Elijah

1 Kings chapter 17, verse 1 please, And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be June or rain these years, but according to my word. Tremendous message. Where did he get that from? Well now, one day at home he was reading his Bible, the scroll, and he was reading round about what we would call Deuteronomy 11, verse 16.

And he read that if the people departed from God, then God would shut the heavens, no rain. Then he got down on his knees and he prayed. See, how do you know that? It's not there.

That's right. We have to wait centuries for James to tell us about this first prayer. Would you mind turning a moment please to James 5? For I would like to expound the context now.

This is, this is, it's an aside, but it's part of the thing. You've got the situation, haven't you? Ahab and Jezebel are raining. The altars of Baal are up and the altar of God is down.

You'll notice in verse 17 of James 5, his first prayer, Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. And it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. That's good.

That gives us an insight into 1st Kings 17. But why is it introduced here? This is the passage that deals with the prayer of faith that saves the sick. Would you allow me very simply, briefly to expound what the passage means? Drop your eye please to verse 14.

Is there any sick among you? Now he says, let him call for the elders of the church. Why the elders? Why not call for a doctor? That'd be wise, wouldn't it? Why not call for an apostle? Well, you say there might not be one available. All right.

Why not call for one of the brethren with the gift of healing? For there were many in those days. Why didn't he call for a brother with the gift of healing? Again, why call for the elders who as a body had never received the gift of healing? Now, these things should immediately tell you that he bypassed all the others and called for the elders because this was a spiritual problem that needed to be dealt with. So he called for the body of the elders.

Isn't that right? And they came to the house. So it's not a public prayer meeting, faith healing meeting. There aren't any in the Bible.

You wouldn't think that, you know, that what goes on all around us. This has nothing at all to do with public. Big faith healing meetings and if you don't get cured, it's your fault because you haven't the faith.

Oh no, this is a private meeting in a home where a believer sends for them. Now watch what it says. Read it carefully.

Let them pray over him having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. So they anointed him with oil and then they prayed. No laying on of hands as such.

The way the Bible ideas is all different from what you hear about outside. Now, look again now please, will you? And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. No doubt about it.

This man will rise. The Lord shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.

Why is that introduced? Now what I'm trying to go over to you, and I'll prove it, that this man was on his back because he had committed sin. And that little word if upon which so much has been built is at least three times in John's Gospel in a similar word construction translated though. Though he have committed sins.

Now just you hold that for a moment. This man has committed sins and on his back he recognizes that and he sends for the elders. That's his trouble.

It's a physical trouble coming from a spiritual trouble. Now, so there now in the rendering it's sin. Now look at verse 16.

Now please accept my word for this again please in relation to critical translations. And if you happen to have a Greek New Testament with English below it, it would be a big help to you. It should read like this.

Confess therefore your faults. The word therefore throws you back to the man. Confess therefore your faults.

That's what the man did when the elders came. He confessed his faults. Got that? Now please come down now to verse 17 for a moment.

Why introduce Elijah into the picture? Come on now. Why not introduce Moses? Or Samuel? Or David? Or Daniel? Or Ezekiel? Why introduce Elijah? The reason for that was this. That when Elijah prayed that first time, he prayed in relation to a nation that had sinned and was under the government of God.

Isn't that right? Israel, the rain, yes he prayed. And he stopped the rain and evidence that they had sinned and were under the government of God. He'll pray again the second time.

Isn't that right? James 5, verse 18, he prayed again. And the second prayer answers to the prayer of the elders here. So you've got the idea now.

It's sin that's laid the man aside. And he calls, now it's a good job that you're all here today. Not just to hear me.

No, I don't mean that. But it's a good job you're here to hear me expounding this passage in a normal situation. And there's no pressures on us.

It's good to get the meaning of a passage normally. In case someday Mrs. Brown knocks at the door of one of the elders and says, John's taken badly and we've read James 5 and we think you should come down and anoint him. So if Mrs. Brown's here today, you know, or Mr. Brown, and you're listening to me, you'll understand the meaning of the passage now, won't you? And if per chance it happened to you that maybe Mr. and Mrs. Brown unfortunately are not here today, and it comes next week and they knock at your door, and she's in a queer old state, that's not the time to say, now listen, I want to expound the passage.

You'd better go down and pray with her, with her husband. But tell her, you see, tell her now, we don't think that applies here, but we'll come and pray. You see, if this was general teaching, that when you took sick you called for the elders and they prayed over you and healed you, well that's all right, you'd never die.

