Alright, turn with me to the
book of 1 Kings chapter 17. Scripture says the heavens declare
God's glory and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Everything
speaks of God's glory. Charles Spurgeon once said that
all the world is a sermon. and use practical things and bring messages from it. All the
world is a sermon. Everything, every creature. And
I don't know if this, I hope it's of the Lord, but I was driving
into the church parking lot Saturday morning to study here. I already had a message prepared,
It was a big black raven in the parking lot. And I pulled up
and he just didn't move. He was just standing there and
was kind of strutting around. And he never would leave. And
I got out of the car and I just looked at him and he just looked
at me. And this passage came to my mind. This very passage of Scripture
came to my mind. So, we'll see. We'll see. 1 Kings 17, read the first four
verses with me. Elijah, which his name means
God, Jehovah, it is he. Elijah the Tishbite, who was
of the inhabitants of Gilead. said or appeared before Ahab,
king of Israel, 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." And then he left. And the word
of the Lord came unto him, Elijah saying, 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 have commanded the ravens to feed
thee there. Now, Elijah was the prophet of
God. He was a mysterious man. This
is the first mention of Elijah. It seemed like he just came out
of nowhere. No mention of his mother or father.
Kind of like Melchizedek. You remember Elijah. My, what
a man. The Lord took him up to heaven
on a chariot. Elijah is a good representative. He's not Christ, but he's a good
representative of that mysterious and marvelous man called Jesus
the Christ. Elijah was sent by God with the
Word of God. Elijah was bold, preached with
authority as the oracles of God. And he came to this Ahab who
was the ruler in Israel. Israel was full of idolatry thanks to men like Ahab. It was
apostate. Israel was supposed to be God's
people that came in the name of Jehovah, but it was full of
idolatry. Oh, abominable practices. And he said to Ahab, he came
with boldness, with authority, he said, As the Lord God of Israel
liveth in the name of Jehovah God, whom you have blasphemed,
whose name you have not honored and glorified. The living and
only true God as opposed to this God who these idols you worship. Now, everything that the prophets
said, everything the Lord said and did is not recorded in the And you can safely believe that
Elijah reproved and rebuked Ahab for his idolatry and his wickedness. That this is not all he said.
But in the name of Jehovah God, the living and only true God,
unlike the idols, the dead, deaf and dumb idols that you have
set up, before whom I stand. whose name Elijah said, I fear,
and whose glory I am bound to promote. He said, there shall not be dew
nor rain these years, for several years, but according to my word,
until I say so. Ahab, this ruler, had 850 prophets
on his payroll. The next chapter is that great
story of Mount Carmel and Elijah challenging Ahab's prophets. 850. One man. And 850 prophets,
false prophets, on the payroll of Ahab. All of whom preached anything
the people wanted to hear. As Jeremiah said, peace, peace,
when there was no peace. There was no peace for Israel
at this time. God was angry. This is why the
rain was being withheld. Drought and death because of
it. And Elijah was one true prophet. Can all these fellows be wrong
and one man be right? Yes. And he stood up. One man alone. Proclaiming the
Word of God in the name of God. He came in the name of God. Proclaiming
the fear of God. The judgment of God against sin. And it's always been the case.
The truth has always been in the minority. Always from the
beginning of time. Our Lord said this. He said,
wide is the gate. Broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be that go therein. But straight
is the gate. I mean, it's straight pointing
to one person, one thing. And narrow is the way that leadeth
unto life, and few, relatively, comparatively to the population,
few there be that find it. Now, has that changed? Noah stood alone. Remember, as
in the days of Noah, our Lord said, so shall the coming of
the Son of Man be. Noah stood alone. What was his
message? Well, the first thing was, the
wrath of God is going to be revealed from heaven in the form of rain. judgment, the overflowing scourge
of God's love? No, wrath. That was the first
thing that Noah preached. But he didn't stop there. But
there is mercy with God. You see, this art, this plain,
simple art that you see no beauty in, that's life. Right there is the love of God.
Inside that ark, you'll find the love of God, the mercy of
God, the grace of God, the salvation of God. Outside that ark, God,
His wrath is coming. Has anything changed? No. God
hasn't changed. Man hasn't changed. The message
has not changed. The message has not changed.
