This sermon emphasizes the need for revival and the importance of surrendering to God's way. It highlights the story of Elijah, a prophet who stood against apostasy and declension, walking alone and facing opposition. The sermon challenges listeners to rebuild broken altars, make restitution, and persist in prayer, seeking the fire of God in their lives.

This is one of the best-known Old Testament chapters, I'm sure, particularly when we think of revival, which is one of our, maybe it's our number one theme around here, at least it should be. I just finished a book, Revival God's Way. Because we've tried everybody else's way, I thought it might be decent to go back and try God's way. We've tried organizing instead of agonizing, and superficial instead of the supernatural, and the electronic church instead of the electrifying church. It's about time we had a change. And no man is able to bring that change, only God. You know, I'm sure, that this is a chapter on Elijah. Elijah is in the category of what I think were the greatest men that ever walked the earth, or walked the moon, if you like, in this day. He was a prophet. Prophet to God's emergency men for crisis hours. Let's say this, it's primary, and then it's true of all of them, the prophets walk alone. Prophets are antagonized by the declension and apostasy round about them. They refuse to bow to it, they stand up against it. And in fact, God only raises prophets in days of declension and apostasy. You never find a prophet sponsored by men. You never find a prophet begging for money over TV. Usually the message of a prophet is accepted only by a minority. No prophet, however great or successful he was, ever became the man of the year. I get a little disturbed when I get letters, and I get them almost every week. Sometimes it seems they come every day, either letters or phone. God's called me to be a prophet. Or God has called me to be a John the Baptist. When a man says that, I say, are you insured? And he says, what do I need insurance for? Because you're only going to live six months. That's all John Baptist, I don't know whether he was insured, but that's all he lived for six months and lost his head over the business. But there's the law, he that loseth his life for thy sake shall find it, and he that preserves his life shall lose it. I thought of some very simple words to say about this man. First of all, his position. Again, he's an isolated character. I forget the exact date, but somewhere in the 1500s there was a man in England in the town of Kidderminster. I've been through that town many times. It has a great cathedral and its stone isn't like the usually drab grey stone in England. It's almost red and it has two great steeples instead of one. And when Baxter went to Kidderminster, he said there were not four families in the whole city that had devotions. And about 15 years after when he died, they said there were not four families in the city that didn't have them. He had revival on the family level, which is the most needed thing in the country today. I get a bit hot about deacons and pastors always deploring the Bibles thrown out of the school, but I go in deacons' homes and never see the Bible brought out once all week. And some of you come from pastors' homes and your daddy never took the Bible out every day and read it round the table anyhow, so why throw stones at the Russians or somebody else? Judgment must begin at the house of God. It begins, as the old song says, it's not my brother nor my sister, it's me, O God, standing in the need of prayer. But it was Richard Baxter who gave us that great phrase that I try to push over when I'm talking to preachers. He said, I preached as though I would never preach again and as a dying man to dying men. There is no office on this earth, and you can include the President of the United States or the King of England, there is no office in the world higher than that of preaching. I have a friend who is a very brilliant open-heart surgeon. I hope I never have to meet him except round the dinner table. But I have great respect for a man that can go in here and do, as a man had the other day, a five, what do you call it, a five-part bypass. I'd rather pass them all. I have a great admiration for a man who can drill a hole in your skull and go in and sort. Maybe that's what I need. I hope I don't have to have that. But a brain surgeon, a man, do you think he goes joking into the room and says, hey, what's the ball score? I've got to get in this guy's skull and put some things... I don't think so. They're very sober men. But most preachers are idiots almost today. They can tell jokes just before they go on to preach. I'll tell you the secret of preaching, not that I found it, I rediscovered it from the Word of God. Isaiah 66, God says to this, None will I look to him that trembleth at my word. And that doesn't mean that the first time you stand up and you find your knees are very friendly, knocking together. It doesn't mean that kind of nervousness, not that kind of trembling, but trembling at the awesome task of representing a holy God in an unholy world. And then is it Peter that talks about them preaching with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Jesus was the Son of God from the moment he left his mother's womb, but he didn't preach until he was anointed. He stood up and read the scriptures when he was 12 years of age in the synagogue, but he never preached. Well, how do these guys dare to preach because they have a piece of paper stuck on the wall about 10 inches by 18, saying they were ordained. There's no man on earth can ordain another man to the ministry. There's only one ordination. People say sometimes, you know, those guys in the upper room were not ordained men. Well, that's where you're wrong. They were all ordained. Because it says in John 15, I have ordained you. That's the only ordination, the ordination of the pierced hands, not the ordination of the well manicured hand of a bishop or somebody. The preacher's job is as, I don't know how many biographies there are of George Whitefield. I used to have about a dozen. I think a friend of mine maybe has 150 different biographies of Whitefield. But they said if Whitefield was going to preach on heaven, by the time he walked to the desk and gave out his text, you'd think he'd been living in heaven for the last seven days. And that was marvelous. But if you happened to go the night he preached on hell, you'd think he'd lived there for seven days and you'd wish you'd never got to the meeting. Why should people tremble at the word of God if the preacher hasn't already trembled at it? Why should people weep for their sins if the preacher hasn't already wept for them? It's a scarce, rare thing to find a preacher ever weeping in the pulpit anymore, isn't it? And yet it's a condition of revival. In Joel 2, let the priest weep. It says let the priest howl. You know, those preachers used to howl during the night. Now we've got night owls amongst the preachers. They're watching TV all night. But they don't howl. They don't weep. They don't grieve. And since we've failed so magnificently in the last 25 years, you wonder why we don't have a minister's conference and find out where we got off the track. 