Alright brethren, let's turn
now to 1 Kings chapter 19. 1 Kings 19. I want to read verses
11 through 13. Verse 11 says, And God 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 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
that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood
in the entering in of the cave And behold, there came a voice
unto him, and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah? Now this is the next question
in our series where God asks a sinner a question. And the
question is, What doest thou hear? Now remember, God never
asks a question for information. He asks a question to reveal
to the sinner something about us, and to reveal to us something
about himself. That's what we've seen in all
these questions that God asked of a sinner. Now, James tells
us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. He was a great prophet, but he
was a man subject to like passions as we are. That means that you
and I can put our name right there where Elijah's name is.
Because every problem he had with his sin, his sin nature,
that's the same problem every believer has, every one of us. Now where was Elijah? Where was
he? Well, he had quit the ministry. He's God's prophet, just done
some amazing things, but he quit the ministry. And he went out
in the wilderness to Mount Horeb, or not even to Mount Horeb yet,
he went out to the wilderness and he was anxious, he went out
full of anxiety, and he was depressed and cast down. And he even came
to this point, look back up in verse 4, at the end of verse
4 there, he said, he requested for himself that he might die. And he said, it is enough. Now,
O Lord, take away my life. Take away my life, for I am not
better than my father's. You see, the symptoms that he
was suffering from, this anxiety and this depression and this
fearfulness and all of these things can be summed up in one
word. Unbelief. Those things were the
symptoms. Unbelief was the disease. You know, he says there, he says
that's the case. He says there, I'm not better
than my fathers. That means I don't even have
the faith of my fathers. I don't even have the faith they
have. Now, we never suffer anxiety or depression. or fearfulness
or any of those things associated with sin. We don't suffer those
things when God has taken us and set us down at Christ's feet
and filled our heart with the rejoicing of this gospel. Everything
is fine then. We don't have that problem then.
We have these problems of anxiety and depression and all those
things when we start looking at ourselves and the waves around
us and all the things going on. And when things don't meet our
expectation, that's when we suffer those things. Now what had caused
all this? What was the cause of all this?
Well, Elijah answered God. When God said, What doest thou
hear? He answered God. Let's read that
up there in verse 10. This is the first time Elijah
answered. God asked him this question twice.
This is the first time he answered, right here, verse 10. And he
said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. Jealous
for His honor, jealous for His glory. For the children of Israel
have forsaken Thy covenant. He said, God, they've forsaken
Your covenant. And he said, and they've thrown
down Thine altars. and slain thy prophets with the
sword. And I, even I only, am left,
and they seek my life to take it away." Well, if Elijah was
jealous for God, if he was so jealous for the glory of God,
what caused him to quit the ministry? What made him leave? What made
him take off out into the wilderness? Well, Elijah thought, that whenever
Israel saw these three great displays of God's power that
God wrought through Elijah. There were three displays of
power God wrought through Elijah and Elijah thought when Israel
saw that, they would be turned from their idols and their heart
would be turned back to God. What were these three displays
of power? First was a great display of
the righteousness of God. A great display of the righteousness
of God. Elijah issued a challenge to
the false prophets of Baal. And he said that he and they
each would offer a sacrifice on an altar. They wouldn't put
a fire under either sacrifice. They'd both offer sacrifices
under an altar. And they would call unto their
God and He said, and whosoever God answered by fire, He's the
true God. Well, of course, the prophets
of Baal, they cried and they cried unto their gods, many gods,
and they cut themselves, and they cried from morning till
noon, and Elijah said, maybe your god's asleep, maybe he's
taking a trip, cry louder, maybe he's, you know, and he mocked
them. And then, after God didn't answer,
their gods didn't answer, then Elijah, he had told the men,
take four barrels of water, And he had them pour those four barrels
of water on the wood and the sacrifice and the stones and
everything, not once, not even twice, but three times. That's
twelve barrels of water that he had poured out all over his
sacrifice. It filled up these trenches he
dug all the way around the altar. And he called unto God and God
sent forth fire and consumed the sacrifice and the altar and
the stones and licked up all the water till it was dry. That was a great picture of the
righteousness of God displayed in Christ the Lord on Calvary's
cross. That's what was taking place.
