I was greatly blessed by reading
this a week or more ago. I woke up pretty early in the wee hours
feeling sorry for myself. Anybody ever done that? Well,
the Lord in great mercy led me to this very passage, and it
was such a great Blessing to me, the title I've given it is
Elijah's Complaint. Or you could name it a cure for
self-pity. Elijah was a man whom God had
made great. His greatness was not in himself. No man's greatness is. The Lord's
great grace makes any man or person to do great things. The
Lord gave Elijah extraordinary gifts. He raised a dead person. He called down fire from heaven. He parted the River Jordan. He stopped the rain. Yet, he's
a man of like passions, but the Lord gave him great faith and
great courage. Just the chapter before this,
one of my favorites, is Elijah standing before 400 and fifty
prophets of Baal standing resolute and courageous against them.
But this is a different story. He's now running scared from
a woman, Jezebel. And he's full of doubts, he's
full of fear, and he's so full of self-pity. And I'm so thankful
that the Lord raised up men like Elijah and gave them great faith
like he did and great courage, but I'm also thankful that the
Lord wrote of their failures. That gives me hope. Men of great
faith, yet he showed their lack of faith. Now here he is, Elijah. He's a man full of self-pity.
Look at verses 3. and four again when he saw the
message sent from Jezebel. He went for his life, he ran
for his life, came to Beersheba that belonged to Judah, left
his servant there. He had a faithful servant that
was with him at all times up until he was taken. And he left
his servant there and he wanted to be alone. But he himself went
a day's journey into the wilderness, came, sat down under a juniper
tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, prayed, it's
enough, I've had enough. Oh Lord, take away my life, just
kill me. He said, I'm no better than anybody
else. Now, as I said, Elijah was a
man full of faith, full of courage, but he's still a man. And now,
because he's a man, now he's full of doubts and fears and
worries. I believe he's ashamed of himself. He's ashamed of his
cowardice. And he's running and he wanted
to be alone. And as we read the story of Jacob,
he was left alone too. And sometimes that's a good thing.
But I believe Elijah would have been would have done well to
keep his servant with him. And we need encouragement. His servant could have maybe
encouraged him in his God, but he wanted to be alone. You know
how that is. Everybody in here has gotten into a state just
like that. Leave me alone. And go off and hide somewhere
and just ask the Lord, just kill me. Just kill me. I want to die. Anybody? Everybody. I want to die. He's not like Paul. He's not
wanting to go and be with the Lord. He just wants out of his
troubles. He's feeling sorry for himself. But the Lord's not ready for
him to die. You don't ask for that. You don't wish for that.
You don't ever pray. We should never pray for that
because the Lord is going to take that up in His time. And he wasn't through with Elijah. He still had many messages to
preach. He had a young man to train named
Elisha. But it says he went and he lay under this juniper tree
and he slept, verse 5. He lay down there and slept under
that juniper tree. Did he cry himself to sleep maybe? Have you ever done that? For many reasons. We all do.
We have. Because of whatever. Sin. Guilt. Shame. Sorrow. Great sorrow. Pain. Suffering. But Elijah is
a paradox. Every believer is a paradox.
Every believer is an enigma to themselves. Two people. There are two persons in one
man. Every believer can be faithful
one day and faithless the next. Every believer can be strong
in faith one day, giving glory to God, and the next day they
are ashamed to speak His name, like Simon Peter. Every believer
can be full of assurance, no doubts whatsoever, resting in
the Lord's promises the next day, having no assurance whatsoever. full of doubts, fears, and worries
no better than an unbelieving worldman. Every believer can
be full of pity for others one day, and the next day not think
of anybody but themselves. Full of pity for themselves.
Every believer at one time can seem like he's ready to conquer
the world, and the next day the world has conquered him. Every
believer can stand strong in the faith one day, stand up,
and the next day fall to the least temptation. And the fact is, what we're going
to all realize is like Elijah, I am no better than anybody else. That's what he said. I am no
better than my father. I am no better than Adam. No
better than Adam. sinned against great goodness.
