Turn to 1 Kings chapter 17. I made about four or five pages
of notes, and I don't think I'm going to use them. I got in the
study this morning and got to looking over the Bible lesson. It has to do with examples of
faith. And I got to looking at chapter
17, the first example. And I thought, and I just started
writing notes in my Bible, just little things to jot my memory. And so I'm probably going to
just deal with chapter 17. I was going to deal with 17 and
chapter 18, a few verses, not all of it, and chapter 20, but
we may look at those next week. But this one is such a beautiful
example of God saving a sinner. God's preacher, the sinner, the
message, and the result. And with that in mind, pray the
Lord bless it. You pray as I do this, because
I'm just gonna use my Bible as my outline. We need to learn
to do that. I've learned this, I have, I've
learned it. And I do it a lot, but I've learned to use my Bible
as my outline. Verse one, and Elijah, this is
God's man, God's prophet. the Tishbite, who was of the
inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab," now if you go back, not
right now, but go back later to chapter 16 in the latter part
of that, you'll see he married Jezebel and he was one of the
most wicked kings ever. But he goes and he speaks to
Ahab, "'As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,
I hope as a preacher of the gospel, I always keep this in mind. And
as his children and as his servants, we should always keep this in
mind. We stand before God. We are never out of his presence.
That's what I'm doing this morning. I'm preaching to you before God. I stand before him before I stand
before you. He's the one I answer to. It's
very serious that I rightly divide the word of truth. I ask the
Lord before coming out here, enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth and make your word a blessing. Send it forth in
power to the heart of your children and convict those who don't believe.
That's my prayer. He says here, as the Lord God
of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew
nor rain these years, but according to my word. According to my word, you know
what the first, the first thought came to me is this, his kingdom
ruleth over all. You know the real power, I mean,
God's the real power, but the power on this earth is His church.
You know, He moves His people to pray for what He has purposed
and what He purposes to bring to pass. He'll move His church
to pray for it. His kingdom ruleth over all.
Elijah stands before this king, he says, according to my word.
Now, my word is the word God's given me, is what he's saying.
It's not going to rain for three and a half years. And the word
of the Lord came to him, saying, Get thee, is came to Elijah,
get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by
the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that
thou shalt drink of the brook, and I shall command." What God
commands happens, doesn't it? I'll command the ravens to feed
you. Not an army, a raven. The ravens, they're going to
bring bread. They're going to bring bread
to you. They're going to feed you. Everything, you know, everything
serves God. All are His servants. All, all
things are His servants. And I have commanded the ravens.
You think the ravens do that? Did the ravens actually understand
that? You know, a little later on here, he says, I commanded
a woman, a widow woman. She didn't know that. She didn't
know God commanded this, but God said, I've commanded her.
She's going to take care of you. And she's going to believe the
word, your word, and she's going to do exactly what I've commanded. And you are going to be taken
care of. And it's going to be evident that this woman is one
of God's elect. Because she believed God's word.
She believed. And the evidence of that is that
she acted. She did what she was told to
do. And I've commanded the ravens
to feed thee there. I wrote out by that. I mean,
I've got this all scribbled. I wrote out by this. The Lord
will provide. Are any of you afraid that the
Lord won't provide? Are any of you afraid that what
you've got is not going to last? You think it's not going to last?
I'm going to outlive my money? No, you're not. God said, I'll
carry you even to your old age. You believe that? That's comforting. That's comforting. Especially to those that are
poor and needy. David said, I'm poor and needy.
So he went and he did according to the word of the Lord. God's
servant is obedient. God's preachers are obedient.
He did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and
dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens
brought him bread and flesh, just like God said. Boy, if we
could just take God at his word. Our life would be so much more
easier, be so much more comfortable. We wouldn't be fretting and we'd
just take him at his word. He said he'd take care of us. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. David said, I've been young, now I'm old. I've never seen
the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. I've never
begged bread. I've never been begging. The
Lord's always provided. And the ravens brought him bread
and flesh in the morning, early in the morning, breakfast. and
bread and flesh in the evening, and brought him dinner. Isn't
that something? I heard Henry say in a message, he said, instead
of meals on wheels, it's meals on wings. The Lord can use meals
on wheels or meals on wings. It doesn't matter, all are his.
And they brought it every morning, every evening, just as faithful
as could be. And he drank of the brook. And
it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because
there had been no rain in the land. You see, here's what's
going to happen. God has a woman down in Sarepta. God has a, just
like the woman at the well, I must need to go through Samaria. God's
going to send Elijah down to this woman. And the Lord's going
to use this example as the sovereignty of God in salvation, because
he quotes this. There were many widows in the
days of Elijah, but God only sent him to one, and it was a
Gentile woman, and it made them Jews mad. Oh, they got mad, they
wanted to kill him. But God is sovereign in salvation.