Moses stood alone. Moses stood alone, with the exception
of maybe Aaron, her. He stood up there and said, who
is on the Lord's side? Who has God's name and God's
glory at heart? Who has God's truth at heart? Who is interested in God's rights,
not man's? God's will. God's goal. Moses
said, let Him come unto me. Joshua. Men like Joshua stood
alone. Samuel. Samuel, Elijah, Elisha,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, every one of those men were hated and despised and rejected. The
sons of Korah said to Moses, you think you're right and we're
wrong? They did. And then the truth himself came,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth himself came. The Word
of God made flesh. sent by God, like Elijah, sent
by God, his Father, in the name of God. Elijah said, in the name
of the Lord God of Israel. Our Lord said, I am come in my
Father's name. He said, you let a man come in
his own name, and him you will receive. I am come in the name
of God, for the glory of God, with the truth of God, with the
message from God. And here's what our Lord said,
like Elijah. Elijah said, now, there's not going to be any rain
except I say so. Our Lord said, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. All authority. Judgment is committed unto me. The Father hath committed all
judgment unto me. All power in heaven and earth to give eternal
life to whom He wills. Him He wills. Everything, all
judgments committed to me, given to the Son to give life. Everything He said, Christ said,
everything is according to my Word. What I say, when I say
it, because I say it. I'm the Word. I'm the last Word.
Author and a finish. All heavenly blessings are mine
to give or withhold. That's my word. Now, Elijah, his message, his
dire message, I want you to turn to Amos, the book of Amos chapter
4. A little book of Amos will give
you time to find it. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Obadiah, Jonah, Daniel, find
that book, Hosea, Joel, Amos, chapter 4. Elijah's dire message
to Ahab and all Israel was because of the idolatry. of the land,
and because there was no fear of God before their eyes, because
the name of God was being blasphemed. And he said, there's not going
to be any goo, not even any moisture whatsoever, or rain, certainly
no showers of blessings for years. Drought, which brings drought,
and then famine, no bread, and then death. God sent that. Why
did God withhold the rain? Because of judgment. the sin
and wrath of God, because God was angry against those that
forget God every day. Paul wrote, and the Scriptures
are full of telling us clearly the signs of the time that we
live in. We're in the last day. We're in the days prophesied
by our Lord Himself and later more fully by Paul himself. Perilous times, the Scriptures
say. There will be a falling away. Falling away from the truth. Judgment completely Way backward. Calling good evil and evil good.
And like in Noah, our Lord said, in the days of Noah, like the
days of Noah, God looked down to see if there were any and
said, all flesh is corrupted in my way. He said the earth
is full of violence. So the message is the same as
Elijah. And I'm telling you from God's
Word, and I want you to just look around and see that there's
no dew and no rain today. I nearly forgot this Amos chapter
4 until I heard my pastor recently on a message on tape. loudly
proclaiming and reading this passage of Scripture. It just
hit me like a... Scripture calls the Word of God,
along with green pastures, still waters, bread, fire, a hammer,
a sword, doesn't it? A sword. My Word. Is not my Word. We need all those things. The
Word of God is first a sword and a hammer and a fire. But
he read this, look at it with me. Amos 4, this is sobering,
frightening. Verse 6, God says, I have given
you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, want of bread in
all your places, yet have you not returned unto me, saith the
Lord. Also, I had withholden the rain from you when there
were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain
upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another. Literally. And one peace was rained upon,
and a peace whereupon it rained not withered. Two or three cities
wandered into one city to drink water. Do you remember not long
ago when we went through an extended famine with actually borrowing
water from one city to the next? Do you remember that? Literally.
