All Sermons

21 March 2004 By Richard Wilson

The commentary on the New Testament that is found in Romans concerning the life of Elijah,
even in the midst of this retreat, the promise came to Elijah where he was really seeing
that he was the only one that was standing up. It wasn't necessarily so, but it seemed
that the clouds of doom and the rejection of God's people was almost all-encompassing,
and the prophet Elijah felt that he himself is only but to be included in the condemnation
of God's people. And yet the divine response is that I have 70,000 men that have not bowed
the knee to Baal, and those men and people were but a vague testimony in the midst of
a sea of unbelief, as we've been seeing. And they may have only just kept their light flickering
not burning heavily and strongly, but nonetheless they are the Lord's. And I think we need to see
that very often when we see the disgraceful state of the Church of Jesus Christ we might well
remember that the Lord has his own in all these places that God is at work, and we must keep that
in mind. After all, we are not saved according to what we do. We are saved according to what God
does, and according to his electing purposes. And that is a great encouragement to us because,
as the Apostle Paul said in Athens, I perceive that there is a great number of elect in this
city. And that was the evangelistic utterance. He was going to gather the whole of the harvest
into the granaries of God. Now, initially the first fruits of that was just a handful of people.
After he came down from the Mars Hill debate, just a few had come. And it would seem that the church
was started with just a handful of people, just a few people in Philippi, though it was just started
with a bare family, and it remained that way for some time. And it would seem that these things
happen progressively, and according to the faithfulness of God's people, he brings about
these things. Now, we've seen so much of Elijah's life in terms of his drawing the people of God
to from unbelief to a position of commitment to the covenant of God again. In chapter 18 we saw
the prophet calling the unfaithful king Ahab to call all the people to Mount Carmel. And Mount
Carmel was a place of gathering, and he said, bring all the prophets of Baal that have seduced
the people as well. And there will be a great contest between the God of heaven and the God
of Baal, and that God will answer in truth whether he is a living God or whether the dead gods of
Baal is yet just a figment of the imagination and is but an attitude of religious servitude. And so
he gathered them and he commanded them to take a sacrifice, make a sacrifice in the name of their
God. And the prophets, the 400 prophets of Baal gathered around and according to their custom
sought to invoke the gods that they might answer with fire from heaven. And they took all day. They
went through the rituals and the incantations of their religion and what happened was no answer.
Now as the day was drawing to a nigh close, Elijah rebuilt the altar of God which was a
very rustic altar. Unhewn stones were gathered together and 12 stones were put together and he
laid the oxen, the carcass of the oxen over the altar and he commanded them to pour water over
the sacrifice. So there'd be no doubt that this sacrifice was to be consumed by the Lord and not
by any trickery of religious mumbo-jumbo. And the Lord answered the prayer of the prophet and the
fire came down from heaven for all to see. It was not a private matter but to all to see. And such
was the fire that came down. It not only licked up the sacrifice but also all the water that was
flowing around the altar and the bones, the very stones were consumed as well. There was no doubt
and the people of God saw it and they said He is God and they recommitted themselves to the
covenant and at least in word and they moved toward serving God again. And of course the
prophet didn't miss the chance. He says take hold of the prophets and he had them put to death
according to the law of God because in Israel if there was any false prophet in Israel they would
be put to death and not allowed to exist and the judgment of God was at his hand. Now as we saw
this we see this mountaintop experience, this courageous testimony that was established by the
prophet and we find that we would have thought that things would have gone from this event to a
clearly glorious swing and revival of true religion in Israel and the fickleness of mankind
is such that this is not always the case. Remember that miracles are great signs of God but they come
and go and eternal life is something that comes and stays and the expression of eternal life is
we repent from our sins and that we live by faith continuously and deliberately in the things of
God and we walk and follow our God. Now this is the essential thing if we have not got eternal
life in our hearts our religion will not remain stable. If we do not live by faith according to
the life that is in our hearts there will not be any lasting religion that we can bring before God
on that last day at all. So it's essential that we are transformed on the inward parts that we are
indeed people who are resurrected people. We are people that have the gift of eternal life and we
do not rest until that settling life-giving spirit is in our hearts. That's the thing that's going to
