May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, and we'll read verses
25, 26, and 27. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 4,
verses 25, 26, and 27. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But
unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. We read together this fourth
chapter in the Gospel of Luke, and it is a very instructive
chapter for us, and to recognize that this shows to us the beginning
of the ministry of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was after he'd been baptized,
and we're told in Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned
from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And as we read, he was tempted
of the devil for those 40 days. And then the devil left him for
a season. But the Lord tells us here in
this chapter Jesus then returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region
round about and he taught in their synagogue being glorified
of all. And it's very instructive again
to see how his ministry commenced. He went into the synagogue and
there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah,
which of course is the book of Isaiah, and when he had opened
the book he found the place where it was written. The spirit of
the Lord is upon me, etc. And so he read that and clearly
indicated that referred to himself to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. Having done that, he closed the
book and sat down and they all bear witness and wondered. of the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, Ye will
surely say unto me, This proverb, physician, heal thyself, whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum. Do also hear in thy country. And he said, verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Well, that's
really the introduction to these three verses that I read to you
this evening. And the Lord then comes and points
out to the people two cases, two important cases of people
who were wonderfully blessed. And the significance of them
is that neither of those people were Jews. No. We read about the first one in
the days of Elias, which was, of course, Elijah. Elias was
Elijah. When the heaven was shut up,
three years and six months, when there was great famine throughout
the land. And we can read that account
in the first book of the Kings. which gives us the the true picture
of the whole situation and in the first book of the Kings and
the 17th chapter we read about this and we're told in verse
8 and the word of the Lord came unto him this is to Elijah arise
get thee to Zarephath So Elijah was directed to this foreign
country, really. He wasn't directed to the Israelites
or the Jewish people. He was directed to this foreign
person. And there was this woman that
he was directed to. And the result was that he commanded
her to look after himself first. and then to do for herself. Elijah said unto her, Fear not,
go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and
for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, Neither shall the
cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain
upon the earth. There was a great drought. We've
had a short drought this last summer. We know a little bit
about what it was but here they had a drought for well over three
years. We can imagine how dry the land
must have been. And so this woman who was of
course a stranger to Elijah didn't know really who he was but she
heard what he said And she obeyed what he said. And she went and
did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and her and he
and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted
not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word
of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah." So here was a wonderful
testimony that the Lord reminded the Israelites of that which
had occurred many years ago and how the Lord wonderfully appeared
and blessed this woman. And as we just think upon that,
I'll come to the other example in a moment, what it sets before
us is the amazing sovereign grace of God. the sovereign grace of
God, because we are told there were many widows in Israel in
those days. There were many widows, but there
was only this one widow that Elijah came to. And she was blessed
to have provision of food throughout the remainder of the drought
until the rain came. And what do we see in that? Surely
we see God's sovereign grace down through the ages and still
today. It's not because there's anything
good in ourselves. There's not because we're people
that Go to church or chapel and deserve any notice. It's of God's
grace and God's favour and God's mercy. If we hear his call, that
call to us to repent of all our sins, and to turn to him. It's all of grace, the free,
unmerited favour of God. It does set this before us so
very clearly. The tendency is to think perhaps
that religion just follows a pattern, The Jews thought that they were
the only people. They didn't think that God would
have mercy upon any others, but he did. And it's wonderful to
think that there was then the Gentiles, you and I are Gentiles,
that the Lord graciously came and blessed Gentiles. And what
a mercy it is for us today. If you and I have the wonderful
evidence that God has looked upon us and God has spoken to
us and God has called us. When I say that, when God's call
comes, it is to come and to call us out of the darkness of our
nature in which we were born. into the glorious light of the
gospel. Well what a wonderful thing it
is if that has happened in our lives and you young people especially
just ponder a case like this and recognise yes God was very
gracious to this woman But the great need that you and I have
is to know that God is gracious to us. Real religion is individual. You can't go to heaven on your
parents' religion, on your friends' religion, whatever it may be. You and I need a personal religion,
a personal relationship with Almighty God. We need to know
And a blessed Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, we're told,
to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said, of whom
I am chief. What a blessing it is if you
and I know that the blessed Saviour came into this world to save
you and to save me. That's the great need that we
each have. Well, that's why we have such
wonderful examples in the Word of God, like this woman. And then we're told also, and
many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet,
Elisha, that is, of course, and none of them was cleansed, save
Naaman, the Syrian. That was an amazing position,
wasn't it? There was Naaman, a Syrian. But the Lord in his mercy and
love came and called Naaman and cleansed him. And it's very remarkable
when we think of how that occurred. And we're told of it in the fifth
chapter of the second book of the Kings. On this occasion,
we're told Naaman was a captain and the host of the king of Assyria.
