The Brook Dried Up

In this part of the sermon: Martin focuses on 1 Kings 17:7, 'the brook dried up,' explaining that this was a gradual process, not a sudden miracle. He highlights that God worked through 'second causes' (the…

Martin uses the visual of rocks in the Rockaway River drying out and bleaching as the water level drops to help the audience visualize the gradual process of the brook Cherith drying up for Elijah.

Here you've gone in obedience to the revealed will of God and you've stood before a king and you've thrown down the gauntlet and said, no dew nor rain but according to my word. And while the king is still reeling with this pronouncement of this strange, hairy, ruddy, rugged fellow, he turns on his heel and the direction comes, hide thyself by the brook. I'll feed you with the ravens, you will drink of the brook. Day by day the ravens come and day by day he drinks of the brook but after a few weeks he begins to notice something, that certain of the stones that once were dark and slimy as the wa...

7:41 - 8:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: it's a safe principle to assert that the greatest task God has in getting his work done is in preparing vessels through whom he can do it

Examples of Moses (40 years in wilderness), Joseph (dungeon), Jesus (carpenter's shop), John the Baptist (wilderness), and Paul (Arabia) are used to illustrate God's long, seemingly inefficient process of preparing His chosen vessels.

God's great work is making great men and great women, not great in the eyes of the world, but great in his eyes, vessels through whom his purpose can be accomplished and that generally is a long process scripture teaches this again and again we look at the economy of God and we say it's full of waste Moses at the prime of life forty years of age and all the influence and learning of Egypt behind him and the zeal and fervor and drive of his youth and God buries him in a wilderness, buries him in a wilderness years. Joseph, he sticks him down in a dungeon. His own son, he obscures him in a carpe...

10:52 - 11:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Fathers should not leave a job God has led them to solely for more lucrative opportunities if it means sacrificing spiritual feeding or ministry contacts, without clear divine leading.

A story of a son who waited eight hours by a bridge because his father commanded him to, even after being forgotten, illustrates the highest form of obedience: waiting faithfully at one's post despite suffering or delay, bound by a word of authority.

There's a very touching story in one of the books on the life of Elijah. Speaks of a British general who had some business to do in London. And he told his son to stay by the bridge while he went and did certain business. Well after he did that business he had other business that came to mind. He forgot all about his son. Eight hours later he was home. And his wife said dear where's our boy? He said oh I've completely forgotten.

24:44 - 25:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Embrace God's judgments upon our nation (e.g., withholding common grace, economic instability, societal decay) for our good, seeing them as opportunities to prove God's faithfulness.

Examples of hail storms, earthquakes, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are used to illustrate various forms of God's judgment, both cataclysmic and gradual, on nations.

God's judgment may come as it did in times in Israel in sending hail storms to destroy a crop. Sometimes it came as here by withholding rain so that there'd be no crop. One was a cataclysmic judgment. The other was a gradual judgment. Both had the same end. No crop. Sometimes God judges a nation by sending earthquakes that swallow up thousands in a moment of time. Sometimes by sending fire and brimstone as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah.

30:55 - 31:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Embrace God's judgments upon our nation (e.g., withholding common grace, economic instability, societal decay) for our good, seeing them as opportunities to prove God's faithfulness.

The withholding of wisdom from national leadership, the decline of the education system (once rooted in biblical principles), and the 'sexual revolution' are cited as examples of God's judgment on the nation through the withdrawal of common grace.

God's judgments may yet come to that upon our own nation but right now God's judgment is upon our nation by the withholding of much common grace. He's taken away wisdom from our national leadership as we read in the book of Job they stagger to and fro like drunken men. The wise men of the earth they know not which way to turn. That's the judgment of God. He's withheld wisdom from our states who face the problems of society and of the world and they have no answers. They may mouth answers but down underneath they have no answers and many of them know it. He's withdrawn common grace in the realm...

31:27 - 32:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Embrace God's judgments upon our nation (e.g., withholding common grace, economic instability, societal decay) for our good, seeing them as opportunities to prove God's faithfulness.

The spiraling inflationary economy, driven by covetousness and strikes for higher wages, is presented as an example of God's judgment through economic instability, which believers also feel.

This is the drying brook because there's no rain in the land. But now the difference is where this creates frustration and resentment in sinful men. As God's people we can embrace even his judgments upon our nation for our good. Let me illustrate. What is behind the spiraling inflationary economy? One word. Covetousness. Right?

32:50 - 33:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not complain or grumble about economic instability or higher taxes like the world does, but embrace these as opportunities to prove God while the stream dries up.

Higher taxes and the problems arising from government paternalism (graft, inefficiency) are presented as part of God's judgment on a nation that has rejected biblical concepts of poverty and labor.

Higher taxes. Part of God's judgment upon our nation for throwing out the biblical concept that poverty in itself is not an evil. That God has ordained that men rise economically by the labor of their own hands. Part of the problem we face has come about this is just a matter of political history by the paternalism of government projects which always soak up more money in graft and the rest and they get down to the grassroots where people need it and all the rest.

33:54 - 34:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Justify bringing children into the world in a wicked generation, recognizing that 'where sin abounds, grace does much more about it,' and godly children are a powerful testimony.

The thriving Church in Vietnam amidst the ravages of war (a judgment of God) is used as a powerful example of believers embracing God's judgments and proving His faithfulness, leading to spiritual growth and evangelism.

And they give us the opportunity of proving the faithfulness of God in the midst of it. How wonderfully this has been demonstrated there in Vietnam. In one way or another, war is an evidence of the judgment of God. And when you read the reports of what's happening to the Church of Christ in Vietnam, it's absolutely thrilling.

35:52 - 36:11 Read in full sermon