If you care to open your Bibles
to 1 Kings chapter 17. Lord willing, I'm going to preach
on the second half of this chapter in the next hour, and I could
not pass up the opportunity to look at the first half before
we look at the second half. So 1 Kings chapter 17. Before
we begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
Holy and Reverend is your matchless name. And we thank you that you
are God of all the earth. God who controls everything that
happens in your creation. Everything that happens is according
to your eternal will and purpose that you decreed before time
began. And that nothing happens by chance,
by the will of man, by the will of Satan, but according to your
eternal will and purpose. That you rule and reign in all
things and no one can stay your hand or ask you, what are you
doing? Father, give us peace of heart
and rest, knowing that you rule all things well. That nothing
happens to us for the detriment of your people. but always for
good and for your glory. Father, this morning I pray that
you would enable us to hear word from thee and to worship you.
Enable us to hear the word of God with the ear of faith, the
ear that you give, and to believe it with the heart that you give,
a heart of faith and love. Father, bless us this morning.
Don't let your people just hear the words of a man, but speak
to us through your word. that your people might be saved,
that your people be fed and comforted and encouraged. What we ask for
ourselves, we ask for our children's classes. Father, we pray that
you'd bless them in a special way. Bless our teachers and bless
our children that these classes that they have may lay the foundation
of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you'd use this time to sow
the seeds of faith in their heart, that you would, in your time,
cause to grow to life and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we pray a blessing for your people who you brought in the time of
trouble and trial. We pray that you'd meet their
need richly according to your will and your purpose. We pray
a special blessing for Julie and her family at this time that
you'd comfort their hearts at this time of loss and sorrow. Father, we ask you to forgive
us of our many sins. See us and hear us only in our
Lord Jesus Christ. It's for His glory and in His
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, 1 Kings chapter
17. This is a very familiar story. About everybody knows how this
widow woman was fed during a time of a great famine in the land.
And I want us to see this story as a picture of salvation. Salvation
through faith in Christ. Salvation that comes by believing
Christ and faith that lives feeding upon Christ. Now, faith, it's
not just a belief that somehow, some way everything's going to
be OK. Saving faith has an object. Saving faith is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who he is and what he's done. And saving faith is not
just this blind hope everything will be OK. Saving faith is based
upon the word of God. And anything else that's not
based upon the word of God, that's not in Christ alone, is not saving
faith. Let's look here, 1 Kings chapter
17, verse one. And Elijah the Tishbite, who
was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, as the Lord God
of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there should not be
dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. Now this
was a very bad famine. It affected everyone, everywhere. Many people all around this whole
area were starving to death. And this story ought to be interesting
to us because you and I are living in a time of very serious famine.
It's not a famine of water or food. It's a spiritual famine. You don't have to turn there,
but let me read this to you from the book of Amos chapter eight. Behold, the days come sayeth
the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land. not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing of the words of
the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, from the north
even to the east. They shall run to and fro to
seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it." Isn't that
our day? In our day, we have not a famine
of bread. We've got plenty to eat, plenty
to drink. It's a spiritual famine. And just like Elijah's famine,
our spiritual famine affects everyone everywhere. People are starving to death,
spiritually starving to death, and they're dying and going to
hell. And our famine comes from Adam's dead sin nature. Nobody
can escape it. The only hope of life we have,
the only hope of spiritual food that we have, the only hope of
salvation that we have is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the story
here that follows is a picture of how God saves a sinner. through
faith in Christ and causes that sinner to live feeding upon Christ. Now, first, in this thing of
salvation, there's going to be a prophet, there's going to be
a preacher, and that preacher lives upon the same faith that
he preaches. Verse two, and the word of the
Lord came unto him saying, get thee hence and turn thee eastward
and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
And it should be that thou should drink of the brook. And I have
commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did
according to the word of the Lord. For he went and dwelt by
the brook Cherith that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought
him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening.
And he drank of the brook. Elijah the prophet lived by the
same faith that he preached. He believed God and we know he
believed God because he obeyed God. And he went where God told
him to go. And while he was there, Elijah
ate by faith. By faith. God-given faith. Elijah relied upon God to feed
him in a miraculous way. When there were no visible means
by which God could feed him, Elijah ate by faith. He trusted
that the Lord would provide just like God promised that he would.