Unless you're suddenly knocked down by a bus. Or run over by a car seriously and you're out. Oh no.

This is an exceptional case. Now back again now, please, will you? Verse 15, the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up. Definite.

Now please, listen, now please, listen to me, and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not being supercritical or a bit cynical. Don't pay too much attention to a lot of commentaries. They all come up with the same old idea that's not in the passage.

Well, prayer is subject to the will of God, so they prayed and the Lord willed that the man would be raised, and that's a lot of rubbish. There's nothing like that in the passage at all. The passage says that the man sent for them, they came and they anointed him with oil, they prayed over him, and the prayer of faith, the prayer of the elders, nothing to do with the patient, the prayer of the elders saved the sick by the Lord raising him up.

The Lord will raise him up, no doubt about it, he'll get up, he'll be better, he'll be completely cured like the folks in the Gospels. Now that's the description. One of the most wicked unions, Ahab was an evil king, did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to sin than all the kings that were before him.

Yes, added to that, he took to wife Jezebel, the Zidonian princess, and idolatry was introduced into the kingdom, the northern kingdom. Later on, their daughter will introduce it to the southern kingdom. Have you got that? And if you had been in Israel then, with all the altars down, and the altars of Baal up, you would have thought that God was dead.

And suddenly and unexpectedly Elijah appears. Like Melchizedek, there's no reference to his birth or to his death. Just as suddenly he'll disappear, whirlwind and chariot of fire to take him upwards to the glory.

Who is a man of God, prophet of fire, introduced for the moment. Yes, he's not teaching any new doctrine, he's calling them back to the original law of God. He's calling them back to reformation.

If you'll allow me please, he was the first protestant. He's protesting, protesting, calling them back in the name of God. That's it.

Do you remember in 2nd Chronicles, yonder, there were days of Israel when they were without the true God, without a teaching priest and without law. See the teaching priest standing between God and the law to expound it to the people. That's it.

That's our dignity, that's our glory. I stand here today in Toronto, the servant of God, the minister of Jesus Christ, and I raise my voice in protest at the departure from the ways of God. And call you back.

Call you back to what the old time prophet called the old paths. Back to the original and primitive revelation of God. Come to teach you the word of God whether it squares with accepted practice or not.

Yes, yonder he was. How did he come to it? He was reading his Bible one day. Stop.

Have you read your Bible today? Come on. Come on now. Have you read your Bible today? There's no one of you here so spiritual that you can leave the house any morning without reading.

Now if you're doing it, you're coasting. You're beginning to backslide. You haven't got that.

You young folks, listen to me. Read your own Bible. Get to know your own God.

Carry your Bible with you. Don't come along here without one and share it with somebody else. Read your own Bible.

Let it become the book to which you turn. It will give you guidance and direction. It will open your eyes.

Open this young man's eyes. He's unknown. Isn't that right? God is bypassing what we would call accredited brethren.

He's bypassing well-known prophets of that day. And he's taking up a young man, unrecognized, unheralded and unsung. Maybe there's one here today and God's got his eye upon you.

And he'll raise you up to declare the truth of God as he raised this young man up. He read his Bible and he got down on his knees and he prayed. What was he praying for? Shut the heavens, Lord.

Oh no, shut the heavens. My, you know, it's a good job he didn't consult with any of his brethren. Now that's right.

I would never allow anyone to intrude when it comes to messages from God. I'm not, now please, I'm not speaking discourteously. I'm not interested in what they think.

You see, they would have said to Elijah, you can't do that, Elijah. What about the women? What about the children? What about the barrens? You can't go like that. You can't bring God's government on us.

And it would be a lot worse if they'd known that God was going to provide for him on his own. Oh no. Oh no.

Oh, you can't do that. Oh no. You know, we don't like the medicine.

It's sour. Just let the cancer carry on. Give us smooth words and fair speeches that won't disturb anybody.

Have you got it? Yonder in the sanctuary of God, with the light of the eternal playing upon him, he got the word from God. And he prayed. Now you might have thought if it was you, you'd done a good job.

Then God says, listen Elijah, away you go and tell Ahab. Oh no. Elijah, away you go and tell Ahab.

You're no armchair prophet, you know. You're not lying back with your feet up here. And all these things, you know, you like them in your mind and you get down on your knees.

Away you go and tell Ahab. And I can see him, starting his journey for the royal court. Ahab and Jezebel.