hold you through the hard times as well as the elating times. It's easy to believe God when
everyone around you believes God. It is more difficult for you to believe God when you've
only got God to trust and that's why often revivals can be a stumbling block to many
because they can be carried along by the elation of the events rather than God himself and by
eternal life that is in your hearts and therefore we've got to be very careful not to trust in
miracles as good as they are, not to trust in the events of God as good as they are, but trust as
a result of God giving you a resurrected person in the inward parts and you are a new creature
and that we are indeed living by faith irrespective of what happens with inside the company of God's
people or the events that happen around us. We are able to walk according to faith because God
exists and he is giving us a life-giving spirit and our focus is upon the Lord himself who lives
and reigns and has his being amongst us. That's an absolutely essential thing. People who are
these spiritual junkies running around for this experience and that experience going from one
conference to another conference and following the trends and the whims and the woes of Christianity
of the day are dependent upon the things that might appear to be spiritual and they are dependent
upon the church rather than the Lord. They are dependent upon the experience rather than the
inner working of God's internal life that is within us. Now that's why there was a big falling
away even after such a miracle of God. Could anyone ever deny that God exists after such an
event? I've never seen such an event in my life. If I thought that that was going to be the thing
that was going to hold me right through to eternity I would want to see that event but
that event was not something that was going to hold them in. Even if I saw somebody being
resurrected from the dead that would not hold me to eternity. It's only what God does in my heart.
That must be the essential thing that makes me into a child of God that leads me into the ways
of God. Now with that we see this man of God Elijah and quite frankly Elijah is one of the
greatest figures in the history of Israel. He was the greatest of the prophets and yet he did not
have any of the scriptures. He did not write any of the scriptures as far as we know. Certainly
his life is recorded within scriptures. He was seen as the one of the greatest of all the prophets
of Israel. Elijah stands in the history of Israel as one of the greatest. Moses and Elijah somehow
hold that standing in Israel's history that no other prophet in Israel has. Remember this was
confirmed by the transfiguration where the Lord Jesus was transfigured on Mount Hermon. We don't
know which mountain it was but on one of the mountains of Israel and the apostles were there
with him. They saw him transfigured into his heavenly body as it were and beside him was Moses
on one side and Elijah on the other side. They saw him talking to Moses and Elijah and Peter
says shall we make a booth for him and a booth for you Lord Jesus and a booth for Elijah. This
is a most momentous occasion and it gives indication that the Lord himself was pre-existent.
He was God himself and he was having this conversation with Moses and Elijah. It was
said of John the Baptist that Elijah was the type of John the Baptist and it was said in Malachi
that the Messiah would not come until Elijah reappeared and it was said that John the Baptist
as it were was in spiritual terms a reappearance of Elijah. That's how important Elijah was in the
religious history of Israel. It was to fulfil prophecies that Elijah was to come again. Now
Elijah suddenly appears his entrance within scripture with no historical parentage. We don't
know where he came from. He was like the the Merlin type status of British history. He was
one who did not see death. Enoch was not because he did not see death. Elijah was taken up in the
chariots of fire remember that and that's how he did not even taste death and yet we find this
character was almost had the mystique of Melchizedek who was a type of Christ and here we
find Elijah was a type of John the Baptist who was to become the forerunner of the Messiah. Such
a privileged position he had and yet what follows here in chapter 19 of Kings is near-on total
apostasy and he was seeking his own life and he in utter dejection and yet the man of God is
preeminently the grace figure that we find in Scripture. It wasn't because he had not been
faithful he was under incredible spiritual oppression and depression. When you get involved
in spiritual work and strange as soon as somebody gets converted in the congregation all merry hell
breaks out and you find yourself locked into a spiritual battle that is very real and I found
that time and time again in my own ministry you can go easily into depression and we find ourselves
not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers there is a spiritual
world out there that gets very uncomfortable and very hostile when you unsettle it. Here the
Prophet had actually cut the underbelly out of false religion. He had killed the prophets,
he had dealt a death blow to paganism that had come in like a flood amongst God's people and
he was not in any shape or form going to be exempt from the kind of spiritual attack that would come