And God fed Elijah in the most unlikely way. By ravens. Now, ravens are unclean animals
and normally they eat meat. But now they're bringing meat
to Elijah twice a day. I read that ravens are so self-centered. They'll neglect their young and
let their young go hungry so they can go eat themselves. Yet
they faithfully brought bread and meat to Elijah twice a day
because God commanded them to. God's going to use the most unlikely
means to feed his people, ravens, unclean, sinful men and women. And God's preachers will be men
who bring meat, who bring spiritual bread faithfully to God's people. They brought, these ravens brought
meat and they brought bread. And you wonder where in the world
did ravens get bread? The writers have a lot of speculation
about that, I don't know. But this I know, they faithfully
did. Brought bread to Elijah twice
a day. He ate by faith and Elijah drank
by faith. It didn't matter that it wasn't
raining. God miraculously provided water for Elijah to drink from
that brook. Many other people didn't have anything to drink.
But Elijah did. That brook rained with water
for Elijah to drink. Let me ask you this question.
Would Elijah, would he have had food and drink if he had gone
anywhere else other than where God told him? Would he? No, he
wouldn't. No, he stayed there, he ate and
he drank by faith, obeying God. And all of this is a picture
of how a believer feeds upon Christ, the bread of life and
drinks of Christ, the water of life. This is all of Christ. Our Lord said, my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Christ is the believer's
meat, and Christ is the believer's drink. See, a believer, we don't
just believe on Christ one time. We want to just make a profession
of faith and then go on our merry way. No, the believer believes
Christ, believes on Christ, and then he feeds upon Christ. We
receive life from believing Christ. By faith, we receive life. And
that life is sustained by feeding upon Christ. It's a continual
living upon Christ. The Lord God has provided salvation
for his people in the most unexpected way. By God's Son becoming a
man and obeying God's law for his people. And then he traded
his righteousness. He traded his obedience for the
sin of his people. He was made sin for his people
and he put that sin away by sacrificing himself to pay everything justice
demands. Now that's a miracle. And then
another miracle. God gives a dead sinner faith
to believe Christ, to believe, to believe on him. He is my righteousness,
to believe on him. He is my salvation. God gives
faith to believe Christ. And then he gives faith, that
same faith lives, feeding upon Christ. Now that's what Elijah
was doing down there by the brook. Now down there by that brook,
Elijah had everything that he needed, God provided for him.
I just imagine, Elijah was very, very content at that time, down
there by that brook. There weren't a bunch of people
for once in his life, for once at least in his public life,
there weren't a bunch of people trying to kill him. There wasn't
a bunch of people causing him grief. He wasn't fighting false
prophets all the time. He didn't have to live with the
unbelief of the people when he preached to them. It was just
peaceful and quiet and beautiful. He was enjoying himself there.
God gave Elijah everything he needed to sustain him so that
Elijah would have a real story to tell sinners. Christ is all
that the believer needs to sustain him. You trust him. He's all
that you need. God will give you everything
that you need in him. That's the message that Elijah
preached. And that's the faith that he
lived. God's preachers, we preach the
grace. We preach the mercy. We preach the salvation that
we have experienced by God's grace. And Elijah stayed there
by that brook by faith because he believed God. He was there
feeding upon Christ. And then Elijah moved and he
went preaching when God sent him there too. Look at verse
seven. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried
up because there had been no rain in the land. And the word
of the Lord came unto him saying, arise and get thee unto Zarephath,
which belongeth to Zidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded
a widow woman there to sustain thee. Now Elijah never would
have left that brook unless the Lord forced him to leave. The
Lord had to dry up that river and he quit sending those ravens
with bread and meat. Because if he didn't, Elijah
never would have left. Same thing happened to the Jews
in Jerusalem after our Lord's resurrection. They'd have stayed
right there forever. God had to send persecution to drive
them out. He told them before he ascended
back on high. He told them, now you go into
all the world and preach the gospel. And after that, what were they
doing? They were all staying there in Jerusalem, weren't they?
