In the book of 1st Kings and
chapter 18 we read the tremendous account of Elijah on Mount Carmel
gathered before the people and with the prophets of Baal and
how The Lord sends a great sign that he is the one true and living
God. Prophets of Baal are challenged
to call upon their God to bring down fire upon the sacrifice. And for all their jumping and
shouting and cutting themselves and all their great noise, nothing
happens. But Elijah pours water upon the
sacrifice and he does everything to make it impossible for the
sacrifice to be burnt up. And then he calls upon the one
true and living God. And fire rains down from heaven
and consumes the sacrifice and consumes all the water and burns
it all. And all the people look on and
say, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. and
the false prophets of Baal are sought out and slaughtered. Following
this, there having been a famine in the land, Elijah having prayed
that the Lord would not send rain, then calls upon his Lord
and he sees the rain's return. And the people would have seen
these great displays of how true the Prophet is and of how right
he is that the Lord is God and of how powerful Almighty God
is that this God can keep the rain away and send it back again
that this God can send fire from heaven and yet the people never
truly believed the people received the temporal blessings the people
liked to see the power but the people still sought Elijah's
life. And following this in chapter
19 we read that Jezebel sought to slay Elijah and he fled for
his life. And in verse 4 we read, he himself
went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down
under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die. and said, it is enough. Now,
O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under
a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said
unto him, arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there
was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his
head. And he did eat and drink and
laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came
again the second time, and touched him and said, Arise and eat,
because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did
eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days
and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. And he came thither
unto a cave, and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord
came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very
jealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and 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
and 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 and it was so when Elijah heard
it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood
in the entering in of the cave and behold there came a voice
under him and said what doest thou hear Elijah And he said,
I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because
the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I,
only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And the
Lord said unto him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness
of Damascus. And when thou comest, anoint
Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt
thou anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat
of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. and it shall come to pass that
him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him
that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet
I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which
have not bowed under Baal, and every mouth which have not kissed
him.' So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat,
who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, And
he with the twelve and Elisha passed by him and cast his mantle
upon him. Behold the Lord passed by Elisha
and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and breaking 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 a still Small voice. Yes, Elisha had seen the dramatic
displays of God's power. He'd seen and shown all Israel
the fire coming down from heaven, consuming the sacrifice, though
it was drenched in water. And the people had seen And the
people cried out, the Lord he is the God, the Lord he is the
God. And yet they'd still, as Elijah
said, sought his life. They had still forsaken the covenant
of God, they'd still thrown down God's altars, they'd still slain
the prophets with the sword. And only Elijah was left as a
prophet. And Elijah had seen and experienced
that though the Lord might send the fire, though he might send,
as it were, the wind and the earthquake and the fire, the
Lord is not in these things. But after the fire, there is
a still small voice. Elijah knew something of being
himself a still small voice in a world of many other voices
in a world of many enemies in a world full of those who contradicted
what he said, full of those who called him a fool, full of those
who spoke otherwise, full of those who spoke against the Lord
God of Israel, full of those who led the people another way.
