Let's open our Bibles to 1 Kings
chapter 17. Thank you for the special. It's
a blessing. I'm going to read this verse
of Scripture because there isn't any way we can have an understanding
of the rest of what I'm going to say unless we see who it is that God brings in
to an awful situation. It has been said that in every
generation, God has a voice. He has somebody to set the truth
before men. Here in the case of Israel, they
are in an awful situation. The kingdom has been divided. It has now been many years since
King Solomon died. The Northern Kingdom is given
over fully to idolatry. Wickedness abounds. Oh, it was
a day of great prosperity, but it was a day of awful spiritual
darkness. And all of a sudden, God brings
upon the scene His servant. And He has just a message that's
very brief for a pagan king, an ungodly king. The man God raises up, 1 Kings
17, one is Elijah. His name means God is Jehovah. And Elijah the Tishbite, who
is of the inhabitants of Gilead, said of Nahab, shortest messages on record. This is a really brief sermon. He doesn't even begin by saying,
as most of his other prophecies, and most of the prophecies of
the other prophets begin, Thus saith the Lord. This man is so
courageous, he is so aggravated, with the
wickedness of Israel, with the idolatry that is so prevalent. He just comes before the king
without any introductory words. He says this, As the Lord God
of Israel liveth, This God before whom I stand,
or in other words, in whose presence I am. There shall not be dew
nor rain these years, but according to my word. End of sermon. And he leaves. What's the situation that goes
before this and then leads up to the sudden appearance of Elijah? It is this. Those people that
God set apart as His nation, a people that He would deal with,
The people He would give the Word to, the people He would
send His preachers to, this nation is given to idolatry. And you may be sure of this, wherever the gospel is being
set forth. Wherever God is being worshipped
as we are instructed to worship Him, that is by means of a sacrifice,
the only sacrifice, Christ Jesus. Wherever the gospel is going
forth, you may be certain that another gospel is going to be provided by the
enemy as what we would call a counterfeit. You see in the days of the United
Kingdom, Saul, David, Solomon, at least the first part of Solomon's
reign, Israel worshipped God. They worshipped Jehovah. Now
they latched Oh, here and there, into idolatry. But overall, the
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was their God. And they understood that one
of these days, Messiah is coming into the world. He would be the
fulfillment of all the prophecies that those prophets who had lived
before this, He would fulfill the prophecies of them. He would
indeed be the seed of the woman. He would be Abel's lamb. That Passover lamb that all of
the Israelites were accustomed to. Every year at Passover time,
they knew this Passover lamb pictures who is coming into the
world, who is going to do what those Passover lambs could not
do. He was actually going to put
away the sins of his people. This was true religion. This
was salvation by grace. Now indeed, here and there would
rise up men who said, you've got to keep the law of Moses. But overall, that which was recognized
as the very truth of God was the gospel of substitution and
satisfaction such as we believe. And then in the days of King
Solomon, at the end of his reign, this was a man who gave in to
the lusts of the flesh. And as our brother read to us
there in 1 Kings chapter 11, he brought in women who led him away from this worship. They brought in their idols and
he said, it's okay, it's okay. You worship your way, I'll worship
my way. That's the beginning of trouble.