Aye? I wonder how he felt. Will I tell you? He felt the same as Moses felt when he was told to go to Pharaoh. That's how he felt.

I'll tell you something. This is no easy matter. I think it was our young brother Gene Higgins said, he says, I feel lonely up here.

Spoke to him at the back of the hall. He says, I don't know, he says, there was something about it, I was lonely. So what do you expect? I tell you, this is a lonely place.

When any man with a message of God gets it from God and stands on his feet to declare it, standing alone in fellowship with God to declare the word of God in all its wonder and glory, in all its excellence and fullness, in all its simplicity, in all its culture and glory. It's a lonely place up here. I don't know why there's so many of you so anxious about a platform.

There's prices to be paid. And he arrives at the court. Now look again, please, will you, at verse 1. The messenger of God.

The messenger of God. He's got a message from God. Are you listening to me? The message in our version was 25 words, not 25 minutes.

25 words. And he got it from God. I was on, I was talking to you the other day, wasn't it? You remember when I spoke in Simeon about a man going to the Spirit of God for his message? This man went to the word of God.

You see, we're depending on the Spirit of God and the word of God. It's a great thing, brethren, to stand up with a message from God when it's burning in your soul and you're longing to declare it. And you're longing to declare it.

Well, you've heard otherwise, haven't you? Say, isn't that right? And they've been on their feet for 30, 40 minutes. And they weren't on their feet five minutes until they knew it wasn't the message, and so did the audience. Terrible experience.

Oh, brethren, my public men, keep near to God. Keep near to God. Wait upon God.

Bring the message that God gives you. Here's the message. 25 words.

As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my work. To this man God was living, God was alive. Is that right? Tell me, what kind of God have you got? Now, be honest.

As the Lord God of Israel liveth. You see, this man was out and out apostate. This man was acting as though God was dead, with a woman energizing him.

As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand. Oh, this is tremendous. Hey, here's a man in two places at the one time.

He's standing before Ahab and he's standing before God. Isn't that right? Nehemiah 2, the same. Standing before the king in those days again, Nehemiah, the king says, for what dost thou make request? Listen now, listen now.

So, Nehemiah tells us. He says, I prayed to the God of heaven and I said unto the king. In that split moment, he raised his voice and winged his prayer to the sapphire throne.

He was before God, yet he was before the king. That's it. I want to tell you, there are situations in life that you'll not have time to get down on your knees.

And God help you if you're out of touch and can't get through in a hurry. Here's a man who says, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand. Brethren, he's in equality with Gabriel.

Gabriel says, I am Gabriel who stand in the presence of God. Oh, the dignity of this, its glory and its wonder. There shall not be ewe nor rain these years, but according to my word.

How's that for dictation? According to my word. You see, the servant's wrapped up in the message. Paul talks about my gospel.

Ah, brethren, for this day, it's my message. It could be years hereafter if you like, and it ain't copyright. But it's mine today.

He was Elijah's on his day. He stood as representing deity. He was God's representative.

Yes, do you remember what God said to Moses? I will make thee God to Pharaoh. Maybe you didn't appreciate what I said up here the first time I got up on my feet. Any impressions any of us would make on you would be the measure in which God is in us.

Would be the sense of God that we bring to you. We represent deity. We don't represent the brethren.

We don't serve the brethren. Now please, we're not your servants. We're the servants of God.

We're happy to serve you. More than happy, we serve God. Now you be clear on that.

And we bring the word of God to you. There shall not be June or rain these years, but according to my word. Well, you know, sometimes I get a wee bit frustrated reading my Bible.

Do you find that? For instance, sick cases like this frustrate me. For the next thing I read was this, is this, that. The word of the Lord came unto him saying, get out.

And I'm frustrated. I'm always telling you folks, Elizabeth, when I get to heaven, the folks I'm going to talk to. I'm going to get a whole day of Elijah to tell me how he got out.

How in the name of God did he get out of that court? He is the king of all the most pure countries for. I want to tell you something. The man that gives you the message will save you from your brethren.

The God that gives you the message will protect you. He delivered the message. Ahab can be enemy or no enemy.

God will look after him. That's good. Now, drop your eye now to verse 2 and the word of the Lord came unto him saying, isn't that right? Further down in verse 8, the word of the Lord came to him.

Isn't that right? Verse 2, the word of the Lord came unto him. That's it. You see, this is the way of things.

