Well, good morning to all of
you. It's such a pleasure and a delight for me to be back with
you this morning. I trust the Lord will give us
a word from Him. Now, my text this morning is
2 Kings chapter 2. I want to make a comment on a
verse our brother Bill read for us a minute ago in Psalm 25 verse
11. You know, it's my prayer this
morning, just like it's my prayer every time that the Lord gives
me the opportunity to preach His gospel, that there might
be somebody here that doesn't know the Lord and knows it. And
they're seeking the Lord. They're seeking mercy from the
Lord. They're seeking that the Lord might save them. And I have
a real key for you here in going to the Lord in prayer and asking
Him for mercy. This is the key to understanding
the whole Gospel. It's the key to understanding
everything that God does. It's for His namesake. It's for
His glory's sake. God does everything He does for
the glory of His Son. God saves sinners the way that
He does, when He does, through the means that He has chosen
to reveal Himself so that Christ would be glorified. David says,
for thy namesake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.
Now, we're all sinners. God saves sinners. God saves
sinners when he can get all the glory in saving them. If you
would have mercy from God, ask him to save you, not so you'll
feel better, not so you can not go to hell, not for your sake,
for his namesake. Lord, you get a whole lot of
glory to the name of Christ if you'd save a sinner like me,
for my sin is great." And that's a key in prayer for all of us,
isn't it? From the unbeliever to the oldest believer alike,
Lord, bless me for Christ's sake, for thy name's sake. This thing's
not about me. It's not about you. It's about
Him. I think our prayers would be
answered much more frequently if we would be enabled to truly
pray for Christ's sake. Alright, you get that for free. That just came to me as Bill
was bringing us that reading. Now if you would look at 2 Kings
chapter 2. I titled the message this morning,
Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now Elijah is getting ready to
depart the world and go be with the Lord. And when he does, Elisha
will become the prophet in Israel. And both Elijah and Elisha know
this is going to happen today. And Elisha has refused to leave
Elijah's side. From the time he knew that the
Lord is taking Elijah today, he has refused to leave his side. He wants to be there when the
Lord takes Elijah home. Now before long, by God's grace,
Elisha does see Elijah depart this earth in a chariot of fire.
2 Kings 2 verse 11. And it came to pass, as they
still 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 a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it
and 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.
And 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. Now I know that Elisha was filled
with sorrow at this time. He is really gonna miss his mentor.
He's gonna miss his friend, Elijah. But it's far more important for
Elisha and for you and me to have the Lord God of Elijah.
Not to have the presence of Elijah, our friend, but to have the presence
of the Lord God of Elijah. And if you and I are gonna believe
on the Lord God of Elijah, we're gonna come to know him by the
same means that Elijah used, is by the preaching of the word
of God. Thus saith the Lord. And we have a picture of that
here in our text. Look up at verse seven. And 50
men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off,
and they too stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle and
wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided
hither and thither, so that they went over on dry ground." Down
in verse 14, now that Elisha is alone, he did the very same
thing. He took that mantle of Elijah, wrapped it and smote
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went
back over Jordan on dry ground. Now Elijah is gone. Elisha has received the commission
from the Lord to take up Elijah's ministry, to take up his mantle
and assume that ministry to Israel. That's the token he received,
Elijah's mantle. And Elisha did the very same
thing Elijah did. He took that mantle, he smoked
the waters of Jordan, and they parted hither and thither. And
he walked over on dry ground. Now the point of all that is
this. Elisha, here he is beginning his ministries, the prophet in
Israel. He used the very same means that Elijah used. And he
got the very same results. And the picture of that is the
preaching of the word of God. If you and I would be useful
to our generation, there is no point longing for the old days,
longing for the days of Elijah and Elisha, they're gone. They're
gone. They served their generation
and now they're gone. There's no point longing for
those days. Let's pay attention to today.
If we would be useful to our generation in preaching Christ
to them, We must use the same means that our fathers used.