You see, the Lord calls whom he will, the very poor and sometimes
the wealthy. We're told he called them were
not many noble, but there were some. Now, no, no. Captain of the host and the king
of Syria was a great man with his master and honorable because
by him the Lord had given deliverance to Syria. He was a mighty man
in valour, but, and there was a problem, but he was a leper. Now, a leper in those days was
something not to be trifled with. Most people died of leprosy. And when a person had a leprosy,
then other people didn't get near to that person, and that
person usually had to go away and to keep himself away from
all the people so that he didn't, none of the people that he was
in contact with caught it. A bit like we've gone through
this COVID virus or going through this COVID virus situation, which
I'm sure you're familiar with. And the great need was that we
didn't come in contact with people. We didn't inhale the breath of
other people and therefore become contagious with this illness. when it was like that in this
time when this man Naaman was on the earth. Well, he had this
problem. And we see how God's wonderful
providence provided a cure. Remember, he was he wasn't an
Israelite. He wasn't a Jew. He was a Syrian. And therefore you might say,
well, how was he going to come in contact with anybody of the
Jewish understanding or come in contact with Elisha, the prophet? Well, the Lord knew all about
Naaman. And that's a wonderful blessing
because God knows all about you and all about me. He knows where
we live. He knows what we need. He knows
every detail of our life. May that be a wonderful comfort
to all of us. And so we're told, and the Syrians
had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel a little maid. Nothing very wonderful
in that, you think. On the face of it, there wasn't.
But wonderfully, she was a maid to Naaman's wife. And she was
very aware of Naaman's illness. And she said to her mistress,
would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria,
for he would recover him of his leprosy. Now, perhaps she didn't
quite realize that it was the power of God, but it didn't matter.
She directed him to the prophet who'd been used and she'd obviously
been aware of it. She wasn't afraid to speak of
these things. And it's a good example to us
today to not be afraid of speaking about those things which we know
are good and emanate from God. And so one went and told his
Lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land
of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go
to, go. And I will send a letter unto
the king of Israel. And he departed and took with
him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes
of raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel. And that was quite bold anyway.
Even Naaman doing this, who was a Syrian. And they weren't really
friends together, Syrians and the Israels. Behold, I have therewith
sent Naaman, my servant, to thee, that thou mayest recover him
his leprosy. Well the king of Israel wasn't
very impressed and he said, am I God to kill and to make alive
and that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of leprosy? Wherefore consider I pray thee
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so when
Elisha, the man of God, heard the king of Israel rent his clothes
that he sent to the king saying wherefore hast thou rent my clothes
let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet
in Israel well it's a great blessing for you and me today if the Lord
speaks to us and we know there's not only a prophet but there
is a God in Israel and we know there is a God to be worshipped
and a God who hears and answers prayer. Well Naaman came then
with his horses and chariot and stood at the door of Elisha.
Elisha didn't come out himself. He sent a messenger and Naaman
wasn't happy at all. Because first of all, he expected
Elisha to come. And secondly, he expected some
great deed to be required of him. But you see, the Lord doesn't
require great deeds. And the reason is that God needs
to receive all the honor and glory. That's always so in our
lives. Let us never, ever forget that. Well, he was wroth. And he thought,
surely he will come out to me and stand and call on the name
of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover
the leper. Are not Abana and Farpa rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? So he turned
and went away in a rage. Now, it's a good lesson for us
to realize that we are not to quarrel with God's plans for
us. You see, God may have a plan
for you, God may have told you what that plan is, and you might
not like it. It doesn't quite meet your requirements. It doesn't meet up to what you
thought would happen, and therefore really you're angry and you don't
want to do it. Well, we're thankful that in
this case This Naaman, he had some servants who were wise. And they said, My father, if
the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not
have done it? How much rather then when he
said to thee, wash and be clean? Well thankfully Naaman bowed
to that advice. And we're told he went and dipped
himself in Jordan seven times according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came like a little child and he was
clean. You see the power of God. The power of God brought this
about in a very simple way. It wasn't up to the standard
that Naaman thought at first, but by the grace of God, he did
that which Elisha told him to do. I won't go on in the account,
but there we have a very simple situation, and it's good again
for us to realize that God had mercy upon Naaman, a Syrian,
who was not of what we would Expect the church of God as an
Israelite. God's ways are higher than our
ways and God has a perfect right to deal with every one of us
as he sees fit. But the great question is, is
God dealing with you and is God dealing with me? That's what
we need to know. We don't want to be left outside. We don't want the law to pass
us by and ignore us. Because we must have dealings
with God before we die. And none of us know how long
we shall live on this earth. One thing is certain, we shall
die. We shall die. then how necessary
it is to have the evidence that we are indeed right with God
and that God has come to us as he came to these two people,
one a woman and one a man, the illustrations given you see.
