Trusting God In Difficult Times - 1 Kings 17:1-7 | Dr. Carl Broggi, Senior Pastor

[Music] I'd like to invite you to close your eyes and bow your heads and be still as we read scripture as we go to God's throne of grace to find help [Music] now I say this brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable we shall be changed for this perishable must put on the imperishable and this mortal must put on immortality but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and when this mortal will have put on immortality then will come about the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory Oh death where is your victory Oh death where is your sting thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus our Lord therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your toil is not in vain father thank you for these words that Paul quoted from the prophet Isaiah the death has lost its sting through the work of the Messiah on our behalf thank you that though death is all around us these days that the cross has overcome it because he lives you promised we would live as well we thank you a day when men will hear the voice of the Son of God those who knew him will be called to a resurrection of life and those who did not to a resurrection of death so father help us to be faithful stewards of the gospel help us to rest in the assurances of the completion of our salvation that even the worst that can happen is only the best for the true child of God for you promised to be absent from the body is to be present with you we pray for our president that you would help him so many seem to hate him and attack him and I have no doubt because of what he has done for Israel that he is in a spiritual battle that he may be unaware of but we know what this scripture says so we pray that you'd guard him and give him wisdom and strength in the midst of these challenging days for our nation rise up this morning from across the pulpits of America men of God who know you and love you give them strength give me strength fill me and anoint me and use me because without you I can do nothing but with you all things are possible made together preachers of the gospel lift up the one to whom you said you would draw all men - we ask it now in Jesus name Amen would you take your Bibles please this morning and turn to the book of first kings if you're new to the Bible you can just find Psalms that's about dead-center and then go to the left and first Kings is right before first and second Chronicles I want to begin a brand new series for the next seven Sundays a biographical study on the life and times of Elisha the prophet he was a man who lived in very very difficult times much like we're living in and yet Elijah was a man of God who dared to trust God and the myths of great difficulty it's been refreshing for me to study this man's life again because he's so real and I suppose there is nothing that is so repulsive as fone eNOS in the spiritual realm but there's nothing that is so magnetic as integrity a man who walks with God that's the kind of man this man was and when you study his life you'll see there's not a shred of throwing phone eNOS in him he is what he preaches through and through problems he's full of problems phone enos absolutely none and by the way have you ever wondered why so much of the bye of the Bible is biographical in nature God the Holy Spirit loves to take ordinary people like you and me people who walked with God people who even failed with the Lord and to teach us by their lives we think sometimes of a man like Elijah that somehow he is different but the New Testament reminds us that Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours he was cut out of the same piece of fabric that you have been cut out of just like you and I he has been made in the image of God and there are so many lessons that we can learn from studying the scripture biographically I mean you read of a man like Abraham or Moses or Paul or Barnabas or whoever it might be and you just come away challenged and I believe that we will come away challenged having studied this man first King 17 he's suddenly quickly without notice appears in the pages of Scripture and as we will see before we're finished he will leave just as fast first King 17 I hope you have a Bible I'm reading from the new American Standard follow along now Elijah the Tishbite was one of the settlers of Gilead and he said that I am as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand surely there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word the word of the Lord came to him saying go away from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan it shall be that you will drink of the brook and I have commanded the Ravens to provide for you there so he went and did according to the word of the Lord for he went and lived by the brook cherith which is east of the Jordan the Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he would drink from the brook it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land now if you are one who has studied history and the people who have made their marks on history you know that it's impossible to separate the greatness of the person from the timeframe in which they lived it's true in military history whether Napoleon or Lee or grant or a patent or McHale make Arthur it's certainly true in political history whether it's Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill or dr. Martin Luther King and it's certainly true in spiritual history and so if we're to understand the life and times of Elijah and the pack that he made we need to understand something about the timeframe in which he lived in fact sadly for many people the Tanakh the Old Testament is a closed book it's it's difficult to understand and the reason is because we can't always put it together historically so let's think for just a few moments before we begin this seven week series about the historical timeframe in which this man lived and served God now I know for some of you who are listening history was not your favorite subject in school but it needs to be in the realm of biblical history because the Bible is important it is the word of God and sadly for the first half of the Bible for many of us it's the clean section of our Bible why because we're often intimidated by maybe the exception would be the Proverbs and the Psalms and one of the reasons that we are intimidated by the Old Testament is because we can't put it together historically so let me begin this series by giving you first a broad view of the Old Testament so that we can pinpoint the time frame in which Elijah lived and served and if you can understand this broad view you can take almost any book of the Old Testament and accordingly understand where it fits if you remember God founded the nation of Israel through a man named Abraham before Abraham every man of God was a Gentile but God starts a new nation with a man named Abram and initially if you remember he had two sons the son of promise who was called Yitzhak Isaac and the son of the bondwoman Ishmael Ishmael in turn had twelve sons that form the Arab nations of the world Isaac the son of promise had two children Jacob and Esau and Jacob became the line through which the Messiah would come he had 12 sons and those twelve sons corporately after he was renamed yit's Royale were called simply Israel the sons of Israel if you remember of famine came in the Land of Israel and so the twelve tribes end up in Egypt in God through the watch care of Joseph provides not just for the Jewish people but for