I know better than Noah. We're about to read about Noah
in Genesis 9. One of the few on earth saved,
but we find him in a terrible state. I know better than Abraham,
Elijah said. Abraham denied his wife not once,
but twice. I know better than Jacob. I'm
a cheat. I know better than Simon Peter.
I deny that the Lord bought me. I know better. That's what we're
all going to come to that conclusion. The Lord is going to bring us
to that. Well, Elijah was full of self-pity, and the Lord in
great mercy sent an angel. An angel of mercy. Look at it. Verse 5, As he sat as he lay
under that juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him. An angel touched him. Angels
are mysterious creatures. Go over to Revelation 22 with
me. You know, you've read much about
angels. We don't study angels. We're
not here to worship angels, as Scripture said some do, wrongly.
But angels are a mysterious creature. Angels like Michael. Angels like
Gabriel. Archangel. Yet some of these
angels were clearly men. And the Lord said, we will be
as the angels in heaven. But some of them were men. Look
at Revelation 22. This is when John received revelation
from the angel of many things, and verses 8 and 9, I, John,
saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen,
I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed
me these things." Now this is the second time John did this.
He was so grateful for what he was hearing and seeing. He was
just so amazed by it all, so thankful for this revelation.
He fell down before the angel. The messenger, that's what angel
meant. The angel said to him, verse 9, saith unto me, don't
do this, see thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant,
and of thy brethren the prophets. That angel could well have been
Elijah. And John didn't recognize him,
just as some didn't recognize our Lord in his glorified body.
But he said, I am your of your brethren, the prophets of them
which keep the sayings of this book." That's what angels do.
Worship God, he said. Worship God. You know that the
Lord calls his preachers angels. Under the angel of the church
of Ephesus. Under the angel of the church
of Pergamos. Under the angel of the church
of Philippi. He calls his preachers angels because they're messengers.
And we're told to esteem them highly, because the Lord sent
these angels with a message to quicken us. A message of good
news. And we're to esteem them highly
for their work's sake. Cornelius, the Lord, he prayed,
and the Lord told him he would send him a messenger. It was
Simon Peter. He's just an old fisherman. whom
the Lord turned into a great preacher did. Well, when Peter
came walking in the house where Cornelius was, it says, Cornelius
fell down at his feet and worshipped him. He was so thankful, so grateful
that the Lord had sent this to him, an angel of mercy, with
this gospel. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And we would esteem them highly.
but not too highly. We're not to worship them, not
at all. Holy and Reverend is His name,
not our name. But we do thank the Lord for
the message of mercy and those that preach it. I'm so thankful,
like Cornelius, that he sent me a faithful preacher. He's
an angel of mercy to me and many people. Alright, look at it. Now, here's his message to Elijah. As Elijah lay and slept under
that juniper tree, the angel touched him and said unto him,
Arise and eat. And he looked, Elijah looked,
and behold, there was a cake, that is, a loaf of bread, baking
on the coal, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did
eat and drink. Bread and water. Arise, the angel
said. Rise up. Eat, drink. And he looked, and he was already
prepared for it. He didn't prepare it, but this
angel prepared it for him. Get up and eat. Now, do you know
what the Lord uses to quicken every dead sinner? And you had
to quicken who were dead and trespassed. What did he use?
The Word of God. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God that liveth and
abideth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. We're quickened by that Word.
The Word of the Gospel. And the same thing that quickens
us the first time, quickens us every time. Whatever state we
get, no matter how low we get, we need to be raised up. The
Word of God quickens us. David said, My soul cleaveth
unto the dust, quicken thou me according to your Word. Give
me life. I feel dead. Give me life. Quicken me according to your
Word, with your Word. I'll never forget hearing that
one time as a young man. Mindy and I were traveling somewhere,
and I was just burdened with a sense of my own guilt and sinfulness,
and we were coming back from somewhere. We stopped in to worship
with one of our sister churches, and he preached from that very
passage, Quicken thou me. My soul cleaveth under this.