You read your Bible and you do it. Do what the Bible says, no matter the consequences. Supposing you don't know the consequences, you do what the Bible says.

And keep on reading it and you'll get your answer. The word of the Lord came to him the second time. Watch what it says.

Get thee hens, turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan. Shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. That's the message.

Got it? Now, please, let me leave a textual exposition now, please, to help you. Get thee hens, separation. Turn thee eastward, direction.

Hide thyself, obscurity. By the brook Cherith, the place. That is before Jordan, the explanation of the place.

Shall be thou shalt drink of the brook, refreshment. Behold, I have commanded the decree of God, the ravens the messengers of God, to feed thee the provision of God, there the place of God. Got that? It's quite easy.

It'll come back to you as you read it. It'll come again. Get thee hens, separation.

Aye, you see, it's getting dismissed and dismissed quickly, that's right. God can't afford us to be in the spotlight too much. That's why servants should spend a long time with God, far more than they do publicly in their preaching.

Get thee hens, separation. You can give the messages to people like this who have departed, don't stay to enjoy their company. Have you got that? You can't rebuke people and continue in their company, for the rebuke means that they're out of touch with God.

Get thee hens, watch now, this is interesting, turn thee eastward. You see, when God sent to Elijah, get thee hens, he might have said, oh it's all over, it's all over, that's it. Mind you, he wouldn't be the first man that God took up and used and you're about to hear of him again.

But watch what he says. Get thee hens, turn thee eastward. Oh, I like that.

Boy, that's good. That's encouraging to me. You say, well, I don't know, but let me tell you.

Now listen to me. Get thee hens. Now what he didn't say, he didn't say turn thee northward, where the fierce winds of persecution will afflict your soul.

He didn't say turn northward to the icy blasts, where everything will be difficult and uncomfortable. No, he never said that. Good, that's that out of the way anyway.

All right now, he didn't say get thee southward, the southern call, to the balmy sun of Florida, down where it's all lovely and comfortable and sunny and everything's so pleasant. No, he didn't say that either. Good, that's that out of the way.

Then he didn't say to him now, turn thee westward, where the sun will set upon your life. You've done what I wanted you to do. I'm quite happy about that.

Just you turn westward, right out into the sunset. Cheerio. He didn't say that either.

We'll get rid of that now. Watch now. Get thee hence, turn thee eastward, to the dawn of a new day.

Get thee eastward, look toward the rising sun, for there are other chapters in the book. Oh, that's right, life's like a book. One chapter's open and then it closes and another opens.

Turn eastward. There are days before you, though the days of education prepare you for bigger things. Get thee hence, turn eastward and hide thyself, get out of sight somewhere.

Come apart and rest awhile, says the Saviour. Hide thyself by the brook, cherished. Not a river, not a river, a brook.

For thou shalt drink of the brook, refreshment, water. You could go without food for a long time, but not without water. Water's secure.

I have commanded the decree of God. I have commanded the ravens, the messengers of God, to feed the provision of God, to provide thee the servant of God. There, the place divinely appointed.

So he's sure. Now listen to me now, please. The man that God calls and the man that gives the message that God gives him, is the man that God will preserve and protect and provide for.

I have commanded the ravens. Now I'll come back to that. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord.

Isn't that right? Verse 5. And he went and dwelt by the brook, cherished, days before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drank of the brook. That became his lifestyle.

Simple, sufficient. I want you first of all to draw your attention to the messengers, the ravens. They're going to bring him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening.

He's better fed than Israel. They only get bread in the morning and flesh at night. He'll get bread and flesh in the morning, bread and flesh at night.

Oh now, God can spread a good table. A table in the wilderness. He'll wander alone with God in the stillness of the day and the night bears in upon his soul.

He'll wait God's time. And I'll command the ravens that normally would consume bread and flesh, they'll bring it and they won't consume it. The nation may be disobedient but the ravens will be obedient.

Isn't that right? Isn't that what your Bible teaches? Come on now. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib but my people doth not know. Jonah will be disobedient and the fish will swallow him but the fish will vomit him up again.

The fish will be obedient while Jonah's not. Jeremiah 8 verse 10, the stork in the heavens knoweth their appointed time, the crane, the swallow and the turtle dove. Observe the time of their coming but my people knoweth not the judgment of God.

The folks in the land will be disobedient and ultimately murder Christ but the unbroken cause will carry Christ into the city. There they are. You know this is amazing, this provision.