their surrounding the nations Joseph dies the people multiply and Exodus opens by reminding us there came a time when a new king arose who did not know Joseph and so just as God had prophesied to Abraham they were in the land of Egypt for 400 years but then just as God prophesied he released his people through the leadership of Moses Moses's life was a hundred and twenty years it's easy to follow it's 40 40 40 40 years in Egypt 40 years in the wilderness of where he was a sheep rancher and then 40 years again in the wilderness as he carries the people to the edge of the promised land he dies and after his death Joshua steps up and of course after Joshua dies within one generation the people of Israel for Sagada in one generation degeneration took place in that period of unbelief we typically refer to it as the time of the judges where the Jewish people were ruled by various judges but eventually the people wanted a king like the surrounding nations and so God gave them the desires of their heart and we enter into what we call the period of the monarchy or the period of the kingdom the first three kings in Israel's history were the most famous SDS all David and Solomon but if you remember for a hundred and twenty years each man Saul David Solomon each served exactly forty years for a hundred and twenty years so for a hundred and twenty years the Kingdom of Israel was united but if you remember due to Solomon's moral compromise the Kingdom split north and south hold your finger here and go to first Kings 11 in verse 1 first Kings 11 and verse 1 and I want you to follow along during the latter time of Solomon's reign he compromised himself morally by marrying foreign wives unbelievers and that cost is hard to be drawn away and to fall into idolatry and so God judged Solomon he disciplined him look at first Kings 11 in verse 1 now King Solomon loved many foreign women and therein lies the problem now notice verse 4 for it came about when Solomon was old his wives turned his heart away after other gods in his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been now the consequences are spelled out beginning in look at verse on 9 now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded let me just say something in passing you cannot violate the clear teaching of God's Word without suffering the consequences and so beginning now in 1st Kings 11 and verse 11 we read so the Lord said to Solomon because you have done this and you have not kept my covenant in my statutes which I have commanded you I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David but I will tear it out of the hand of your son and so Rahab ohm steps up to the throne Solomon's son he foolishly listens to the younger leaders in the nation and he makes some very stupid mistakes and in his pigheadedness and his greed the nation divides into here's a map that will give you a picture of what it looked like during that time in 931 Solomon's son Rehoboam he causes a split and so remember there were twelve tribes ten of the tribes in the north form what as this map shows is called Israel and that can be a little confusing as you study the scripture because sometimes the term is used to refer to all 12 tribes especially up until the time the kingdom is united but then after the kingdom divides Israel typically as a term that she used to describe the ten northern tribes and they form their own Kingdom of sorts under a fellow named Jeroboam he doesn't want the people to go back to Jerusalem to worship the one place God had specified and so he creates his own centers of worship using Bulls as emblems and of course from 931 BC to 209 the northern kingdom again called Israel they have twenty Kings in every single King in the northern kingdom is wicked the two southern tribes Judah and Benjamin they go after the name of the larger tribe they are called Judah and they had twenty kings as well twelve vitter wicked only eight that are good so the northern kingdom israel ignores god's command they begin to dry up spiritually they turn to an idolatrous lifestyle and so God sent these different prophets to warn them and in 722 just as God had predicted the Assyrians came down and carried them away into captivity the southern kingdom when another 136 years and then in 586 BC just as God had prophesied the Babylonians came and carried away the two southern tribes so to keep it straight just remember I comes before J a comes before B Israel is carried away by the Assyrians Judah is carried away by the Babylonians alright now I comes before J a comes before B it's just a simple way in which to capsulize and you're thinking how this history unfolded so when you read an Old Testament book one of the questions you always want to ask is at what time in Israel's history did this book take place if you understand for instance that Elijah was a prophet to the northern King them so his living after the kingdom is united it split north and south he serves the northern kingdom israel remember 20 kings every single one of them aren't wicked been terrible leadership and it helps you to understand the timeframe in which he lived in fact any of the Old Testament books that are named after the Prophet who wrote them there are 17 that will take you from Isaiah to Malachi you want to ask did they preached before the Exile did they preach during the exile or did they preach after the exile before the Exile we have what we call pre-exilic prophets some of those prophets preached in the northern kingdom some of those prophets preached to the southern kingdom Judah and a few of them preached to both during the Exile during the time of the Babylonian captivity there were just two prophets that preached Daniel and Ezekiel we call them exilic prophets after the Exile there were just three prophets that preached namely Haggai Zechariah and Malachi so Elijah lives during the timeframe after the United Kingdom the kingdom is immense split he's preaching before the northern 10 tribes Israel as they're called are carried away by the Assyrians and so this time of captivity where the Assyrians carry them away is to follow after Elijah's ministry so he's living during the time of the kings so to speak and so we have the book of 1st and 2nd Kings and as you read through those books much like The Chronicles though the chronicles largely focuses on the southern kingdom Judah you'll read of 2 Kings ruling at the same time that's because there's a northern kingdom and there is a southern kingdom and if you read here first Kings 12 through 16 you discover that with the exception of a king named ASA who did write in the sight of the Lord all of these kings were evil in Israel goes deeper and deeper and deeper in to depravity look at first Kings 16 turn back a page in your Bible to first Kings 16 and look if you will at verse 29 for just a moment first Kings 16 29 we're told now a hab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the 38th year of ASA king of Judah and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria that was their capital 22 years so this verse informs us that ace of whom the Bible says did write in the sight of the Lord in chapter 15 he is ruling over the two southern tribes Judah he does so for 22 years and at the same time you have this film of a half and he's ruling over the ten northern tribes called Israel and he is an important figure in the Old Testament that God gives him six chapters of press look at verse 30 a hab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him that's his claim to fame he did more evil than all of the other kings who