He stood up alone amongst the people who would put him to death
and spake the truth as a lone voice, I even I only am left
and they seek my life to take it away. He stood before the
prophets of Baal. Those who worship Baal. That
idol. That idol whom the whole world
bows down to. The whole world of Babylon. The
whole world who descended from the Tower of Babel. A whole world
full of a multitude of babbling voices. Everyone full of their
own opinions. Everyone declaring their own
views. Babbling voices. Loud voices. Powerful voices. leading the
people astray, babbling away with their lies. And here is
one prophet in the midst of this babble, sent of God with his
truth. What a contrast between what
Elijah did at Carmel when he called upon the
Lord and the Lord sent down fire from heaven and what these others
did. They made their great noise. They did many things. They called
upon their God. They called upon Baal. They called
for their gods to do many things. They made a great noise. They
went to great lengths. They did many works. They cut
themselves. They jumped up and down. They
shouted. But nothing truly happened. Oh they had a great noise and
they had the following of the people and how impressed the
people were at the noise that these prophets made and yet when
it came to it there was no reality and yet the one prophet that
God sent prayed under his guard 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 the God, the Lord, He is the God. What Elijah had done had gone
against natural reason. He poured gallons of water all
over the sacrifice. What a fool! How were you going
to get that to burn? It went against all natural reason
of men. How foolish! And yet when he
called upon his God, one prophet, one small voice, calling upon
the one true and living God, Then the fire came down from
heaven. What a contrast! And yet as we've
seen, despite the fire that came down from heaven, the people
still sought Elijah's life. He was still alone and ultimately
the people didn't believe. because it's not the displays
of fire, it's not the displays of power, and it's not the great
voices which bring about the salvation of sinners. It's the
still, small voice of the Spirit of God in His Gospel, sent forth
by those lone prophets whom He sends forth to preach it. of
whom Elijah is a great example here. And here in chapter 19 we find
Elijah running into the wilderness and sitting under a juniper tree.
and calling out unto his God that he should die. Everyone
had rejected him, they'd rejected his message, they'd rejected
his God. He'd been very jealous for the
Lord God of Israel, jealous for the Gospel. He preached it faithfully. And yet nobody's heart is changed,
they're hard. They're full of sin, they're
full of rebellion, they're full of rejection. And all the other
voices in the world around him are leading the people another
way. He feels so alone, so isolated, so hated. And he feels so ineffective
that he says, Lord, just take me away. But the Lord has to
remind him, Elijah, What doest thou hear? What doest thou hear
Elijah? Why are you running away? My
power, the power of my gospel The power of God unto salvation
is not found in the great displays of men. It's not found in the
wind, in the earthquakes, in the fire. It's not found in the
voices of the multitudes. It's not found in the lips of
the babbling brooks. It's not found in the great churches
and the great congregations and the great religions and gatherings
of this world. The power to save is not found
in signs and wonders. The power to save is not found
in the great healing meetings or the great dramatic meetings
that gather the foolish where they want to see great outward
signs and displays of God's power. The power to save is found in
the gospel. And that gospel so often is sent
by a lone Elijah, sent here on his own, sent there on his own,
who comes as it were with a still, small voice. And he may only have one or two
who listen, one or two who are brought to hear. One or two whom
the Spirit of God brings to their knees in the conviction of sin,
to cry out unto God to have mercy unto them as sinner. He may in
his lifetime, in his whole ministry, see but one soul led unto Christ. And yet if God sends him with
that still small voice in the gospel, and God delivers just
one, then God has saved. And he's saved with a gospel
which is mighty and powerful. God isn't in the great congregations. He's not in the great charismatic
gatherings of our day. He's not in the great large community
churches. He's not in the multitudes that
gather in their 10,000 strong mega churches. He's not in the
mighty organised religions in this world of the Catholic Church,
the Church of England and the other organisations full of money
and full of wealth and full of power. He's not in the media
controlled organisations. He's not in the media. He's not
in the world. He's not in those who have the
attention of the masses. He's in a still, small voice. This chapter, chapter 19, is
a wonderful allegory, a wonderful picture of the gospel in so many
ways. Here Elijah in many ways is presented
to us as a type of Christ, alone, sent to Israel, but rejected
by all Israel. Christ came from heaven above,
God's prophet sent unto mankind, sent unto his own, sent unto
Israel and Israel rejected him and sought his life, sought to
put him to death as Elijah's life was sought here. Despite
the truth that Christ spake, all men rejected him. And in
the end they cried out, crucify him, crucify him. And he was
led up to a mount, the mount of Jerusalem. And outside that
city on a hill, he was nailed to a cross and crucified. And
having died, he was led away and buried in a cave with a stone
rolled over the door. a picture of that law which exercised
its full penalty and judgment upon Christ because of the sins
of his people whom he bore as their substitute. And here Elijah,
the lone prophet hated by all, whom all sought to put to death,
flees and comes and sits under a juniper tree. A figure of that
tree which Christ would ultimately be nailed to a tree. And requests his God that he
should die. But God sustains him. He sustains
him, an angel comes along and gives him food and water and
sustains him. And he went on the strength for
that meat 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. Now when Christ faced his crucifixion,
when he knew that his hour had come, when he knew that he would
be put to death, when he knew that he would have to bear the
sin and the sins of his people upon the cross and the judgment
and outpouring of God's wrath upon them, he cried out, Lord
if it be possible take this cut from me and he travelled in that
garden of Gethsemane And yet he was sustained as he
prayed. Sustained by angels as it were. Lifted up, helped along as Elijah
was sustained and helped here. Until ultimately Christ was then
led to that place of execution where the penalty of the law
came down upon his head. And then he was laid in the grave.