You see, there is only one way to worship God. There aren't
several ways. And we must not compromise this. And this is what King Solomon
did. This is his great error. He compromised
the Gospel. I worship Jehovah, you worship
your gods. It's okay. Oh, you want a church
building built to your God? Okay, he said, I'll build it
for you. And he did that for them. But this is an established fact. The gospel of God's free grace,
it cannot peaceably coexist with error. It just can't. You know there is going to be
trouble. Whenever men compromise the strictness
and the narrowness of the gospel of free grace, Whenever they
begin to say, well, I don't sit like you do, but you go ahead
and worship as you see fit, and I'll worship as I see fit, and
we'll all be okay in the end. Troubles brewing. And this became so awful that
the kingdom of Israel divided over it. And the reason was because
God was angry. You cannot compromise the gospel
without angering God. Because the gospel of God's free
grace, the gospel of redemption, the gospel of salvation in the
Lord Jesus, is the only gospel there is and it will not tolerate
a rival. And rivals were brought in. And the sad thing is, one of
the sad things is, it didn't seem to bother the nation. Here is Solomon. When he was
younger, the Lord said, ask me, what would you like for me to
give you? He said, wisdom. Wisdom. And God gave him unusual
wisdom. He built the house of God. The Lord didn't let David build
the temple. Because the Lord said to David,
you've got bloody hands. You're a man of war. Your son
will build the temple. And he erected a magnificent
edifice to God's glory. And he led Israel in worshiping
the Lord. And you would say, if ever there
was a man who loved the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, it was King Solomon. But with all of his wisdom, he still showed himself to be
a fool. Let me tell you something. That's what happens when God
takes His hand off of us. All He's got to do is take His
restraining grace away from us a little bit, and we'll show
we're not wise at all. We're a bunch of fools. And as our brother read to us
there in 1 Kings chapter 11, as you read through that, as
he was reading it and as we followed him, You know, it leaves you
thinking, what in the world happened to this man? Is this the wise
man Solomon? Is this the man who built the
house of God? Is this the man who dedicated
it to God's glory? Is this the one who was interested
in the Lord alone being magnified? Look at him now! What has happened
to him? Well, I'll tell you what happened
to him. God left him to himself. That's what happens when God
leaves a man to himself. We love the gospel of God's grace
here. We love the message of redemption. We love the message of the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
delighted to sing, Saved by Grace. Oh, hallelujah. But we must ever ask God, Oh
God, keep your hand on us. Oh God, keep your hand on me.
Here's a man, with all of his wisdom, who led the nation into
An awful, awful situation. Remember this, God's Gospel,
it will not and it cannot ever tolerate arrival. No wonder it
says, go over with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And even as you're making your
way to this passage, I think of another one that says, "...let
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Let's don't ever get presumptuous
about the things of God. It scares me to death. Here's a man, Solomon, who wrote
the book of Proverbs. who wrote the book of the Song
of Solomon, which is a love story about the Lord Jesus and His
church, His bride. Here's a man who knew the truth
in his mind and in his heart, and yet in his days of foolishness,
in his old age, it's like he lost his mind. And he embraced things that when
he first saw them, he should have said, absolutely not. Not bringing that stuff into
the kingdom of Israel. We don't stand for that. He embraced. He embraced. And the moment you
begin to embrace other beliefs, You have put yourself on a collision
course with God. Because our God is jealous for
His glory. God was angry. Well, what should Solomon have
done? What should we do? Hear the instructions here, 2
Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14. And I used to think this was
about, you know, counseling or talking to two young people who
were thinking about getting married. And certainly there can be an
application to that, but it's an application to all of us.