The same means that Elijah and Elisha and all of the other prophets,
the apostles and all the great preachers of the past, our Savior
himself, when he preached. What did they all use? The unvarnished
Word of God. The Word of God. The only means
God uses to save his people and give them faith in Christ is
the preaching of the word of God. This word is the seed God
the Holy Spirit uses to give life. The only means God uses
to feed his people, to comfort his people, to strengthen his
people, is the preaching of the word of God. If you would be
useful to your generation, we'd best be preaching the word of
God, hadn't we? Now use that introduction Because I know Elisha,
he wanted to know where the Lord God of Elijah was. He'd asked
for a double portion. He wanted that same spirit. Don't
put me in a ministry if you're not gonna give me this same spirit
that Elijah had to preach Christ to my generation. If you're not
gonna let me, if you're not gonna give me that spirit to preach
Christ to my generation, don't put me in a ministry. Just don't
put me in a ministry. You and I need to know the Lord
God of Elijah today, just as much as Elisha did, because the
only way you and I are gonna be saved is if the Lord God of
Elijah is pleased to save us by his grace. So we need to know
the Lord God of Elijah, don't we? I know this, Elijah knew
the Lord. Now I wanna know him too. And I tell you why it's so important
that we know, that we believe the Lord God of Elijah. It's
because the Lord God of Elijah is the God of judgment. Remember
when God sent Elijah, told him to go to King Ahab and tell him
there's gonna be a great drought. God's not gonna send rain on
the land. That was God's judgment on the
land for sin. The Lord God of Elijah is the
God of judgment. Now I want to know this God.
I want to know where he is, I want to know who he is, so I can go
begging for mercy that he not judge me. The Lord God of Elijah
is also the God of providence. During that famine and that drought,
God sent Elijah down to live by a brook. There was water still
in the brook. Elijah had water to drink, but
he didn't have anything to eat. And you know what God did? He
sent ravens every morning and every evening In their beaks,
they were bringing him bread and fish, bread and flesh, every
morning, every evening. Now, they didn't eat it themselves.
It's a time of drought. There's not much food. Food's
scarce. These ravens found bread and flesh and didn't eat it themselves.
They brought it and dropped it at Elijah's feet. Now, only the
God who rules over providence can cause ravens to go against
their nature and not eat that food. but instead bring it to
Elijah. The Lord God of Elijah rules
everything in his creation. He does as he pleases. I want to know that God. So I
can go ask him if he might be pleased to show mercy to me. Then the God of Elijah is the
God of election. During this drought and during
this famine, God dried up the brook. And you think, well, that's
just horrible. That's just awful. What a horrible
situation for Elijah to be in. You know, he's done everything
God told him to do. Now God dried up the brook. Just be too careful. Be very
careful being too quick to judge God and what it is he's doing. You know why God dried up that
brook? So he could send Elijah to a widow woman in Sarepta,
a Gentile, a Gentile widow woman. During that time of that famine,
God sent his prophet to one widow. How many hungry, needy widows
were there at that time? Many, I would imagine, wouldn't
you? There were many Jewish widows. God didn't send his prophet to
one of them. He sent his prophet to that Gentile widow woman.
And when Elijah got there, He saw her, and he asked her to
make him a little cake. And she said, I don't have enough.
I can't make you a little cake. I've just got enough meal and
enough oil to make me and my son a cake. And it was such a
little amount, she said, I'm just gathering two sticks. I
don't need a very big fire to cook this. I have very little
left. I'm gathering me two sticks,
and I'm going to make this cake for me and my son. Then we're
going to starve to death. And Elijah said, tell you what, make
me a cake first. and then for yourself and for
your son. And you know she did. The God of Providence put faith
in her heart to do that, didn't she? That's against her nature.
You mean I'm going to give you my last cake before I give it
to my own son? She did. And you know the story. You know what happened. Elijah
lived with her, and during all that time, every day, that woman
would exhaust her meal and exhaust her oil and make cakes for her
and her son and the prophet. And every morning, there was
more meal and more oil. This is the God of creation. He created matter. He created
matter and fed that widow woman and her son all through that
famine. Now that's the God of creation.
That's also the God of election. Our Lord used that as an illustration. He preached the Word, didn't
He? He preached the unvarnished Word of God. He preached that
story and preached salvation in Him. He used that as an illustration
of His electing love for His people. In His very first public
message, people understood what He was saying. They got so mad
they tried to throw Him off the cliff and kill Him. They hated
him so much. I understand man by nature hates
the God of election. The God of election means this,
you and I are completely and utterly dependent on God to save
us. He's got to choose us, He's got to pay the redemption price,
He's got to call us, He's got to give us faith, He's got to
give us life, and He's got to keep us. We're totally dependent
on God in salvation. I understand man by nature hates
that, but that's who God is nevertheless. That's what this word says. I'm going to quote my friend
Chris Cunningham here, when he preached the funeral service
for our brother, D. Parks. If you watched him preach
that message, you probably remember it. As Chris is so able to do,
he laid down a gospel. I mean, he laid down a gospel.
