If you would open your Bibles
this morning to the book of 2 Kings. 2 Kings. In this text, we have a kind
of changing of the guards as far as God's prophet is concerned. Verse 9 of II Kings chapter 2. Chapter 2. Verse 9 says, And it came to
pass, when they were gone over, Elijah and Elisha, That Elijah said unto Elisha,
ask what I shall do for thee before I am taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, thou
hast asked a hard thing, nevertheless, If thou see me when I am taken
from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not
be so. And it came to pass as they went
on and talked that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and
horses of fire and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went
up by whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried,
my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more. And he
took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank
of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and smote the waters and said, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went
over. And when the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit
of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto
him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men. Let them go, we pray thee, and
seek thy master. Lest peradventure the Spirit
of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain,
or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not sin. And when they urged him till
he was ashamed, he said, Sinned. And they sent therefore fifty
men, and they sought three days, but found him not. And when they
came again to him, for he tarried at Jericho, he said unto them,
Did I not say unto you, Go not? In every generation, there has to be a re-establishing as to who God is. There has to be a clear distinguishing of not only who he is, but also
of how he is. You might remember that when
God blessed so wondrously in the days of Joseph, and he was
enabled to interpret the Pharaoh's dream and gain favor And the
people were blessed. But when Exodus 1 comes, it says,
now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. With every passing generation,
there has to be this re-establishing before men as to who and how
God is. But not only that, there has
to be a continual distinguishing of who He is. And this has to
be done not simply year after year or month after month, but
week after week and really day after day. There has to be a
sounding out of that message that clarifies just exactly who
God is. And the reason is because men
and women by nature They're not born knowing who God is. And not only that, but what they
do know that might be true, they so quickly forget. They are so often barraged by
things that are not true about God. They face hour after hour
the idolatry of every age which only increases. And for that reason, because
there is this natural ignorance of who God is, And because there
is this multitude of false statements and teaching about who and how
God is, men and women look at this world, and they look at
what's going on in this world, they look at what's going on
in their own circumstances, And after having been told that God
is erroneously such and such a way, they look at this world
and they say, where is God then? If God is the way that so many
say that he is, And all these things are going on which appear
so contrary to that. Where is God? And their conclusion
often is, well, God is either dead or he simply does not exist. And therefore, in light of this,
so many, they look for signs, They look out all around them
for wonders and for various manifestations. They have this need to try to
find out something about this matter of God, who He is and
how He is. And so they begin to look at
all these different sources offering answers. They begin to seek all
these things, these evidences. And the sad thing is, The more
you seek those things, the more you find them. The more you want
a natural sight, the more you want an outward evidence, the
more you want something physical and fleshly to hold on to and
believe on, the more you find it. Even though it doesn't exist. And it was the same in Elisha's
day. It's the same in every age. You see, the man that had been
doing that distinguishing, the man who is God's prophet
by the name of Elijah, with all his weaknesses, with all his
failures, He nonetheless was the one who distinguished God. You remember on Mount Carmel.
He simply stood up there and after a prayer of, I think it's
64 words, he said, if God be God, let him prove himself. Don't
keep halting between these two opinions. But if God be God,
let him distinguish himself, and he called on God, and God
did so. He did so. But now he's gone to heaven.