upon him. He had stirred up a hermit's nest in spiritual terms and I think it's only that will
give you an understanding of what was going on in the heart of this great prophet and often the
man of God is the focus of the attack in the spiritual world and whatever goes on with the
man of God can often scatter the sheep and if we can destroy the confidence of the pastor you can
also destroy the confidence of a congregation and if you can destroy the confidence of a congregation
you can also destroy the testimony of God in that place that God wants you to exist. And so the
causes of this spiritual darkness to counteract against the action of the Prophet has to be
sinister. It's not because he had any real threat to his life in physical terms. This evil report
we find that it omits the Lord's doings. Ahab did not speak of how God had revealed himself
he spoke of how what Elijah had done. If you spoke to Elijah it is the Lord that did this it could not
have been me I quietly came aside and prayed and the Lord answered with fire according to his
promise and Elijah is the sole cause of all this said said Ahab as he reported to Jezebel his his
wife and then Jezebel turned around and simply said then Jezebel sent a message messenger to
Elijah saying so let the gods do to me and more so if I do not make your life as the life of one
of them by tomorrow about this time. Now you might not think that that's a terrible thing it's only
Jezebel speaking but she was one who was very much involved in the occult very much involved
in the pagan religion and no doubt she set loose spiritual forces that completely befuddled the
Prophet and undercut his faith and his hope and his love for God and we find that this voodoo
type like curse now very often we find that miracles only amuse and intrigue the reprobate
and and that is all does. We're too often in the church amusing the goats rather than feeding the
sheep. Too often we're we're we're practicing a religious veneer that is just seeking to interest
the goats and we need to be very careful of it. Remember the story of of Lazarus and the rich man
can you remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man how Lazarus was a very poor person and he was
laid at the gate of the rich man's gate and and the dogs came along and licked his sores at least
the dogs cared for him and kept him clean of the boils and the sores and the and the scales that
were on his skin and anyway one day he died as a believer and he went to the bosom of Abraham
there's an Old Testament way of saying going to his father's where the faithful went and then
the rich man eventually died and he went into hell and he he he ached that this this friend
this person he had at his front gate would just dip his finger in the water and just touch my
tongue such was his anguish of soul. He had the arrogance to think that he's still his servant
and he said there's a great chasm between the two Lazarus could not come and relieve your great
anguish an anguish that he didn't even experience in his own life such was the anguish in hell for
him and and the Lord said to him no he said then send send Elijah to my relatives and resurrect him
from the dead and then they all believe and the divine response to that was if they did not believe
in the law and the prophets that is in the scriptures neither shall they believe in one
who has risen from the dead why because the reprobate are only amused by such happenings
and we need to be very careful about that in the end it's only the Word of God that will convict
a man of his sin that will convince him of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that will lead
him to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved as he calls upon the Lord
it's the Word of God that does that it's not entertainment it's not songs it's not all the
other hoopla that goes on in churches it's the clear Word of God that convicts our souls of the
need for a Savior and that's God's instrument and we shouldn't put trust in anything else because
unless they hear the law and the prophets they will not listen to miracles either and so we find
that it wasn't enough that this universal work of God where a drought had been upon the land for
three and a half years and Elijah went to God at the end of the three and a half years and and saw
the the testimony of God in a flaming fire fire from heaven that wasn't enough then he went up
into the up into the into the hills and he prayed that God seven times that rain would come there
was not a cloud in the sky until there's one speck of a cloud that grew and grew and grew and then
rain came down and Elijah said to I I had you better get back with your chariot otherwise the
chariot is going to get bogged now there we find the kind of faith that this man had the rain came
the drought was relieved people began to get fed again and were able to water their animals
whatever animals I had left that was not a good enough miracle for them either they still persisted
in false worship because they were not persuaded by the laws of God that they must serve God in
righteousness so anything that doesn't deeply affect our hearts first we need to know that God
is indeed a completely transformed our hearts then the Word of God will become active and sharper