You see, supposing God had provided humans to do it, sooner or later somebody would have seen them going morning and evening. I'm not saying God found them after a bit but they were more likely to be seen. But tell me, who would have taken any notice of a number of ravens coming over? And if they saw anything in their mouth, they'd think they were going to feed their young.

And sort of, oh, it must have been wonderful. You know, I get envious. No doubt about it, I'm envious of these men.

I'm envious of men like Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I'm envious of Paul and John. I'm envious of Luther.

Oh, I'd have given everything to stand beside Luther. The day that he nailed his thesis to the door and proclaimed the truth of justification by faith and lit a light in Europe that hasn't really gone out. You see, I don't know so much.

Well, now, I know that much. You know, mind you, I'd have stood beside Martin. Mind you, I couldn't have done very much but I could always have said, Martin, I'm here.

I'd be quite happy to stand beside him. And there he was, morning and evening he waited. And sure enough, suddenly away in the sky they came.

Black-coated waiters. Ravens. Black-coated waiters.

Coming morning and evening. Fed miraculously. I tell you, that day when he read his Bible and dropped on his knees and decided to do what God said, he never ever thought it would work out like this, but that's how it worked out.

There are experiences of God in which you will prove the majesty and mystery and miraculousness of deity. And you'll use the most unlikely creatures to meet your need. That's right.

When he's asked to leave here, do you know who he's going to provide for him? A widow. The Bible doesn't say that, does it? You read it carefully? It says a widow woman. To emphasize the weakness of the vessel.

And a Gentile at that. Outside the land. And God will say, there's a widow there who sustained me.

A widow. I tell you, Elijah's manly instincts were outraged. A widow should do it.

A woman. I tell you, his religious weak instincts were outraged. A Gentile widow.

And I tell you, the whole of the man's natural feelings were outraged. For the widow stayed inside the hotbed of Baalism where Lady Jezebel came from. Oh yes.

Have you got it? So am I getting through to you? Do you understand me? What am I saying gets through? For I'm just in the verge of sitting down. I want to ask you something. Would you be God's man? Would you be God's woman? The widow is there.

Oh, what this man will learn. You talk about education as he sits alone with the ravens at the brook. What education he gets is that he'll sit with the widow, with the island.

Isn't that right? And in the midst of it all, he's there. And he's told. Now there it is.

The barrel of mail. Mind you, I never drew any more than that. I never stood up than that.

The cruise of oil. I went down. Oh, what lessons he learned as he stood by the widow, beside a dead boy about to raise her to life.

Oh, what education. What education yonder as he stood upon the mountain to fight the prophets of Baal. I love to preach in First Kings A.D. Oh, what he learned yonder under the juniper tree.

He wants to die and he'll never die. Moses wanted to live and he'll die. God's ways are not ours.

He'll take you the very opposite way to which you want to go. Now that's the path of faith. He'll take you along the road you don't want to travel.

And he'll provide for you in a wonderful way if you'll just allow him. Oh, we're back now, aren't we? You see, you remember this now, don't you? We're on about this walking by faith and not by sight. Can you see strands of truth running through all the ministry? We're called for today.

Oh, I know what you're saying. You've no right to be envious of Paul, envious of Elijah, envious of Luther. I know this is the day.

He's called us. Some of us have been called to preach in, what, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, into the 90s now. How long, I don't know.

But this is our hour. This is our day. We must grasp it fully.

And you young folks getting up there, it's high time that you're beginning to read your Bibles. You're in your middle 20s. You should be taking part in the gatherings.

You should be encouraging the Lord's people. You should be giving your time to the service of God. God never intended you to give 16 to 20 hours a day for your secular employer or for yourself.

Nothing would ever be done. God's calling. Be content with a thousand or two dollars a year less and make time to serve God, for Christ is coming.

And standing before him, we all want him to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. Oh, brethren, the opportunities. And here we stand before you.

As far as this conference is concerned now, it's just about over. Privileged to come many times to Toronto. In the name of God, thank you.

You might never see me or hear me again. Man of destiny. Like every true servant of God, our times are in thy hand.

We wouldn't have them anywhere else. Content to live and serve, content to serve and if need be die. In the end, it will be the same presence, the same Christ, the same sanctuary that one day will enter into in all its fullness.

Savior, thy dying love thou gavest me. Nor should I ought withhold my Lord from thee. In love my soul would bow.

My heart fulfill its vow. Some offering bring thee now. Something, something, something for thee.

Thank you.