So we shouldn't think where it doesn't apply to us because he's
only speaking about women or he's only speaking about men.
It applies to the whole Church of God and what a great blessing
therefore if today we can look into our lives and realise that
Almighty God has been mindful of us. The Lord knows all about
all of us. But when I say that, I mean this,
mindful of us in showing to us His grace, His free, unmerited
favour, showing to us His love. That's what we need, what we
need. And what a blessing if we can
look into our hearts and be able to discern God's goodness to
us, God's mercy to us, God's love to us. What a great blessing
that is. It was so in the case of these
two characters. There wasn't anything in them
that merited any special favour, any special notice. It was because
God had a purpose of love toward them. Well, may each of us desire
and come to know that God has a wonderful purpose of love toward
our souls. Oh, my friends, let us not give
up. Let us not think that God passes
us by and has no desire or no blessing to bestow upon us. It's very easy for the devil
to say, well, there's no hope for you. Give up. No, we must never give up. We must pursue David, who was
a man of God. I'm sure you will appreciate
that you only have to read through large parts of the Bible, especially
the Psalms, to understand that David was indeed a man of God. And in the hundred and forty
third Psalm towards the end of the book of Psalms and it's a
psalm that he wrote and in it we have a little clear view of
how he was concerned about God speaking to him. Psalm 143 and
verse 7, this is what we read. Hear me speedily, O God. That means there was some urgency,
wasn't it? He didn't want God to just pass
him by. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the
pit. He was fearful. And if the Lord
didn't show his face, if the Lord didn't speak to him, he
would be cast into hell itself. And that was a great concern
to him. And so he comes now and says,
cause me. It's very instructive. He didn't
demand of God. We can't demand of God, but we
can seek to God and we can pray to God. And so David says, cause me. Again, it's come back to what
I've said earlier. True religion is personal between
our soul and God. And so he comes and says, cause
me. Well, I wonder whether you've
prayed that. You come to God and you said, Lord, please look
upon me, have mercy upon me. Save my soul, cause me to hear
thy loving kindness in the morning. Yes, he needed God to show him
his love. Well, that's a good prayer, my
friends, and may it be our prayer. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Who are we trusting? Are you
trusting in the Lord? Are you looking to the Lord?
Are you praying to the Lord? Or are you just mumbling on? Just might say rumbling on in
this poor old world, hoping somehow things will work out all right
in the end. Well, don't forget what the Bible
tells us. The Lord tells us this. Will
be inquired of that means he will be praised to to do these
things for them and what a blessing there is that we have a God who
does hear and answer prayer so never be discouraged just because
We don't seem to get answers when we expect them Remember
the Lord says He waits to be gracious. He waits to be gracious. The Lord has a time to speak. The Lord has a time to bless. And God's time is the right time.
And God's time is the best time. So don't be disappointed. And
don't give up. Because the Lord is testing us
sometimes. Testing our religion. whether
we do desire earnestly that God will come. And he would indeed
speak to us. And therefore, remember that
we have a God who is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering
God. For in thee do I trust. And then he goes on. Having already
said cause me, he repeats that and says, cause me. Again, personal. To know the way wherein I should
walk. For I lift up my soul unto thee. It's good to be concerned that
God will direct us as you and I press on through life. To realise we have a God who
is a prayer hearing. and a prayer answering God. And
so to be able to come and say, cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. There is a right path. There's
a right path. There is a wrong path. We might
analyze it like this. The Word of God tells us there's
a broad way, which is an easy way, and it leads to destruction. There's a narrow way, which is
a difficult way, which leads to eternal life and glory. It's obvious, isn't it? Which
is the good and right way, and which is the wrong way. Now,
the devil will endeavour to bring you into that broad way, that
easy way, So that you go in it and you think, well, this is
an easy journey. I don't have to give up this.
I don't have to stop doing that. I can just do what I want to
and everything will be all right in the end. Well, be assured
of this, it won't. The Lord's way is a narrow way,
but it leads to eternal life. And in that narrow way, you'll
find there's obstacles. You won't find it an easy journey.
But there'll be a good result. And that's what you and I need.
A good result. And so he says, cause me to know
the way when I should walk. Seek unto the Lord. Pray unto
him. The Lord does give answers. The Lord does give direction. Don't go in the wrong way. Wait
to hear God's voice. For I lift up my soul unto thee. Yes, he he knew what it was,
the need he had. I lift up my soul unto thee. Well, the news goes on. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Oh, we have such a God, my friends,
you young people, such a kind and gracious God. I flee unto thee to hide me. This was David. He wasn't necessarily
a young man now, but he knew the need he had. I flee unto
thee. You know, what does that mean?
