Good morning. Would you turn
to 1 Kings chapter 19? 1 Kings chapter 19. I want to begin
reading in verse 4 and read down through verse 8. But 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. Now, this
wasn't like Paul when he said, I long to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better. That's not what he meant. He
was very dissatisfied. He was very unhappy. And he said,
it's enough. I've had enough. Now, Lord, take
away my life, for I'm 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. I want to make a comment about
this thing of him sleeping. What do people look like when
they're asleep? Dead. Dead. And that's how he appeared at
this time. Dead. 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, bacon 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. for 40 days and
40 nights under Oreb, the mount of God. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy son. And Lord, we ask that you would
touch our hearts by your grace and say to us, arise and eat. Lord, this is above the strength
and energy of this flesh. We ask that you would grant us
your presence and blessing. We ask that you would cause your
gospel to be preached in the power of your spirit and that
we might be enabled to worship. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and cleansing for Christ's sake. Be with all
your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen. Now we have seen two sides of
Elijah, haven't we? We've seen him in his faith,
and we've seen him in his courage, and we admire him before the
prophets of Baal, and before Jezebel, and Ahab, and the faith
he demonstrated, the fearlessness he demonstrated. We see that
side of him, and then we see this side of depression and defeat
and anxiety and wanting to die and looking like he was dead.
Now, in this man, Elijah, we see us, the two sides of us,
the old nature and the new nature. And this is what every believer
possesses, two separate natures, one of faith, one of unbelief,
one of confidence in God, one in confidence in nothing. You
know, I was talking to a preacher this week about these two natures. And he said, well, I believe
that We have a spiritual nature and a fleshly nature, and I said,
well, do you believe the spiritual nature sins? He said, well, if
I sin, yes, yes. And I said, no, I don't think
that's what the scripture teaches. As a matter of fact, I know it's
not what the scripture teaches. It teaches two separate natures,
one that does not sin, one that's perfectly holy, and one that
does nothing but sin. And he said, well, my, My fear
of that is that that'll encourage people to have an excuse for
their sin. I can't, you know, that was my
sinful nature. I'm not gonna worry about it. And that's no different
than saying, well, you can't really preach salvation by free
grace because that'll encourage people to sin if you make it
too free. No, it won't. No, it won't. And, you know,
we don't really need to worry about how somebody's going to
twist the truth. We're to preach the truth in
its naked simplicity And if somebody's gonna hang themselves with it,
that's him doing it. But that's not what, well, anyway,
we see these two natures in Elijah. And right after that, at this
time, he's called upon to make a 200-mile journey through the
desert without eating and drinking. Now, can you imagine how overwhelming
that would be to you? if you were called upon to make
a 200-mile journey through the desert without eating or drinking."
And that's precisely what he did. Now, I think it's interesting
that 40 is very significant. This number 40 is very significant
in the Scripture. And I think it represents a time
of testing. Let me give you some examples.
How long did the rain fall? when the earth was flooded? Forty
days. When the Lord was tempted by
the devil in the wilderness, how long did that temptation
take place? Forty days. When Moses is being prepared
to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, how long did that
preparation take? Forty years in the backside of
a desert. When the children of Israel go
in to look at the promised land, how long were they there? Forty days. As a result of their
unbelief, how long did they have to stay in the wilderness? Forty
years. Forty in all of these instances
is a time of testing, and Elijah Going on the strength of this
meat, not his own strength, but the strength of this meat for
40 years is his time of testing. Now, like Elijah, you and I have
a race to run. He talked about this journey
he had. You and I have a course to finish. You and I have a fight to fight.
We have a conflict. We have a race to run. I love what the writer to the
Hebrews said, let us lay aside every weight and that sin which
does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us looking unto Jesus. Paul said at the
end of his life, I've fought a good fight, and it indeed is
a fight. I finished my course. I finished
the race God's given me to run. I've kept the faith. Now all
of us, like Elijah, have a race to run with much conflict. And the reason there is such
conflict is because of these two natures we're carrying with
us. Right now, I'm carrying a nature,
a sinful nature, an evil nature that's no better, that it hadn't
improved a bit. It's just as bad as it ever was. And if you have a new nature,
you know that's so regarding your old nature. I don't have
to convince a believer of this. You know, it's only the new nature
that can see the evil nature that you're carrying with you.