There's no compromise. There's no wavering. This is
the truth. And then he leaned forward. He
said, now, if you don't believe that, I'm not mad at you. No,
if you don't believe that, I'm not mad at you. I want you to
know the truth, though. I want you to listen to what
God says. Don't be mad because God chose the people to save.
I want to know the God of election. I want to know who He is. I can
go to Him and say, God, choose me. Lord, for your great name's
sake, choose me. Oh, you'd get so much glory if
you'd choose a worthless nothing like me. Lord, choose me. Then the God of Elijah is the
God who gives life. That widow woman, she was so
faithful, wasn't she? To serve God's prophet. To give
him her meal and her oil to serve. And you know, there came a day,
her son died. She's not married, she doesn't
have any other children, this son died. Now you think, why
would God, she was so faithful, why would God kill her son? After
she was so faithful. Well, she called for the prophet,
you know Elijah did? He prayed to God and God gave that boy
life, brought him back to life. The God of Elijah is the God
who gives life. I want to know him, so I'm going
to ask him to give this dead sinner life. That's what I want. Then the God of Elijah is the
God of the sacrifice for sin. He is the sacrifice and He's
the one who accepts the sacrifice. Look back at 1 Kings chapter
18. This is what God showed that day on Mount Carmel when the
prophets of Baal, 400 of them got together and stood against
one man, Elijah. 400 prophets of Baal kept crying
for the fire to fall from heaven. They agreed, whoever sacrificed
the fire fell upon, that's God. Baal couldn't send any fire,
could he? But the fire of God sure fell on the sacrifice Elijah
offered, didn't it? And that showed us something.
The God of Elijah is God alone. There's none beside him. 1 Kings
18, verse 30. This is after the prophets of
Baal did everything they could do trying to get Baal to send
fire on their sacrifice, and he didn't do it. And Elijah said
unto all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came
near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was
broken down. And Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number
of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of
the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the
stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made
a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures
of seed. And he put the wood in order,
and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and
said, fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt
sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, do it the second
time. And they did the second time. And he said, do it the
third time. And they did it the third time.
And the water ran round about the altar and filled the trench
also with water. And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel,
let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel. and that
I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that
thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again. And the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt
sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and
licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the
people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord. He is God, the Lord. He is God. Now that was what
Elijah's goal was. He wanted people to know God
is God. And the way God showed us he's
God is by the sacrifice of his son. He sent the fire of his
wrath upon his son as a substitute for his people, and by that sacrifice,
Christ, our substitute, put away all of the sin of all of his
people. There's no more fire of God's
wrath left against the sin of his people because it exhausted
itself on Christ the substitute. Now, I want to know that God,
the God of Elijah, so I can go ask him, Lord, would you provide
the sacrifice for my sin? I can't provide it. Lord, would
you provide it? Now that's the Lord God of Elijah. And I'm like
Elijah, I want to know where he is. So I can go to him and
beg him to have mercy on me. I hope I can, by the power of
the Spirit, preach this message in such a way that you have a
very deep interest in knowing who, knowing where the God of
Elijah is, knowing who he is. And if you would know where he
is and who he is, do you know Elisha's mentor could have told
Elijah where he is? Look across the page at 1 Kings
chapter 19, beginning in verse 9. Elijah, like all of us, has gotten
feeling pretty low, pretty down, he's feeling sorry for himself.
In verse 9, he came thither into a cave. and lodged there, and
behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and said unto him,
What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts, and the children of Israel have forsaken
thy covenant, they've thrown down thine altars, they've slain
thy prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left,
and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, Go forth,
and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord
passed by, In a great and strong wind, rent the mountains and
break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not
in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake.
But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire.
But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small
voice. Here's my first point. You want
to know where the Lord God of Elijah is? He's in the still,
small voice of His Word. The Lord sent this great wind
before Elijah. But the Lord wasn't in the wind.
I mean, this was some wind. It says here, this wind was so
strong it broke rocks in pieces. What a wind that must have been.
I know in Scripture, usually the wind pictures the Holy Spirit,
doesn't it? But this wind that Elijah saw,
that's not the picture of the Holy Spirit. I know that's so
because it says the Lord wasn't in the wind. The Lord wasn't
in it. This loud wind, that's a picture
of man's way of religion. Man's way of religion is to make
a big show of the Holy Spirit. Not the Holy Spirit pointing
men to Christ. but the gifts and miracles of
the Holy Spirit. That's man's way of religion.