Quicken thou me according to thy word. And it did. It did. He did. And I told that preacher
how grateful I was. I said, you have beautiful feet.
I wrote him a letter afterward. I thanked him for it. It quickened
me. Eat. Drink. Eat, drink, rise
up. You know why the Lord uses preaching
in preachers? You don't have time to do this.
You don't have time to look into this water like I do. And give
a man time to prepare a meal for you and you'll eat well. Fat things and wine on the lean,
well-retired. You come, all you need to do
is come hungry. It will be all prepared for you.
It's all ready. I said, look, eat. Right there. Just bring hunger. And you know
something, what will literally ease our fears is the gospel.
Christ is that bread. Christ is that water of life.
The gospel of Christ will ease our fears. Fear not. The gospel will get our hopes
up. If you're like me, and some other
people in here I know that are kind of negative at times, you
have a bad outlook on things, the gospel will get your hopes
up. We ought to be the most cheerful people on earth. Our Lord kept telling His disciples
that. Be of good cheer. I own this place. I own you. Everything you're
going through, I put you through it. Nothing moves, nothing harms
you except what I allow. I've provided everything for
you all the days of your life. Your sins are gone. You have
nothing to worry about. You're mine. Bought with a price.
Cheer up. But as God used to say, I've
never heard any bad news since I've heard good news. The Gospel
gives us strength to feel so weak, but that's when we're strong.
When we're weak, it's the only time we're going to look to Him.
He's our strength. And the Gospel will give us rest
like it did Elijah here. He ate it and he was able to
sleep. The second time he slept, I believe
he slept a sleep of peace. He giveth his beloved sleep.
How? Rest. How? by this Word. I'd venture to say Wednesday
nights, you sleep about as well as you'll ever sleep. Everybody
but me. Because I'm going back over the
whole message. Wish I'd said this. Wish I hadn't said that.
Wish I'd done this. Wish I'd done that. And I'll
arrest myself. Because the Lord's going to take
what He will and throw away the rest. And He said, My Word will
not return void. It will accomplish. He said,
It will comfort my people. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice. Okay, Lord. And it's not up to me, is it? No, it's not. It's not. And I
tell you that literally the Word of God will raise you up out
of your doubts and fear. How often have you awakened,
you know, for the whole people, awakened at all hours
of the night, and you try various things to go back to sleep, don't
you? You get up, and about the last
thing you need to do is turn on that TV, and fill your mind
back full of the stuff that's giving you problems sleeping
in the first place. What we ought to do is get out the blessed
Word, and the Lord leads you beside
the still waters, soul still in waters, and restores your
soul. I try to practice what I'm telling
you. Call on the Lord. Call on Him until He answers
and read. Read His Word. I told someone
this one time that often we read the Word and we start reading
and it convicts us. And it convicts us, and it convicts
us, and it convicts us. And I say, well, keep reading
until you find some comfort. Keep reading until you get some
mercy. Because you will. Those that tremble at His Word,
He'll look to them in mercy. We're going to see that in a
minute. The Lord gave him a baked cake from the coals, and it reminded
me of Isaiah. He said, Woe is me. And the Lord
got a coal from the altar. And there's something to be seen
in this juniper tree, people. And I don't rightly know what
it is, but he mentions it twice in many trees. But David spoke
of coals of a juniper. and Psalm 120, but something
to do with where he was lying, seeking refuge. The Lord burned
it up. Took the coals from that. Something to do with Christ Him
crucified. I know that. Arise and eat. We talk about reading God's Word.
We talk about feeding on the Word of God. By that, we mean,
what he said was, eat my flesh and drink my blood." In other
words, we need to feed on Him, not just looking for information.