2 Corinthians 6.14, Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. Or what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? Righteousness, imputed righteousness. For God hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." Righteousness, it's in Jesus Christ. What fellowship
then can those of us who believe in righteousness in the Lord
Jesus have with those who believe in unrighteousness, that is the
righteousness of the creature? And understand this, any belief
of salvation by works is unrighteousness. Because it's the righteousness
of the creature, not the righteousness of the Savior. And this is what
the Apostle asked. How can there be any real fellowship
between these two groups of people? He says, "...in what communion
hath light with darkness?" The gospel is light. God is light. Christ is light. We are His enlightened
children. Darkness is error. Darkness is
wickedness. Darkness is that which is satanic. How can those of us who are of
God have any communion with those who are in the dark? And verse
15, And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath
he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For you are the temple of God,
of the living God, as God hath said. I will dwell in them, and
walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you." Preachers have often asked me,
why don't you come to the Ministerial Association meeting? And what about all of us? All
the churches, let's go... I know we had this up in Almonte
and you probably have it here. Let's all go down at City Hall
and we'll all pray at the flagpole. And it doesn't matter what denomination
you are. Hey, all of you are welcome. After all, we're all
the children of God. No, we're not. We're not. How can I, as a child of light,
have communion with somebody who is a child of darkness? Poor old Solomon. He was unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. He just yoked up with them. Go
back with me to 1 Kings chapter 11. 1 Kings chapter 11. King Solomon had several wives
who were foreigners, and one by one he turned Solomon to be
lenient toward their God. One of the accusations against
those of us who believe the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
is this, you folks are just too narrow-minded. You think you're right and everybody
else is wrong. I know God is right and everybody
else is wrong. That's what I know. And I know
that if you go to this book and the Spirit of God leads you and
directs you, He will show you that salvation is of the Lord
and you make no contribution to this salvation. This book
says God chose us under salvation before the world began. This
book says Christ Jesus redeemed His people by His blood. It wasn't
an effort to say it was a successful accomplishment. He said it is
finished. And I know He rose from the dead
and ascended, and He ever lives to intercede for His people.
And I know the Spirit of God, the Spirit of grace, effectually
takes the gospel to our hearts. He quickens us. If you read this
book led by the Spirit of grace, you will say, thooey on free
willism. You'll say, that can't be that
way, because the Bible says it's not of Him that willeth. It's
not of Him that runneth. It's of God that showeth the
mercy. The Bible says, of His own will,
God's own will, begat He us with the Word of Truth. You see, free
grace and free willism cannot peaceably coexist. There's just
no way. The message of our Lord Jesus
fully accomplishing the salvation of His people on the cross versus
the death of Christ being a mere provision which you may accept
or reject at your leisure, it's up to you. Those two beliefs
cannot peaceably coexist. This can't do it. Salvation by revelation, salvation
by regeneration, and this idea of salvation by decisionism,
they cannot peaceably coexist. They just can't do it. And the moment we reach out to
someone who believes error and say, I think you probably are,
my brother. And maybe we've been just a little
bit too dogmatic through the years. We need to all get together
and win souls for Jesus. The moment you do that, we'll
just have to start calling you Solomon in his old age. Here's what happened. God said to Solomon, because
you've done this, I'm going to rend the kingdom from you. You
see, at this time, twelve tribes of Israel, they constituted one
nation. The greatest nation on earth! God said, you did this, I'm going
to rend it from you. And it will be two little nations.
The northern kingdom, ten tribes, and the southern kingdom, two
tribes. But God said, I'm not going to
do it, Solomon, in these days. And the reason I'm not going
to do it is not for your sake. But for David's sake, that's
what he read, right? I'm not going to pour out my
anger now. I'll do it later. The reason
I'm not doing it now is for David's sake. And when I read that, I
thought, boy, there's a picture of the gospel there. The reason
God doesn't deal with us in judgment and in vengeance and rend everything
from us, even life itself, is for the greater David's sake."