And it's a big show, but the Lord's not in it. Man's way is
to make a show of the Holy Spirit, by speaking in tongues, by healing
people, by being in some sort of spiritual trance, so everybody
knows, ooh, that person's got the Spirit, you know. That's
a big show. It glorifies man, not Christ. That's how I know the Lord's
not in that. That's not the Holy Spirit. The Lord's not in that
kind of land. And the Lord's not in the earthquake. You know,
the Lord's not in a bunch of physical signs and wonders. I'm
sure this earthquake impressed Elijah. But the Lord God of Elijah's
not in those things that impress the flesh. He's not in the religion
of fleshly power and fleshly works, those things that impress
and glorify the flesh. God's not in that. Then the Lord's
not in the fire. Again, this is a fire that the
Lord caused to appear to teach Elijah something. I'm sure it
was pretty scary. I'm sure it was an impressive
fire, but the Lord wasn't in it. That's a picture of fire
and brimstone preaching. Fire and brimstone preaching
uses threats of the law. If you don't keep the law, if
you don't live right, if you don't do this and you don't do
that, if you don't act good enough now, God's gonna send you to
hell. I mean, that'll scare a person
half to death. I mean, but the Lord's not in that kind of fire.
Now, I grant you, fire and brimstone preaching could make people react
and make people do something. It could make a person seek refuge
from the storm. But let me ask you a question.
What happens when the storm has passed? What happens when you're
out there Thursday afternoon on the job and the preacher's
not there scaring you half to death with fire and brimstone
preaching? Huh? Where's your refuge then? Well,
you kind of come out of it. It's not all that important then,
is it? No, the Lord's not in that kind of preaching. I tell
you why the believer is drawn to Christ. It's not threats of
the law. It's not threats of punishment,
it's cords of love. It's cords of love. I've loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn you. We're drawn to Christ by his
love for us. The Savior said, if I be lifted
up from the earth, I'll draw all unto me. Now, if you look
that up this afternoon, you'll find the word men in there, but
you'll notice also that word is in italics. That was added
by the translators. That's not what the Lord said.
He didn't say, I'll draw all men to me. That's not true, because
all men aren't drawn to Christ, are they? What the Savior said
is, I'll draw all to me. I'll draw all that the Father
has given me. I'll draw all those that I love.
I'll draw all, all that the Father hath given me. They'll come to
me, and here's how I'm gonna draw them to me, by being lifted
up from the earth. Oh, if God sends us a man who
dares to preach Christ crucified, period, and just leaves it there. He just preaches Christ crucified. If God ever shows you Christ
lifted up for your sins, I promise you this, You'll come running
to Christ and you don't need no preacher to give you an altar
call. You'll come running to Christ. If you ever see by faith
Christ lifted up for you, you won't be able to believe it.
That someone as wonderful as the Son of God would do something
so great for a wretch like me because he loves me? Oh, I'm
coming to him. I'm coming to Him. And when you
come to Him, you won't leave Him. See, it's a whole lot different
than this fire and brimstone preaching that makes you seek
temporary refuge, isn't it? No, you come to Christ because
you love Him. Because He loves you. Not because
you're afraid He'll smack you around if you don't come to Him,
but because He loves you. And you need Him. We come to
Christ because we don't want any other hope of salvation.
Give me Christ, or else I die. Now where do you find out about
all that? It's in the still, small voice.
The still, small voice of the Gospel, of the Word of God. The
Holy Spirit still moves in power, but He doesn't do it in a show
of religion, or in a motion of religion. When the Holy Spirit
moves in power, He's not making a show of Himself. He's not gonna
make a show. The Holy Spirit's not trying
to get you to see Him. What's the job of the Holy Spirit?
To reveal Christ. To take the things of mine and
show them to you. That's what the Savior said.
Now that might not be real impressive to the flesh, but that's the
way God speaks to His people. In a still, small voice. It's
by speaking to your heart. So only you hear Him. And you
know, that can happen in a crowd as big as this, to a bunch of
people at the same time. But when God speaks to you, it's
like you're the only one in the room. Like that message is just
for you. That's the still small voice.
God's speaking to the hearts of his people, and he does it
by his word. Again, I know that's not impressive
to the flesh, but don't despise the day of small things. because
that's what God uses to speak to the hearts of his people.
He does it in a public worship service. I'm telling you, there's
a beauty and a power in the simple preaching of Christ. In just
the simple preaching of God's word, there's such beauty and
there's such power there. Look over Matthew chapter eight.