Christ is the one sacrifice God has provided and that God is
pleased with. And the fire of divine judgment
came down upon Christ. When He bore the sins of His
people, divine judgment came down upon Him in the room and
place of His people. The difference is, rather than
the fire consuming the sacrifice, Christ consumed the fire. He
quenched divine justice, satisfied divine justice for His people
so that they're righteous in Him. And the second great display
was of God's judgment upon the wicked. God used Elijah. There was 450 prophets of Baal
and there were 400 prophets of the groves. And God used Elijah
to slay every one of the prophets. He slew all the prophets. Elijah
did that. That was a picture of God's divine
judgment upon the wicked, upon those who reject Christ and are
found in themselves in the day of judgment. And then he worked
a great display of God's absolute sovereignty. James tells us about
this. Let me read it to you. In James
5.17 he said, Elijah prayed earnestly that it might not rain. and it
rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six
months. And then he prayed again and
the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.
That rain was controlled by God, by the sovereign God. He withheld
it for three and a half years and caused a great famine. God
did that. And then he rained, he caused
it to rain and made the ground bring forth. And yet, after all
this great, great display of God's power, not a single Israelite
turned from their idols to worship God. Not a one. And that's what
Elijah thought would happen. And not only that, God didn't
even dethrone wicked Ahab, nor his wicked wife Jezebel. God didn't overthrow their rule
either. Instead, Jezebel sent word to
Elijah saying, this time tomorrow, I'm going to kill you just like
you killed those prophets. Now, at times, you know, we think
that God's about to work her work and He's going to reveal
Himself to our lost loved ones. And we think surely we know exactly
who it is God's about to reveal Himself to. And then God makes us to know
that all that work He was working, He was doing to teach us something. And that's what happened to Elijah.
That's what happened to Elijah. And here's what he learned. This
is the lesson. It's not the great displays of
God's power that convert sinners. It's not great displays of God's
power that convert sinners. It is the power of God Himself
revealing Christ in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It's
God Himself that is the power, Him alone. Now first of all,
no great display alone, no great mighty display alone will turn
a sinner from his idols to faith in Christ. You see there in our
text, in verse 11, the Lord was not in that mighty wind, and
the Lord was not in that earthquake, and the Lord was not in that
fire. Now God worked those things. He worked those things. They
came forth at His hand. But God did not speak effectually
into Elijah's heart through those things. He didn't speak into
Elijah's heart through those things. And what he's showing
here is great displays alone will never penetrate the hard
heart of a sinner. They just won't do it. Dead sinners
can hear the Word preached. Just like I'm preaching here
tonight. And I could preach to you to the best of my ability
and declare how that Christ was sent forth to declare the righteousness
of God. That the gospel, the sum and
substance of the gospel is the declaration of God's righteousness. How God can be just and justify
His people. And I can show you how that had
to be and it could only be in a perfect substitute, holy and
just, who was made sin for His people and bore that wrath in
place of His people on the cross. I could set forth the righteousness
of God as clearly as I possibly could to you in this gospel.
And it will not do anything for the hard heart of a sinner. It
won't break the hard heart of a sinner. The Word alone will
not do that. God can send strong judgments
and He does. You look into this world, you
look around and you see all kinds of things happen where God just
snuffs out people. And sometimes it's a lot of people
at one time. That does nothing to break the
hard heart of a sinner. Instead, hard-hearted sinners
say things like, well, I just don't believe God would let things
happen like that. All that is, brethren, when you
see great things like that happen in the world, that's a foretaste
of divine judgment. That's all that is, a foretaste
of divine judgment. We're going to all stand before
the judgment seat one day, and God's going to execute judgment
upon sinners. You think that's something. But
that won't break a sinner's heart. Judgment won't break a sinner's
heart. God sovereignly sends tornadoes and hurricanes and
floods and earthquakes and all these things. That doesn't turn
men to God. That doesn't turn men to God.
Men can get afflicted. God can send affliction and sickness.
That won't break the hard heart and make folks believe on Christ. If men could come back, you remember
that rich man in hell? When he sat there and told God
what to do, there he is suffering the torments of hell and he still
doesn't have a broken heart. If men could come back from hell,
it wouldn't change their hard heart at all. It wouldn't be
any time whatsoever, time their foot hit the ground, that they
go right back to what they were. And that's true. That's the hard
heart that you and I have. Now they might be frightened
by those things and they might even make a profession of faith.
Look back over at 1 Kings 18 and look at verse 39. What happened? After they saw that fire come
down and look up that sacrifice, it says, when all the people
saw, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is
the God. The Lord, He is the God. And it didn't last no time. They
went right back to their idolatry. right back to their idolatry.