And Jane went to Sylacauga to preach for Brother Tommy. And at that time they had 30
days of water left. The whole city of Sylacauga had
30 days. We went to see the reservoir
that they drank from. It was sad. Scary. They were
frightened. Did it last? No. But they were not satisfied,
yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? I have smitten
you with blasting and mildew, your gardens, your vineyards,
your fig trees, your olive trees increased, the palmer worm devoured
them. Yet have you not returned unto
me, saith the Lord? I have sent among you the pestilence
after the manner of Egypt. Your young men am I slaying with
a sword. Wars and rumors of wars. Thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of young men killed in battle. I've taken away your horses. I've
made the stink of your camps come up into your nostrils. Yet
have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? I've overthrown
some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You as a
firebrand plucked out of the burning. Yet have you not returned
unto me? Therefore, thus will I do unto
thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to
meet thy God, O Israel." So there's no rain. No rain. Then look at chapter 5. But,
you know, I thought about this. How does this apply to us? I'm looking at people I know
and love and most of whom. There's nothing here for us.
This doesn't apply to us. You don't need to preach these
things to God's people. Hold on now. That's the most horrible presumption
you can use. To withhold any of God's words. Dangerous assumption. To stand
up and assume that everybody knows the Lord. And the letters
to the Revelation, the Revelation. I just read them. Five out of
seven, he said, I have something against you. And he said, you
better repent or I'm going to remove you. Take you out. Five
out of seven of those letters to the church. Not to mention
all of the dire warnings of what this does, what we need, and
what we'll always need is the fear of the Lord. The fear of
the Lord needs to be maintained in all of us. Paul, when he wrote
the Romans, he wrote about the Gentiles in chapter 1, didn't
he? Clearly, no thoughts of God. God's not in their thoughts.
They need to thank Him. God gave them over. It's clear. But chapter 2 is dealing with
religious Israel. He said, are we better than they? Oh, no. Our Lord turned to His
disciples one day and said, Do you think that the people upon
whom the tower of Siloam fell are greater sinners? Are the
ones Pilate mingled their blood greater sinners? He said, I tell
you, except you repent. This is the fear of the Lord.
Fear of the Lord is clean. Fear of the Lord is clean. If
there is no fear, there is no need for mercy. If this doesn't convict me somewhat,
I don't need forgiveness. I don't need Christ. No fear. Fear must be maintained. It must
be maintained. It's healthy. It brings about
self-examination. It brings about self-loathing.
It brings about repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Besides, this is God's Word,
and I love it. Even the warnings. Scriptures
are at least 50-50 warnings and blessed promises. Look at it. There's still mercy.
Look at chapter 5. Chapter 5, in spite of all this
judgment, chapter 5, verse 4, it says, Thus saith the Lord
unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. Seek Me and you will live. You have the promise of God there.
Seek ye Me and you shall live. We say that to all the world. Can't we? Seek the Lord and He'll
be found of you. The door of that ark is open.
It's still open. Mercy. There is forgiveness with
God. He's ready to pardon. Seek ye
Me and live. Verse 6, Seek the Lord and you
shall live. Verse 8, Seek Him. The Lord is
His name. But now, look at verse 10 there
in chapter 5. But they hate him that rebuketh
in the gate. And they abhor him that just
says what God's Word says. Just tell it. Tell it. Let the
chips fall where they may. The Lord is going to apply it
accordingly. Now chapter 8. Go over to Amos
8. Some of you knew, have probably
turned in here, you know these verses. Amos chapter 8. The greatest judgment of God
upon a society is to remove the Word of God from it. And that's what's happening today. The Word of God is like dew.
It's something miraculous, like the morning dew that just comes
up. Moisturizes everything. Dew of Hermon. That's what God
puts within His people. It just springs up and it's there. And then there's the rain, like
the rain of showers of blessings. Miraculous, amazing, amazing
shower of life just comes down from heaven itself. The Word
of God. Now, Amos chapter 8 says this
in verse 11 and 12, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God,
that I will send a famine in the land." Now, this is long
after Elijah, and this is a prophecy of the future. He said, I will
send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread. There's
going to be plenty of physical bread. Nor thirst for water. But of the hearing of the words
of the Lord. Paul said, times come, young
Timothy, when they will turn away their ears from the truth.
