God in the sacrifice of Christ. My altars are gonna
be raised again. and there's gonna be worship
in my sacrifice, in my son, in the forgiveness of sins through
his blood. Judgment will come upon Israel
in general for departing from Christ, but I'm sovereign. I've
reserved to myself 7,000 in Israel, and I'm gonna bless them. I don't wanna add anything to
the scriptures, but that's his promise, his people. whom he
hath chosen. They're blessed. They are forever
blessed in the middle of the chaos of the judgment that's
gonna fall. That's why there's got to be
this perpetuation of the truth and the worship of God because
I have a church there. I have a people. That's where my sheep are. So
there's gonna be a prophet. There's gonna be somebody. I'm
gonna continue to speak to them in mercy. And they're gonna see my mercy
and the sacrifice that I've ordained. And this is the scripture, as
I mentioned, that Paul quoted in Romans 11, if you'd please
turn there with me. Romans chapter 11, verses one
through seven. Romans 11, 1. I say then, and
he had been saying here, just almost perfectly parallel to
what Elijah was saying. Israel is a dead loss. They're
a bunch of worthless, God-hating rebels. All of them, they're
all super religious, but they don't know God. And he's been
saying a lot of that in chapter 10, and the Lord's in a great
sense is gonna forsake them and turn to the Gentiles. But yes,
they're a bunch of losers. Yes, they have broken down your
altars. Yes, they're idolaters. But yet
I have reserved unto me 7,000. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? That's what Elijah was insinuating,
was it not? God, just throw them away. There's
none left that serve you anyway. God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. It
wouldn't be wrong for God to throw Israel away. But I'm one
of them, he said. God hath not cast away his people
which he foreknew. His judgment's gonna fall on
Israel. It did over and over throughout their history. And
many were slain in horrible ways. And they were able to see God's
wrath against their idolatry and their pride. But God never cast away those
whom he foreknew in Christ. Those 7,000. and whatever number
it was the year before that and the year after that. What ye
not what the scripture saith of Elijah, how he maketh intercession
to God against Israel, saying, verse three, Lord, they have
killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone,
and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, even so. Look at that next verse. Even
so, at this present time, also, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And we say that tonight, is this
world a total loss? It sure looks like it. Yet, God
has reserved to himself a few thousand, maybe, you reckon, that have not bowed to idols,
nor kissed them, They bow to the Lord Jesus Christ and kiss
him Lest he be angry And if by grace that it is no
more of works we have nothing to boast of The story of our
text tonight is the story of God's electing grace in Christ
That's what Paul preached from this passage Is that what we're
talking about? God has reserved. God has done
something, and so there are believers. There are those who will not
bow. The three Hebrew children said,
our Lord will deliver us, and even if he don't, we're not bowing
to your God. What an inspiration. What an
encouragement of the kind of strength that we have in Christ. He's not gonna let us go, you
see. That's the thing about it. It's
not that we're strong. The journey's too great for you, but he's not
gonna let you go. He's gonna keep speaking to you. He's gonna keep feeding you. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise
work is no more work. What then? What can we conclude? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh. And he tells us earlier on that
the reason they didn't obtain it is because they sought it
by works, by the law, by the deeds of the law and not by Christ. but the election hath obtained
it, the chosen, and the rest were blinded. The journey is too great for
us indeed, but Christ is our refuge. Christ has sheltered
us from the wrath of God by taking it in our place. Christ is our
manna from heaven in whose strength we persevere. Christ is the word
of God that comes to us and strengthens our soul and encourages and comforts and inspires. Christ comes to
us in calm, quiet assurance and speaks peace like he did when the disciples were in that
ship and they thought they were going down. And God does everything he does
for his own glory. You see how God was glorified
in the life of Elijah? He answered by fire. Elijah was immortal until God
says so. He put a whole nation of God hating rebels to shame,
bringing them to their knees by just turning the water off.
The glory of God, the power of God. Isn't that why he said he
dumped Elijah into hell, or Pharaoh into hell? To make my power known. He's good at that. And he does it in gracious consideration
of his own chosen sheep. All those 7,000, you know where
they are? They're in the cleft of the rock. They're covered
by the hand of God Almighty and no man shall pluck them out.
Thank God for Christ. Amen.