See, man will make a profession, but if his refuge was taken simply
because of some great display like that or sickness or something
frightened him, when that refuge is taken for that reason alone,
when it's calm again, that man will forsake that refuge. Most
of the grand displays, those great things that men call revival,
There's nothing more than men just whipping people up and putting
on a grand display before folks and God's not even in it. Not
even in it. Now here's the next thing I want
us to see. God teaches His people that He alone quickens the sinner. God alone quickens the sinner.
Now, we're going to look at Elijah here. Elijah now, where we find
him in the wilderness, he's in as bad a shape as the children
of Israel who are in idolatry. Elijah's in idolatry now because
he's looking at himself. He's looking at what he's done
for God and thinking God ought to have done something for him
towards those people. That's idolatry. Worshipping
of self. Elijah is looking at himself
thinking, I've been jealous for you, Lord, but you didn't convert
anybody through any of these great signs I did. That's idolatry. That's worshiping self. So what's
God going to do to rescue him? He's a child of God. He's a believer.
What's God going to do to rescue him? Is He going to make some
great signs and do some great wonders before him? Let's see.
First of all, Christ comes in secret. Look at verse 5. And as he lay and slept under
a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said
unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there
was a cake baking on the coals, and a cruise of water at his
head, and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. Now
Christ is the angel of the Lord. We've seen this before. He's
the angel of the Lord. And no one saw Christ come to
Elijah. Nobody saw this happen. Elijah
didn't see this happen. He was asleep. Christ came in
secret. And that's the case with everybody
that God regenerates and quickens. They don't see it. Nobody else
sees it happen. God comes in secret. Christ comes
in secret. And when He awakens you, when
He wakes you up, and He tells you to arise and eat, He awakes
you to a cake baking on coals and a cruise of water. He awakes
you up to Christ, the bread and water of life, who suffered the
coals of divine judgment for His people. And He makes you
willing to eat of Christ through faith. That's what He does when
He wakes you up. And then, can a sinner resist
Christ? You know, I had somebody email
me this week and I hoped it was somebody actually seeking the
Lord, but I answered very briefly because I kind of figured. And
sure enough, it was somebody wanting to argue. And that was
their thing about being born again and whatever if you're
born again but you don't believe on God, that's an impossibility. Impossibility. He woke him up
and what happened? He did eat and drink and laid
him down again. Christ wakes you up, He's going
to make you eat. And you're going to drink. His
flesh and His blood, His meat and drink indeed, you're going
to eat. And when you do, He's going to make you rest in Him.
That's what He's going to do. Now all that happened without
anybody seeing it. Our Lord said the Kingdom of
God comes without observation. Mary and I are going to say,
Lo, He's here. Lo, He's there. The Kingdom of God is within
you. And that's how we saw Christ come to that man right there.
He came in secret. Nobody else saw it. It was not
a grand display. And then, when He does this work,
He starts this work, a believer does not cease needing Christ
to be our strength, nor does Christ cease to be our strength.
Christ never ceases to be the strength of His people. Once
He's called you and quickened you, He will not cease to be
your strength because He knows you don't have any strength without
Him. Look here, verse 7, And the angel of the Lord came again
the second time. Christ comes back 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 forty days and forty
nights unto Horeb the mount of God. We need the strength of
Christ all the time because without a doubt the journey is too great
for us. We can't make this journey, this
pilgrimage through this wilderness without Christ. And Christ, by
waking us and teaching us this over and over, shows us He is
our strength. He is sufficiency. Elijah went
in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights.
He said, ìI am the vine, youíre the branches.î He said, ìYou
abide in Me, and I in you, and the same will bring forth much
fruit. For without Me you can do nothing.î But with him, Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
You see, the Lord was with Elijah when he was doing all those grand
displays. You just imagine that. He stood up before all these
850 false prophets and did all this great work there before
them to the glory of God. And just a little while later,
He's fleeing into the wilderness. Why? God shows you what it is
when He's your strength and He's abiding in you and He shows you
what it is if He just withdraws just a little bit and you see
what you are. See, the journey is too long
and too strong and too hard for us. We're not strong enough for
this journey. We need Christ to be the meat that gives us
the strength. And God works this now by planting
His child on one foundation. Christ the solid rock. That's
where He does. He's going to plant us on that.