And verse 12, whoever is looking for it, whoever wants to hear
it, are going to wander from sea to sea, north to east. They'll run to and fro to seek
the Word of the Lord. In this day, now turn to Deuteronomy
32. I'm going to get to the ravens
here in a minute. This is now. This is needful. This is profitable. Deuteronomy
32. Deuteronomy 32. As we said, the greatest judgment
of God is to remove His Word. And in this day, there are more
Bibles than ever, but less truth. You and I were talking about
that. I went into Barnes & Noble recently,
into the section where the Bibles are. I think I was looking for
a Bible. You can't hardly find a King
James Bible. I'm talking about the first English
translation from the original Hebrew and Greek. And you can't
believe the perversions. You've got one for golfers and
NASCAR and men and women and children and teenagers. It's
abominable. There are more perversions of
Scripture, and if you take the Bible, what you've got in your
hand, and put it beside these, they don't even resemble one
another. Dave made the comment that you
tell people to look something up in their Bible, and their
Bible might not... It won't read like the Bible
does. Men and women are like Jehoiakim. There was one of the kings of
Israel, Jeremiah, he took the book of Jeremiah, Jehoiakim was
his name, an evil king, and it said, as the fellow read it to
him, he took a penknife and started cutting. I don't like that. Threw
it in the fire. And he kept reading. He said,
I don't like that. Don't like that. Get rid of that. Don't
believe that. He threw the whole book away. I don't believe any
of that. That's exactly what's going on
today. And we'll show you in a minute how you're so blessed
if you believe God's Word, every word of it. Here's the rain. Let me get to this. Here's the rain, the Word of
God. Deuteronomy 32. Verse 1, Give ear, O ye heavens,
I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as
a small rain upon the tender earth, that is, the young believer,
and as showers upon the grass that grows up. Here it is. Here's
the rain. Here's the dew. I will publish
the name of the Lord. Man, are you going to get up
and preach God's Word? Let's hear it. What is it? You start
here. God is God. Behold thy God, he told Isaiah. Here's the two-fold message.
What's he cry? He said, cry aloud. That's what
I'm doing. Okay. Behold your God. This is where
it all starts. And this is missing. But you
hear it. Blessed are your ears, you hear
it. Don't you? A man stands up. Whoever it is
that stands in this little place, like that tabernacle of old,
like Judah, a remnant, a man stands up. Every time you're
going to hear him say, God is God. God is the Lord. That's peace. That's comfort.
That's hope. That's assurance. That's salvation. Isn't it? The name of our Lord. Describe ye greatness under our
God. Verse 3. Greatness under our
God. He's the rock. Don't you love this chapter,
brother Stan? Every time I say Deuteronomy 32, Stan's eyes light
up. Why? He knows this. He knows
the God of Israel. The true and living God. Not
this God that everybody today has a God that's not God that
pray unto a God that cannot save. Our God is God. Nancy, isn't this all your hope
for you and for your family? That God is God. He's our rock.
That was your husband's faith, to crown the substance of his
faith. I stand on the rock. Now, if
he's this Jesus they're saying that wants to and can't and wavers
and you know, wants to, wants to, there's no hope for him. Our God is a rock. Their rock
is not like our rock. Our rock is a move. Our rock
is a rock of age. Our rock was cleft for us. We
hide in this rock. Here is rain. Here is the Word
of God that comes down. He is the rock. His work is perfect. I don't get to the ravens. So
what? His work is perfect. Perfect. His Word is perfect. His work
is complete. His work is finished. It is perfect.
All His ways are judgment, truth, a God of truth, without iniquity,
just, holy and righteous is He. It is rain. It is rain. This is like the moisture. This is what the believer first
hears. And this is what the old believer
must keep hearing. Right, Brother Henry? You want
to keep hearing us proclaim God as God and Christ as the sovereign
Lord, His sovereign mercy, His sovereign grace, His effectual
redemption, His eternal redemption, the power of the Holy Spirit,
power to keep, power to present you faultless. You want to keep
hearing that? That's dew and that's rain. And it comes from
God out of heaven. And you know when you hear, you
know why, you don't hear this today, do you? You don't hear
these things today. Society proves it that God has removed His Word.
Society proves it. If there were as much truth as
the Word of the Bible, our society would be, well, it wouldn't be
like it is now, would it? Preachers prove it. Covetousness
come in their own names, don't they? It's all about money. It's
all about money. Preaching proves it. No sin.