And so there's a woman down there, one of His, and He's going to
send Elijah, His prophet, down there with His Word. And he's gonna take care of that
widow woman, a poor widow woman. Has nothing, there's nothing
about her that would commend her to God in any way, shape
or form, just like me and you. There's nothing about us to commend
us to God. And I tell you this, the Lord
sends the gospel where he will. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy and whom I will I'll harden. And the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which
belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded
a widow woman there to sustain thee. She, as I already said,
she didn't know that yet. You know, God might command somebody
to believe here this morning. He might command somebody to
believe. And I promise you, if he does, you'll believe. You'll
believe. I have commanded a widow woman
there to sustain thee. So he arose, and he went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, and I underline this, the widow woman was there. was there. It just might be someone
here, just like she was there, that God's going to command to
believe the gospel. It might just happen. Wouldn't
that be something? It would. The widow woman was
there. I love that. I just had to underline
that. She was there where God said she'd be. Just like that
woman at the well, she was there at the time appointed. She was
there when it was appointed for her to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. She was there. And when God saved
me, I was there. You say, well, that's stupid. No, that's providential. That's not incidental. That's
not accidental. That's providential. God crossed my path. God crossed
your path at the appointed time and you were there. He made sure
you were there. There's a lot of empty seats
here. There's a lot of people not here, but you're here. God crossed your path and he's
going to keep on crossing it until he takes you home. And she's there, she's gathering
a sticks and he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee
a little water in a vessel that I may drink. It may be that he's
seeing if this is the woman that God spoke to him about. And she was going to fetch it.
She did what he said. Well, this is the evidence of
a call that comes from God. You know what the evidence is?
Obedience. Obedience. And as she was going to fetch
it, he called to her. Now the message is going to go
out to her. The command is going to go out
to her. God said, I've commanded her to take care of you. And
now the word goes out, the word of command. The preacher's gonna
preach, and the word's gonna go out, and God's gonna command
through His Word. And he called to her, and he
said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. You see, she heard, she heard
the Word, she heard God's prophet. And she said, As the Lord thy
God liveth. I have not a cake, I'm empty. I'm poor, poor. God only saves poor sinners. God only saves the ungodly. You know, God doesn't save good
people. God has never saved a good person yet. That's why a lot
of people won't come. That's why sinners won't come.
That's why the Pharisees wouldn't come. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. And the reason they would not
come to him to have life is because they thought they had it. THEY
THOUGHT THEY WERE RIGHTEOUS, THEY DIDN'T NEED HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
EVERYONE WHOM GOD SAVES IS A WRETCHED, BROKEN, SPIRITUALLY POOR, POVERTY
STRICKEN SINNER. HE DIDN'T SEND ELIJAH TO THE
RICHEST PERSON IN TOWN TO TAKE CARE OF HIM. You know, this family
has a lot of money. They've got good, you know, he's
got a good business going and they can take care of you. He
sends her to the poorest woman in town. There couldn't be a
more poorer woman that Elijah could have been sent to. She's
a widow. Her husband has died. And especially
in that time, he was the provider. She has a son. You know how difficult
that was for her to try to provide. She's going to have to pick up
some sticks. That's what she's going to do.
She said, I don't have anything. But that's exactly how, that's
exactly the place God has to bring us to. I don't have anything. Have you ever really been there?
Have you ever stood before God broke? Totally broke, bankrupt,
nothing. But I have a handful of meal
in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise and behold, I am
gathering two sticks that I may go in, dress it for me and my
son. This is how poor she was, that we're gonna eat it and we're
gonna die. This is it, this is our last meal. This is our last,
God waited to send Elijah to her when she had her last morsel
of bread. I mean her last meal, this is
it, we're gonna die after this, because I don't have anything
left in the cupboard. And when she got down to where
she had nothing left, God sent the word to her. God sent his
prophet to her. God brought her into this condition,
you know that? Her husband didn't die. He may
have died in an accident, but it wasn't an accident that he
died. He took her husband. He brought her, God brought her
into her position, her poverty, he brought her into it on purpose,
for this purpose. He's gonna send his gospel, he's
gonna send his preacher, and she's gonna believe, and she's
gonna eat well and live well the rest of her life spiritually. Oh, I tell you, this is beautiful.