And you have a new nature, a holy nature, a nature that does not
sin. Now somebody says, well, when
does it not sin? Well, it never sins, but it's always going through
this one consciousness. That's why I can never say, well,
that was holy, because I've got this one consciousness. I have
these two natures coming through this one consciousness, just
like Elijah did. And he's got this race to run. Now, what happened? Well, we talked about Elijah's
depression last week in verse 5, and as he lay and slept under
a juniper tree. Now, what I take this as is he
looked like he's dead. You know, sometimes I'll look
at Lynn in bed. I think, has she died? You know,
looks that way. I'm sure she's thought the same
thing as me. I mean, looked dead. He looked dead, and what happened? The angel of the Lord touched
him. Now, I have no doubt that this
is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just an angel, but the
angel of Jehovah. The Lord Jesus Christ, in a pre-incarnate appearance,
came unto him and touched him. How I need the touch of the Lord. I need him to reach down and
touch me. I love that passage of scripture,
the leper saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
And the scripture says, and Jesus moved with compassion, reached
forth his hand and touched him and said, I will be thou clean. Peter's mother is sick with a
fever. The Lord comes to her and touches
her. Her fever leaves and she rises
up and ministers to them. I think of the touches in the
Old Testament. The Lord touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh during
that wrestling, and he limped, had a limp in his walk the rest
of his life. I think it's interesting, he
didn't have this limp that he perceived until he came in contact
with the Lord, but then he does. I love the way, if anything,
I don't care what it was, if anything touched the altar, it
was called holy. The altar of sacrifice. Oh, the
significance of this thing of being touched by the Lord. I
don't know about that song, He Touched Me, Oh, He Touched Me,
because it was written by Bill Gaither. I don't know about all
the words to it, but I like this part. He touched me, oh, he touched
me. That's what I need. I need him
to touch me by his grace. Now, let's go on reading. And
as he slept, verse five, and as he lay and slept under a juniper
tree, behold, an angel touched him and said unto him, arise
and eat. Now that is the call of the gospel.
Rise up from the dead. He touched him first. Rise up
from the dead and eat. Rise up and eat. Believe the
gospel. That's eating and drinking of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what faith is. It's feeding
off of Christ. Rise up and eat. Now, when is
the time for me to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Right
now. Right now. Forget about yesterday,
forget about tomorrow. Right now. Now, I heard a preacher
say this week, I'm gonna say something about this in the worship
service. this morning, I heard a preacher
say to his congregation, what must you do to be saved? And
here was what he said, turn from your sins and trust Christ. Now what you think about that?
Turn from your sins and trust Christ. That is a denial of what
faith is. I know preachers will say, turn
from your sins and trust Christ. That's putting something before
trusting Christ. You turn from your sins and trust Christ. That, my dear friends, is a message
of salvation by works. And I realize some people will
criticize that. Well, you're giving people an
excuse to not turn from their sins. No, I'm preaching the gospel.
That's what I'm doing, I'm preaching the gospel. To tell somebody
turn from your sins, you need to turn, well, sin's no good,
I realize that. But to tell someone to turn from
their sins and trust Christ is no different than saying keep
the Ten Commandments. It's a message of works. It's not faith in Christ
only. Arise, eat and drink. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink His blood, there's no life in you. The call
is to rise, eat, and drink. Verse six, now here's what happens
when people do what God says to do by His grace. When He commands
you to rise and eat, you know what you're gonna do? You're
gonna do it. And here's where it's gonna begin and end. You're
gonna look. You're gonna look. This is what
it is to arise and eat. You look. And he looked, looking
unto Jesus. Now, I wish I could say what
ought to be said about this, but salvation is in a look. It's not in what you do. It's
looking away from yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
looked. He looked, and what did he see? And behold, there was a cake,
bacon on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. There was
something made for him that he didn't have anything to do with.