in a sealed cave. And here Elijah goes from this
juniper tree, 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the Mount of
God. Reminding us of Moses, who spent
40 days and 40 nights in the Mount of God when God sent down
that law, which condemned all men and women, you and I included,
because of our sin and rebellion against God. that law which sealed
our fate, that law which sentenced us to death, that law which ultimately
would be brought down upon God's people in Christ as he suffered
in their place. Elijah went 40 days and 40 nights
under Horeb and he went into that cave And the Lord comes
unto him in that cave, what doest thou hear Elijah? As it were
a figure of being in that cave where Christ was laid dead, having
been crucified, rejected by all. And reminding us of that angel that said unto
the woman in the 24th chapter of Luke, When they came to the
grave, when they came to the cave, looking for Christ, who
had risen victorious, having conquered death, why lookest
thou for the living amongst the dead? What are you doing here? He is risen. What doest thou
here, Elijah? What doest thou hear? Seeking
to die. I've been very jealous for the
Lord God of hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant,
thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets with the sword
and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it
away. So the Lord reminds him. The
life, the power, the salvation Elijah. It's not in the outward
things. It's not in the great numbers.
It's not in the fire, the wind, the earthquakes. It's in the
still small voice of the Gospel which I have sent you with. And
it won't remain in the ground in a grave. It will bring life
to those whom I send it. Though they may be but one or
two, it will bring life. So he passes him by. Go forth
and stand upon the mount before the Lord, he says. And behold,
the Lord passed by, and 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. And it was so when Elijah heard
it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood
in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice
under him and said, what doest thou hear, Elijah? Why have you got your mantle
around your face looking into this cave? One day, my prophet, my son,
will be laid in a grave like this. But he will arise and go
forth with a still small voice to declare his gospel under his
people whom he has set free. Are you there in a cave? Are
you looking into the tomb? Are you full of despair as though
all has come to nothing? Are you fearing and doubting
as though Christ is dead? As though you worship a dead
Saviour for all your profession of Him, for all your declaration
that He is God, that He has delivered you from your sins, that He is
an almighty Saviour. Do you despair that you see so
few saved? Do you despair that you see so
many rising up in sin and rebellion in the world all around you?
Do you despair that you see so many in the professing churches
who preach another gospel and a lie? Do all these things bring
you to cry out in despair and to wonder whether God is at work? Do you, as it were, hang around
the grave wishing to be dead, wishing to be taken away from
this world, thinking the gospel age has come to an end? Are you,
for all your profession of faith in Christ, ultimately doubting
his power to save? And doubting the efficacy of
the gospel? And doubting the effectiveness
of preaching? Doubt in the gospel. Does the
babble of the world's opinion all around you and the religious
world lead you to doubt and to wonder? Are you taken in by their
claims that preaching won't work in a day like this? People don't
want preaching. You need to add this, you need
to add that. Are you taken in by the claims
of the church is that we need to modernize, we need to update,
we need to have this to bring in the young people, we need
to have that to attract the others, we need to have this in our worship
to be contemporary, we need to update the language of the scriptures
to modern English, we need to have this, we need to have that.