They were just content to be there with one another. And the
Lord seemed to be blessing them, and the Lord had to send affliction
to drive them out into all the world to preach the gospel. That's
what he did to Elijah. See, we walk by faith. We live
by faith, faith in Christ, and we walk by faith. Now, walk in
the light God gives you. Don't move until the Lord gives
you more light. When it's time for you to move,
the Lord will move you. When it's time for you to go somewhere
else, the Lord will open the door, You just wait. You don't
have to kick the door down. You don't have to go wandering
around looking for something. Just wait till the Lord gives
you more light and he opens the door. When it's time for you
to go, you'll go. That's what happened to Elijah.
So first in this thing of salvation, there's got to be a prophet who
lives the faith that he preaches. And second, there's got to be
a sinner who's in need. Verse nine, we meet this sinner.
He told Elijah to go into Zarephath, which belonged to Zidon and dwell
there. Behold, I've commanded a widow woman there to sustain
thee. Now Elijah went where God sent
him. He was preaching. He went there on the trail of
God's sheep. You know, the Lord didn't tell
him just go there and see what happens. The Lord told him to
go there and meet this widow. Now this widow woman don't know
it yet, but she's one of God's elect. At least she's a picture
of one of God's elect. If you look at Luke chapter four,
In our Lord's very first public or recorded public message, we
believe it was his first one. He mentions this widow woman
as a picture of God's electing love. In Luke chapter four, verse 25, I tell you of a truth. Many widows
were in Israel. in the days of Elias, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine
was throughout all the land, there were many Jewish widows.
But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman there that was a widow." Now, the Lord
gave that illustration to show that he saves whom he will, and
he passes by whom he will. There's not something we can
do to earn God's grace. There's nothing we can do. There's
nothing about our flesh that would cause the Lord to choose
us. During this famine, the Lord passed by every starving Jewish
widow in the land and he sent his prophet to a starving Gentile
widow, a sinful woman. The Lord chose to have mercy
on this poor widow because that's who God chose mercy to. The worst
of the worst, the worst sinners, the poor and the needy. She's
also a picture of God's elect in this way. Before the Lord
sent her a prophet, the Lord put her in great need. He waited
until the famine was bad in the land, and then he sent her a
prophet. And the Lord prepared her heart
to receive and to believe the gospel that that prophet would
come preaching. The Lord told Elijah, I've commanded
her to feed you. Now she may not even know it
yet, but the Lord had already prepared her heart to receive
this prophet. And this woman is a picture of
every needy sinner that God saves. Like I said, she didn't know
yet she's one of God's elect, but this is what she does know.
She's in a famine and she knows she's going to starve to death
and she's going to do that right soon. She's in trouble. At this
time, a widow was probably one of the most helpless and hopeless
people that there was. Widows and orphans are the two
most helpless people, most vulnerable people, because she had no one
else to provide for her. This Gentile widow, she is in
great need. I mean, she really can't even
have any hope in the God of Israel helping her, can she? I bet all
those Jewish widows thought, oh, God will help me because
I'm a Jew. She had even no hope, no reason to expect that the
God of Israel would have mercy on her, none whatsoever. So first
there's a prophet, then there's a sinner in need. Thirdly, and
this thing is salvation, there's got to be a message of grace.
Here it is, verse 10. And he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, the woman was there gathering of sticks.
And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little
water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to
fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee,
a little morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord
thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel
and a little oil and a cruise. And behold, I'm gathering two
sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we
may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, fear
not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and
for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the
cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain
upon the earth. Now Elijah went to this town
like the Lord told him. He was on the trail of one of
God's sheep. He was looking for this widow woman. But when he
met her, he didn't know if this was the woman that God had commanded
to feed him or not. He had no way of knowing that.
She didn't go around with the word elect on her forehead. He
had no way of knowing. So you know how he found out?
He told her what God commands. He asked her, give me a little
something to drink. Now we're right in a famine where
there's been no rain. All right, that's kind of bold,
isn't it? Ask for a drink. But then he really pressed the
issue. He said, bring me a little food to bring me a little bread
too. He said that to a starving woman, a woman who starved from
the death. He asked her, bring me some D.