That's what's just taken place here. What a way to go to heaven. Elijah and Elisha, they're parted
by a chariot and horses of fire,
and Elijah is taken into heaven. He doesn't die. He's like Enoch,
says he walked with God, and he was not, because God took
him. But irregardless, he's no longer
on the scene, and when he leaves, And it is really obvious that
the mantle of that prophet's role has been left to him by
God, left to Elisha. There are these in this text,
and I don't know exactly who they are, but God describes them
as the sons of the prophets. And so when Elijah's gone, They're now seeking to find out
where is Elijah. Elisha knows. But not only does
he know, he tells him there's no need to send and seek after
and find Elijah. But they persisted to the point
that it says it made Elisha ashamed as if he were the one promoting
himself or something like that. They said, we've got 50 strong
men. We're going to search the countryside. We're going to climb the mountains. We're going to traverse the valleys. It may be that the Lord has caught
him up and put him on some mountain somewhere or down in some valley
somewhere. We're going to seek him. Try
to find Elijah. But that's not the case with
Elisha. As a matter of fact, the Bible
says that God had already taken Elijah. And the scripture says that when
Elijah was gone up to heaven, Elisha, this was his question. They're asking, where's Elijah? Where's the instrument? Where's
the means? But Elisha asked this question,
where is the Lord God of Elijah? That's what I call this, this
morning, Elijah's question. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Well, as far as prophets are
concerned, I know this, and I'm speaking to this day, I know
this, we're told in scripture that the law and the prophets
were until John. speaking of John the Baptist. So the last prophet in this sense
that we are reading about this morning, the last prophet was
John the Baptist. He was that voice crying in the
wilderness. He was that forerunner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's that one whose message was,
behold the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the
world." But you know what it says after
that? It says, the law and the prophets were until John. And then it says, but after that,
the gospel is preached. But after that, the gospel is
preached. What is that? The gospel of God. There are a number of descriptive
names given to the gospel, one of which is the gospel of God. Not only that, but it is called
in another place the word of the truth of the gospel. In another place, it's called
the gospel of your salvation. The gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of the grace of God. And it is described by the Apostle
Paul in this way. He calls it the preaching of
the cross. The preaching of the cross. He writes to the Corinthians
and he says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God. What you see demonstrated by
the sons of the prophets is a worldly wisdom. They're going to try
to find out about Elijah or the means that God has used. That's the wisdom of this world.
Natural reasoning. Human logic. But he said, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. The foolishness of preaching.
That has to do with two things. One is the method itself. This method of preaching. This
method of declaring using a human instrument the word and truth
and message of God, but it also means something else, and that's
the message. It's foolish to us, naturally,
that the eternal God would use such a messenger or method. It's
also foolish that the message would be a message concerning
a death. The preaching of the cross. Paul said the preaching of the
cross is to them that are perishing
foolishness. Just foolishness. Here we are,
we are in all these troubles and having all these problems,
and this and that is going on on the earth, and you're talking
about, in the midst of this, talking about somebody who died
on a cross outside Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago? Man, get
your senses straight! But God says, My ways are not
your ways. And it's for that reason that
what God says about Himself and what He says about what He's
done, and especially what He says about us and how He saves
sinners, that's so contrary to us, naturally. So contrary to us. Because Paul
continues and he says, this treasure, this treasure of God's gospel,
this treasure of this message that comes from God is much so
and seemingly even more so than it came to Elijah or Elisha. He said, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. Oh, let me hear some great philosopher. Let me hear a message from some
great orator, some great charismatic person. He said, we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, clay pots. That's all God's messenger is,
a clay pot, just like you're a clay pot. made of the dust
of the earth. He said, we have this treasure. It's nevertheless a treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. It's not in the package. It's
in the product. It's not in the vessel. It's
in the treasure that is proclaimed. But I want to ask you this morning,
can Elisha's question be answered? I'm talking about right now.
I'm talking about in this day. When he asked that question,
After the passing of Elijah, where is God? Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Can that be answered today? It can be. Bless His name, it
can be. And it has been. And we know
the answer when He reveals it to men and women through the
gospel of His glory. That's when we know it. You'll never know it until He
reveals it. And when He reveals it, if He's
pleased in His sovereign grace to reveal it to you, who He is,
Nobody will ever be able to convince you otherwise. All the false
testimonies of men, all the opinions of those nearest and dearest
to you, it doesn't matter who you are or who they are. If God reveals himself like he
did to that man Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, If he's
pleased to reveal himself to us, nobody will ever be able
to convince us otherwise. That's why I don't put any pressure
on you. That's why I'm not putting any
pressure on anybody that I have opportunity to preach to. That's
why I don't have any pressure on my own family or on my dear
friends or whoever it is in this world that I've known all of
my life. You see, if I can convince you
of something, somebody else can come along and unconvince you
of it. But if God reveals to you who
He is, nobody can. Absolutely nobody
can. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Or you could say, where is the
Lord God of Moses? Or where is the God of Jacob? Or where is the God of the Apostle
Paul? Or where is the God of that man
that we read behind this morning in Psalm 61? Where is the God
of David? Can a man tell you? Only those who preach the Word
of God. That's all. That's the only one
who can. Only those who truly preach the Word of God. And they, every one, are to be
tested. That's what the Apostle said.