As if the gospel alone in the message in which it was given,
in the scriptures which God gave to us, is ineffective. Are you taken in by their claims
as they look upon the true people of God, scattered and few and
alone? Are you taken in by their claims
that look, look where your preaching has got you. Look where your
gospel has got you. It's achieving nothing. It's
achieving nothing Elijah. You're on your own Elijah. You're
on your own. Your preaching's not saving any. Your preaching's not building
up your church. You're on your own. You're dwindling
in numbers. Whereas we're growing. Look at
our meeting. We've brought in this drama.
We've brought in this music. We've brought in this contemporary
worship. We're getting the community coming
along. We're reaching out to society. We're dealing with the troubles
of society. We're attracting people. We're
building. Look how God is blessing us.
Look at the fire from heaven, look at the wind of the Spirit
of God moving in our midst, look at the earth trembling under
the effects of our meetings and our gospel. Look at you Elijah,
on your own, are you taken in by their babbling claims? to
doubt and to wonder and to drift and to follow them and to wonder. And to think that gospel preaching's
ineffective, to think that these things are for a former day,
to think that they've come to nothing simply because the numbers
in their gatherings dwarf the numbers in yours. Are you on
your own? Like Elijah was on his own. looking
into the cave just wanting to die if you are there will come a
voice from heaven a still small voice crying unto you what doest
thou hear Elijah? I am not in the wind which they
speak of And I am not in the earthquake which they speak of. And I am not in the fire which
they speak of. But I am in a still, small voice. Life is in the gospel. which
I send to be preached by the foolishness of preaching it have
pleased God to save them which shall believe. I am in the gospel,
God says. And I send it by my preachers,
though they be few, though they be rejected, though they be alone. and in their still small voice,
in comparison to the babble around them, I will deliver my people,
my lost sheep, from their sins. It's not in numbers, and though
only one or two may hear, and only one or two may come to faith,
if they're His, and they hear His gospel, they will live, and
a multitude round about, like the prophets of Baal, will be judged forever, no matter
what their claims. What doest thou hear Elijah?
He says again he's been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts
because of what Israel's done and I even I only am left and
they seek to take my life away. And the Lord says unto him go
return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. Go. And he goes and he meets Elisha
and his mantle is cast upon him. And as we see in the later chapters,
Elisha goes and preaches the very same gospel that Elijah
preached, with mighty effects. And in this, we as it were see
Christ crucified, laid in the grave, and then rising from the
grave. And there were earthquakes, when
Christ rose from the grave. And many bodies were resurrected
from the tombs and went into the city and many saw it. And
there were many signs accompanying Christ's resurrection. But nobody
was saved because of the earthquake. And nobody was saved because
of the bodies that they saw resurrected. But the still small voice that
he sent forth from that day into this world. when he took his
mantle and laid it upon those apostles whom he sent forth to
preach his gospel as Elijah laid his mantle upon Elisha. When
that gospel went forth that brought life to those like you and I
who were dead in their sins. He sent him forth into the wilderness
of Damascus Oh how relevant to today, right to today, Damascus,
Syria, that trouble spot in this world, that place where the raging
of men rages against the truth. where men put men to death, where
men rage against the gospel and shut their ears unto God. Yet
way back then, God sent Elijah into that wilderness of Damascus
with the gospel. And years later, when Christ
rose from the dead, there was one man Saul, who sought to put
the followers of Christ to death. And that man traveled from Jerusalem
to Damascus. to put the followers of Christ
to death, that Christ had delivered those who in Damascus, that few
in Damascus who knew the name of God. Saul travelled to Damascus
to put them to death and God met Saul on the way to Damascus
and delivered him and turned that persecutor of the church
around and laid as it were his mantle upon him. Christ from
heaven above put his mantle upon Saul and said, Saul, Saul why
persecutest thou me? And he sent him forth to preach
the truth at Damascus in a wilderness and in all the world around and
Saul went forth with a still small voice It doesn't mean that
Elijah didn't raise his voice. And it doesn't mean that Saul,