Now he didn't know if she was this woman or not. He didn't
know if she was one of God's elect or not. At this point,
she didn't know either. At this point, she didn't even
know that the Lord had commanded her and to feed this prophet. She didn't even know that yet.
That's God's preachers. We don't know who God's elect
are. And before people hear the gospel, they don't know if they're
one of God's elect either. So what do we do? We do what
God told us to do, what God's commanded us to do. Preach the
gospel. The gospel is a commandment,
and this is the commandment of the Lord God almighty. You believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And then we find out who God's
elect are by waiting to see who believes Those who believe it,
those who come to Christ and bow to Him, that's God's elect. Those are the ones God sent us
to preach to. See, Elijah didn't start out
saying, telling this woman, now listen, you're one of God's elect,
so you just feed me and everybody will live just fine. He didn't
start out that way, did he? He started out by exposing her
need. When he asked her for something
to eat and she didn't have anything to give, he exposed her need. She didn't even have enough to
keep her and her son alive. I mean, the best plan she'd come
up with this time is to use up the last of her hoarded resources,
and there must not have been much, because to build a fire
to bake these cakes, she just gathered two sticks. I mean,
it couldn't have been much. She's going to eat up the last
of her hoarded resources, and she's going to watch her son
starve to death, and then she's going to starve to death. Well,
we begin preaching the gospel. we begin by exposing our need. We begin by exposing our sin. We begin by exposing our lack
of righteousness, our lack of faith, our lack of life. When
we begin preaching the gospel, we begin by exposing our lack
of anything that God requires and exposing our desperate need
of Christ. We begin by exposing our spiritual
death in Adam so that we cannot, we're not capable of doing anything
to please God. Then we say, you trust Christ.
You come to Christ. You cast your soul upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has provided by his obedience
and by his sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ has provided salvation
for his people. He died to put away the sin of
God's elect and it's gone. It's all gone. Now you trust
him. You trust him and you'll never
die. You trust Christ and your soul shall live. You trust him. You'll have forgiveness of your
sin. You trust him. You'll have righteousness for
your soul. You'll trust him. You'll have fellowship with God.
You trust him. You'll have everything in him
that you lost in Adam. Now you come and trust Christ.
Now listen, this is the gospel. You must trust Christ in order
to be saved. You must, I must trust Christ
in order to be saved. That's the commandment of the
gospel. Right? Here's the fourth thing in this
thing of salvation. It's God given faith. You must believe
Christ in order to be saved. But here's our problem. By nature,
we can't do it. We don't have the ability to
do it. So you know what God does? He gives his people faith to
believe Christ. Verse 15. This is this is faith. She went and did according to
the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house
did eat many days a full year. Now, this is saving faith. This
is not blind faith. Why does she go do what the prophet
told her to do? Her faith was founded upon the
word of God. It wasn't like, well, you know,
I may as well give God's prophet something first and then hope
maybe God will feed me because, you know, I sacrificed to feed
the prophet. That's not faith. No, not at all. Her faith was
founded upon the word of God. She believed that God would do
what he said he'd do. She acted and she did the impossible. She gave away the last of her
food. the last bite of food her child
would ever have, as far as she could see she had resources for,
she gave it away. Because she believed God. And lo and behold, it all came
to pass, just like God said it would. The Lord brought this
woman to the end of herself. So she saw she had no hope in
herself. She was totally dependent upon the Lord. And then the Lord
sent his prophet. with a message of grace. And
then, and only then, did the Lord give her faith, faith to
trust Christ, faith to trust that the Lord would provide.
By faith, this poor Gentile widow gave away everything that stood
between her and the grave. She gave away all of it. Now
the only reason you do such a thing is you believe the word of God.