There's no talk of sin anymore. None. Zero. No talk of judgment. No need for repentance. God love
you. This is the last days. We're
in the last days. Ichabod is over the door. The
glory has departed. And look at verse 16 here in
Deuteronomy 32. It says, They provoked him to
jealousy with strange gods, an abomination. And the Lord saw
it and said in verse 20, I will hide my face from them to see
what their end shall be. I'll hide. Now, go back to our text, alright? And this is exactly what the
Lord did. to Elijah. He hit him. He hit him. He came with this message. Israel's
only hope was to be heard from the mouth
of Elijah. It would have been the goodness
of God to lead them to repentance over what? And yet God hid Elijah. Look
at verses 2 and 3. The word of the Lord came to
Elijah and said, Get thee hence, turn, and hide thyself by the
brook that is beside Jordan. Hide yourself. God shut up his
prophet and hid these things from Israel. And you know, and this is more
relevant than ever, I believe, I know it is, do we have a hearing,
does the gospel have a hearing today? There are people coming in to
hear and being convicted of their sins. Thank God they are in our
midst, our children and so forth. But there are people coming in
looking for mercy and grace because of the fear of the Lord. The gospel doesn't have much of a
hearing today, does it? The Word, the truth doesn't have much of
a hearing today. Isaiah said, Thou art a God that
hideth, I said. Our Lord said, he has hid these
things from the wise and the prudent. In the time of the judges,
it was a long time. There was no king in Israel,
and every man did what was right in his own eye. Ruth, through
the book of Ruth, until Samuel came. They said the word of the
Lord was precious. There was no over-vision. And
the Lord sent one man, Samuel. From the time of Malachi to Matthew,
400 years, not one word from God. There were the dark ages in this
all over the world. The dark ages. Brother Ed knows
this well, has read history, church history. You know, the
early church, the first century, a couple of centuries, the word
was going out and spread out. And then it was called the dark
ages, which the Revelation speaks of this. Dark ages, where there's no word.
No word. And folks, darkness is covering this land.
It really is. It really is. But you know, God
has not left Himself without a witness in every generation.
John, it says, My truth shall endure in every generation. In
every generation. He says, I have a witness. I
have a man. And like the Lord said to Elijah,
Elijah later on said, Lord, I'm the only one. Remember this? Elijah said, Lord, I'm the only
one. They tore down your altars. They won't listen to me. Lord,
I stand alone. And the Lord said, Elijah, I
have kept for me, for me, my glory, my honor, 7,000 in Israel
that have not bowed the knee to Baal, nor whose mouth hath
kissed him. I've got 7,000. Now, that sounds
like a lot, but it's not. There were several million in
Israel, but he said, I've got 7,000. They're out there, my
people. Our people. And this is the picture
here of Elijah. The Lord, there was drought in
all the land. There was famine in all the land. And death. But one man was sustained
in a most unusual way. One man. God's chosen man. A little while later, He sent
him to one widow. whom the Lord sustained through
all those years of famine. So that's not fair. Well, that's
the way it is. Did Israel deserve the rain?
No, they were getting what they deserved. Did Elijah deserve
the food? No. Did the widow deserve the
food? No, but God is merciful. God
is gracious to whom he will show mercy, to whom he will be gracious.
Our Lord stood up one day and He used the message of Elijah
and the widow. He said there were many widows
in the days of Elijah. He stood up before the religious
people and said there were many widows in the days of Elijah,
but to none of those widows in Israel was Elijah sent but to
a widow Sarepta, a Gentile woman. They knew what he was saying.
Sovereign election. God sent his Word, sent the bread
provided for whom he would, and the rest he passed by. And they got mad at him. And
folks, God has prepared us a table. You know, we get so much of it.
It's so good and so constant and so daily like the children
of Israel. That manna was just there all
the time. They just expected it. Some of you go other places and
hear the preaching and you come back and you forgot. You didn't
realize what was not out there. The Lord said, I had asked Gabe
to read Psalm 37 because it says this in Psalm 37, it says that the Lord shall, they shall
not be ashamed, God's people shall not be ashamed in the evil
time and in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. He said
that in verse 25 there. He says, I've been young and
now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken or his seed. I'm begging in red. You just
have to come and open your mouth. Hey, Philip! Philip! My birds, your birds, Dad, Mom,
your birds never go without seeded. What's a bird? There are zillions
of birds. Well, those are your birds. Well, where are His birds? And
it says that in Psalm 33. Listen to this. Oh, I love this.