We need to see Him. Who? A living Lord seated on
a throne and we're in His hand. A dying, a crucified Christ who
died for our sins and put them away and we don't bear them. He bore them away. An ascended
Lord who ever lives to make intercession for us. It says peace. We feed
on Him. If we feed on Him, if we come
to see Him in the Scriptures, then we can go to peace. He that
keepeth Israel doesn't sleep. So he'd go to sleep. He'd go
to sleep. So Elijah did. He laid down and
went back to sleep. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord
came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and
eat. Get up. Eat. We need to be reminded again
and again, don't we? We repeat ourselves a lot. Preachers,
we repeat ourselves a lot. You know why? The Lord does. Everything the prophets said,
they repeated from what the Lord said. Everything the apostles
said, they repeated what the prophets said, what the Lord
said. It's just repeating. We're just telling again and
again. And again, what the Lord has
already said. And we need to be reminded. Because
we forget so soon. The only way to remember anything
is to keep having it repeated to you. To keep reminding. Reminding. Peter said, I will always have
you in remembrance of these things. He said, I want to stir up your
pure minds by way of remembrance. I want to keep reminding you
of this. Get up and eat. You need to eat. Why? Because the journey is too
great for thee. See that? The journey is too
great for thee. You can't make it. You can't
make it. This walk of faith, this life
of faith, you can't take one step. Without Him, we can do
nothing. Can't take one step. Without
His Word, we're fearful, we're ignorant, we're weak. quicken
me according to your word. We're weak. And we need the strength
that's in Christ himself, which comes from hearing his word,
his gospel. You can't hear this message right now, which is full
of great help and strength and peace and rest. You can't hear
a word of it because the flesh lusts against the spirit. Spirit
against the flesh. We cannot do the thing that we
would. But get up and eat. The journey is too great for
thee." And he rose, verse 8, and he did eat and drink and
went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights
under the whore of the mount of God. Forty days and forty
nights he went in the strength of that meat. Now, forty days
and forty nights often symbolizes a time of trial, testing. Noah and his sons were in that
ark. It was raining hard. coming down
hard, floodgates, windows of heaven opening. Have you ever
been in the house or somewhere where, I mean, the Lord opened
the skies up and just poured down rain? It's frightening,
isn't it? And they were afraid. Forty days and forty nights of
rain. They were afraid. No matter that
they were in that ark, they were still afraid. Someone said that
these 40 days represent every year to which the children of
Israel wandered in the wilderness. That's good. That's a good thought,
isn't it? Our whole lives will be full
of trials, 40 days, 40 nights. There's only one way to strengthen
this meat. And our Lord said, my body is
meat indeed. You need to eat my flesh and
drink my blood Forty days and forty nights, or else we'll be
overcome in the wilderness. The Lord doesn't feed us on the
manna, which is Christ. We'll be overcome in the wilderness. Well, the Lord asked Elijah a
question. He brought him to Mount Horeb, or that is Mount Sinai. Horeb is Mount Sinai, where Moses
got the love. He came right back there. And
he came further to verse 9, to a cave. Was it the same cleft
of the rock? Maybe, I don't know. But he lodged
there. Behold, the word of the Lord
came to him and said unto him, ask him a question. What doest thou hear, Elijah? What are you doing here? Now, the Lord doesn't ask questions
for information. The Lord is omniscient and knows
all. The answer of the tongue is of
the Lord. He knoweth our thoughts of our
all. What doest thou hear? I thought
about this. In an unbelieving world, impudent
rebels demand answers from God. Like the scribes and Pharisees
did when they questioned our Lord. But when the Lord deals
with sinners, deals with us, He doesn't question them. He asks the question. And He
demands an answer from us. Alright? Like He asked Adam in
the garden. He asked the first sinner in
the garden. When he said, Adam, where art thou? He knew where
Adam was. But He was showing Adam, look
at you. Look where you've put yourself. Where art thou? Now, where are
you? Rebelling against me. Like he
said to Jacob when he wrestled with Jacob, remember? What's
your name? He knew Jacob's name. Jacob have
I loved. He named him. But he demanded of Jacob that
Jacob confess what he was. I'm a chief. I'm no good. I'm
a supplanter. Like he asked Job. Remember Job? Job had many answers, but when
the Lord spoke, The first question he asked him was, who is this
that darkened counsel by words without knowledge? In other words,
who is doing all this talking? He demands of us an answer. What doest thou here, Elijah?