That is David's Lord and David's Son. It's for Christ's sake. It says over in the book of Ephesians,
God hath for Christ's sake forgiven you. Solomon then died. He died. But before he died, there was
a fellow in his kingdom, a fellow by the name of Jeroboam. He despised
Solomon, but he rose up in the ranks. He was a very hard worker. Solomon said, you're doing such
a good job, I'm going to put you in charge of the tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh. He said, good, good. But when Solomon died, that man
Jeroboam, he took over the ten tribes. They went to him and
he became the king. Then the lower two tribes, they
were ranked over by Rehoboam, Solomon's son. Don't get him
confused. Jeroboam, he became the king
of the northern kingdom. He was a vile man. He was a wicked
man. So also was Rehoboam, Solomon's
son, who reigned over the southern kingdom. It's interesting that
God said, and I don't want you to read all this, lots of interesting
history here of course, but it's interesting that God said, I'm
not going to rent Jerusalem or Judah. It will stay intact. You know why? That's where Messiah
was going to be crucified and He would come through the tribe
of Judah. It wouldn't be rent. That wouldn't
fall. So the northern kingdom became
a kingdom unto itself. And you know what? Never had
a godly king. All the kings in Israel, the
northern kingdom had. And if you read the history of
the Old Testament, read through the history of Israel, you'll
know that Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom. Every
king they had was ungodly. The southern kingdom had a few. Because God maintained the light
in the southern kingdom. In Jerusalem. You see, one of
the reasons that God preserved the southern kingdom and preserved
Jerusalem, because that's where the temple of God was. That's
where the house of God was. In other words, that's where
God met with men and men met with God. That was preserved. And what a wonderful picture,
thankfully and mercifully, there is somewhere where God meets
with us and we meet with God. You study the life of of Jeroboam. He believed in religion by convenience,
so he built a house of God in two or three different places.
He said, we don't need to go to Jerusalem. We don't need to
go to the temple of God. Hey, we'll build one here, build
one in Dan, and build one somewhere else. He made religion a matter
of convenience, Not a matter of truth. And he said, you know, we need
preachers for all these idolatrous locations. So he began to appoint
men to be preachers. Yes, but wait, wait, priests
have got to come out of the tribe of Levi. That's the old thinking. That's the old ways. He appointed
whoever He wanted to. So religion then became a matter
of convenience, set forth by men who weren't chosen by God,
didn't come from the tribe of Levi. They were appointed by
men. Sort of the way it is today,
isn't it? Religion is a matter of convenience?
You mean you drive 5 miles to go to church? Why? I go to church
right down the road. For me, it's a matter of convenience. You mean you drive 30 minutes?
You mean you drive an hour? Are you crazy? Have you lost
your mind? You got a bunch of churches practically
in your backyard. That's the thinking of today. Religion is a matter of convenience.
Whether or not they preach the truth, that doesn't mean anything.
But the fact of the matter is, most people don't know the truth
anyway. They don't know the truth. But here and there, God has established
His places where men stand up and preach the pure gospel of
grace. And I'll tell you, that's our
business. It's our business. We're a pillar and ground of
the truth. We're to hold up Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Salvation
by God's free and sovereign grace. And to say to this religious
lost world, this is the truth and everything else is a lie. Everything else is error. Now,
it's for sure you're not going to win friends and influence
a lot of people that way. Because you start killing a man's
God, a woman's God, you start attacking their God, start attacking
their religion, they don't get upset. But that's okay. I'd actually rather people get
mad than to just say, well, that's okay, I don't care what you believe.
Somebody who hears the gospel of God's grace, salvation by
God's will, If it doesn't prick the heart, if it doesn't stir
up with them feelings of rebellion to begin with, I'm disappointed. Because it will first of all
make you mad, then it will make you glad. Make you glad. that God chapter 16, not the
last king, but the king that was in control, 1 Kings 16, when
God raised up Elijah, was a man by the name of Ahab. Like I say,
there were a lot of several ungodly kings before him. Notice in verse 1 Kings 16.29, And in the thirty-eighth year
of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over
Israel. And Ahab the son of Omri reigned
over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab the son of Omri
did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before
him. And it came to pass as if it
had been a life thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam. Jeroboam, if we'd had time to
get into it, he made two golden calves. And that's what he put in the
two temples that he built. And he said to the Israelites
the same thing that Aaron said back in the book of Exodus, Here's
your gods, O Israel. Here's a visible representation
of God. That's what Jeroboam did. Well,
anyway, King Ahab, he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of
Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and
worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for
Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and
then he made a grove. A grove. This was like a wayside,
kind of like a rest stop for travelers. Had beautiful trees
and idols where you could sit and meditate upon your idols
and relax as long as you wanted to. As we shall see later in
our study of Elijah, there were the false prophets of the groves. Verse 33, And Ahab did more to
provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of
Israel that were before him. And in his day did Ahail the
Bethlehite build Jericho. He laid the foundation thereof
in Abiram, his firstborn. He set up the gates thereof,
and His youngest son, Seagub, according to the word of the
Lord, which He spake by Joshua the son of Nun." In other words,
the Lord had said to Joshua, cursed is the man who rebuilds
Jericho. Built it right up. Into this awful situation, God sends a preacher. And you know, he's got to be
bold. He can't be influenced by this religious crowd, because
they're all contaminated. You see, here's what Solomon
did. When he got involved with these false idols, he didn't bring them over to
his side, and all those women He didn't influence them for
the good. They influenced him for the bad. It's like a good
apple won't make the rotten apples better. It's the rotten apples
that will have a negative effect upon the good apple. So I give
you this word of warning or caution. Be careful of the relationships
you cultivate. And I know you can have friends
and so forth in the world, but be careful with somebody who
believes a false gospel. Don't get too close to them.