That's the only reason. Her only hope of life is that
God would keep his word. And if that's your only hope,
if your only hope is that God will keep his word. I don't understand
it. I don't understand how he'd do it. I don't understand the
physics of it, the science of it, the theology of it. I don't
understand. But the only hope I have is that God will keep
his word. That's your only hope. You got a good hope. She had
a good hope. And this is a picture of how
God saves His people. God has an elect people. He chose
a people to save. And He's going to bring all of
those people to the end of themselves. So they learn. They've got no
hope in themselves. They've got no hope of salvation
in anything that they'll do. And then God's going to send
them a preacher. God's going to send them a preacher
who's preaching the message of grace in Christ Jesus. And then
the Lord gives them faith. Faith to believe Christ and faith
to cast their entire soul on Christ alone. How often have
you heard this story? Someone's been in false religion
and they'll say, I wasn't happy there. I knew what they were
saying wasn't right, but I didn't know what was right, but I knew
that wasn't right. I was looking for something. And then I heard the gospel.
That's it. And they believe. That's exactly
what happened to this woman. That's the picture here. Saving
faith gives away all hope in anything except Christ. It thrusts,
not only does it give it away, it thrusts it away. It don't
want anything to do with any hope but Christ. Saving faith
trusts Christ to be my righteousness or I'm not gonna have any. Saving
faith trusts Christ to be my life or I'm not gonna have any.
Saving faith doesn't want anything. between me and hell, but the
Lord Jesus Christ. This woman believed God and she
lived feeding upon Christ. I'm just going to make an assumption
that this woman is kind of like me. How often do you reckon she
went to bed at night wondering, is there going to be me on the
oil in the morning? Now I used to hold up to that.
When I get up in the morning, open up the cupboard, is there
going to be meal and oil in there? This went on for a full year.
I mean, how often do you think, okay, she thought it's going
to be 300, it's been 300 days. I know God, but tomorrow now,
he's just not, he's not going to give up. He just, I mean,
I, you know, I didn't live very good today. I got mad at the
prophet. I got mad at my son. I just,
all my weak faith. I know the Lord's been provided.
He's going to quit now. How often do you think she thought that
when she was laying in bed at night? Saving faith is always for right
now. For right now. Saving faith is
always today's faith. You know, I can't live off of
yesterday's faith. I believe I believed God yesterday.
But I can't live off yesterday's faith. I must live by faith today. And I can't feed off of tomorrow's
faith. I've got to feed off faith today. And this meal in the barrel
is a picture of Christ, the bread of life. Where'd that meal come
from? It was wheat. Wheat was planted
in the ground one day by a farmer, and it grew. It grew. A tender plant grew up out of
the dry ground, and it grew. And when it got to the fullness
of life, it was cut down. It was taken to the threshing
floor. and it was ground into powder. It was mixed with some
oil and it was baked in a hot oven, all to make bread for the
hungry to eat. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is a root out of a dry ground, just a twig sticking up out of
a dead, dry ground, a baby born in a manger. But he grew. He grew to full life. In the
prime of his life, he was cut down. And at Calvary, He was
ground into powder under the wheel of God's justice. And all
that happened so that the spiritually hungry would have living bread,
the bread of life for their soul. And the oil is a picture of God,
the Holy Spirit, who comes and gives life to his people by applying
the blood of Christ to our hearts, by enabling us to see the things
of Christ and believe them. Salvation is all one work. It's
one work. But it's the work of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit all together. And saving faith
believes Christ. Saving faith. We have salvation
by faith. By faith. By faith in Christ. And saving faith will continue.
Continue believing Christ. Continue to feed upon Christ.
Because saving faith can only live on Christ. Verse 16. And
the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil
fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. Now the Lord, when Elijah came
to her, he didn't just give her immediately enough for 365 days. And then you just ration it out
and you'll have enough for a year. That's not how the Lord did it.
He gave her enough for one day at a time. One day. She couldn't
look to tomorrow, could she? She had to look to today. She
couldn't look to yesterday. She's got to look to today. But
every single day, there's enough. Every single day, there is enough
meal, enough oil to feed her, her son, and the prophet. And
that's how faith walks. Saving faith doesn't walk by
sight. We walk by faith. We walk trusting Christ. We live trusting Christ one day
at a time, one day at a time, continually living upon Christ. And you'll find that trusting
Christ every day, you'll find Christ is enough for every single
day. Some days are going to bring
some different things than other days, but you'll find trusting
Christ that every day in every situation, Christ is enough. All right. Lord willing, we'll
pick up there in a few moments.