went before him out of all the kings that are listed an armory a Habs dad up until that time is rated according to verse 25 of chapter 16 as the pinnacle of evil to that day but suddenly the award is wrenched from his daddy and it's given to Ahab who supersedes his own father in evil and so Ahab steps steps on the scene and it looks like the Antichrist has arrived centuries before I mean he's evil beyond evil look at verse 31 it came about as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of jeroboam the son of nebat this man's heart is so hard his conscience is so seared that the scripture says here it was a trivial thing for him to live in wickedness God tells us that a Habs bel worship was far more deplorable than jeroboams bull worship if jeroboams idolatry was like drinking in water a Habs idolatry was was like drinking out of a sewer pipe it was evil beyond evil his heart was so hard the scripture says that he married Jezebel the daughter of ëthe Bell king of the sidonians and went to serve bail-in worshipped him Bell worship on any account is absolutely lethal but what makes it so terrible is that it has its own evangelist namely this woman Jezebel she's not content to keep bail worship within the synagogue there on the grounds she wants to spread it across the kingdom have you ever noticed as you read through the Book of Kings that only one Kings wife is actually mentioned why is that well I think for two significant reasons number one she wore the pants in the marriage she controlled a hab in chapter 21 and verse 25 we're told surely there was no one like a hab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel his wife incited him she led the family spiritually but secondly she was the one who introduces bail worship into Israel she is the driving force behind bail worship her daddy had bail in his name just like many of the prophets have el or God in their name and Jezebel she's determined to make a strong beachhead to change the whole direction of the nation you know when I study her life it appears to me that she was demon-possessed because she has all the marks of demon possession she is infamous for her evil look at verses 32 and 33 so he erected an altar for bail on the House of bail which he built in Samaria a have also made the Asherah we're gonna discover that spells girlfriend so to speak and what did God think of this king's throne the say have did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him and so that is the day in which Elijah ministers and you will never appreciate the Ministry of Elijah unless you understand the day in which he lived God's people had no spiritual leadership from the Kings zero in the Northern Kingdom where he serves God's people the nation is on skids they're going deeper and deeper into depravity in their future is bleak but Elijah is not afraid he was willing to face the forces of hell because he was called of God he believed that God was alive and that God was able to do exactly all that he promised he is living in a generation literally of spiritual pygmies people who have no backbone people who are unwilling and apparently unable by their unbelief to stand up for God and so that forces us to ask a question this morning what was it that made Elijah's so courageous how could he live with such victory in such difficult times well if you printed out your notetaking outline there from the website you can see the title of this morning's message is trusting God in difficult times and I want to underscore two keys to essentials that come to the surface of this section of Scripture as to why this man was so courageous so let's first consider the courage of Elijah how is it that he could believe God in his generation well first because of his courage notice how verse 1 begins now Elijah the Tishbite who was of the settlers of Gilead said to Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand surely there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word now that's a very very courageous statement this Jewish prophet Elijah whose name means my God is Jehovah or my name is Yahweh and Ahab would have immediately picked up on the meaning of his name this Jewish prophet comes into the presence of this King this King who thought he had him bombed in buried Jehovah worship and had replaced it with the worship of Bell and he is standing Elisha this prophet before the King and his wife Jezebel according to chapter 18 in verse 4 who is killing all the prophets of God which again forces us to ask another question how did he muster the courage to stand before this king who could have easily have taken his life where did he get such boldness and how do we get that kind of courage today well there are two obvious reasons that are highlighted in the text there note taking outline first he was convinced of God's power he was a man who was convinced of God's power we read as the Lord the God of Israel lives it didn't matter to Elisha that they have had declared Jehovah God worship dead and Bale worship alive they have thought he had basically interred the worship of the one true God that he believed was a fake God and that Bale should be worshipped and so here is this man who is not overwhelmed by the circumstances but courageously steps into the presence of this wicked King he doesn't believe his hands were tied he doesn't believe that God is weak he believes that God is able to do all that he has promised the writer of the Hebrews reminds us of that and he's writing in the context not to lost people but to save people in the air it says an 11-6 and without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is that is meaning that he is alive that's the context not that he exists that's a given in Scripture but that God is alive that God is able to do precisely what he wants to do that he has a rewarder of those who seek him so Elijah knew he served the one true God who was alive and he knew something about the character of the one true God as we studied the Book of Daniel a few years ago Daniel 11:32 says the people who know their God will display strength and take action and so Elijah is displaying strength and Elijah is taking action he's there in the presence of King Ahab not in his own strength but he is there in the strength of God notice as the Lord the God of Israel lives and I hope at home you have a Bible in your lap and you're looking at it because you'll get so much more out of any sermon I preached if you have God's Word in your hands as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand do you see what he's saying Elijah is saying I'm not just standing here before you a ham I am standing in this place before the God who lives by the way how do you convince an unbelieving world that God is alive you convince an unbelieving world that God is alive by the aliveness and the power that is in your life the most convincing thing of true biblical Christianity is its power to change the lives the world is not overwhelmed and convinced by your argumentation and buy all of your apologetics the world is not overwhelmed by your success story but that's what we want to do we want to parade across platform all of these great success stories and evangelicalism the world is convinced only by that which it cannot produce and that is a change live freedom from the guilt of sin freedom from the slavery of sin that's what will grab an unbelieving world's attention when Christ's likeness is portrayed in your home when godly children who display the fruit of the Spirit begin to exhibit a different kind of life than their peers to remember shortly