I couldn't get past this this morning. I thought I can, you
know, I had three examples, and after reading this this morning,
I thought, no, I can't go, I'm not gonna get through three of
them and do justice to any of it. So anyway, she's gonna gather
those sticks, and she's gonna fix her last meal, and her and
her son's gonna die. She believes that. She knows
that. She said, we're gonna die. And
Elijah, God's prophet, said to her, fear not. See, we don't
realize when God is actually speaking to a soul, that soul doesn't even realize
God's speaking. They may not realize God's speaking,
but they believe. They believe. Did you try to
believe? When you were told, did you try,
have you tried to believe? You just believed, you couldn't
help it. And the first thing he did was
calm her fears, because we have a lot of fears. And he says,
fear not, fear not to do what I said. Fear not to obey God's
word, that better way to put it. Fear not to obey God's word. Go and do as thou hast said. But make me therefore a little
cake first. Go do what you said, go and make
your meal and your last meal. Go ahead and do that, but make
me a cake first and bring it to me and after make for thee
and for thy son. Now she just said, this is our
last meal. If you had one last meal for
your child, Now I want you to think how serious this is, and
difficult. Faith is not easy. It's not easy. We live in a day of easy believism,
but it's not easy. God's gonna try faith, and it's
gonna be tried right at the beginning. And if you had to make your last
meal for your child, would you do it? Would you say, I got a
child here, we gotta take care of him first, him or her first,
gotta take care of this child first. And here's a lesson for
all of us. Christ is first, obedience is
first. Obedience, Christ is first. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother more than me is not worthy of me. He's first. I had a preacher tell me, young
preacher, He said, my wife and kids are first. No, they're not. No, they're not, especially if
you're a preacher. Vicki's not first. The Lord Jesus Christ
is first. We're second. Everything else
is second. Everything else is Christ is
first, I'm telling you the truth. You know that. But make me thereof a little
cake first, and bring it to me, and make for thee and thy son.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Here's the promise. You
see, she believes the promise. When we hear the gospel, it's
a promise. Come to me, and I'll give you
life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now there's some gonna believe
that. There are some who are going to hear God's Word, going
to hear His voice in the message, and they're going to believe
God. They're going to believe. So He gives her a promise. For
thus saith the Lord God of Israel, this is not My Word, this is
not My message, this is God's message, this is God's Word.
The barrel of mill shall not waste, neither shall the cruise
of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the
earth. Now listen, that's a promise. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise. Don't make
it difficult. Just take him at his word. And here's the evidence. She's
one of the Lords. Here's the evidence. And she
went. Faith acts. Faith is not dead. James says,
show me your works without your faith and I'll show you my works
by my faith. Or I'll show you my faith by my works. Put it
that way. I got it backwards. I'll show
you my faith by my works. Faith is evidence by works. Faith is evident. It's not our
works that say, but faith works, doesn't it? Faith works. And the evidence that you believe
God I tell you this, you'll ask the
pastor to baptize you. That's the evidence. One of the
evidence is you'll say, I want to follow the Lord. The Lord
said, whosoever believes and is baptized, I'm going to do
that. Now you're not going to be in
rebellion. Faith acts. Faith is obedient. And so she went and did according
to the saying of Elijah. Elijah just gave her the word
of the Lord. That's what he did. Faith takes
God at his word. And she and he and her house
did eat many days, over in my margin it says a full year. She ate like she'd never eaten
before. God will provide. And the barrel of meal wasted
not, Neither did the crucible of oil fail, according, listen,
according to the promise of God. Brethren, I expect, I expect
when I die, to enter into glory. Not because I accepted Jesus
almost 50 years ago, 45, 48 years ago. I don't, that has nothing
to do with it. I expect to enter into glory
based on God's word. looking to the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's my salvation now, he's my salvation. But I'm taking God
at his word, you said, Lord, you said. You know, when our
Lord speaks of the, there'll be many, he says, there'll be
many that'll say, Lord, we preached in your name, we cast out devils
in your name, we've done many mighty works in your name. He
says, depart from me, I never knew you. Not one of them said,
Lord, did you not die for me? Lord, you said, he that comes
to me, I will know why he's cast out. Now, if he had said that,
he would have said enter in, because it's evident the Lord
had saved him, saved them. Lord, you, oh, I tell you this,
and the barrel of meal, wasted and hot, and it didn't go dry. Neither did the cruise of oil
fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah,
his prophet, his preacher." When God saves a sinner, He's
going to send that sinner a preacher. And that preacher is going to
preach His Word, His Gospel. And God's going to command that
sinner to believe. He's going to command it. Because
if he leaves it up to me and you, we won't believe anything
God says. We'll believe everything else that anybody else says,
but we won't believe what God says. Aren't you glad he commanded
you to believe one day? And here you are. You wasn't
even trying to believe you weren't interested in Christ, and one
day you had an interest, and one day you believed. That's a good example of faith.
I tell you, that was such a blessing. I'm gonna leave it there. I'm
not gonna try to even... The rest of it'll be next week,
Lord willing, be 1 Kings 18, 29 through 39, and 1 Kings 20,
verses 31 and 32. I may have to just do one at
that time, but we'll see. All right.