4,000 preachers met in Amsterdam about three months ago. A doctor was a friend of mine and his wife went a month after and she said, oh, we were going around Germany and other places. I wanted to get to Amsterdam to feel the power of God in the city. And when she got there, she didn't feel a thing. Isn't it amazing 120 men from the upper room could turn the city upside down, then turn the nation upside down, and your 4,000 preachers gathered together for about 10 days costing $5 million and nobody could even tell they'd been in town? Isn't it illogical? Now, I may have many faults, but I'm not afraid of anybody. And I wonder why a preacher says every Sunday morning, I have 4,000 students in my school here all filled with the Holy Ghost. And nobody knows they're in town. But they knew when 120 were in town filled with the Holy Ghost. So here's a question you might work out. What's the difference between the baptism of the Spirit in Acts 2 and the baptism of the Spirit today? There's an awful discrepancy. You may have a headache thinking about it. Maybe you'll have a heartache before you get through the whole thing. But obviously the Church of the New Testament and the Church today are two very, very different things. And I hope you'll make some great discoveries while you're in school here. Okay, let's look at this quickly. I'll say that a few times and not go so quickly, I suppose, but anyhow. Here we are in 1 Kings 17. No, end of 16. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. Now let's remember that 58 years before this there had been a dividing of the kingdom. Right before Elijah comes on the stage there had been seven kings and every king did more evil than the king before him until finally the final king does more evil than all the previous kings before him. And that includes Jeroboam who you may remember once made some gods out of gold and said to the people of Israel, these are your gods, O Israel. Now, I think the thing that amazes me is how short our memories are for all of us. How quickly we forget the mercies of God, how quickly we forget the judgments of God. But you see this is comparable to the day in which we live. Let me read it now, verse 31. It came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam and the sins of Nebat. And he did a lot of evil things, Jeroboam. He took Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians and went and served Baal and worshipped him. See what he does? He inaugurates worship to strange heathen gods. He puts an altar for Baal in the house of Baal and he built Samaria. And he made a grove. And Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel and to anger, did more to stir the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel. Now, all the aggregate iniquity of the kings before him, this one king exceeded all their wickedness and he made God very, very angry. And he rebuilt Jericho, which you remember fallen down in the days of Joshua. And he set the foundation stones in the blood of his son. And as we would say, everything in the garden was lovely. Everything was rolling along perfectly, like putting the lights out one by one. The nation's morality and spirituality had been pushed away. The preachers had gone hiding underground. And it looks as though this wicked king, it would be more correct to say he was a very weak king. His wife, Jezebel, was very wicked. And when everything in the garden was lovely, suddenly up comes a little man, a rugged, rugged man by the name of Elijah. I'm looking here for a description of him. Pardon me. In the second book of Kings and the first chapter in verse 8, this is the Elijah who had come up against a man who was going to do something evil. And it says in verse 8 of second Kings chapter 1, they answered he was a hairy man, girt with a leather girdle about his loins. And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. Today our prophets have brooks, brothers, suits on, and have their hair, what do you call it, blow-dried, and head and nose, and they have big rings on their fingers, and showmanship. And here's a little man that makes a whole nation to tremble. Go back to chapter 17. Elijah the Tishbite is of the inhabitants of Gilead. Now there were two Gileads. One of them was a rugged mountainous place, and my guess is that he lived there, and he was as rugged as the mountains. Rough-looking, hairy man. But the word of the Lord came unto him, verse 2, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself. Now look, mark that phrase there, hide thyself. 17th chapter, verse 3. Now look at 18th chapter, and verse 1, Go show thyself. You know, the secret of his life is not difficult to discover. The secret of his life is this, he was obedient. When God said, Hide thyself, he didn't say, Well, Lord, how long am I going for, and what's the apartment like? I mean, does it have hot and cold water, and is there a grocery store nearby? The Lord says, You go, I've commanded the ravens to feed thee there. Now, I don't like that, I wish it was another bird, but it was a raven anyhow. But you see, in the Hebrew, the word raven and Arab are interchangeable. So the smart scholars today say, Well, it wasn't a bird that flew with his breakfast every morning. It was an Arab. Well, have it that way if you like, that's as big a miracle as anything. Did you ever know an Arab feed a Jew? But I don't think an Arab would come flying through the air. But he brought him bread and flesh in the morning, bread and flesh, and maybe that's a suggestion, you only need to eat twice a day. It's quite natural, and yet supernatural for a raven. A raven is a carnivorous bird. What was the first bird that Noah put out of the ark? So everywhere he went, he had a choice. He could eat a bit of an elephant, he had a smorgasbord. He could have a bit of an elephant now, a bit of a human being the next meal, a bit of somebody else. All the carcasses floating around from everybody who'd been destroyed in the world. But when the dove went out, what did he do? A dove is a unique bird, he only marries once. He or she