I'll show you a real good example of this. There's beauty and power. in this still, small voice. Matthew 8, verse 5. And when
Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion
beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick
of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I'll
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm
not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak
the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I'm a man
under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man,
go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my
servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I've not
found so great faith No, not in Israel. Our Savior says this
is faith. It's believing the Word of God.
It's believing that the Word of God is all it takes. That centurion understood the
power of the Word. It's a still, small voice. He
didn't need the Lord to come to his house and make a show
of the Holy Spirit like these faith healers do, you know, heal
the man, knock him over and all this stuff. He didn't need the
fire. He didn't need the wind. He said,
all I need is that still small voice. Lord, you speak the word,
and my servant will be healed. Now that tells me our job is
to preach the word. Do it as simply, do it as plainly,
do it as clearly as you possibly can, and do it every time God
gives us an opportunity. Preach the word, because the
Lord God of Elijah He saves His people. I'll tell you where He's
found. He's found in the Word of God. They are saving power
in this Word. They're not saving power in psychological
tricks. We have vacation Bible school
for our children every year. We had a man, they came for a
short time, and it came time for Bible school. He would not
send his son to Bible school. And I asked him, why not? I said,
I promise you, we'll take good care of him. I promise you, we
will. And he said, I'm so afraid somebody's gonna try to talk
him into making a decision. And I promised him we wouldn't
do that. I said, I've been doing this
a while and been preaching and been teaching Bible school a
long time. I'm pretty sure that I get these kids, you know, get
them to like me a little bit. I'm pretty sure I can talk them
into doing a bunch of stuff. And we'll never do it. We'll never
do it. It won't do any good if it did.
All we're going to do, this is Bible school, teach the Word
of God. Children and adults alike, teach
the Word of God. If you would hear that still
small voice, I'll tell you what to do. Find a man preaching this
Word and sit down and listen to him. That's what I'd do if
I was you. All right, number two, look at
Psalm 115. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
He is ruling on the throne of heaven. Psalm 115, verse two. Wherefore
should the heathens say, where is now their God? Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now where is the Lord God of
Elijah? Right where He's always been. He's on His throne. Sovereignly ruling over everything
in His creation. His name is the Potentate. He rules over all. Doing whatsoever
He's pleased to do. And I'm thankful to hear that. I'm thankful God is doing whatsoever
it pleased Him to do because from God's Word, I know a few
things He's pleased to do. I know that it has pleased the
Lord to make you his people. It pleased the Lord to choose
a sinful people to save them from their sin. It pleased him. He chose them just because he
would. It wasn't because there's any good in them. No, because there's
no good in them. God chose the people to save
because God's good. Now that's the truth of election. God chose a people to save and
they couldn't be saved any other way. I'm glad God chose a people
to save, aren't you? And like I said a little while
ago, that makes me say, Lord, choose me. Choose me. Next, it pleased the Lord. Look
at Isaiah chapter 53. It pleased the Lord to save those
people that he chose to save by the sacrifice of his son.
Isaiah 53 verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Now it pleased the father to
bruise his son. Even though his son did no sin,
thought no sin, wasn't even acquainted with any sin, it pleased the
father to bruise his son, because that's the only way the sin of
his people could be put away in truth. The father made the
son sin for his people and it pleased the father to crucify,
to kill, to torture, to crush his son so that God could show
mercy to those people he chose to save without violating his
justice. He punished Christ for the sins
of his people. It pleased him to do that so
that those people would be saved in justice That pleased the Lord,
and I'm telling you this, the pleasure of the Lord has prospered
in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's prospered so completely
that not one of those people that the Father chose to save
will ever be lost. Verse 11 tells us that. He shall
see of the travail of his soul. He's not gonna have any stillborn
children. They're all gonna be alive birth. He shall see of
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Everyone that the Father purposed
to save shall be saved, because that's the sovereign will of
God on the throne. God on the throne, God who is
sovereign over all, that guarantees the salvation of His people.
If God is sovereign over everything, then nothing in this creation
can ever stop one of God's people from coming to Christ or cause
them to fall away from Christ, could it? Oh, I love the sovereignty
of God. His sovereignty guarantees my
salvation. Number three, look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? He's in Christ. He made it easy to find him.