I'm not saying don't be friendly to them. I'm certainly not saying
don't pray for them. I'm not saying don't love them.
I'm just saying, as far as religious things are concerned, you've
got to keep them at an arm's distance. Isn't that wise? That's
absolutely wise. You've got to be careful who
you hang around with. There's an old saying, Solomon,
he laid down with dogs and got up with fleas. I mean, hey, why
are we shocked? Well, into this situation, God
brought in Elijah. His name means Eli, that's God,
my God, Elijah, Jehovah, God who saves. He steps before King
Ahab as Elijah. My God can save and does save. All of your gods put together
can't save anybody. I'll tell you, Elijah's name
meant something. There is a volume of instruction
in Elijah's name. Eli, God, the Lord, Master, Jehovah. My God saves. And he says this
to the king, and let me just give this to you and I'll quit. He says, first of all, as the
Lord God of Israel liveth. And I wonder if he didn't just
kind of point to all these gods, all these idols of wood, gold,
silver, molten calves, and he said, my God liveth. Does your God live? Or is He
just a figment of your imagination? Just some idol you kind of carved
out? As the Lord God of Israel liveth,
before whom I stand, I stand in His presence right now. He said, There shall not be dew
nor rain these years, but according to My Word. He said, now wait
a minute, Elijah, shouldn't you pray that God would bless the
kingdom? Well, you know, you think about
it, he is really praying that God would bless the kingdom.
Because as a result of this famine, this drought, there will be a
blessing. Because some of the Israelites
are going to be made to realize by the grace of God, their error. But you go over into James chapter
5, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
It says Elijah, he prayed fervently that it wouldn't rain. And guess
what? It didn't. It didn't. There was no rain. One of the
gods that Ahab worshipped was the god of weather. Well, we'll see if He can control
the weather then. But the God of Elijah, He controlled
the weather and everything else too. He says, as the Lord liveth,
no rain, no dew, until I pray again, and then it will rain. I know some people think that we're just too narrow-minded
and we don't stretch out our arms to every religion. I stretch out my arms to all
people and say, please come and listen to the gospel. But we cannot embrace every religion
that comes down the pike. There's just no way. There is
but one true religion. There is but one gospel. And this is where we take our
stand. I know there are lots of things
in this world that we can compromise over and, okay, you see it this
way, I see it this way. Okay, you think Atlanta will
win, I think New England will win. Well, we'll just compromise
on that, okay? Whatever, it really doesn't matter.
And there are a lot of other things where people divide over,
and you say, those things really don't matter. This is the only
thing that matters. This gospel of God's grace. I'm
with you, I can get along with you on just about everything
else. But now, if you insist there's
another way other than this gospel, That's where our path is going
to go apart. You have to, don't you? You have
to. Because our love for the Lord
and for His glory is stronger than our love for fellow people. Let's turn to 4.71.