marry once. If he goes near anything that smells of death, he won't even settle on it, never mind eats. The raven will eat food that's rotten, you see some of them on the roads there, they're a type of raven. Somebody hits an animal and you see a big ugly looking bird scratching, they're all of the eagle and raven family. But the dove will not eat anything dead, anything unclean, it won't even put its little pink feet down on anything. That's a pretty good illustration you see, because if you're dead in trespasses, if there's flesh in you, the Holy Ghost won't come. He may come and give you a nudge now and again, but he won't abide in your heart if there's filth and corruption there. You can weep and cry and make all the confessions you like, but the Holy Ghost won't come. But anyhow, notice what it says, Get thee hence, turn thee eastward, verse 3, is it, or verse 2 of 17, and hide thyself by the brook Kirith that is before Jordan. It shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. And he went, and he did according to the word of the Lord. And you'll find that over and over and over in his life, he did according to the word of the Lord. Now, he didn't ask any directions about this thing as far as I know. Go to the brook Kirith, and the birds brought him bread and flesh in the morning and in the evening, and he drank of the brook. It came to pass after a while that the brook dried up. The brook was quite natural. The natural supply was cut off first, and then the supernatural, the bird with the food, didn't turn up. And then again, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee to Zarephath. Now, we'll have to jump over some things here, but anyhow. Let me find the verse I'm looking for here. Oh, go back to verse 1, okay. Elijah the Tishbite said to Ahab, now here is a nobody, a man that has no home, he's a, call him a bum today, a tramp, and he stands in the presence of a royal king who can command his death and he isn't nervous about it at all. He says, The Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand. I'll tell you what, if you stand before God, you'll never kneel before men. The man who has stood in the presence of an eternal holy God will never bow the knee, never compromise. He'll deliver the word God has given to him. And go hide thyself. Now, what do you think he did all the time he was in that cave? Do you think he was collecting bugs to see how many, what variety there was there? There's no companionship. Somebody has given me a beautiful set of pictures from my office. Eagles, oh, they're gorgeous. I've only ever seen eagles fly, and they never fly, except on courting trips they fly together, but normally the great eagle flies alone. It's the king of the air. The lion is the king of the forest, it hunts alone. Except for certain other seasons. And if you haven't learned the lesson, learn it now while you're young. Great men walk alone. Enoch, who did Enoch walk with? God. He's not only the only one, but the distinguishing feature about him was he walked constantly with God. And one of the things, it's nice to be in a school. I went to a school once. You may learn as much under a tree somewhere in the field there with your Bible or listening to God as you get sitting, listening to somebody else spoon-feed you. You see, just studying the Bible will not make you a saint. It has to get in your bloodstream and work down right through you. You can store your head with knowledge, and that's good. You may learn Hebrew and Greek, which are fine, but there is no substitute for a personal relationship with God himself. Do you remember that when they appointed the priests in the old ritual of the Old Testament, then God says, Separate Aaron and his sons that they may minister unto me. Now, I wonder how many of you ministered to the Lord today? Not work for him, but work with him. Not just talk to him, but it's a two-way street, as we say. He talks back. This man continually hears the voice of God. The word of the Lord came unto me. Read Ezekiel and see how many times he says, The word of the Lord came unto me. It is according to the word of the Lord. Verse 5. Verse 8. The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zeliphath. Now, chapter 18. Came to pass after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah and said, Show thyself unto Ahab. Notice he had said in that, pardon me, 17th chapter. And verse 1. The Lord before whom I shall stand, there shall be no dune or rain these years. Come on now, come on. Would you like to wake up in the morning? And the Lord said, You get to the White House as quickly as you can and tell the president there, with all the business he has, there's nothing as important as this, I have to say to him. I've been with God, and he's told me that I'm going to turn the key like that, I'm going to shut up heaven, that there'll be no rain. Now, come on. Do you love enough? Do you love America enough to send her bankrupt? Is it better for a nation to go to hell fat, or go to heaven thin? You see, it's so easy to read this like this, isn't it? This wonderful little man, he goes up to the king, and he says there's going to be no rain according to my word, not God's word, my word. And he says, Here, look, I'm going to shut up heaven, and there'll be no rain around until I unlock it. You see, God had said in, what, Numbers, Numbers of Deuteronomy 11, If a nation commits transgressions continually, I'll shut up heaven, there'll be no rain. And what Elijah says, Look, Lord, nobody else keeps their word, you better keep your word. Why should people believe you if you don't keep your word? Now, you can't shut up heaven and have the crops. You can't shut up heaven without your cattle dying. You can't shut up heaven for three years without industry collapsing. But you see, these men loved God so much, they hurt when God was hurting. They didn't hurt just because their neighbors were saying, When are we going to get more food, and when are prices going to drop? When is the economy going to recover? When is inflation going to drop? How many preachers do you think will go into the pulpit this Sunday and say, Listen, America has spent another week hurting God. We've broken his commandments, we're breaking his Sabbaths, we're legalizing abortion, we're legalizing homosexuality, we're on the devil's side. That wouldn't let you be, you wouldn't become the man of the year. Before you got through, most likely the deacons would chase you out of the front door. Okay, let's go to Elijah down in this chapter. What does he do? I want you to notice his, the people who were against him. Verse 19 of this 18th chapter. Pardon me, go back to