What are you doing here? What are you doing here? It's
a good question to ask God. What are you doing here? On planet Earth? What are you
doing here? Why were you created? Why were
you born? Why are you where you are now?
What are you doing here? The Lord has created all things
for Himself, even the wicked for the day of evil. Glory and for thy pleasure they
are and were created, so were you. What are you doing here? What are you doing here? Living
for yourself? It's not about you. It's about
Him. What are you doing here tonight?
Right here in this church? What are you doing here? You
couldn't be somewhere else. What are you doing here? How
did you get here? And what are you doing here? So how did you
come here? Huh? That's a good question,
isn't it? The Father seeketh such to worship
him in spirit and truth. If you've been brought here,
you're greatly blessed to hear from the Lord. Now, here tonight,
it's no accident. It's no accident. No accident. Well, here's Elijah's complaint.
Elijah said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. The
children of Israel are forsaken by covenant, that is, religion.
That's forsaken your gospel. They've thrown down your altars.
They're not sacrificing lambs anymore. They've slain your prophets
with a sword, the true men of God. And I, even I only, am left,
and they see they're trying to kill me. Take me away. You know,
the Lord did not rebuke Elijah. He said this twice. And before
you do, And I thought at first, he spoke
out of turn here, but the Lord did not rebuke him. Why? Because
he was jealous for the Lord God. He was. And he's complaining. Have you ever done this? I know
right where he's coming from. Lord, I'm preaching the gospel.
I'm preaching the truth. And religion is so big, they
can't build buildings big enough to do what? Spaghetti dinners. bake sales, gymnasiums, fashion
shows, golf tournaments. And all we're trying to do is
preach the gospel. Preach the Word of God. Say what
God says. For the glory of God. For the
good of people. For their souls sake. Not trying
to count heads. Count blessings. Not trying to see how many people
we can get in. Trying to see how much glory we can give to
God. They're not preaching the gospel.
And they hate those who do. And if you've ever been, and
every believer can enter into this too, out in the workplace
or out in the community or wherever you are, you just try to tell
people the truth. And if you've ever been in a
crowd of people where everybody in there is together and joined
together in religion, believing the same thing, and they all
join against you. Why? I'm just trying to tell
them the truth. I'm not telling them what I think. I'm just trying to tell them
what God said. Lord, don't you see what's happening? That's
Elijah's complaint. Have you ever had that? Yeah, you have. Every believer has.
Every believer feels alone. And the Lord later tells him,
I have 7,000. I have reserved to me a remnant. 7,000 sounds like a lot, doesn't
it? I have several million people
in this room. That's not many. That's a small remnant. And people,
the ratio is much smaller now. There were 850 false prophets
in Elijah's time. One man again. One man. A little
while later, Micah. He raised up Micah, one man against
850, and the percentage is much lower now. Our Lord said, many
false prophets will go out of the way. And he complained. Why is this? Why is this? Because that's the
way it is. That's the way it is. Look at
what the Lord did for him. The Lord said to him, spoke to
him, verses 11 and following. He said, go forth, stand upon
the mount. He's on Mount Sinai there before
the Lord. Stand before me. Behold, now
this is the Lord's, the one He loved, His man, not just a preacher. He's just a child of God who needs
help, who needs A message of peace, a message of encouragement,
a message to allay his fears. He's running scared. This is
a man who doesn't have much faith right now. He needs to have that
faith strength, be built up on that most holy faith. He needs
to hear something from the Lord. He needs the Lord to speak to
him in peace. to still his soul. He needs something
to still his troubled soul. Elijah has reached the point
almost of despairing. And he needs the Lord. He's despairing
of himself. He's despairing of the truth.