after Pentecost the Jewish leaders the L the scribes saw the Apostles and they made this statement in acts 4 now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus only God can do that and that's why Bible based Christianity because there's a whole lot of fake Christianity out there today that has very little to do with what we read in the Bible but Bible based Christianity will revolutionize a person's life and that's what God uses among other things to get people to question let me ask you a question as I asked myself this week what is there in your life that can only be explained by the supernatural work of God what is there in your life that is proof positive that you have a living life-changing relationship with God through Christ Elijah Elijah this prophet he is just filled with reality he is so different from so many people in the day in which he walked he sees himself as God's representative he sees himself as God's ambassador he sees himself as representing the all-powerful God who puts Kings in place and who takes him down and he's not afraid to walk into the presence of this king and that's what we need today we have too many Christians who are stuttering who are paralyzed it seems in the midst of a wicked world and they're just folding their hands and they're in hiding in their little Bible studies but they're doing very little in a forward way to change the world for the glory of God Elijah could have thrown up his hands and said idolatry is everywhere what can I do I'm just one man that's what God needs one man one woman one boy one girl who is available who will believe God that God is able to do precisely all the he has promised and how does he do it through the preaching of the gospel the gospel is the power of God the Dunamis we get our word dynamite it is the power of God to change people and certainly it should be seen in the pulpit certainly it should be seen by those who are in full-time ministry of one sort or another but it needs to be seen in your squadron it needs to be seen and in your boardrooms it needs to be seen in the shop on the University campus in your home or wherever you find yourself unbelievers need to see the work of the Living God through the people of God so here is Elijah he's a man with courage one because he was convinced of God's power that God could change things but secondly there in your outline he was convinced of God's provision he's convinced of God's provision look again in verse 1 he says the Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand surely there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word now many times a prophet of God we go into the presence of a king or to the people at large and simply deliver a message some prediction that God gave them concerning their future a God would often make a prophet a direct conduit of new revelation as something that had not been revealed in the past and he would go and speak we call that foretelling other times a prophet would not simply foretell but he would take revelation that God had already given and he would forth tell it he would not preach some new revelation he would simply preach that which God had already revealed and you see both aspects in the life and ministry of the prophets and really this idea of fourth telling is what a pastor is to do I cannot preach new revelation is some claim they can but as God's representative I am to preach what God has already given God has done writing in the scripture the Canon of scriptures closed he is not giving new revelation as many are claiming today my job is to forth tell now I might tell of the future but only in reference to what God has already said about what is going to happen in the future so let me ask a question if I say Jesus Christ is going to come back for sure by 2025 am i foretelling or am i foretelling well I would be allegedly foretelling but that's not something I can truthfully do because again the last chapter the last paragraph of the scripture in the revelation not to mention Moses and Solomon warned us that we cannot add to what God has given the Canon of scriptures closed not to mention that such a prediction would contradict what Jesus himself said but of that day no one knows but if I were to say a day is coming when Jesus who physically literally was ascended into heaven who is at the right hand of the Father this morning is literally physically going to come back to judge the living and the dead would I be foretelling or would I be forth telling I would be forth telling I would be telling the future based on what God has already revealed in Scripture so important question what is Elijah doing is Elijah foretelling or is Alaia Elijah forth telling well look at again at first Kings 17 in verse 1 as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand surely there shall be neither dunal or rain these years except by my word I want you to see that he was not primarily foretelling as he was foretelling a promise that God had already revealed you want might want to put two scriptures out in the margin next to verse 1 there in your Bible one would be James 5:17 and 18 James 5:17 and 18 and the other would be from Moses and it would be Deuteronomy 11 16 Deuteronomy 11:16 now hold your finger here in first Kings and fast-forward to the back of the Bible go to the book of James go to the book of James go to James chapter 5 for a moment now James 5:17 gives us some information through the inspirational work of the Holy Spirit that you don't find anywhere in the Old Testament actually its first given by Jesus and Luke 425 where Jesus revealed that for three and a half years it did not rain that's not something you find in the Old Testament that's divine commentary given to us in the New Testament and so James the half-brother of the Lord says this in James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours sometimes we read of these prophets and we think well they lived in a different world they breathe different air than we do but he reminds us know he had a nature just like ours he's reminding I said he was a man he was not some Superman that Elijah was a regular person like you and me Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months and he prayed again in the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit ladies and gentlemen the fact that this man could courageously boldly confront this king was a result among other things that he prayed he was able with boldness and courage to stand before this wicked King why because he had already had an audience with the king of kings he was a man who knew how to stand before men because he knew how to kneel before God he prayed earnestly in James of course preface 'as this illustration by reminding us that every believer can see answer to prayer because he says the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much James wants us to know that what God did for Elijah in answer to prayer God can do for us James knows is that we might be tempted to ask is the god of elijah when we really need to be asking where are the Elijah's of God the same God who answered Elijah's prayer can answer your prayer now follow closely you see unlike an announcement of impending judgment that Jonah gave remember Jonah said yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown did Jonah have to pray that to happen no God was going to do there's some things God's gonna do whether you pray about it or not some day my body is gonna be resurrected has nothing to do with lord please resurrect my body some he is gonna resurrect everyone some to walk on