verse 17. It came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, he said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Do you think we've got any preachers around here troubling the devil? Huh? I hear preachers saying, you know, preachers always saying, you know, I've preached for Jerry Falwell, I had my dinner at the White House the other week. Do you think Ahab ever invited Elijah to dinner? Huh? If you do, raise your hand, you're crazy. Do you think Agrippa ever invited Apostle Paul to dinner at the Royal Palace? Did Herod invite John Baptist to dinner, or Jesus? The very presence of the man of God scared them. Immediately he came in their presence, he diffused something of the almighty God, the eternal God. And immediately they sense their own corruption and failure. Now listen, do you remember that wonderful story in the Bible where Paul gets on board a ship and everybody laughed and said, who's that guy? Who, he's a preacher? In chains? Yes. Yeah, where's he going? He just told me he's going to have his head chopped off when he gets off the boat. What? And he's not crying about it? No, no, he says, I'm going to, I'm going to do the greatest job I've ever done for my master. And he got on board the ship as a passenger and he got off as the pilot. The ship went to pieces. Typical of the day in which we're living. Is the world going to end with a bang or a whimper? Is it going to end up in the hands of communism or the hands of capitalists? No, it's going to end up in the hand of preachers. That ship tossing and twirling, the sails are ripping and the spars are breaking and the seas are boiling and the people are screaming and everybody's terrified and up comes a little man coming up from down the cheapest quarters on the boat and he comes up with a big smile and says, What's wrong with you? He says, Was it a terrible night? Didn't you think we were going to sink? He said, No, there stood by me this night an angel of God. A what? An angel of God? What cabin does he sleep in? Oh, he just comes down to visit me. He came in the middle of the night and he says, Paul, give me a hand, the old boy. Remember this, this ship's not going to sink and you're going to make it and you're going to be the means of saving everybody on board this ship, not the captain. They threw all the furniture overboard, they threw all the baggage overboard, they threw everything they could overboard to lighten the ship and Paul says, Why don't you quit and just let me take charge? It's the same thing here. Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Verse 18, He answered, I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy father's house because you forsaken his commandments and you followed Baalim. Now listen, here's the little guy, here's the king in his beautiful uniform with all his servants around him in a house full of antiques and what in the world have you got? And here's a little rugged man that doesn't even have a penny in his pocket and he has no home. Should I tell you what the situation was? Poor guy. He got nothing but God. Isn't it terrible? I mean when you have nothing but God? Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said? He says, I have nothing and I possess all things. Now the church has everything including computers Instead of saying I have nothing and possess all things now we possess all things and have nothing. I'd love to draw a picture of this if I could draw. Elijah with his leather girdle and his big hairy chest and he's standing before the king in his glorious robes and his wonderful crown and the little prophet says hey boy look you get all Israel to Mount Carmel and bring all your false prophets four hundred from Baal and four hundred from the groves that eat at Jezebel's table that old witch. Somebody called her a toad. I think that's an insult to the toad but and then when you've gathered them gathered all the children of Israel now would you like to stand up against this mob? It's estimated there were two million children of Israel and eight hundred and fifty false priests there from false religions and what does this man of God do? Well he delivers the word that God has given to him that's all he has to do. I was trying to find it I've lost the marking here but a bit later on do you remember there were fifty sons of the prophets came up to him and they said who are you? He said do you want me to prove it? He said yes. OK well if I'm the true God he said let fire fall from heaven and burn you all up and that's what happened and he roasted fifty of the false prophets on the spot now wouldn't you think they'd learned the lesson but what did the wicked people do? They sent fifty more and he roasted them and they hadn't learned the lesson they sent fifty more and he roasted them so you've got two million people three times fifty a hundred and fifty of the super or high priests of false religion and two million maybe of Israel and eight hundred and fifty false prophets the dice was pretty loaded against him wasn't it? but he says let's build an altar and you put your sacrifice on it and at the end of verse twenty five he says you call on the name of your God but put no fire under and they went on crying and cried and cried and no God answered and verse twenty seven it came to pass that Elijah mocked them and said as he cried aloud that he is God either he's talking or pursuing if you've got one of those horrible living Bibles this isn't written very well at all I always read out to the living Bible the King James version that they there's some rough language there but cry aloud your God's on a journey he's gone shopping he mocked them the God that answers by fire but notice in verse thirty Elijah said to all the people come near unto me and all the people came and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down do you know why a lot of our prayers were not answered because we broke down we've got broken altars in our lives vows that we made to God and we never kept them but first of all he built the old altar repaired it now come on let's be realistic about this what do you think those 850 false prophets were doing while he was building that altar don't you think they were saying look at the old clown what's he going to do why doesn't he give up I mean he's stupid I mean there's 850 of us against him plus all this crowd now was it right for Elijah to put God to the test like this why should a little man take it upon him to say I'll build an altar and then the God that answers by fire he's the real God how does he have the audacity to do it I'll tell you why he has the audacity to do it because he says the word of the Lord came unto me