Paul didn't preach with a loud voice. But in comparison with
the multitudes in the world around them, they were a lone voice. They were as nothing. And yet
the power of God in the gospel was not found in those multitudes. for what's found in these, these
ones and twos that God sent to preach. Today, how foolish does
gospel preaching appear to man today. How foolish. How could it be effective in
this world in which we live, in this modern world, which won't
listen, which won't listen to preaching, which likes its 20
second sound bites. How could preaching possibly
say it's impossible? But what's impossible with man? is possible with God and it's
his means. It always was, it is, and it
always shall be. There is no power unto salvation
in any other means but the preaching of his gospel. And though it
comes by but one or two whom he sends, and they come in a
world of voices and media and technicolor, technological means,
to broadcast every message thinkable, although they come as a lone
voice. That's the voice, the still small
voice through which God speaks. And that voice and that voice
alone can deliver the hardened sinner out of the grave to walk
and to follow the Savior into life everlasting. Have you heard
that voice? We live in a world full of voices,
full of the media, so many voices babbling away, Babel with their
great towers which they build to get to heaven but towers which
never get them to heaven. So many voices saying so many
things and what a contrast there is between what they all say
or some of them say and some others say this and some others
say that, all different voices, all different languages, all
saying one thing and another thing, but none of them saying
the truth. What a contrast there is between
what they say and what Elijah and Saul, Paul, and the still
small voice that Jesus Christ sends in his gospel has to say. The great babble of this world
firstly the great very briefly the great babble of this world
the Babylon roundabout says there is no God. Don't worry about
what comes after death because there is no God. The great posh
in our day, in our country is atheism. How many books are published
to decry the existence of God? There is no God. The fool have said in his heart,
there is no God. Because there is a God. and you
and I, when our life comes to an end, will stand before him.
It is appointed once unto men to die, and after this, the judgment. You will stand before him. If there was no God, there would
be no you. Because he made you, he sustains
you, he keeps you, and you will stand before him. Whatever you
say, whatever the books say, whatever the fools in the world
say, there is a God. There are other voices in this
babble round about you who will tell you, oh, there is a God.
But there are many gods. There are many gods we see clearly.
There's a god of Islam, a god of Christianity, a god of the
Hindus, a god of the Jews. There are many gods and it doesn't
matter which god you worship. If you worship a god, you'll
be all right. Not so. There's one God. One true and living God. One
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is only one way unto God
and that is through Jesus Christ. There is the still small voice
which in the babble of this world, in the cries of this world of
no God and many God says, there's one God. One God, and we will
only come to know Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. Secondly, there are many voices
who will tell you there's nothing when your life comes to an end.
There's no heaven and no hell and no judgment. They'll sing
to you in a sweet, lyrical, lilting way to lead you astray like the
Pied Piper. Imagine there's no heaven. Imagine
there's no hell. Imagine there's no religion.
And your imaginations and their imaginations will lead you unto
death. Because there's a still, small
voice. unheard by the majority, unbroadcast
on the radio waves, which says it is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, the judgment. There is a heaven, there is a
hell, and there is a God before whom you and I will stand. Babylon, Babel, The babbling
voices tell us there are many ways to God. Many ways. But the still small voice in
the gospel says that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. And no man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. He is the way to salvation. There is no other way. Fourthly, Babylon will tell you
that there is no such thing as sin. Sin is an old-fashioned
concept that poor fools in the 1800s and earlier used to think
all men had but us in our scientific 21st century world know that
we are just a bunch of atoms, know that we're just a collection
of DNA. There's no sin, we're all made
equal, we're just people, we just do, there's no right or
wrong. The only right or wrong there
is is that which To be good is to help the collective
good of civilization. As long as you help others, then
you're good. There's no such thing as sin.