than a two-edged sword then our conscience will obey God and love God rather than than the world
and then we will start to live by faith according to that and start to act righteously according to
the commandments of God and not according to the commandments of men but the consequence here we
find faith was set in retreat and we find that Elijah was utterly shaken and he was set in flight
and he was so bewildered he went into the wilderness and we find him repeating this kind
of statement and when he saw that at that he arose and ran for his life this is not a man that was
stable and he went to be a sheba which belonged to Judah and left his servant there and he himself
went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat under the boom tree and he prayed that he
might die and said it is enough now Lord take my life for I am no better than my father's and so
he slept and so he was had this death wish upon him now he had previously said that the word of
the Lord came to me previously the word of the Lord was his strength and the direction and the
wisdom of God to him he said that three times the thing that was guiding him was the word of the
Lord but now all he could see is darkness and he had seen that the the powers of the of the evil
one was a raid against him Elijah had been sustained by faith vision of a living God but
now he had lost sight of the Lord and saw this furious woman now this has happened time and time
again among God's God people remember Peter the Apostle denied the Lord thrice in such such clear
manner and he'd lost his his his perspective altogether and he could only see the threats
of darkness and this is not uncommon throughout the whole Bible we see this kind of thing having
to Abraham the kind of thing happening to to the prophets of old everywhere so when we feel like
this at times it's not that God has left us is simply that our faith has been shaken but God
remains our faith has been shaken but God does remain he never leaves us or forsakes us and
although we feel utterly dejected but God preserves us and I've found that all the time
because God is there God preserves us a Elijah of the flesh was utterly undone and all he could see
is his death and he wished for it and it was an escape wish the flight of faith was was very
different difficult and I find that whenever we are in a state of decline spiritually it's not
that we are really enjoying God but not we can't even really enjoy the world either and everything
is empty and we know what it's like to be filled with the things of God and to have our heart
panting with the things of God but we can't really pant with the things of God and God keeps us in a
state where we can't enjoy the things of God but neither can we enjoy the things of the world yet
God preserves us in his mercy and he finds a Jupiter tree there he sits in the shade of God's
grace not under the Sun he sends an angel a messenger to care for him what kind of person
this was we don't know but the angels the Lord feature quite largely in those days and I believe
they feature quite largely in our own day the Apostle says we should make sure that we entertain
and exercise hospitality because you might entertain an angel a messenger for God unbeknownst and and
he prepared a cake he provided water for him he came a second time and he ate more he commanded
him get even gave him strength and direction and he was sustained on that meal for 40 days and 40
nights that's something of the reminiscence of what we would see that the Apostle the Apostle
was sorry the Lord Jesus was sustained for 40 days and 40 nights the people of God were sustained
for 40 years in the wilderness it is that were the echoes of these things were coming back to him
God is faithful God is merciful even though we are in a state of faithlessness he comes to us
now he eventually gets to Horeb which is Mount Sinai and and we find that this is a mountain of
God and he finds a cave there and he goes in and hides in the cave and we find that that the divine
question is what has thou here what are you doing here Elijah and then he says in verse 10 that he
says almost like a litany he says and so he said I have been very zealous for the Lord of hosts for
the children of of Israel have forsaken your covenant and torn down your altars and killed
your prophets with the sword and I am left and they seek to take my life now here we find the
perpendicular pronoun is here I I I have done this it's mentioned I have been zealous he says
I have killed the prophets and he says and they're taking and I alone are left
in other words his perspective is not upon the Lord his perspective is on his own situation
and that he had been entertaining so great a regard on and and his own importance in this
whole thing never think that you are indispensable in the purposes of God yes he wants to deal with
us but we are not indispensable and that we that he was unduly occupied with his service he says I
even I am left in other words he's the only one that is faithful in all the nation now that is
also an egocentric sort of attitude as well we find that he was so crestfallen at the absence
of results that he expected that he was completely undone now preachers can get like this time and
time again I could feel this way in my own ministry and sometimes I do
but what are we called to do here again we can't be looking upon ourselves we had to