to do it and come hell or high water you can multiply the false prophets by a million but I have the word of God and I'm only obeying God and because I'm obeying God God will come through and God will answer by fire we don't have time to go through this in the way that I'd like but there's a lot of old altars that need to be rebuilt some of you once made a vow you'd never get married but you've got married since you're on the edge of it what about repairing the old altar do you mean I should break my engagement yes if you made a vow to God that you wouldn't get married you better halt and wait and find out what God wants I've read and reread the fifth chapter of Ephesians this week now you won't remember this but some of us older people I don't know if Brother Dale remembers this but no hardly 50 years ago there was a popular American by the name of Dr. Buckman and he came to England and established in Oxford University a series of meetings which spread like wildfire through England trying to think of the name what was it oh the Oxford group and they used to have what they called a squash instead of saying you go into a house meeting you went to a squash because you went to a room like this which happens to be a bit overloaded this morning this evening you go to a house where you could normally seat about 30 people and you squashed about 80 people you all squashed together you see so they called it a squash now John Wesley in the 1700s established what he called a class meeting and people used to testify sometimes they'd start in rotation but Wesley wouldn't let you get back and say you know 200 years ago my grandfather was a bishop or I have a cousin that's doing this you could only testify on your experience between last Friday night and this Friday night now what the Buckmanites did they'd meet together and then they'd start talking I went to some meetings and they'd start digging up their past sins and talking about them look if God's put them under the blood why do you drag them out if God doesn't want to remember them why do you want to remember them I went to meetings in New York City where I wanted to throw up people talking how many women they'd live with and what sin they'd done and all kinds of licentiousness what does Paul say what's rather things are lovely what's rather things do good report well think on these things listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 5 ye therefore in verse 1 ye therefore followers of God as dear children walk in love as Christ loved us and hath given himself for an offering and a sacrifice to God but fornication uncleanness and covetousness like them not once been mentioned among you as becometh saints neither filthiness nor foolish jesting you say well shouldn't sin that you've been you've covered up in your life shouldn't it be confessed but let me tell you something and you refuse to stand up for anybody until God convicts you I believe that sin that has been committed privately should be confessed privately you should find a confessor that is you should find a pastor or somebody who's used to counselling and go to that person and say listen this is part of my past not spill it out before a crowd because it can become pornographic I remember a girl who's had certain things in one meeting and every time I saw that girl and she'd been to the depths of hell you talk about incest and all the other things you could mention prostitutes she came out with a string of stuff one day and I every time I've seen her sins all I can see is all these rotten filthy things hanging around so not to be mentioned amongst you as we come as saints let's think of holy things and pure things build again the altar what altar you see it's not enough to make confession today two of the most unpopular words in evangelism number one is repentance but a more unpopular word is restitution now look if you got a girl into trouble and then you deserted her you get back and pay that girl some money and get her out of trouble if you stole some money from your boss go build your fences if you made a vow to God and you have I'm going to pray so many hours or minutes a day and you haven't kept it well you can't fool God you're fooling yourself don't say I'm not growing in grace I don't seem to get any taller or stronger why should you be do you remember wasn't it this same Elijah who was at the side of the river felling a tree with an axe wasn't it was it he come on Matt who was it Elijah what Elijah that's right he was one of those terrible twins I always get mixed up with them so what's he doing he's working with an axe oh boys these boys have it rough they wind a chainsaw up and go and they come in exhausted what would they do cutting one of those sikors out have you seen them you should see them if you haven't you can drive I drove in a car through one of them imagine guys whacking it out all day one guy swinging the axe head fell off but he was too proud he wouldn't let anybody know so he tried to chop the tree down with a handle you say ridiculous that's what some of us are doing you're trying to chop the tree down with a handle just the knowledge of the word of God and it needs a sharp anointing what did he do suddenly boy the axe isn't heavy the axe head goes into the river and he took some twigs and what did he do throw it down and I remember Mr. Chadwick I went to Bible school you can see that I'm sure almost six months but anyhow what did he do he took some twigs where did he take them oh he took them a mile down the river because the iron is going to swim oh forget it the iron went down in the water and he took the twigs what did he do and Mr. Chadwick read it this way the iron did swim the iron did swim the iron did swim where did he find it where he lost it where will you lose that anointing and sweetness you had years ago where you lost it no where you left it nearly every preacher quotes that scripture the wrong way you've lost your first love that's not what the bible says it says you left your first love if you lose something I'm getting a bit absent minded these days I say Martha dear where are my keys where were you left them thank you I'd never have thought of that no usually she knows she said dearly I saw them at so and so where will you recover that tenderness that intimacy you had with God where you made a choice maybe to go out coating with your girlfriend and neglect your bible study neglect prayer or play handball or something else is handball sinful yes it is if you love it more than you love God if it's worth anything I know a man who lost his anointings by collecting stamps he was one of the smartest men I ever met he read Hebrew