He said, try the spirits. That simply means test those
who preach. Test what they preach. He said,
try the spirits to see, to determine whether or not they be of God. That's it. Only those who truly preach the
Word of God, And I know there are multitude that try to say
that they do. But only those that truly proclaim
what God says in His Word can tell you who God is. Hold your
place here and look over in Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah chapter 8 and
look down in verse 19. He says, and when they shall
say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and
unto wizards that peep and that mutter. When they say, this one
over here, or that one, they seem to have an uncanny
spirit about them. They are saying a lot of things. He said, should not a people
seek unto their God for the living to the dead? Should not a people seek God? And look at what he says next.
To the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. I don't care how pleasing it
sounds. I don't care how wonderful it
is to your ears. I don't care how it moves you
emotionally. I don't care how it inspires
you naturally. I don't care how it's so much
like you want to hear. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, it's because there's no light in them.
Now where there's no light, what is there? Darkness. Just darkness. And the measure of light that
we have is simply measured by that which we know of God from
His Word. And so many people in this day,
they're in this situation I heard described once. A man was asked a question, he
said, he was asked, do you believe? What do you believe? It's not
just a matter of believing, it's, what do you believe? And when
he was asked, what do you believe? He said, I believe what my preacher
believes. So the next question was, what
does your preacher believe? He said, he believes what I believe.
And that's funny, but that's seriously the way it is. Because when you ask men and
women, questions concerning God, they oftentimes give answers
that certainly did not come from the Word of God. You see, it has to do with the
written Word of God. There's a standard. There's a
measure. by which everything that is said
concerning God as to who He is and how He is, it is to be measured
by the written Word of God. And men say, well, that's how
you interpret it. No. You don't have to interpret
such things as this. Christ's words when He said,
I lay down my life for thee sheep. That's not hard to understand.
It's just hard to believe. You don't have to wonder what
He's saying when He says that we're saved by grace not of works,
lest any man should boast." That's not hard to understand, but it's
impossible to believe apart from God's grace. And so men and women, they say,
well, I believe if you just do the best you can. Or I just believe
if you live as good as my dad or my granddad, this doesn't
have anything to do with your parents or your grandparents
or your children or anything has to do with you, me. Well, I just believe if you do
the best you can, treat people good, you'll be all right. You haven't read this book. There's no way that you can add
any part of human merit on any degree to the salvation of a
sinner and not destroy all hope. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Elijah said, where is the Lord? Elisha says, where is the Lord
God of Elisha? The Lord God? That word Lord,
that name is that inexpressible name of Jehovah. He is the Lord, that is singular,
and then the next word is God. The first time we meet it is
in Genesis 1. And it's in the plural. You see, God is God. He describes
himself as that one true and living God. But he expresses
himself in the Trinity of these three glorious persons. Just like Richard sang about.