streets of gold some to live in a place of eternal judgment that's going to happen so the prediction yet forty days an interval will be overthrown he didn't have to pray that judgment down God said he was going to do it if they did not repent but Elijah praying earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain the scripture says for three years and six months again a time frame you don't learn in the Old Testament God reveals it to us here and through Jesus so where on earth did Elijah get the idea to pray for no rain now go to that other book in the Bible Deuteronomy go back to the book of Genesis and you'll come to the fifth book of the Bible the book of Deuteronomy our English Bibles use the names for the first five books from the Septuagint the Septuagint abbreviated in the NASB lxx is the Greek translation of the Old Testament most Jews had to read the Old Testament in Greek because they lost at some point in their history the ability to read Hebrew and so we follow the Septuagint deuteros to namaste so this is the second law and the title emphasizes the second set of the Ten Commandments and the expansion of the law that Moses gives from Mount Sinai in fact if you read the book of Deuteronomy it's always good to have the big picture of any book you know Genesis for events for people creation fall flood nations Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph that's Genesis well Deuteronomy is built around three specific sermons or speeches that Moses gives there on the plains of Moab just before God takes him home the first sermon is historical it's covered in chapters one through the middle of chapter four and the focus is on what God has done the second sermon he gives us legal it deals with what God expects and it begins in the middle of chapter four and goes all the way through chapter 26 the third sermon he gives begins in chapter 27 through the end of the book and it's prophetic Alois God will do so three sermons what God has done what God expects what God will do now here in chapter 11 you're in the second sermon what God expects Deuteronomy chapter 11 and we find two answers they answer our question as to why Elijah prayed the way he did look at Deuteronomy 11 and pick it up in verse 11 but the land and to which you are about to cross to possess it a land of hills and valleys drinks water from the rain of heaven a land for which the Lord your God cares the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning even to the end of the year it shall come about if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul that he will give the rain for your land in its season the early and late rain that you may gather in your grain and your new wine in your oil then notice verse 15 he will give grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and be satisfied but then Moses warns beware that your hearts are not deceived and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you Elijah knew what God that God is able to perform exactly what he said and he knew that since the nation in his day had defected spiritually that God had reason to withhold the rain and so Elijah knew the Covenant God had made with the people and he will expand in 28 and 29 of deuteronomy some of the consequences of breaking that covenant God had worn through Moses said if Israel worshiped other gods at Yahweh among other things as the text says here would shut up the heavens so that there would be no rain and the ground would not yield its fruit now Bale was the fertility god he was the storm God the pagans believed that he was the one who sent the rain to fructify the earth and so bale cannot produce rain in his area of expertise in his area of specialty then as reputation is going to be shattered it's going to shrivel into the cracks of the field as they get larger and larger and longer and longer so in asking God to stop the rain Elijah in essence is declaring to Ahab that God is going to shut off bales faucet that God is going to do precisely what he promised and so claiming the promises of God he earnestly fervently and effectively believes that God is able to do that which he has promised and he's really claiming what God has said in Deuteronomy chapter 11 he didn't just dream this up that God would turn the faucet off he had a promise now listen to your pastor if you are going to be a person that God can use a teenager a man or a woman who has great courage than among other things you must know the Word of God if Elijah didn't know Deuteronomy 11 he couldn't have prayed so fervently the Bible reveals God's plans and it gives us God's promises and we need to know those but if you don't know God's Word you can't plead the promises of God and if you do know God's Word but you don't pray then it just makes you arrogant and proud and lifts it up so often people say to me what can we do what resources are available to help us in this wicked and someone's always coming down the road with some new program that the church is supposed to implement I'll tell you what we can do number one we can learn God's Word and that is absent in the pulpits of America expository preaching we've traded it for all the fluff and stuff that so many pastors are giving to entertain people and Sunday mornings and number two we can pray and you can pray with power when you know what the scripture says that's the courage of Elijah he was courageous because one he was convinced of God's power and number two he was courageous because he was convinced of God's promises made available through his through prayer but there's something else I want us to learn about how this man could live in difficult times Roman numeral two there on your outline I want us to think this morning about the concealment of Elijah beginning now in verse two Elisha moves from the realm of the public into the realm of the private I want now us to look at verses two and three we're told the word of the Lord came to him saying go away from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan hide myself God you've called me to preach I'm your prophet no God says hide yourself in the Hebrew word Shatha has the idea of concealment God wants his prophet to conceal or to hide himself and for three reasons first his concealment was the mark of God's protection God's concealment was the mark of his protection God was concerned for the physical safety of this man of God if you look over turn over a page two of chapter 18 and look at verse 10 Obadiah not the one that bears the book by his name but there's this man Obadiah we're going to study him and he says in first Kings 18 in verse 10 as the Lord your God lives there is no nation or Kingdom where my master referring to King Ahab has not said to search for you that is the prophet Elijah and when they said he is not here he made the kingdom or nations swear that they could not find you so in Elijah first told King Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand surely there shall be no rain or Dew these three years except by my word I have probably thought the heavens are not gonna dry up Oh finally the rain stops you probably know this is a short drought we can deal with it for a few months but this drought goes on and on and on and on for three and a half years Farms would fail livestock would die famine and disease would come and when it happened King Ahab wants Elijah bad and so he went looking for him why because Elijah said it would not rain but by my word and I'm sure he wanted to track him down to try to force him to change his word not to mention according to chapter 18 and verse four