and Greek and he was a deacon in a church I pastored and he could preach far better than I preached but gradually he lost that anointing and he stood up and he could quote his Greek and Hebrew but why? because whereas he used to stay up from nine o'clock till twelve or one in the morning reading the word of God he got so fascinated with being what they call a philatelist or a student of stamps and he spent a fortune on them that it ate into his soul he would rather get messing around with stamps than searching the scriptures now it's not enough to confess there's something more than confession there has to be not only repentance there has to be where it's possible it's not always possible but there has to be restitution you know you could lose your tenderness for God even in a Bible school any Bible school you might get so involved with your buddies and friends around and what you're doing you forget even to write home to the mother and daddy that cared for you for twenty years and they won't care too much for your spirituality now if you're on the dean's list or anybody else's list if you're negligent toward the people that have raised you all those years and wept over you and sacrificed to raise you and so forth and so on I believe that half of the reason for hold up of revival is that we've not rebuilt our altars it's so fascinating isn't it I mean supposing the Lord called you to a new place and said oh boy that's great I didn't like the last days too much I'm glad the Lord's made an opening or some other Bible school you're in you'll still have to come back before God and in humility and tears repair that altar that was broken down those vows you made you didn't keep maybe you made some last week or the week before I'm going to start praying at least one hour a day I'm going to get at least one hour of Bible study apart from what I have to do in the ordinary curriculum of the school I'm going to take more of my money or something whatever vow you've made whatever vow I've made you have to build the old and I believe it's a key repair the altar that was broken down now let me jump through this because time has come do you remember when this man had to hand over his reins of office he handed them over to who Elijah what was the first thing Elijah said but actually when he came into power and he got his mantle what did he say okay where is the Lord God of Elijah but notice when you read in this 18th chapter first book of Kings it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice Elijah the prophet came near and said Lord God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Israel why did he say that why didn't Elijah say the same thing I'll tell you what I think for the simple reason that Abraham and Isaac the Lord God of Israel the Lord God of Abraham of Isaac and of Israel were so far far far away in history but Elijah said so I don't have to go all that way back I've just seen a man anointed with the Holy Spirit of God by the name of Elijah you know one day of Holy Ghost Revival will be better for all of us than ten years in Bible school let the fire fall so you don't just stand up and confess but we lay prostrate before God people say well that's not going to happen I got a tape I won't tell you where from but I got a tape this week it's about a man by the name of Bonke B-O-N-K-E right now he's working in Africa though he is a German he's quite a guy I'd love to meet him fasten your seatbelts a minute it may get rough right here he's having a tent made it costs five million dollars it costs five million and it seats 34,000 people they better not bring it to Vanuatu it will cover the whole city and God has come in tremendous power on him there in Africa certain areas he says he's had a vision of God you know the southern tip of Africa is Cape Town then it goes right up through all those new nations now to Cairo and he's had a vision of God sending revival from Cape Town to Cairo it's alright to go back to Finney he's very popular around here it's alright to go back to some of the saints that used to be around but does any man in our day stand up with all the hosts of the devil around him could you imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine imagine we'll either bend or we'll snap him too well he filled the city hall and then he said book the stadium, and he booked the stadium we didn't fill it, he said more than 10,000 people came and again the Spirit of God worked and criminals were saved and people were healed and isn't it wonderful how many preachers believe the Bible from cover to cover till you come to the miraculous but Christianity that isn't supernatural is superficial you cannot separate the supernatural from this holy magnificent God that we had now I'd better get on here or else I'm going to be in trouble verse verse 36 of 18 again came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said Lord God of Abraham and of Israel and of Isaac let it be known this day that thou art a God in Israel notice he doesn't pray for his own vindication first let it be known this day that there is a God in Israel and that I am thy servant, hear me O Lord hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord and thou hast turned their hearts back again then the fire of the Lord fell verse 39 and when all the people saw it they fell you know there'll be a lot of falling once the fire of God falls the fire fell and the people fell now you'd think that when this man had seen the fire fall and the people fall and seen that the whole nation cry to God the Lord is God that he'd feel kind of on top of the world verse 42 Ahab went to eat and to drink Elijah went to the top of Carmel well that's what Carmel people do they go to eat and drink Elijah went on the top of the mountain and he cast himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees now you try that for an hour tonight and see how you get up that's contrition that's humiliation why didn't he relax and say well you know I'm the big shot preacher in the nation I mean I pray and the people fell and the rain fell and the whole nation's heart was turned back to God he said to his servant go up now and look toward the sea and he went up and he said there is nothing he said go again seven times now here you've got the patience of prayer and you've got the persistence of prayer I mean when his servant had been once and said there is nothing why didn't he say well then it's not time for God to work I got wrong here he says go a second time he went a second anything no go a third anything no go a fourth anything no go a fifth this may sound foreign to you right now but maybe when you're on some mission