It says, He is going to deliver their soul from death and keep
them alive in famine. Keep them alive. How? Bread,
rain, dew. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless His holy name. Who daily loatheth
us with bitter fears. What kind? The Word. The ravens. All right, old Matthew Henry
said, I love those old fellows. He's one of my favorites. He
said, the Lord catered Elijah's food in the most unusual way.
The caterer was most unusual. In verse 4, the Lord said, He
gave the command, hide yourself by the brook, and it shall be
that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the
ravens to feed you there. The ravens. Elijah, spoken of
by James, chapter 5, a man just like us, he prayed earnestly. He asked the Lord to withhold
a rain. He was a man of like faith. He lived by faith, depended
on God. God sustained him in a most unusual
way. God sustained this man's life
by sending these ravens, more than one, black birds. Well,
the Lord Jesus Christ, though God, He had a man, encompassed
with infirmity, took on him flesh. He lived by faith. I love. thinking
about how our Lord lived by faith. Totally, completely dependent
on His heavenly Father for His every meal and His everything. All of His sustenance while a
man on this earth. The Lord God, He made this planet,
but yet He was sustained by it. The creature
was sustained by His creatures. He was born and nursed on a woman's
breast. He made her! No, he got the feed
from her. Men gave him his bread. He said,
give them to eat. They gave the baskets of fish
and bread. Well, then they turned around
and gave him some. A fish paid his taxes. Donkey rode him into town. But there's something real marvelous
here for us. As he is, so are we. To be seen
in these ravens. Why ravens? Why did the Lord
use these raven? Well, raven is an unclean bird. In Exodus and Deuteronomy, the
Lord plainly says they're unclean bird. They're takers. Ravens are thieves. They come and they don't give
bread, they take it. They take it. They're takers,
not givers. They're scavengers. They live on dead things. They're black through and through,
and they're proud. Have you ever watched a raven
strutting around? Oh, they're so proud. What do
they have to be proud of? They're really pretty ugly. But
they are proud, strutting around. They don't sow. They don't reap.
They depend on something to die on the road. God gives them everything. The
ravens are a symbol. And I was going to have you turn
to Isaiah 43, but my time is almost gone. Ravens are a symbol
of the people of the world. Unclean. Black with sin. Feed on dead things. Takers. We read there in Psalm 37, it
says the wicked borrow and they don't pay it back. Borrow, God
lend it. And they don't pay Him back the
glory due to His name. Takers. Takers. And they're not
thankful. Romans 1 says they're not thankful.
Our Lord said this, He said, I've nourished the people, I've
fed them and they haven't given me glory. He said, the ox knows
his owner, the ass knows his master's crib, my people don't
know me. I said, I've girded them and
they don't know me. Don't know me. Not thankful. Did not like to retain God in
their knowledge. This is what Scripture says.
They worshiped the creature more than the Creator. And yet, his tender mercies,
John read this the other night over all his works, Psalm 145,
his tender mercies, God's rain fall on the just. God is so good,
so merciful. What does He require of us? Moses
said, but to thank Him. But men don't do that. Do you? Oh, if you do. You know why? Who makes a face
of difference? What do you have that you have not received? My,
my. But you know, all the world,
here's the point, all the world, like these ravens feeding Elijah,
all the world exists to serve God's people. That's right. That's right. All the world exists to serve
God's people. The Israelites found favor in
the sight of the Egyptians. Moses. Moses, God's chosen man. He saved him, didn't He? Alive
in an ark. What's that? Saved him alive
in an ark. Well, who found him? Pharaoh's
daughter. Who raised him? Egypt. All the teachers in Egypt.
Pharaoh himself raised him up, did everything for him until
his time, and God said, come out. Come on out now. Sustained
his life, his whole life, sustained him by the world. He was in the
world, he was not of it. And God said in time, come out
now. You're going to suffer affliction with my people who are approaching
you. You're not of this world. You're going to be sustained
by it, but you're not of it. Joseph, remember, found favor
with Potiphar and a jailer and Pharaoh. All of God's people
find favor. Paul found favor with the centurion. Remember that fellow that kept
watch over him, kept from being killed? The ravens, look at this. The
ravens brought Elijah food every morning and every evening. God
commanded it. It says in verse 5, he went and
did according to the word of the Lord. And he went and dwelt
by the brook. Where will you find the righteous
man? He's planted by the river. And verse 6, the ravens brought
him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening.