Jezebel the wicked wife of Ahab wants to kill the prophet since she's already butchered many and so God puts his prophet into his protective care and by the way God's protective care has not changed one bit put out in the margin Isaiah 49 14 through 16 Isaiah 49 14 through 16 in that passage Isaiah the prophet recounts the experience of the children of Israel they had thought that God had forsaken them and and so God answers but Zion said Israel said the people said the Lord has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me but listen to God's answer can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb even these may forget but I will not forget you and then God says this in verse 16 behold I've inscribed you on the palms of my hands your walls walls were built around a city for protection so God records to Isaiah your walls are continually before me now I suppose there's no part of your body that's so well known as the palms of your hands you may look at them maybe they're dirty and they need to be washed you may look at them and there's some calluses on them from hard work God says he has inscribed you on the palms of his hands he never loses track of you jesus said I will never forsake you I will be with you under the end of the age and will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you and so God's instruction to Elijah is that I'm going to protect you this was part of his witness protection program for his prophet he puts him in a very very safe place but that's only part of the reason he has Elijah hide himself I also want you to notice point beyond your outline his concealment was the method of God's provision his concealment was the method of God's provision look now if you will add verse 4 of first Kings 17 it shall be that you will drink of the brook and I have commanded the Ravens to provide for you there lyza is about to experience God's unique catering service look at verses 5 and 6 so in when it did according to the word of the Lord for he went and lived by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan the Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he would drink from the brook now these verses remind me that God's direction includes God's provision God says go to the brook and I'm going to provide for you there god never gives you a command in which he will not give you the means in which to fulfill that command we often say God's work done in God's Way never lacks God's support I remember when I was a student at Dallas seminary and dr. Walvoord was in his 50th year my first year was his last year as the president of Dallas Theological Seminary and he recounted a story that took place in 1924 when Lewis Sperry chafer the first president was in dire straits and the seminary it almost capitulated it had come to the point of bankruptcy and it was to foreclose it noon that day and so several of the men met with dr. Schaefer and they began to pray and in that meeting was dr. Harry Ironside and if you've ever read some of his sermons or heard them there's a few audio recordings that are left he was probably one of the greatest expose eaters in the first half of the 20th century and he prayed in his characteristically refreshing way Lord you know what our needs are you said in your word that you own the cattle on a Thousand Hills please sell some of those cattle and send us the money and while they're praying a Texas cattleman came into the office and this man wanted to see dr. Schaefer and she said while he is in a prayer meeting right now he said well you know I'm a cattleman and I've had two large loads of cattle and Fort Worth and I've been trying to make a business deal with the Prophet I just made on those two loads I sold last week and I can't seem to do any one thing with it and I just thought this morning God is compelling me to commen and to bring the money to Dallas seminary here's the check and she timidly knocked on the door to interrupt that meeting and finally dr. Schaefer answered the door and hand she handed him the check and he immediately knew the name of this famous cattleman it's and by the way it was for the exact amount they needed and this man had absolutely no idea of the need even the straits that they are and dr. Schaefer said Harry God just sold some of his cattle that was God's miraculous provision and I believe that God is providing for this church and he is giving us an impact here and around the world by his sovereign omnipotent grace because we are obeying what we know and here is Elijah he obeys what he knows and God brings him to this Brook where he provides for his needs and I happen to believe that if we will be faithful and obey what we know that God will provide for our needs Elijah go hide yourself it was a mark of God's protection it was a mark of God's provision but also his concealment was the means to God's pathway his concealment was the means to God's pathway look now if you will at verses five and six so he went and did according to the word of the Lord for he went and lived by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan the Ravens brought him bread and Mead in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he would drink from the brook now the liberal critics who always tried to write out the miracles in the Bible say that the Hebrew word for four Ravens are EV they said maybe it was just miss written and it should be the word that's very closely related for Arab now that's a slick way in which to tinker with the text but it won't fly no pun intended the Liberals always want to manipulate the scripture as to what God has plainly said but this was a miracle and the miracle was not that an Arab feta Jew though I suppose that might be a miracle in some instances the miracle was that God provided both drink and food for his profit at this Brook now here is bale he is unable to cause one stock of grain to grow he is unable to provide one drop of rain but God gives his profit plenty to eat into drink he gives him meat bread listen God is the creator of the universe and the reason the most attacked book in all the Bible is been a sheet is because people want to say that what took place in Genesis didn't really take place but if you can believe Genesis 1:1 then you can believe first Kings 17 and what I find so fascinating is that fascinating is that God delivered through these birds both meat and bread no vegetables thank you very much he used the Raven which by the way was considered an unclean animal and I suppose that Elijah would be reminded of that twice a day that God could use an unclean unworthy thing a raven a non kosher bird to accomplish his purposes Elisha if he at times might have felt tempted to think he was unworthy all God would have that done was remind him of those birds but the main reason God has him here at this Brooke is God wants to give him some new direction God wants to give him some new information some new insight that he could only get it this quiet drunk see Elisha has been out there ministering for God God sends him to this wicked King to preach a sermon and then God says go hide yourself at a brook why because he needed to have his spiritual batteries recharged think about all that led up to that sermon he knew that he was gone into the presence of a king who could take his life and so he sought God he was on his face before God and I'm sure even after that short sermon though we may only have obviously a line or two he was exhausted Lord you want me to go to her brook and hide myself yes that's what God wants some of us to do see it's easy to go show yourself