field or in some other location you'll discover that God doesn't always answer prayer on the button like that to get us out of difficulty and trial faith that is going to be trusted is going to be tested and here is a man who's seen the supernatural he's seen a whole nation fall down before God he's seen the fire fall from heaven and yet he persists in his praying however painful it may be the next verse 44 says he came to pass the seventh time he said behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand and he said go say to Ahab you know go tell the king again I know I'm a thorn in his flesh but I'm not leaving him alone I'm not giving up until not just the nation falls but the king falls prepare thy chariot and get thee down let the rain stop not came to pass in the meanwhile the heaven was black with clouds and behold there was a great rain so here's the man he prays and the fire fell he prays and the people fell he prays and the rain fell wouldn't you like him for a deacon in your church the hand of the Lord was on Elijah remember before it was the word of the Lord now the hand of the Lord and he gutted up his lungs and he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jesus wouldn't that have been something the king's been living off the hog the king has a beautiful chariot and here's a guy who's only had two meals a day for over three and a half years nicking out street the big fast horses if that isn't supernatural life what is you know we've got lots of Ahabs today but we're pretty short of Elijah's maybe you should turn the question now around not where is the Lord God of Elijah but where are the Elijah's of God do you think you're prepared to hear God's voice say look whether you're teaching here or a student and the Lord say listen I want you to get out of the crowd and go find a cave and stay in it for three and a half years till they hear my voice and then you come up and stand before kings and rulers I say this in all due respect you know it's not very difficult to make records and stir people it's not very difficult to make books I can write books but tell me where is the man who can bring fire from heaven today anybody will buy our records almost every day people write are you writing another book are you going to give us a book on the judgment seat are you going to give us a book on worship that doesn't take much moral courage to sit in a swivel chair and reach for my Bible and look through some references and find a lot of things come crowding into my mind but what if I meet Ahab in the way you say we've no groves to Ashcroft what about the Roman Catholic Church we have no false priests what about Mormonism what about Jehovah's Witnesses we've more false priests in this country or England today than these guys have anything about they tell me that out at Berkeley there there's a guru who goes out on the lawn there every lunch time and gathers two thousand students round him come and sit round us for a year and listen how is it men with unbelief and air heresy can magnetize crowds and we with the truth of the living God can't Paul says my preaching is not in word only much of ours is but in power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost there's nothing pleases me more than when I've preached and somebody says as one lady did I thought I said to my wife sweetheart this lady that's looking round the tables in this nice lovely lady I've seen her face somewhere so she came up and said good evening I said good evening and would you like to select something I never eat before preaching I eat afterwards pretty well and I've seen you before she said yes I should think you have I said what do you mean I got off from work five nights in a row I sat under your nose down in the Baptist church there and I haven't slept a wink for the last five nights I said praise the Lord what do you mean praise the Lord are you praising the Lord I haven't slept for five nights I said yes anybody else ever keep you awake for five nights no I said well that's one up for me anyhow I can't sleep I think of the judgment seat I think of eternity I think of my missed opportunities I think of the vows I made I haven't kept I think of the altars I once built but you see we mistake building an altar it may cost you a lot of work I think all those priests are very happy ridiculing and saying silly old guy what does he think he's going to do you see we get the idea if you build an altar that God's going to send fire God never sent fire on an altar yet and he never will he sends fire on the sacrifice not on the altar that's why I say you present your body a living sacrifice in the Old Testament they were dead sacrifices you and I are living sacrifices or should be we've all our faculties he can cleanse us and endure us and fill us and send us out look I'm going to say in my judgment this man Bonkey is a modern prophet but you know we need a prophet in every pulpit in the land today if Elijah got on CBS one Sunday morning do you think he'd get on next Sunday morning do you think he'd get through the first Sunday morning they'd switch him off halfway he'd only give out his text and start breathing fire from heaven everybody switched the TV off thinking it was going to explode or something I've been praying that God would make this term here and I won't do much teaching I don't think I'm praying he'll make it the most unusual term or you don't call it a term here what do you call it a term and my dear friend here is starting a Bible Institute in Oylton what a place you might as well start one in a desert I think is Oylton speaking naturally I've often wondered why they call the three wise men there's no proof there were three any kind of it three kinds of gifts there may have been 33 but the wise men what did they follow what a star science where did they land up was Jesus there no he wasn't in Jerusalem where was he he's in a village seven miles outside of the city of King oh they were sure he would be born in the city of David the king as they thought and he's born in a little place called Oylton if you like seven miles away from the main city you know science is still getting lost reading stars and what have you got I was praying the other morning about three o'clock for Oylton as they start this school if it's going to be like any others you shouldn't get headaches over it pack it up and close it nail it up when you go home I'll help you I'm going up to Oylton tomorrow I'll help you to nail it up if this is going to be another class like last class or last year why have it I mean come on face it there has to be a breakthrough somewhere I used to have a sign I used to take it and