Christ the solid rock. Look at verse 9. It says, ìElijah
came thither to a cave, and he lodged there.î And God asked
him, ìWhat doest thou hear?î And Iím certain when he answered
there, it was from a heart of justification, self-justification,
it was a heart of pride, because God has come to cure him. Thatís what Heís coming for,
is to cure him. And that answer he gave was justifying why he
was there. I've been jealous for you, God. Here these children of Israel
have cast down your altars, and they've slain your prophets,
and they've rejected you, and I'm the only prophet left. And
he's justifying himself for being there. And verse 11 says, and
God said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold,
the Lord passed by. Does that remind you of anything
when you read that? He's in Mount Horeb. This is what God did to Moses. God did the same thing to Moses
in the same place as He did it to Moses. And He passed by to
show Moses His glory. Where are you going to see God's
glory? In Christ. Nowhere else but in
Christ. I know the firmament declares
His handiwork and we see enough of Him in creation to where we're
without excuse. Well, where are we going to see
God's glory is in Christ. That's where we're going to see
His glory. It's not by man's grand displays that we're going
to see God's glory. But God is going to get all the
glory because God puts His people in the cleft of the rock. And
He puts us on that sheer foundation, on that solid rock. And that
rock is Christ. You know, we sing Rock of Ages.
That comes from that passage where Moses was put in the cleft
of the rock. That's the Rock of Ages. Christ,
the Rock of Ages. Cleft for me. That's the cleft
for me. Is that the cleft for you? Is
that the refuge for you? That's the refuge for me. And
he put him there. Now here he is all this time
later, and that's where he's putting Elijah. Same place. He put him there. Do you think
Elijah would have ended up there if God hadn't put him there?
Listen to the Scriptures. Of him, of God, are you in Christ? You and I can't boast in that.
We can't boast in that. Of God are you in Christ? Well, what about the fact that
I believe on Him? Who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So then who are
we going to glory in? We didn't put ourselves in Christ,
just like Elijah didn't put himself in that place and didn't put
himself on that mount, on that rock. God said, go there and
stand there. Who are we going to glory in?
We have to glory in God alone. The Scripture says, He brought
me up out of a horrible pit, and He brought me out of the
miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. and He established
my goings. That's God's work. That's God's
work. He finds His people in a horrible
pit and in miry clay and we'd never free ourselves from it.
And He takes His people like He did Elijah here and He set
your feet on a rock. And He only is my rock and my
salvation. He only is my rock and He only
is my salvation. Can we say that? Can you say
that? Christ is my only rock. Christ,
after the Sermon on the Mount, remember what Christ said? He
said, a man that builds his house on this rock, he's a wise man. Because when the winds come and
the floods come and beat upon that house, it's going nowhere.
It's on a rock. And that's what His people are
by God's grace planting us on Christ the rock. A solid foundation. And every other house is a house
built on shifting sand. And it takes very little at all
to make that sand just wash away. You know that big, giant, tall
building over there in the... Where's that thing at? In the
Arab... Dubai. In Dubai. You know that big,
old, tall building? They couldn't just build that building out
there in the middle of the desert on sand. They put long steel
pylons in the ground, I mean a bunch of them, to make a foundation
that wouldn't move. You've got to have a solid foundation
or the house won't stand. And Christ is that foundation. That foundation is a foundation
of wisdom, God's wisdom, and of God's righteousness, and of
God's holiness, and of the redemption Christ is Himself. Men want to
debate on what redemption is, what liberty is. Christ Himself
is liberty. And that's the foundation, Christ
Himself. But, here's the problem. All
this is leading up to this point right here to show us this. We
only hear in spirit and in truth. That's the only way we hear in
spirit and in truth is by Christ speaking through the Holy Spirit
in that still, small voice, in the heart, in the new man, in
that purged conscience is where he has to speak. And you'll begin
to hear him. Look at verse 11. The Lord's
put him there. He's put him in Christ. And he's
doing what he did to Moses. He's showing Elijah his glory. The glory in how he is the only
one that can make you hear and worship in spirit and in truth.
That's what he's showing Elijah. Watch this now, verse 11. The
second part there. And behold, the Lord passed by,
and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces
the rocks before the Lord. Oh, surely the Lord's going to
speak to Moses by that. But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind and earthquake... Oh, that'll convert him. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in a fire.
And after the fire. This is so contrary to us. Isn't
this contrary to our nature? We want big, bigger, better,
faster. That's what we want. Everything,
you wait six months and it's bigger, better, faster. Wait
six months, bigger, better, faster. God with, He said, I'm not working
in the bigger, better, faster. He went something totally contrary
to our nature, a still small voice. Still small voice. Look here, now notice what effect
it had. Verse 13, And it was so, when
Elijah heard, he heard, and it says, that he wrapped his face
in his mantle, he covered his face with his cloak, and he went
out and he stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there
came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah? What doest thou hear? See, it
wasn't a grand display of God's power by which He spoke to Elijah. It wasn't a grand display. It
was that still small voice. Now did you notice when I read
this, I read the first question the Lord asked, I read this one.