He's despairing of Israel. He feels all alone. Lord, speak
to me. That's the point that he's brought
to. Here's what the Lord does for him in verse 11. He says,
Go forth and stand upon the Mount. Mount Sinai there, before the
Lord. And behold, here's what happened. The Lord passed by.
A great and strong wind ripped the mountains and breaking pieces
of rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind, an earthquake shook the ground that Elijah
was standing on. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, a fire just devoured everything. Our
God is consuming fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, A still, small voice. Elijah heard that. Alright, what's all this speaking
of? Well, these things represent our God is a consuming
fire, the law, the mountain on which He stood, that trembled
when Moses got the law, that shook and the people were afraid?
Huh? Oh, this man, when I look, he's
this poor and contrite heart and trembling at my word. You
reckon Elijah was afraid when all this was going on? Huh? He's a man. He's afraid when
he got there. And then the Lord sent this wind
and just blew everything and blowing him and the earthquake
shook the ground that he was standing on. And then a fire
come and consumed everything around him. You reckon he was
afraid? That's what our Lord said, that
this man will not live. He's a trembling. You know, we need
our little world shaken up. You know, every now and then
we need our little world shaken up. Amen. Told you about those. That box of worms that I bought,
you know, every now and then I'd go down there and do something
to that. And I'd move their whole world.
Move their whole world and shake it all around. And I'd get to
see one of them look up and say, hey, have mercy, not one of them. God's people do. You know, the Lord's shaking
this world. And he spoke of, in the last
days, everything. He said, once more, I shake the
earth that the things that cannot be shaken, that cannot be removed. I'm going to show you how I'm
going to wipe everything out. I'm going to shake the ground
you're standing on. I'm going to burn up everything. I'm going
to blow away every refuge that lies. And where you're going
to be standing, if you're standing in the right place, is before
me. Things that cannot be shaken. on Christ the solid rock. And
this shows us too that the law can't speak peace to our heart. The law speaks terror. The law
speaks judgment. Mount Sinai, don't come near
this mountain, the Lord said, you'll be consumed. You'll be
thrust through with a dart. You come near the law and a dart
from God's Word. The arrows of the Lord are sharp
in the hearts of His enemies. Who's that? by nature. The law will slay us. The law is a fearful thing. The law can't speak peace to
our hearts. The only thing that can, that
will, is a still, small voice. What's that? Is the Lord's voice
small? You read Psalm 29 one night. The voice of the Lord cause it
the cedars to break, the hinds to calf, the earth to quake. The voice of the Lord is not
small. What does this mean then? A still small voice. Well, the Lord doesn't speak
to us out loud. When he did, a few times, it
thundered. Remember that? He does speak
through small voices. with people of a stammering lip.
Men. He'll speak to you through men.
A small voice. And what that voice will be is
a still boy. A stilling voice. Be still and
know that I'm God. See, the law strikes terror in
you. But the gospel stills us. The Lord our Shepherd The law
is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, our shepherd who
brings us beside the still waters to restore our souls. The voice
of the gospel is a soul-stealing voice that says, peace, be still. Do you know that I'm God? It's a
voice of mercy. This is to His people. This is
to Elijah. Elijah needs comfort. And so he says to his messenger,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people with this soul-stealing message.
Tell her her iniquities part. Receive of the Lord's hand double
for all her iniquities. Steal them with that message.