hang it churches didn't like it if not here where if not now when if not us who what's that for revival hang it on the pulpit if not here where if not now when if not us who what's the good of praying that the fire will fall on O.R.U. don't mention my name when you mention that well we've got some O.R.U. students here tonight yes good how many one two three five young people driven five hours to this prayer meeting that Sunday and they drive five hours to go back Bill stand up a minute you're not so big but let them see you this is a pastor from Oylton so there are the young folk from O.R.U. and maybe they'll come along and see you there but look let me wind it up I'm deeply deeply disturbed about the condition of the church what you need to read into this story Elijah when you read it he was threatened the whole time he started speaking to the end he was threatened by death when Jezebel wasn't after him Ahab was after him when Ahab wasn't after him the false prophets were after him when they weren't after him fifty people at once come after him then another fifty then another fifty anybody who hadn't heard the voice of God could never put up to that come on you youngsters what are you going to walk into the greatest hell this world has ever known America could be on fire from one coast to another with a blazing I was going to say incurable but indestructible atomic war there's no answer to it I don't want the folk in the world to panic stricken about it they have no hope I think they're more realistic than many Christians look either we're going to have an atomic fire or we're going to have a holy ghost fire settle for one or the other either we're going to have a holy ghost fire or this generation is going to hell fire now where are the men who are going to bring the fire down from heaven they don't sit in committee meetings I don't read that Elijah said well I've got a promising young student by the name of Elisha I'm going to have a day off and talk with him he didn't go to what elders there were in Israel either Elisha again didn't say oh God of Abraham God of Moses who split the waters and divided the Red Sea oh that's dusty history he said but I've been living with a man Elisha and when that man stood King's tremble when that man spoke the dead were raised he's going to have to come back to this and I'm going to tell you if I come Friday after Friday which I hope I'll have strength to do we're going to get deeper in the things of God this winter than ever and it may cost you some tears it cost me I preached was it in this hall I preached before oh the other one preached one Thursday night from Philippians 2 5 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering not suffering for him but suffering with him and I know and the difference is this immediately Paul was called Saul and he was called to preach and I says go and tell him what great things he must suffer for my name and he didn't suffer he was whipped and he was stuck but that's not the fellowship of his suffering the fellowship of his suffering is this that every time Jesus turned he suffered if he saw a paralytic he suffered if he saw a dead a corpse he suffered if he saw somebody demon possesses if he looked at the temple that had lost its glory and the priests were going through the ritual he suffered and while I was preaching I was saying under my breath Lord don't let me die in this pulpit I'll never know the agony of a woman in travail with a child but I knew it that night and I said Lord don't let me die here in two days after I had a stroke and a pretty severe one and I believe it began in this hall while I was preaching that night I felt the birth pangs I felt the suffering of Christ now if you want to grow old quickly get a prayer life don't ever measure you don't ever trust in your experiences it's a dangerous thing when we try and prove our experiences as a source of our strength the only strength we have is in the word of God in the obedience to the spirit of God but I'm quite sure of this God is going to show our generation we're at the point of bankruptcy we can't turn round as a nation you can have your moral majority if you like they never worked anyhow if you think I'm wrong that's obedient how did he get on with a moral majority why didn't Jesus wait for the 500 brethren that saw him at once together only 120 came out of 500 brethren 380 of them never turned up it's like that look if you're determined to be more than somebody with the knowledge of God but real experience of him you better get ready to walk alone be quiet let other people throw rocks at you it's easy to accept the contradiction of sinners it's when you get the contradiction of saints it hurts when people who profess to be spiritual try and weigh you down because you're praying more or fasting more or doing something else more Elijah wasn't born in a day for sure he had to have years of quietness and then out of that he had to come and publicly say that faith and courage that God had been building into him for those three and a half years alone but boy the nation soon knew when he came and the same with Elijah let a prophet of God arise in the true sense of the word he won't need any advertising plans he won't need to get on public TV the magnetism is the abiding presence and power of God well I've overstated my time tonight it's the first time I've been out of my bed for months actually really first meeting I've been in for months so I'm a bit longer than usual but anyhow I'm not going to ask you to dig up your dirty past I'm going to ask you this if you could remember an altar you built and that altar's broken down a vow you made about prayer a vow you made about sacrifice if you built an altar and that altar's broken down tonight your life your prayer life's broken down your private Bible study's broken down or some other thing I'm going to ask you to stand up and confess it and say Lord my altar's broken down but here by faith I rebuild it tonight and in your presence I'll keep my vow forgive me where I failed and from here let me continue in this vow that I make now to keep my prayer life in order or my devotional life in order or I'll go back and straighten out what was wrong and I've let natural affection get in the way of my spiritual affection if need be I'll postpone my marriage whatever the thing is the Lord's laid on your heart be a good thing to start this first Friday night and get things cleared up for the days that lie ahead so I'm going to give you two or three moments of quietness to do that and I'm going to wind up the service so if you want to straighten it up you stand up and straighten it up with the Lord