And if there's no sin, there's no accountability. But there's
a still small voice which cries out in the midst of their babble
that there is none good. no not one, there is none righteous,
none have sought after God, we all like sheep have gone astray,
we're born sinners, we're born corrupt, we do not worship God,
we do not care for God because we're full of sin. Why are there
wars in this world? Why is there so much murder?
Why is there so much deceit? Why are there so many lies? Why
is there so much breakdown of marriage? Why is there so much
illness? Why is there so much tragedy?
Why is there so much poverty? Why is there so much hatred?
Because mankind, every one of us is full of sin. Don't be a fool and deny what
is in you. You know it's true. but the Babel
raises its voice to drown the truth and behind it the still
small voice says you are full of sin and one day you will have
to stand before God to answer for it. Babylon and its churches
and its religion will tell you that if there is
a God And if there are sinners, that this God is a loving God
who will save all men in the end. God loves you, they love
to cry. Jesus loves you, all of you,
no matter who you are. and all you have to do is accept
his love, he loves everyone. Sinner and saint, the most wicked,
the least wicked, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter who you
are or what your religion is, he loves everyone and all will
be well in the end. But there is a still small voice
which cries out, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. There is a people whom God has
chosen to be saved in Christ and there are those who are wicked
who reject and reject and He will reject them. Don't presume
on God's love and mercy. You're taught your sin and if
you're taught the reality of judgment to come then fall upon
your knees before God and cry out that he be merciful to you
a sinner because you cannot presume Babylon tells us that salvation
is at the will and the command of man that God has done all
that he must do to save us it's there ready for the taking Jesus
died for all men they tell us but you need to receive him,
so just come to the front of the meeting, pray this prayer
and accept him into your heart. You make the decision. But the still small voice of
Christ in his gospel will make it plain to those who are given
wisdom and ears to hear that your will will never make that
decision. Your will is full of sin and
full of rebellion and like these people at Carnal that saw the
great fire and mighty display of God's power, despite all they
saw they rejected. And like that people that saw
the Lord Jesus Christ heal thousands, do great wonderful signs and
works in His lifetime, they put Him to death. And like that people
that saw the earthquake, and saw the darkness of the sun when
he was crucified, and saw the resurrected bodies enter into
the city of Jerusalem, they despised and rejected him and his people. Your will will never choose God,
despite the lie of the Armenians that say you can. God says by
his own will begati us. his own will. He says that as
many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons
of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not
of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man
but of God. It's his will. He'll either save
you or he'll damn you. You're in his hands. Babylon
says that man's works will save him. That if you make yourself
right, if you turn from your sin, if you live right, that
he will save you. But God says that your works
cannot save, they're full of sin. They will bring you down
into the grave. Only by grace, only if he shows
you mercy. We need his grace, we need his
mercy. This world, the media, the voices,
all this world preaches a message unto the young especially that
says worship yourself. Seek your own pleasure. Seek
your own riches. Seek your own glory. Live your
life for what you can get. Seek your career. Be this, be
that. Be great in this field. Be great
in that field. Earn plenty of money as you do
it. Look after yourself. Get this
woman or that man, have this children, go to these places,
go on these holidays, live in these houses, drive these cars,
have all these things and you'll be happy. Worship yourself. But there is a still small voice
which cries out, worship the Lord God alone. Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. I am the one true and living
God. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. There's a still small voice that
cries out unto the fools who follow after riches. What does
it profit a man if he gains the whole world? and loses his own
soul. You live for 70, 80, 90 years
at best, and your life is gone in but a moment. You're there,
you're young one day, you're old the next, and you're falling
into the grave the next, and all those riches, all those people,