look to the Lord in these matters and if I got became egocentric in the whole situation
I might might as well just find myself in a in a position where I too would would fall in the same
situation now in some some sense this is a pride a spiritual pride that was it had to be corrected
it was choking the exercise of faith in him and he was saying that he was more concerned about God's
purpose than God himself was concerned and we can find ourselves so involved in the work of God
that we think that God is really not terribly concerned about what we're doing
now that's probably blasphemy but faith views the one who orders our circumstances
and therefore if we have faith in what God is doing and what God is
in our circumstances we'll also have hope that is able to look beyond the present scene
and see that God is able to achieve his purposes and if we can see hope in this way then we will
be patient we'll be patiently giving our strength and enduring through the trials
that is what's true spirituality is all about and then lo and behold love delights in him
whom these circumstances are affected by in the end and so the Lord calls Elijah
Elijah to stand upon the mountain before the Lord
and we're not told whether he goes out out of the cave to stand on the mountain before the Lord
he seems to grab on the cave like this he says I'm not going out there
and then the Lord sends the various signs of his presence the wind and the wind apparently shook
and broke the rocks even such was the wind it must have been almost like a tornado and he
remains there gripping in in the cave and then we find that he uh an earthquake is sent as well
he holds on in the earthquake even in the midst of the of the um in the in the cave
and it's probably a very dangerous place to be in a cave uh in in an earthquake but he remains there
and then he sends fire down it's known something the divine fire he sends fire down he says he
still doesn't get out of there now it's probably a very dangerous place to be in a cave in the fires
um but he remains there but it says later on that this still small voice of God says come
it's like that sound of powder falling on the bathroom sink you know
like that this sort of still small voice
and of course at that point he says oh God left me he rushes out of the cave
and he finds the Lord there faithfully waiting for him in the manner that the Lord does
and he recommissions him at this point yes he was dejected and the the Lord preserved him
and he preserved him by calling him out by the still small voice
and and I believe that this says that no one is going to snatch us out of the hand of God
he was refreshed he came out of the cave and refreshed he repented at the sound of the voice
of God still small sound and he was recovered and he went and was recommissioned now it's this
extraordinary thing here is that he was not to carry on the the reformation that was to take
place within Israel it was to be handed over to another Elisha now Elijah and now Elisha was going
to receive the prophet's mantle apparently in those days a prophet would actually wear
a distinctive clothing and he came to Elisha and he said follow me and Elisha says let me let me
settle my accounts with my father he says no follow me now what you know what manner you got
with the that he he burnt all these bridges behind him and Elisha came to to Elijah and
he took off his prophet's mantle and cast it upon Elisha as though this now this ministry is carried
on to you you are going to be the one who's going to bring about the reformation in Israel what I
have started what I have begun I you will complete now sometimes a man of God has got to understand
that at times what has been begun can be cast onto another and therefore we are not ones that are
indispensable to the work of God and we find that here he was so refreshed and he recovered
he was recommissioned he was to train this man to to do the work of of of reformation it was said
that Elisha had double the spirit of Elijah saw all the same miracles that Elijah uh
legacy but increased a manifold more miracles he was a pillar of the faith and he brought about
reformation within Israel that was uncommon to see and so this reformation program was also the
story that would follow this whole thing eventually in the fullness of time Elijah was taken up with
the charity of fire to be with the Lord without even seeing death and so the Lord is very gracious
in this whole situation and therefore I just want to say let us not disparage a man of God
that has got such great standing because of this spiritual depression he went into
because though it was only his faith that was shaken God was not shaken God remains
although he felt utterly dejected yet God preserved him and I think we can remember also
that God once secured us in our heart of hearts that we have received eternal life
no one will snatch us out of the hand of God even though we go through the valley of the
shadow of death even though we find ourselves in in a complete spiritual darkness
even after our conversion he does restore us and strengthens us and the final thing we saw there
was often the work of God is not just one man's work but it can be carried on by succeeding
generations of work because after all it is the work of the spirit not our work