And he drank of the brook. Bread, water, flesh. Not all
things. He didn't have all the dainties,
but he had the necessity, didn't he? He didn't have everything
he probably wanted, leeks and onions and garlic, but he had
all he needed, didn't he? He would never beg in bread,
was he? No, no, no, no. And it may not
have come in the form that he liked it. A raven brought him
to it. A piece of fish or a piece of
bread, you know. It might not have been exactly
just the way he wanted it. But life is a beggar, and beggars,
you know, can't be choosers. What about you? What do you have? What do we
have? Oh, we need more. We've really got too much, don't
we? We've got too much. We've got too much. Isabella,
you know, we'd start giving her things and we'd say, that's too
much. Well, after a while, she'd start saying, I want too much.
We'd start giving her things. She'd say, give me too much.
And that's us. That's all of us. We've got too
much. Don't we? Our Lord said they'll never be
begging bread. It's the source of all our problems
and all our worries and troubles because we've got too much. Elijah
getting all he needed. Getting all he needed. Not the
farm he wanted, but all he needed. Bread. Water. You tell me what
the one thing needful is. Flesh. Christ said, my body is
flesh indeed. My blood is drink indeed. This
is the bread of life. All this is going to perish. Go out in the draft, but this
won't. This won't. Get it daily. Daily. The Lord
made sure that these ravens brought daily, every day. Do you live
from check to check? Anybody? You probably did early
on, Robert and Henry. Now it's waiting for the Social
Security. Do you live from hand to mouth?
Anybody? Everybody. You know what? We all live from his hand to
our mouth. That's right. Not the railroad. Him. He got that job on the railroad
from him, that promotion coming from the Lord. We all live from
hand to mouth. And our Lord said, He'll keep
them alive, even in famine. The sins of ravens. How many people
got your job, Brother Stanton? How many people applied for it? On and on. You can tell the story.
You reckon there was ever a time Elijah thought about 2 or 3 o'clock,
he thought, I'm hungry. I wonder. You reckon? I wonder if it's coming. Oh, why would I doubt the Lord?
It's all about a miracle. Save money doesn't grow on trees. Elijah's bread came out of the
sky. So did the children of Israel. And that's exactly where you're
coming from, Sam Parks. How many appliance repairmen
are there throughout this rowan-oaken area? Huh? How many? God gives
you every single client you have. That's right. You see why we're here this morning?
This is why we're here. This is our God! And He gets
all the glory. He deserves well the praise,
doesn't He? That's why we're here. Not to
put on a show. Not because we have to or are
supposed to. Because we want to. Worship God. Give thanks
unto Him. Thank you, Lord, for sending
the ravens to this old center. Oh, my. And you know, when the
Lord was comforting You remember the widow? Oh, that widow. You remember she kept going back
to the barrel? Remember that? He said, you keep me and the
Lord will keep you. Nothing's changed. Has it? Nothing's changed. And she'd go back to the barrel.
She'd reach down. There was a handful. Just enough
for the day. She'd go back to the cruise.
Oh, I hope there's oil in it. There was. Every time. Never wasted. Never failed. Neither
shall his word. And you know, when the Lord was
comforting His disciple in the end, He said, take no thought
for tomorrow, what you should eat or what you should drink.
The Lord knows you have need of these things. He said, consider
the ravens. They don't toil, but the Lord
commands them and gives to them. You're worth more than ravens. Well, I don't know. But here's the point. The message
hasn't changed. Hasn't changed. God hasn't changed.
God has not left himself without a witness. What our generation
needs to hear, what we need to hear, is what Elijah told his
generation. And yet there is a remnant, according
to the election of grace, whom the Lord sustains so wonderfully
and so mercifully, with bread from heaven, with showers of
blessings. There shall be showers of blessings, singular. Oh, that
today they might fall, even me.