He's in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. in all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now, here's our ministry, the
message God's given us. Here's how God reconciles sinners
to himself, to wit, namely, this is our ministry, this is our
message, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now Paul here says God was in
Christ. And God was in Christ because
the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is God. He's not just a special
prophet. He's not a prophet that had more
God's Spirit than other prophets did. He's not, you know, a watered-down
version of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus
of Nazareth, is God. He is God. And that's important
because the only way Jesus of Nazareth can save you and me
is if he's both God and man. He must be both. He has to be
a real man so he can be our representative. A man can't suffer and die, can
he? Or, I mean, God can't, but a man can. God can't die as our
substitute, but a man can. So God, the Son of God, became
a man. so he could be the substitute
for his people. But our Savior can't be man alone. He also has
to be God. He has to be God so he has the
holiness and the power and the righteousness to save. God was
in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God,
so he does have the holiness. He has the righteousness. He
has the power, the right to save. The Lord Jesus Christ is both
the Son of God and the Son of Man. He's the God-man, and that's
what makes him a suitable sacrifice for sin. He's the only man who
ever lived that sinless blood to offer before the throne. Now,
since God was in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ is able to
save his people from all of their sin. That's the Lord God of Elijah. That's the one I want to be my
God, too, isn't it, Jew? Oh, I want to know him. Then
fourth, look at 2 Peter 1. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
He's in his people. He's in his people. 2 Peter 1,
verse three. According as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue. Now Peter can only be talking about the new man
born of God in the new birth year. The old man, he can't have
the things that pertain to life and godliness. God can't give
these things that pertain to life and godliness to the old
man because the old man doesn't have anything to put them in.
He's dead. Peter has to be talking about
the new man. He's the only one that can have
these things. And the new man, he does have life. He does have
godliness because the new man received the nature of our heavenly
father in the new birth. That's what Peter tells us in
verse four. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. A believer is a partaker of the
divine nature. They have a holy nature, because
every child has the nature of their father. That's true earthly
speaking, and that's true of our heavenly father. A believer
has a holy nature that cannot sin, because he's got the nature
of his father. And that's important, because
without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. So the Lord God
of Elijah gives his people a holy nature. when He causes them to
be born again. Now that's such a miracle. It's a miracle that God can do
that. He has the power to do it. And it's a miracle that God
would do it. That God would move in power
to give His nature in the new birth to sinners, to rebels like
you and me. The Lord God of Elijah does that.
Now I want that God to be my God too, don't you? I want to
know where he is. I want to know who he is so I
can go to him and say, Lord, give me life. Give me life. Now like I said earlier, I hope
that the Lord's enabled me to preach this to the Lord God of
Elijah. So your heart's desire is to
find him. It's more accurate to say, be
found of him, but to find him, to know him, to hear from him. Oh, that he'd speak to me, that
he'd speak to me. Pass me not, oh gentle Savior. Well, if your heart's desire
is to know, to find, to hear from this Lord God of Elijah,
I tell you the best way to do that is my fifth point. The Lord God of Elijah It's wherever
his people meet together to worship. In Matthew 18, verse 20, the
Lord said, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I am in the midst of them. Now that's the importance and
the sweetness of public worship. The importance of public worship
is this. When we meet together in public
worship, the Savior promised us I'll be there too. Can you think of anything more
important? Brethren, we're wasting our time if the Savior's not
here. But if He's here among us, He's
speaking in that still, small voice to the hearts of His people. If we, this is the illustration
you heard so many times. Boy, if you advertised in the
paper and on billboards that this Sunday morning, the Lord
Jesus Christ is gonna be here, this place would be packed. I
mean, they'd be all out there in the parking lot, you're opening
the windows. He's here. If we've gathered together in
His name, for His glory, to worship Him, to hear Him, He's here.
That's the importance of public worship. And that's the sweetness
of it too. How sweet that the Savior would
condescend to meet with us here this morning. Isn't that sweet? That He'd condescend to meet
with us in our weak attempts to worship Him. So I tell you, if you'd hear
from God, if you would know the Lord God of Elijah, if you'd
have Him speak to your heart, tell you what I'd do. I'd be
here. every time the doors are open.
Because wherever it is God's people meet together, that's
where He is. I used to work with a man who
told me that I have a, how did he put it, such a great skill
to state the obvious. If you're going to meet the Savior,
be where He is. Isn't that obvious? Can't meet
him where he's not. Be where he is. He's wherever
his people meet together in worship. And I'm thankful, aren't you?
All right. I pray the Lord bless that to
your hearts. I appreciate y'all having me and your kindness and
your patience and your generosity. And I'm already looking forward
to Tuesday.