The disciples of Christ asked
him in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verse 11, and I read, they
asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias, or that is,
Elijah, why say the scribes that Elias must first come? Why do the scribes say this?
Now, the scribes back in those days were men whose job it was
to transcribe or copy the scripture. And they did not say this, but
rather they had read this in the book of Malachi. And I read
from Malachi chapter 3, verse 1, which reads, Behold, I will
send my messenger And he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
shall suddenly come to his temple. And then over in Malachi chapter
4, verses 5 and 6, I read, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He said that the scriptures say,
My messenger shall prepare the way, and My servant Elijah shall
come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Well, here in
Mark chapter 9, our Lord answered his disciples when they asked
him this. He answered verse 12 and told
them, Elias, or Elijah, verily come at first, truly come at
first. and restoreth all things. And how it is written of the
Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be set at naught."
So our Lord said Elijah truly came first to restore all things. Now this must be important. These
are just a few verses here that tell us of this question and
our Lord's answer to his disciples. This must be important because
it is written in God's word. The disciples asked this question,
and our Lord answered them. I believe this is a past, present,
and future prophecy that our Lord gives here. In Mark 9, he
said, Elijah must truly come first, and verily he has come
to restore all things. Let me show you the first coming
of the first prophet, Elijah. It's found in 1 Kings 16-17. 1 Kings is the first appearance
of the prophet Elijah. Now, beginning with Solomon,
the son of David, beginning with Solomon, idolatry and wickedness
began to fill the nation of Israel. It began to fill the nation of
Israel because Solomon was to blame. Solomon married many women,
strange women, the scripture says, women of different nationalities
and different religions. And he, in order to appease his
various wives, began to allow them to worship their own gods
in whatever way they chose, even building them little places of
worship for them to practice their idolatry and so forth.
And God warned of this and the consequences of it to David,
the father of Solomon. Yet Solomon did not heed this
warning. and allowed the practice of idolatry
and wickedness to fill his house, and eventually all of Israel
was pervaded with this. Israel then was divided after
Solomon. Solomon had two sons, Rehoboam
and Jeroboam, Israel and Judah. the tribe of Judah, it was divided
into these two territories. Every single king in the province
or territory of Israel, what was called the Kingdom of Israel,
every single king was an evil and idolatrous man up to the
time of Elijah. and nearly every king in Judah. Let me just read of two kings
at the time preceding Elijah's appearance. In 1 Kings 16, verse
25, it mentions a man named Omri. It says, ìHe wrought evil in
the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before
him.î And then verse 29, it speaks of a man named Asa, king of Judah. In verse 33, it says that he,
his son Ahab, the son of Asa, did more to provoke the Lord
God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were
before him. You may remember the name of
King Ahab's wife, who was a very domineering woman. Her name was
Jezebel. It says, Ahab did worse than
all before him, Ahab was king of Judah or Israel, and so times
were idolatrous and wicked and bad, and suddenly, chapter 17,
verse 1, Elijah the Tishbite appeared. This man named Elijah,
mysteriously, suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, this man named
Elijah the Tishbite appeared. And he says in verse 1, As the
Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not
be dew or rain these years, but according to my word, and the
word of the Lord came unto him." God sent a prophet. It was God's
prophet. And it says, the word of God
came to him, God's prophet with God's word sent to an evil and
adulterous, idolatrous generation, full of religion, but wicked
religion, wicked religious practices. And Elijah, our Lord said back
in the text in Mark chapter 9, Our Lord said he would come and
restore all things. Well, the first Elijah, the first
prophet Elijah, was sent to restore the true worship of the living
and true God. Israel and even Judah had fallen
into idolatrous and wicked practices, worshipping their conception
of God, worshipping in any old way they felt like worshipping. Elijah came sent by God with
the Word of God, the true Word of God, the Law of Moses, and
he was sent to restore the true worship of the living and true
God, the worship, true worship of God in spirit and truth. That's what Jesus Christ said. He said, God is Spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, that
is, from the heart, without all these outward props, and in truth,
that is, according to God's word, the true way to worship. God
Almighty from the beginning set forth Himself, His character