Blessed Father. Blessed Son. Blessed Jesus. Blessed Spirit. He says, and
these three are one. So he's talking about Jehovah
God. He's talking about Jehovah Elohim. And when he says Yahweh, when
he speaks of the Lord, that's that redemptive name of God. Where is the Lord God of Elijah. Right now. Where is the Lord
God of David? Hold your place and turn over
to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. And listen to what the psalmist says
here. He says, Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathens
say, Where is now their God? You see, the world's asking that
question all the time. Where's your God? You talk about
Him? You say you believe on Him? You
say He saved you? Where is your God? And what they're
actually asking, how is your God? What kind of God do you
have? David, what kind of God do you
have? Look at that third verse. He says, But our God is in the
heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? First of all, he's right where
he's always been. He's right where he's always
been. And men may say, well, I've never
seen him. But the truth is, you've never
seen air either. But that doesn't mean it doesn't
exist. David said, Our God. And he's
speaking on behalf of all of God's people here. He said, Our
God is in the heaven and he's doing what he's always been doing
and what he'll always be doing. He's ruling and he's reigning
and he's in absolute control over all of creation and all
of providence and especially all of salvation. He hasn't moved. He hasn't diminished. Men and women may think less
of Him and less about Him and say more erroneous things about
Him and deny His existence. They may write volume after volume. They may offer proof so-called
after proof. Won't change one thing. He's still God. He's still on the
throne. He's still ruling. And men and
women, in their facing God and meeting God, they're just like
a bug that comes against the windshield of a speeding car. You can defy that car, but you
can't win. You can come against him, but he'll
just bust you. He's the Almighty. He's not some
pathetic weak being like men and women try to make Him to
be some effeminate God. He's the God of glory. He's in the heavens and He is
doing right now just exactly what He purposed to do. The God of the Bible, He's never
had one contingency plan. He's never met a situation that
He hadn't already dealt with before He meets us. There never
has a thing taken place on this earth that happened outside of
the exercise of His high and lofty sovereignty. There's no end to his dominion.
There's no end to his kingdom. There's no thwarting of his power
or his purpose. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it be. And if God ever saves you, he's
going to bring you to the knowledge of that. And all he has to do for you
to perish is to leave you to yourself. He's not going to change. He
is the same one who describes himself as having mercy on whom
he will have mercy. And where he is and what he's
doing has to do with this. He is saving and keeping and
blessing and helping and protecting and loving his elect people that
he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. He said, they're the apple of
my eye. He's doing his will. He's on
the throne of glory. He's the one who's in charge
of all things. He's behind every second cause
of what goes on in this world. Do we believe that? I'll tell you there's only one
group of people that don't believe that. And that's a group of miserable
people. They have no hope in anything.
They have no peace in anything. They have no lasting joy in anything. Everything they do, everything
they think, everything they involve themselves in always winds up
a dead-end street because we were created to honor
this God. to honor this Savior God. One old writer said years ago,
he said, the soul of man's foot never rests until it rests in
God. Never have any real peace, never
have any real joy. He's doing exactly whatever is
going on in this world. We know what His will is most
of all when it comes to pass. Did you ever notice that in the
Bible? And it came to pass, and it came to pass. And Brother
Scott Richardson used to say, and it always does, and it always
will. You see, Job wrote, he's a one
man. He's not fickle like you and
I are one day. He's thinking this, purposing
this, trying to do that and the other. He's a one mind. And who can turn him? All these people praying, trying
to change the mind of God. Imperfection, trying to change
perfection. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't
it? We're going to bombard heaven. We're going to pray hard. I hate
that. Don't say that. We're going to
pray hard. What's praying hard? We're going
to assault the throne of God. We're going to get God to change
His mind. The only thing that changes in
true prayer is when the Spirit of God changes us and conforms
us to pray, Thou will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Paul wrote, he said, in whom
that is in Christ also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all
things after the counsel of his own will. That's what it is to be the sovereign. When we say sovereign grace,
we simply mean this. God is gracious to whom He'll
be gracious. And He'll have mercy on whom
He'll have mercy. It's not our will, it's His will. But it says He makes His people
willing in the day of His power. And he's made his will toward
a people out of Adam's fallen race to be a will of grace, a
will of mercy, and a will of salvation. I sure am glad he didn't say,
I won't. He said, I will be gracious,
and I will have mercy. Turn over to Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46, and look down at verse 9. He says, Remember the former
things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am
God, and there is none like me. Somebody says, well, there's
just one God. But He's not a generic one-size-fits-all
God. There is just one God. But the
only way you and I'll ever know who that one God is and how he
is is for him to tell us how he
is. Identify himself. Well, here
he is. There's none like me, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure." And then he says, I'll use whoever
I want in the accomplishing of it. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east. The man that executeth my counsel
from a far country, yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring
it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Hearken unto me, you stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. Listen to me, he says. I bring
near my righteousness. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory. Where is his salvation? It's
in the church. It's not in being identified
with the church, but in the one that the church assembles around.