all that status you'd built up in this world is gone. Gone. And all that matters is where
you stand before Almighty God. The world says, man says, look
after number one, look after yourself. Don't care about others,
you're the most important. God says love your enemies. Forget yourself, love others,
love your enemies even. The world says, in response to
this still small voice, don't preach unto us. Preaching won't
work. The world's religion says preaching's
had its day. We must entertain the masses. We want to worship God as we
like. We want to dance. We want to
listen to music. We want to be happy. Preaching
won't get them in. Use means. Use these means. Use these modern means. People
won't listen to preaching. But this still small voice says
it have pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe and no other way. Babylon. Babylon's religion. The Babylon voices say you can
get to heaven and you can have the world too. You can believe
our gospel and you can have all the pleasure and the riches that
you can gain in this world. Have Christ and prosper here
also. Enjoy yourself. We have a God
who wants us to be happy, who wants to joke, who wants to laugh,
who wants you to have everything now and everything in heaven. What a lie. The disciples gave
up all and followed Christ. Elijah here was sought for his
life, chased and hounded from place to place. He had nothing,
but he had the grace of God in his soul. And if you have Christ
and his salvation, you've got more than this world can ever
give. But you can't love mammon. and
worship God. You can't have all this world's
riches and pleasures and have God. It's a deceit and a deception
and a lie. The still small voice says, come
out from among her, my people, and be ye separate. Come out
from this world, come out from its religion, come out from its
lies. and in response the Babylon world
twelfthly in response the Babel cries out the Baal worshippers
the enemies of Christ cry out in unison away with him away
with him crucify him Jezebel says, I'll slay you Elijah. They cry out, crucify him. They'll
say it of you if you follow Christ. They'll say it of you if you
preach this gospel. They'll say it of you if you
declare the sovereign free grace of God. They'll say it of you. But the still small voice cries
out, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Hear Him. Hear His voice. Hear His gospel. Hear Him in
Gethsemane. Hear Him upon the cross. hear
him as he rises from the tomb, hear him as he ascends unto glory,
hear him as he preaches his gospel from on high, hear his cries
unto his father from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because he bore the sins of his
people whom he would deliver. hear his faith, hear his cries
of faith, his trust in his God, even in the depths of suffering,
when being slain for the sins of his own, even upon the cross
when all men had rejected him, no man was as alone as he was,
and yet he still cried out, my God, My God, he never doubted. His faith stood sure. And that faith is what procured
the salvation of all his people. Without it they'd be dead. The law is not of faith. It's
not Christ's obedience to the law that brought in salvation
but his faith. What is not of faith is sin but
all that Christ did was righteous, pure and perfect. All he did
sprang from his faith in his God, that God would lay his people
upon him, that he would be one with his people in death, that
God would lay their sins upon him and judge them and take them
away and block them out and bring him and them through death unto
everlasting life. Through his death by his faith
he brought in the righteousness of God. that righteousness by
which we're justified, that righteousness by which his people stand, that
righteousness without which you cannot see God, you cannot enter
into life, without which you cannot be saved. Follow me, he says, and be not
unbelieving, but believe. Hear ye him the one whom this
world crucified, the one whom this world rejected, the one
whom you rejected, the one whom you in your heart put to death,
the one who was pierced by your sin, whether it's your sin of
rejecting him or your sin that he bore, hear ye him, hear his
still small voice in his gospel, crying out from the cross to
a world around, look ye unto me, all ye ends of the earth,
and be ye saved. For God's not in the wind, and
he's not in the earthquake, and he's not in the fire. But after
the fire came a still small voice, and that voice still speaks today
wherever God sends a preacher by his grace with his gospel. And if you should hear that voice,
hear it. For no other voice will save
your soul but this. But God has sent the voice of
Jesus Christ, the voice of the Son of God, unto the graves,
that those who lie in the graves, like you and I, might hear that
voice and might live. A still, small voice. Amen.