it's quite another thing to go hide yourself there are many that maybe are listening in live streaming this morning where God is saying listen go hide yourself that's a difficult assignment in a busy world to slow down to be still to have time with God but you show me an individual who's effective in public and I will show you our person who is efficient in his private life the only way you can communicate to a lost world is when you first commune and the presence of God were you linger in his presence unrushed I've never met a Christian who sat down and planned to live a mediocre life but many believers are living mediocre lives because they were living unexamined wives lives where their minds are not being renewed through the study of Scripture and through prayer now as we close let me share three applications that come to the surface of my mind so that we might be men and women that will trust God in difficult times because we're living in difficult times number one if I am to believe God then I must trust that he is sovereign over evil I don't know if it struck you but it jumped off the pages of scripture to me just the suddenness of Elijah's appearance now Elijah the Tishbite said Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives now as you read first Kings 16 it appears that everything is capitulating to bail that hell is having a holiday that evil is winning and then suddenly were standing listening to this prophet whose name means my God is Yahweh now typically when a prophet is mentioned in Scripture he's given some kind of you know background there's a more deliberate approach now there was a certain prophet Elijah by name who was the son of so-and-so and he came to a habit and worshiping Dale and and the Lord gave him a word and he said go eyes and preach they have but God doesn't do any of that he just suddenly comes Elijah the Tishbite said Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives we never heard of him before and suddenly he just appears we know nothing about this man we want to ask questions where did he go to seminary did he have a wife did he have kids you know how did it become a prophet but God suppresses those details because I think I'm on other things he wants to remind us that he is sovereign over evil he suddenly appears when the world is in despair because God is over this world and we can be sure that absolutely nothing ever happens apart from God's notice God is working often in the background in ways you don't see and then suddenly without notice you see God's answer it may be a man or a woman that God raises up from nowhere or it may ultimately be when God brings his son back from heaven but understand when evil seems to be flourishing it's only a superficial flourish because our God is sovereign God's not up in heaven this morning wringing his hands over the reprobate behavior that is beginning to sweep this world there's never an emergency meeting of the Holy Trinity God is in total control and you can be sure that his plan his movement his person and ultimately his son in the end will win it appeared in Elijah's day that Satan was winning but God is in control he is sovereign over all even evil secondly I am reminded if I am to believe God then I must trust he is sovereign in his ways that God is sovereign in his ways it's marvelous to see how God provides for his servant Elijah by sending Ravens we'll see next time by a widow in a place called Zarafa why doesn't God provide for his other prophets in that way when we come to the 18th chapter we're gonna find many of them who are martyred for their faith by Jezebel's hand and still others who are hidden in caves and groups of 50 who are sustained by one of God's brave servants with bread and water only yeah most of us would rather identify with Elijah yes I'm a believer I'm a servant like Elijah and I can expect God to provide for me the way he provided for Elijah and we want to identify with him rather than those persecuted prophets who are fleeing who are hiding who only get bread and water and Elijah gets water bread and meats so how do we understand the way God provided for Elijah the way he provided for the other 7,000 prophets who were still alive you said pastor God's work done in God's way never lacks God's support that's true I believe that with all my heart well you seem to be contradicting yourself not at all God never promises that his people will be totally sheltered from disaster or evil or even a tons from famine Paul said I know what it's like to live in Plenty and I know what it's like to live with little you say well is there any comfort and the way God provided for Elijah for my own life because I'm a follower of the Messiah yes there is but not as the prosperity field theologians would have you to believe they would have you to believe that God wants to supernaturally supply and Elijah had a supernatural supply as one of them preached and the others didn't because he had greater faith nothing could be further from the truth were they less blessed were they less righteous were they less faithful scores of them had given their life's for the cause but shysters like Joel Olsteen and Benny Han creflo dollar and Kenneth Copeland and Jim Baker they might tell you well Elijah had greater faith and by the way where are all these faith healers in the time of this virus I don't see any of them around right now no these seven thousand men were right in the middle of God's will Paul said I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry both of having abundance and suffering need yes God will provide but not always the way we might think Isaiah writes for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts God allowed son to be provided for in a cave Hill out others to die by the hand of Jezebel why because their service was over George Whitefield the great evangelists of a hundred couple hundred years ago said the worker is immortal until God is finished with him and there comes a time when God is finished with us and it's time to go home and sometimes he takes us her and home even through persecution and batting because his ways are not our ways that doesn't preach that doesn't fill churches that doesn't packed stadiums no adults but it's the truth it's what God has revealed in his word third and finally if I am to believe God then I must trust that he is sovereign in my trials now we didn't examine verse seven so let's look at it now it happened after a while did the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land everything was fine until one day the brook began to run slower then it began to trickle and then it began to puddle and then it dried out I mean what a revolting development what are you doing God God knew exactly what he was doing because he is not simply and interested in launching you into the realm of justification God is also interested in providing for you and growing you in the realm of sanctification when you are justified you're a declared righteous in the sight of God is as declared as holy as God himself is he gives you the righteousness of God in Christ but now he wants to make you holy in your experience and sometimes God uses drying or even a dried up Brook in which to accomplish it yet Elijah I mean was he being punished for what he he's right in the center of God's will he's obeying God he's fervently praying that it might not rain now he's at a drying brook now all the waters gone and some of you listening to me you're a dried-up Brooks today it might be sickness might be the loss of a job the loss of a spouse the loss of a job