It's in the one that's the head of the church, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's through His suffering and
His dying that He's established this salvation, His coming to
this earth. He brings salvation and righteousness
near. You see, Christ came to do the
Father's will. And of all that the Father's
given him, he said, he'll lose nothing. He's not one, he's not, he's
not willing that any of them should perish, but that they
should all come to repentance. And that's why things continue.
That's why he brings about all these things that happen in this
world. He's carrying out his predetermined
purpose to save a people for his glory. He's the unchanging God. Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He is doing whatsoever
He pleases. There's not, an old preacher
said that, he said that even the particle of dust that kicked
up by a wagon wheel, he said God has set the trajectory of
that particle of dust. I can tell you this, that's the
only place you can lay your head down in our day. That's the only
way you can have any peace about any situation. You're either
stupid and blind to what's going on in this world, dead spiritually,
or you're laying your head in the bosom of the everlasting
Father. It is the Lord. Let Him do what
seems Him good. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Here's the second thing. He's
in the midst of His church. He's in the midst of His Zion. He's in the midst of this spiritual
Jerusalem. He's in the midst of His believing
people. Turn over to Matthew chapter
18. Matthew chapter 18, and look
down in verse 20. He says, for where two or three
are gathered together in my name. That literally means they've
been gathered together in the true name of God, in the true
Christ. What does that next statement
say? There am I in the midst of them. He's in the midst of his people.
He's not in all these big cathedrals and all the idolatry and images
and all of these things. What a pitiful description. What a pitiful imaging
of the true and living God. He said the greatest buildings
on earth, the highest cathedrals, the most ornate. I saw some on
a travel program last night. There's a traveler in Europe
somewhere in this so-called temple or church or whatever they call
it, admiring all of the symbolism, all the artwork, all the tapestries,
all the mosaics of all these things. Is that your God? He's not the God of the Bible. He said, you shall not make unto
me any graven image. That's why there's no pictures
of Jesus. That's why we don't need crosses
and symbols and all the things that men in simply nothing but
human flesh clamor after and call a witness. You can't put the God of the
Bible on a bumper sticker. You can't declare Him in a worn-out
cliché. Smile. God loves you. Try that one on the back of the
ark. Try that one on the city gate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Men say, well, God's in the Holy
Land. You know, or they say that God,
oh, we had this big time. We got to singing and shouting
so much and the preacher didn't even have time to preach. Oh,
the Lord was with us. Was He? God is present with His people
because He's promised never to leave us or forsake us. Oh, there's
going to be a lot that leave us. My dear Betty left me. The one I'd had the longest.
The one I loved the most dear. There came a time when she left.
But bless God, he didn't leave. He didn't leave. And it causes me to know that
my consolation in her absence, in her departure, in her no longer being this means
of such blessing and grace to me, is in his wisdom. Like Job said, the Lord gave. I know that. You're 17 years old, you haven't
got sense enough to know anything. And God began a rescue of me
in this world right then when He gave me that woman that made
me love her so much I had to marry her. I don't know what
He saved me from. Made her a blessing to me all
my days. He gave. He not only gave, He's the one who
took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. If it hadn't been for Him, I'd
have never had her. Friends, they're going to leave
us. Brethren will even leave us. Parents will leave us. Health
will leave us. Our minds will leave us. We're
talking about that poor service. Everybody's so robust and strong. Just wait. Everybody is so sharp,
so in control, got the bull by the tail as we say in the South.
It's not going to last. But He'll never leave and forsake
His people. Faithful is He that promised.