Did you notice the difference in the two? Go back up to verse
9. See if you can see this difference.
Verse 9. It says there, when he was in
the cave and he lodged there, it says, Behold, the word of
the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou
hear, Elijah? And now in verse 13, that still
small voice spake, and it says, Behold, there came a voice unto
him, and said, What doest thou hear? Do you remember after Adam
sinned in the garden, and he and Eve had made themselves their
fig leaf covering, and they got themselves all covered up in
their righteousness and their holiness, and they're waiting
now to approach the Lord next time He comes around. And the
Scripture says, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden, and they ran and hid. They ran and hid. They heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. And what did He
say to them? He said unto him, He said, Adam,
where art thou? That's what he said to Elijah.
Elijah, the voice said, what doest thou hear? And the lesson
there is, it's not just the Word preached. Didn't he hear the
Word the first time when he heard the Word of the Lord? Oh yeah,
he heard the Word of the Lord then here, just like everybody
here hears the Word of the Lord right now. But when that still small voice
came, He heard Christ's voice. He heard the voice of the Word. He heard the voice speak. And
that's what made him to hear. He heard the voice. Let me show
you here that this is what this is speaking about. Look over
at Job. Look at Job chapter 4 verse 12. He says here, now a thing was
secretly brought to me. He says it came, the margin says,
by stealth. It came by stealth. It wasn't in some big great open
display. It came by stealth to me, he
said. Look here, and it says, and mine ear received a little
thereof. In thoughts from the visions
of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon
me. Fear met me, and trembling which
made all my bones to shake." See, God doesn't work in the
earthquake. He creates an earthquake. in his child by that voice, that
little small, still small voice. Look, verse 15, ìThen a spirit
passed before my face, and the hair of my flesh stood up. It
stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof. An
image was before my eyes. There was silence, and I heard
a voice.î The margin says, ìI heard a still voice.î I heard
a still voice saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall
a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, He put no trust in His
servants, in His angels He's charged with folly. How much
less in them that dwell in houses of clay. See, we're talking about
this still small voice here. It's not just the preaching of
the Word. We saw this Sunday in 2 Corinthians
3. It's not just the preaching of
the Word that makes it the ministration of the Spirit. It's the Word
preached together with Christ's voice speaking in the heart of
His people. Christ said, My people shall
know that I am He that does speak. Behold, it is I. He said, My
watchman shall lift up the voice with Thee voice together, shall
they say. His people are going to lift
up their voice. I'm lifting up my voice. But
the way you're going to hear is if my voice together with
the voice of Christ Jesus is brought to you, to your heart.
Christ said it's the spirit that quickeneth. He said the flesh
profits nothing. The word that I speak unto you,
the words I speak are spirit and truth. They're spirit and
life. And it's only then that we have
life. We've got to have that spirit
and that life of the Word spoken into us and then we'll have spirit
and life. Then we'll be able for the first
time to worship God in spirit and in truth. And as we see with
Elijah here, when you and I become overtaken by our flesh and we're
running away out in the wilderness, it's going to take God coming
again and speaking with that still small voice and that's
when There will be an irresistible effect caused by it. Look, it
says Elijah heard. Elijah heard. Well, didn't he
hear before when the Word of the Lord spoke? Yeah, he heard
it. You all hear me speaking right now. But when the Spirit
of the Lord spoke in that still small voice, he heard it in spirit
and in truth. He heard it in a new heart then. And what did it make him do?
It made him worship in spirit and in truth. He wrapped his
face in his manna. Remember the seraphims? What
did they do whenever Isaiah said, I saw the glory of the Lord?
And what did the seraphims do? They covered their face. And
they cried out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of the Lord of
hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. That's worshiping God. when you
can see the chief attribute of God is His holiness. Everything
He does is in accordance with His holiness. Before, Elijah
was in the back of the cave in the dark. That's where he was.
When he first went in that cave, he went back in the back of the
cave and it says he lodged there. He was going to stay there. Back
in the back of the cave in the dark. But look, when the still
small voice spoke, he went out and stood in the entering end
of the cave. He came out of the darkness into the light. We don't
like to come out of the darkness into the light whenever we know
we're wrong and we know God's going to reprove us. Have you
ever been so overtaken in sin that you didn't want to pick
that book up and read it? Or you didn't want to listen to
a sermon or you didn't want to come and hear the gospel preached?