It means he ran very fast. And it's good when you and I
run very fast to our God to pray that He will be with us and hide
us, hide us. The Word of God has a wonderful
description, to be hid under the shadow of His wings. You know, like a chicken, you
can see sometimes running around has quite large wings and the
little chicks sometimes hide under the shadow of the mother's
wings. Well, that's just an illustration.
The Lord encourages us to come and to hide in him. Well, may we be given that grace
and understanding. So to do. Cause me to hear thy
loving kindness. Yes, what a blessing it is. In
the morning. That means early on. It doesn't mean to say just leave
things. The devil would say you needn't
worry now. You're quite young. Just leave it on one side. When
you get a bit older, you can think of these things. Well,
that wasn't what David did. David said, Cause me to hear
thy lovingkindness in the morning, early, early in our spiritual
life while you're young. You know, it's a wonderful blessing
to find the Lord when we're young. Because if that is so, you will
find he is an unctuous light to all that's right and a bar
to all that's wrong. We live in a dark world and an
evil devil who always wants to attract us to wrong things, things
that do not profit our soul. What a blessing therefore it
is to be led to the great and glorious Saviour himself. What
a mercy it is. then to realize we have this
kind and gracious God. And this is one more illustration
I'll bring to your attention. And that's in the Song of Solomon,
right towards the end of that lovely little book. And in the
eighth chapter and the 13th verse, it says this, Thou that dwellest
in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me
to hear it. I wonder if that's your prayer
tonight, that you might hear the voice of Jesus, that he might
speak to you and direct you. And so you see here, the bride
of Christ is speaking. And she's saying to her beloved,
the Lord Jesus Christ, cause me to hear it. Make haste, my
beloved, be there like a row or a young heart. upon the mountains
of spices. You see, we can desire. The Lord
will make haste and come to us. The Lord will make haste and
bless us. Well then, we have here then
these two accounts, really, and they're very instructive to us.
And you might just go home and think about them. They're so
relevant that you and I might know that we're not an outcast. We're not those whom the Lord
has passed by, but those whom the Lord has looked upon and
stopped and spoken. Yes, what a mercy it is. You
may remember there was that account of blind Bartimaeus. And he couldn't go anywhere,
he was sat still on the highway. And he knew that, he was told
that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he knew, he'd heard obviously
what Jesus of Nazareth could do. And he cried out, have mercy
upon me, now son of David. And again, that's a wonderful
insight to realise that here was the saviour referred to as
the son of David and the people tried to stop him. The devil
will try and stop you. Don't listen. He didn't listen. He cried out
the more. Jesus, our son of David, have
mercy upon me. Jesus stopped and called him. and called him and asked him
what he wanted. He said, Lord, that I might receive
my sight. Well, that was naturally. Perhaps
that's the situation with you. In a spiritual way, the Lord
will open your eyes and show you clearly your needs. and then
direct you to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Oh, what a blessed
relief that would be, what a blessed time it would be, if the Lord,
as it were, stops and calls you. As I've said, true religion receives
personal calls from Almighty God. And again, how very, very
humbling it is And just think on this, that the great God who
created the world, the great God who is in control of every
single thing, the hairs of everybody's head fall into the ground, that's
the greatness of our God. To think that that God takes
notice of you and me, as utterly unworthy sinners. That we're
not coming to say, come and say, oh, what a Savior. that God should
look upon such an unworthy sinner as me. Well, bless God, he does. He waits to be gracious. He waits to be merciful. The
Lord has a set time, has a set time to favour Zion, has a set
time to bless his people's soul. Don't give up. Pray on, that
you may be one with the Lord from all eternity and set his
eye and love upon. And time comes when he will call
you. And you and I won't mistake that
call. We'll know it's directed straight into our hearts. And
we can truly rejoice then in what God has done. To come in
that wonderful way and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
What a lovely prayer that is. Never goes out of fashion. And
to think that God does. then hear such a prayer. You may have to repeat it often,
but don't give up. Pray on. He waits to be gracious. The time will come. You will
rejoice and gladly see and know that he's loved you with everlasting
love and with loving kindness has drawn you. So it's all of
grace, all of his favour. You won't be able to pat yourself
on the back and say, well, I was a worthy character. You'll recognize
that you were an unworthy character. And that God, in love to your
soul, called you out of the darkness of nature in which you were born
into the glorious light of the gospel, which shines forth in
the face of Jesus Christ, and you will come and say, by the grace of God, I am what
I am, and what a saviour I have who saved such a wretch as me. Well, here the Lord says, but
I tell you of a truth, and these are true sayings, Remember that. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elisha when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But
unto none of them was Elisha sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet. and none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Well, bless God, we worship
the same God today that cleansed and helped these people. Let
us realise that our God is the same yesterday and today and
forever. Amen.