But I know this, I'm like Moses. Moses said to the Lord, he said,
if Thy presence go not up with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is
it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated,
I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face
of the earth." What was the difference? God is with them. The heathen king wanted Balaam
to go and, for a profit, curse Israel. And he wanted to. He wanted the money. But he had
to come back and tell that wicked king, he said, I can't. He said,
God's in the midst of her. The shout of the Lord is in the
midst of this people. How do we know if God's with
us? as long as he's true, as long
as he's honored above all, as long as he's known to be the
true and the living God who alone can save us and be all our salvation. But that's where he is. Little old places, little obscure
places like Jacksonville, North Carolina. Bob, what did you think when
you heard of Jacksonville, North Carolina? What's in Jacksonville, North
Carolina? Well, there's a bunch of Marines,
a number of people, and a little
gathering of people who gather around this one gospel. He said, where two or three have
been gathered in my name, for my glory, in my Son, there I'll
be in the midst also. And then let me say lastly, in
answer to this question, where is the Lord God of Elijah? He's in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And by that I mean every time
the Gospel of His glory That gospel of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, every time it is preached in
the power of the Holy Spirit, God is there. Because if he wasn't, it wouldn't
be. If God's there, men won't be
talking about each other. I know we must be a tremendous
letdown to anybody who comes sometimes. We didn't read out
all the birthdays. We didn't have the kids come
put little money in a church box. We didn't have a sign up front
that says, the church where everybody is somebody. Because the truth is everybody's
nobody. And Christ is Lord of all. And He's only manifested
in our midst when the Spirit of God takes the things of Christ,
as Christ said He would do, and do what? Shows them to you. You see, what you never could
see with the natural eye, if God is pleased to reveal Himself
and give you the eye of faith, you'll see the King and His beauty. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
4 quickly, and I'll try to hush. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Listen to Paul. This is a man
who was on the opposite end of the stick, you might say. He
was the learned man. He was the man who sat at the
feet of Gamaliel. He was the strict moralist and
the man who followed the law as the natural eye perceived
that law. He was the man accepted and admired
and all that. And he said, I counted it all
loss that I might know him. Listen
to it. 2 Corinthians 4. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
not handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God." He said, we've preached the truth.
We've declared all the counsel of God to men and women, everyone
that hurt us. We've not tried to trick them,
deceive them, put pressure on them, all these kind of things. You're not going to sneak up
on anybody with the gospel. You're not going to be able to
remove what Paul called the offense of the cross. He said, we've
not done that. We've preached Christ crucified
as God's purpose to save a people out of Adam's race in Jesus Christ
through his death for their sins for the glory of God. He said, but if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost. I don't see anything so good
about this. You're just self-condemned. I
don't want any part of it. That's okay. Not for you. I don't like it. Nobody forced
it on you. I don't see it. That doesn't
mean it doesn't exist. He says, "...in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them." Where is the Lord God of Elijah? He's in the person of Jesus Christ
as He is preached in truth. revealed by the Spirit
of God. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. John said he'd given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. And that is life eternal. In Malachi, he uses that prophet
and says through him, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed." Elijah's question can be answered as well, if not
better, in our day than it was in his. Because when Paul or whoever
the writer of Hebrews is used of God to begin that epistle,
he says, but God, who at different times and at different ways has
spoken unto us, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son. Or as it is, by Son. By Christ. Where is He? He's right where
He's always been. Always in the midst of His people.
Always in the message of His grace to that people. One day, actually more than one
day, but when Christ was on this earth, The Lord spoke audibly himself
from heaven. And he said, this is my beloved
son, hear ye him. That's what the gospel preacher
tries to do. Tell you what he said, tell you
who he is, tell you what he did, tell you who he did it for, tell
you where he is now. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Father, we thank you for your
mercy. Be pleased to reveal yourself
to us, to those that we love, to these all around us, to your
people, out of every kindred nation, tribe, and tongue. Receive our thanks today. As
we go out of this place, watch over us and help us in the things
that we'll be called upon to do. All that you have given us
to do, may it be for your glory. We pray and we ask it and we
thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.