the loss of friends maybe you had a move and your church is gone that you once loved and the people whom you cherished or so far away I remember really our first dried up Brooke is a relatively newly married couple we were home missionaries working in a campus ministry and we're headed for a seminary from Duke University to Dallas and God sold our home in one day without a real estate agent and we made a huge profit and then he graciously provided for us where the brand-new home never lived in and all the funds that we needed to move and then to begin seminary we moved across the country and no sooner was I up to my eyeballs in New Testament Greek when a thyroid tumor develops on my wife's neck and the under chronologist suspects that it could be cancerous but because she's in the midst of a pregnancy the kind of tests that he wants to do and the surgery to remove it he doesn't want to endanger our baby and then while she's pregnant with our ciao grace Anna six months into the pregnancy she begins to have problems and she is confined to total bed rest during the same time our son Jeremy develops a large inflamed lump in his leg and is initially diagnosed with muscular dystrophy there are Children's Hospital in Dallas now top it off I wrecked the car twice in the course of two weeks one of my relatives that are you sure that God has called you to go to seminary are you sure you were in God's will I knew I was right in the center of God's will and I knew that though our Brook had dried up that God wanted to use the trials and the circumstances to shape our lives as much as the courses that I was enrolled in since then we face many dried up Brooks in our life but they're all part of the shaping process and some of you who are listening to me this morning you're at a dried-up brook at one time you were at a time of great blessing financially but now it's changed your business is failing maybe there was a time when you could use your voice for the Lord maybe you're a deacon or an elder in your church or had some special ministry but your brook has dried up your brook dries up but only through the hand of a tall sovereign God why does God let our Brooks try out sometimes because he wants to teach us to trust him and not just in our gifts and our bank accounts in our abilities sometimes he wants to demonstrate to an unbelieving world that we love him and serve him not just because of what he does for us but because of who he is like he did with job Elijah made needed to learn that God who gives the water can take the water away job says blessed be the Lord who gives who takes it away we tend to think that once God gives the water he should never retract it though once God gives him mate he should never take that maid away that once God gives a child he should never remove that child once God gives us a good business he should never let it fail that once God gives us a particular ministry he should never stop it and then the brook dries up and we need to be able to say what job the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord now you might be asking this morning Lord what happened what's going on in my life and God says I'm just answering your prayer you ever pray Lord make me more like Jesus Christ God says I'm gonna answer that prayer I mean Elijah might have thought God why are you drying up this Brook and then maybe it dawned on the Prophet Elisha that is exactly what you prayed for and I'm answering it God knows what he is doing god knows what he is about over 80 years ago Amy Carmichael she served by the way as a missionary in India for 55 years she served kids she loved kids you see people who love kids you have someone who is much like Jesus Christ you see people who are irritated by kids and bothered by kids you see a person who is very much unlike Jesus Christ she served in India they called Amy Amma which is in that particular section of India was the name for mom and from her own life experiences having served there 55 years she said when God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man when God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part when he yearns with all his heart to create so great in bold a man that all the world should be amazed watch his methods watch his ways how he ruthlessly perfects how he royally elects how he hammers him and hurts him and with mighty blows converts him how God bends but never breaks when his good he understands how he uses whom he chooses and with every purpose fuses him by every act induces him to try his splendor out God knows what he is about God knew what he was doing with Elijah and God knows what he's doing with you today now if you are listening to me and you've never met Christ unlike for the true child of God your trials are just trials but the promises of trials being used by God to shape us and deform us and to mature us and to make us more godly is a promise for the one who's been born from above listen you can't even begin to grow spiritually and to change spiritually until you've been born spiritually and Jesus said unless you are born twice you'll never see you'll never understand and you will never ever enter God's kingdom and you can't earn it you can't achieve it you can't merit it because the penalty is death and so a substitute paid it for you on a cross because the life is in the blood and so without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness and there's only one who walked on this earth with sinless innocent blood in his name is Yeshua Jesus died in your place and he proved he was sinless that death could not hold him in the grave when he was resurrected from the dead and if he will call on his name today in faith believing that God will do precisely what he said whoever will call on Jesus's name I will save right now instantly in one moment you can be saved if you want to be so I invite you to be on God's behalf as if God weren't reading through me I beg you to be reconciled to God now our Father we thank you for the prophet Elijah thank you that we're going to have a chance to study him the next couple of months and we pray that as we read of this portion of Scripture that you gave given that we would not just become smarter sinners but that we would become more like Christ I know many are listening to me some who have lost loved ones by this virus in different parts of the country in different parts of the world and they are heartbroken some who have lost their businesses some who want to work but they can't work and they're struggling in so many different ways but we thank you that you meet us it dried up Brooks and I pray today Father for someone listening who has never received your forgiveness that they might call upon Jesus that they would say Lord Jesus I am a sinner who deserves judgments but I thank you that you took my judgment for me you proved your ability when you were raised from the dead or Jesus come and forgive my sin and change me it make me to be the kind of person you want me to be a father helps someone today to do that to say Lord Jesus save me we know father the clock will someday run out may we not miss this heightened warning that you are sending across the world we ask it in Jesus holy and precious name Amen

Channel: Community Bible Church

Views: 1,860

Rating: 4.647059 out of 5

Keywords: Community Bible Church, CBC, Bible, Church, Sunday, Service, Sunday Service, STS, Search the Scriptures, Elijah, Difficult Times, Coronavirus, Virus, Pandemic, Trusting God

Id: WJhtbpu70ss

Length: 77min 9sec (4629 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020