His thoughts, His ways, and the true worship of Him. One way
to worship. God set forth one way for all
people to worship Him. One place one high priest, and
one sacrifice. Same way of worship for all,
not many differing ways, or that is, different faiths, and whatever
someone felt like doing, or however they felt like worshiping, it
was okay. No, God set forth one way, one
way to worship Him, because God is one. One place to do it, one
priest to perform it, one sacrifice that was the heart and soul of
it. So the same way of worship was
set forth for all men and women everywhere. But evil men and
seducers, and in this case many women, waxing worse and worse,
as Paul said, they set up many ways, even many priests, many
places, many devices, many differing methods, until finally anything
and everything goes. Anything and everything was accepted,
as long as someone believed in God as being how they thought
He was, and they felt like worshipping Him in any old way they felt
like, well, that was okay. And it degraded and degenerated
into whatever you felt like doing was okay. Does that sound familiar? People, I looked at the Yellow
Pages just yesterday, and in the Rocky Mount area alone, there
are over 120 so-called churches. 120. In the Roanoke area, there
are 700 and some. In other words, men and women
are just setting up, and any time a store building comes open,
somebody puts a so-called church in it. Any kind of empty building,
someone starts a religious group. Well, Elijah came to restore
true worship. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter
11, some time after Elijah and the prophet Elisha after him,
it all began to deteriorate again. After Elijah restored the true
worship of the living and true God and made men acquainted with
the God of the Bible and the true way to worship him, it all
began to deteriorate again. Malachi prophesied of this, the
coming of Elijah again, right before the Lord Jesus Christ
was to come. Now, this is not the same man
when he said Elijah would come. It wasn't the first Elijah. But it was a man like unto Elijah,
and listen to this, Matthew 11 verse 13, our Lord says this,
all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if
you will receive it, this is Elijah which was for to come. John, that is, John the Baptist.
was this Elijah of whom the prophet Malachi prophesied of, and our
Lord said that. What it is with John is that
all true prophets of God are one and the same in their mind,
in their purpose, in their mission, in their voice, in their message,
in their methods. They are all one and the same.
passions and like mind and like mission, and they all have the
same message, the same motive, the same methods. That is, number
one, to glorify God in the declaration of His Word and His Word alone.
You won't find these men, you didn't find Elijah nor John the
Baptist, doing anything but declaring God's Word. and pointing men
to the Christ who was to come. That's what John did. He did
not draw away disciples after himself, but to the contrary.
He wasn't pointing to himself. He was reluctant to even speak
his own name. No prophet ever stood before
men and said, I am anointed, which I hear men, false prophets
say today. I am anointed. Not one single
prophet ever said that about himself. When Isaiah spoke that
in Isaiah 61, it was a prophecy of Christ who came and said,
this day is this scripture fulfilled. I'm the anointed one. Anointed
means the Christ, the Messiah. John came to restore the true
worship of God, like Elijah before him. This is Elijah, our Lord
said. This is the character, the manner,
the method, the mission, the message of every true preacher
sent by God. And Elijah restored all things
as did John the Baptist, the restoration of the preaching
of the word and the pointing of men to Christ. This is what
we need, a recovery of the gospel and the method of preaching the
gospel alone, the word of God. This alone will bring the restoration
of all things. The restoration of the message
of a holy, sovereign, just God, the character of God. The restoration
of the preaching of a depraved and totally dead man in trespasses
and sin. The restoration of the preaching
of the person and the work of Jesus Christ and him alone in
salvation. Not the will and the works of
man. The restoration of the necessity
of regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God. All this talk today about
the Holy Spirit is a sham. The restoration of the preaching
of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit is the work of the Holy
Spirit. It's not us doing something with the Spirit, obtaining a
spirit so we'll talk like a blooming idiot. But it's the work of the
Holy Spirit in convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment,
as our Lord said in John 16 and 14. Well, this is what the true Elijah
speaks. This is what the first one did,
and John after him, and every one of like manner. God has not
left himself without a witness in this generation. There are
men just like Elijah who have the same mission, method, message
and methods, and that is the preaching of Christ and him alone. Well, I hope you hear from an
Elijah yourself. Until next Sunday, good night. All right.