Tell them of the Lord's mercy that's as high above the earth
as the heavens are of the earth. Endure it forever. Tell them
of the Lord's grace. Great grace, that no matter how
much they've sinned, grace is fair. Tell them. That will steal their soul. That
will steal their soul. The gospel is a message of great
comfort, great mercy, great love. Tell them, though they've acted
like they don't love me at all, tell them I love them in spite
of themselves. Tell them. And Elijah was complaining, wasn't
he? Twice he's complaining about everything that's going on. He said, I've been jealous. And
I have been too. And you have been too. Right? And he's complaining. And I look
at what the Lord says and I'll quit with it. And this was a
real revelation to me. Nobody showed me this. I'm sure somebody... I know somebody
said it. There's nothing new. But I couldn't
find anybody. But here's what the Lord said
to him after he complained again, I'm the only one, I'm the only
one. The Lord said, you go, verse 15, return on thy way to the
wilderness. You go back where you came from. Elijah, quit running
and go back where you came from. Okay? Go on your way. Return
where you've got a job to do. Quit complaining. Quit running. Give nothing to fear. I am the
Lord. Be still. Now go back where you
came from, you've got a job to do. And I think about, I love
Isaiah 30, 15, it says, In returning and rest ye shall be saved. In quietness and confidence shall
be your strength. Return, return. And every one
of us, we're going to go home tonight. Well, go home, do what
you always do, and remember, the Lord's on the prong. Thy
God reigneth. Don't be upset. Okay? Go back
to your job. Go back to your place. Fulfill
your calling. Fulfill your calling. Be of good
cheer. Fulfill your calling. And then
the Lord told him to anoint. And what does all this mean?
He said to anoint Hazael. I was having a hard time with
his name. Hazael. To be king over Syria. And Jesus
is the son of And then she'd be king over Israel, and Elisha
is going to be your replacement. What's he talking about? Well,
there was a king in Syria right then. He said, you go anoint
this fellow. There was a king in Israel, Ahab.
He said, you go anoint Jehu. And there's a prophet in Israel.
It's Elijah. It's him. He says, you go train
up Elisha. What he's telling him is, I raise
up. I bring down. I promote. I demote. I've not left myself
without a witness. Don't worry about it. Okay? Every king, I'm the one that
puts them there. I'm the one. Ahab was the most
wicked king on the earth. Keep reading. Ahab was the most
wicked king on the earth. And Jezebel. They both remind
me of Bill and Hillary. I said I wasn't going to say
that, but I did it anyway. Because she ran the show. She
ran the show. He did what she wanted him to
do. Jezebel. And God said, they're dog means. Didn't He? Elijah, they're dog
means. And they were. And then He's
going to raise up somebody in His stead. Who did He raise up
later? Manasseh. He's twice as bad as Ahab. It
can't get any worse. It will. Can this country get
any worse? Huh? It will. I mean, only your
children have got to come up through this. Your children have
got to grow up. Your children have got to go out there under
a wicked king. Be still. The Lord raises it
up. The King's heart is in the hands
of the Lord. He's God's King. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, even the wicked, for the day of trouble. Be still. And Elijah, I have not left myself
without a witness. I never have and never will.
When I take you, I'll give you a replacement. Because my people
are going to hear my voice. They're going to hear my gospel.
Now go home. Cheer up. Hope up. Get courage. Encourage yourself
in me. Go do your job. Quit crying. Trust me. Get up and eat. If you find yourself full of
pity, get up and eat and go in the strength of that. Okay? Anybody
get any help? Okay. Stand with me. Our Lord. Oh, Your Word is everything. Everything is your voice, it's
your mind, your will, your power, our strength, our peace, our
comfort. Lord, remind us, tomorrow, tomorrow,
tomorrow morning, we wake up, raise us up, cause us to feed
upon you, upon your Word, to go in the strength of it. Lord,
remind us, ever remind us, don't let us forget. Give us a hunger
and thirst. Blessed, how blessed is the man,
the person that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, they shall
be filled. And oh, how blessed are they that are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. When men shall say all manner
of evil falsely against us for thy name's sake. He said, Rejoice! Rejoice! For so persecuted they,
the prophets, like Elijah. Let us rejoice, Lord. Give us
strength. Give us courage. In a dark day, in a sinful day,
in this present evil world, give us courage to say, Thus saith
the Lord. Forgive us our cowardice. Forgive
us for what we are. We're no better. We're no better
than our fathers. Forgive us, for Christ's sake.
It's in His name we met here tonight. Amen. You're dismissed. Thank you very much.