He didn't produce it. He didn't cook it. There it was, placed
there by the Lord. It was all what the Lord did,
the angel of the Lord. He looked, and that's what salvation
is. It's looking to Christ. And he looked, and there was
his meal, 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. Now, I wanna look at that in two ways,
and both ways are applicable. He ate and drank, and then he
was just as bad as he was before. next day. Or we can also look
at it as He rested. He rested. And I think both of
those things are true. You see, yesterday's faith doesn't
do me good today. I'll find out I need to do the
same thing again. And I'll look dead and the Lord
will say, arise and eat, and I'll arise and eat, and I'll
look to Christ once again. Or eating and drinking is resting,
I mean this laying down, he laid down again. But look what happened,
and the angel, and he laid him down again, and the angel of
the Lord, the angel of Jehovah, this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
came again the second time and touched him. Aren't you thankful for the coming
again the second time? How desperately I need him to
come again to me. He came to me yesterday, I need
him to come again the second time today. I need to hear the
gospel right now, just like I did the very first time I heard.
That's what it is to hear the gospel and to believe. It's him
coming again to you. I need him to come again and
again and again the second time. And the angel of the Lord, verse
seven, came again the second time and touched him once again
and said, arise and eat. I think this is really glorious.
It's the exact same message that he had the first time. Came the
second time, said the same thing. You know, I love what Paul said.
It's not grievous for me to preach the same things to you. It's
not grievous, but for you, it's safe. You see, The gospel is always news. It's not yesterday's news. It's
the gospel for today, for right now. It's news. And you can hear
the same thing over and over and over again, and it's still
fresh. To hear of the forgiveness of
sins through the blood of Christ, to hear of being justified by
His righteousness, to hear of being chosen by God and redeemed
by Christ, does that ever get old? No, not as long as you're
a sinner. Now if you cease to hear as a
sinner, it'll get old, it'll get stale, it'll get boring.
And a preacher's really slipping, but if you hear the sinner, oh,
it's the same message over and over and over again. I realize
that when I preach, if you listen to me enough, you're going to
say, man, he's repetitive. And I'm not talking about repeating
the gospel, probably just saying the same things. And I'm sorry.
You try it. You tried, I've been preaching,
yeah, I'm gonna be repetitive. And I ask Lynn normally, am I
repeating myself? And she'll tell me when I am,
and I'll try to think of a different way to say that. So I'm sorry
when I'm repetitive in the bad way, but I wanna be repetitive
in the good way. The same message over and over again. And the
angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him,
same thing, and said, arise and eat, same message, because the
journey is too great for thee. The journey. I talk about this
race we're all called upon to run that the Lord has set before
us. The journey is too great for thee. This 40 days of being
tested without any food or water is too great for thee. You're
not up to the task. You remember the words of the
Lord to his disciples in John chapter 15, without me, you can
do what? Nothing. No thing. This journey is too
great for you. You can't believe, you can't
come to me, you can't persevere, you can't repent, you can't love,
you can't take one step. You believe that about yourself?
If entering the kingdom of heaven was all by free grace, except
for the last step, and it was up to you to take that last step,
what would happen to you? You'd fall into hell, wouldn't
you? The journey is too great for
you. So what does he say to do? Verse
eight, and he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength
of that meat, that meat, that supernatural meat of God's providing
that didn't come from him. He didn't cook it. He didn't
produce it. It was that meat of God's providing.
He went on the strength of that meat for 40 days. Now, he ate and drank, and this is
representative of the grace of God in him, that meat. Now I want us to think of this
scripture, now we believe, do you believe that without me you
can do nothing? You believe that? I do. But let's look at another
scripture in Philippians chapter four. Let's begin reading in verse
11. Not that I speak in respect of
one, for I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry. Full so you'd
need nothing else, you're complete in Christ and yet hungering and
thirsting after Christ. Both to abound and to suffer
need. Now look at this statement. I
can do, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Yes, I'm very well aware that
without him I can do nothing. And I'm well aware that I'm supposed
to be abounding and suffering need at all times. I'm supposed
to be abounding in Christ, full, complete, having no needs, and
yet feeling like the most needy, sinful, far-off person asking
the Lord for mercy and grace. Both those at the same time.
Well, how can that be done? I can do all things. I can abound. And I can suffer need, which
is where I need to be all the time, and that's where you need
to be all the time. I can abound and I can suffer need through
Christ, which strengthens me. Now, I go on the strength of
that meat. Got this journey, 200 miles,
desert, without anything to eat or drink. He was to feed off
that meat, and He went that entire journey upon that meat. Now, yes, you have a very difficult
journey, but you will continue all the
way to the end on the strength of that meat of His providing.