I've been there. I've been there. What's going
to bring you out of that darkness? Christ speaking. And that still
small voice, ìWhy donít you want to come out of that darkness?î
Christ said, ìEveryone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.î And
that old man is still with us, brethren. He doesnít want to
come out of that light. He doesnít want to be reproved.
But God gave Christ for a covenant that thou mayest say to them
that are in darkness, show yourself. And that's the only time we'll
come out of that darkness into that light. Christ said, He said,
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. It's
His voice that does it. I tend to believe now that even
though Elijah repeats the exact same words that he did the first
time, When the Lord said, ìWhat are you doing here, Elijah?î
He repeated these exact same words, ìBut I have to believe
now.î He said these exact same words, but He said them with
a broken and a contrite heart. You see, this is a good lesson
for you and me. Itís a good lesson for us. You
know, we want to talk about being under the law or not being under
the law or whatever. What makes the difference between
being under the law, being a servant of sin and being a servant of
righteousness? It's not the words being spoken. They could be the
exact same words. It's the heart. It's the heart. It's not the deed that's done.
It could be the exact same deed. It's the heart. God has spoken
into that heart and broken it and made you do what you do for
the glory of God. That's the difference of being
under law, doing something for legal reasons to indebt God and
being under grace and doing it because you are constrained by
the love of Christ. And look, the one reason I think
that is this. The first time when he answered
God, God did all this work to bring him to this place where
He covered his face. Now, when God did this work,
God sent him back to the ministry. He's ready to go back now. He
said in verse 15, Go and return. Go and return. And then God told
him who to anoint, and God told him how he would use them to
slay his enemies. And God told him to anoint Elisha,
and he's going to take your place, Elijah, before God takes his
servant home. Here was this great prophet Elijah
praying to die. And the ironic thing, the mysterious
thing, he was running from Jezebel who said, I'm going to kill you.
And he runs out there in the desert and says, Lord, let me
die. See, unbelief don't make any
sense. Unbelief will have you a contradiction. But before God,
this is a man that's not even going to die. God translated
him. Took him to glory in a chariot
of fire. But before he does that, he's
going to provide another prophet. And so God made Elijah know,
you're not the only prophet I've got, Elijah. This thing don't rise, the sun
don't rise and set on you, buddy. God can do this work without
me and you. And he made him know that. And he told him, I've got
7,000 men besides you that have not bowed the knee to the image
of Baal. And I'm going to save every one
of them. And you know what Paul said when he quoted that? He
said, even so, at this present time, right now, God has a remnant
according to the election of grace, and if it's by grace,
then there's no more of worse. Now, the only way a man could
rejoice in that message and bow and obey is if God's done a work
in his heart, spoken by that still, small voice in his heart.
So did Elisha obey? Look at verse 19. So he departed
thence, and he found Elijah. He went back. He went back to
his charge, to his ministry. Now here's what I want you to
get. The lesson here that was taught Elijah is a lesson for
God's preachers, it's for each saint individually, and it's
for the whole church collectively. And it's for lost sinners that
God is speaking to and drawing to Himself. And here's the lesson. This is it. Now get this. In
Zechariah 4, verse 6, God said, This is the word of the Lord
unto Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was built in a temple,
a picture of the church of God being built. And this was the
word to him. Not by might, not by power. but by my Spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts. This thing is not going to be
built by my power, not going to be built by your power. You
are not going to come to Christ in your strength, you have to
come in by His Spirit. If you come, that is how you
are coming. So what are we to do? We've got one charge. Preach
the blood of Christ. Declare to sinners how that Christ
came and put away the sin of His people, accomplished the
redemption of His people, making His people the righteousness
of God in Him, and how He's sending this gospel forth and will call
every one of them and will not lose one. Preach this word. Give
Him all the glory for doing this work. And as we do, We're not
to look to any other method. We're not to look to some grand
display, or use some grand oratory, or try to take the edge off of
the gospel and make it less offensive, and any kind of grand display
that's of our hands whereby we think God will do a work through
this. Don't do any. No gimmicks. No
grand displays here. One thing we're to do, declare
the Word and wait on the Lord. He says it's going to be by my
Spirit. Now Elijah knows, ah, it wasn't going to be just by
that great display back there. Unless God come and spoke with
that small voice, that still small voice, that's what's going
to convert His people. I pray God will speak to us now
in that still small voice. Amen.