What Doest Thou Here?

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the third principle: God giving Elijah an unusual token of His presence and power by sustaining him for forty days on one meal for his journey to Horeb, even in…

Elijah's forty-day journey through the wilderness is paralleled with Israel's forty years of wandering, suggesting a connection to God's patience and grace.

You're here on your own charge. But in either case, he has this journey before him that normally should only take three or four days. But it's a journey that's going to take him forty days. And he's going to cover the very area where the children of God, the children of Israel, wandered in the wilderness and where God so wonderfully displayed his patience and his grace to them for forty years. Now, God says, arise and eat, because the journey is too

6:53 - 7:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the third principle: God giving Elijah an unusual token of His presence and power by sustaining him for forty days on one meal for his journey to Horeb, even in…

Recalls Elijah's previous feat of running 18-20 miles before Ahab's chariot, empowered by God, to show a prior experience of divine enablement similar to his forty-day sustenance.

18th chapter closed with the prophet running before the chariot of Ahab in the strength and power of God for a distance of 18 to 20 miles. Verse 46 of chapter 18, the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Here he's conscious of the unusual presence and power of the Lord resting upon him, enabling him to accomplish this great feat of a marathon race in the midst of a blinding thunderstorm, keeping up with the steeds of the king. Now the same prophet experiences

8:03 - 8:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I would suggest to you that what he's doing is this. He is probing his conscience to self-reflection.

Elijah's state of grief and disappointment is likened to a drunken man, reeling to and fro without spiritual wisdom, to emphasize his disorientation.

He had been so immersed in the grief and disappointment, dejection, loneliness, unbelief, blurred spiritual vision, that he was almost like a drunken man, just reeling to and fro, going here, going there, moving from place to place, but not really gathering about him his spiritual wisdom. And so the Lord, first of all, rests him, assures him of his love and his presence, and now he begins to zero in to the real issue and forces the prophet through self-reflection to begin to face his true spiritual condition. If God had asked that question at any other time prior to this instance,

14:10 - 14:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin applies God's question to the congregation, emphasizing that serious self-reflection in light of God's Word is the first step to restored fellowship, citing examples like…

The prodigal son's 'coming to himself' is used as an illustration of the kind of self-reflection that leads to repentance and restoration.

The psalmist says in Psalm 119, verse 59, I fought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy statutes. The first indication of a return back to the presence of the Father and the fellowship of the Father in the instant, of the prodigal son is recorded in Luke 15 are these words and he came to himself you see there was this kind of reflection that finally brought everything into proper perspective and he saw what a fool he had been in Revelation 2 5 and in 3 3 God says to the church remember from whence thou art fallen remember and

17:57 - 18:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Reflect on why your heart's holy love for Christ and holy things may have waned.

Compares a believer's past fervent love for Christ to a heart 'burning with holy love for holy things,' contrasting it with a present waning affection.

do the first words and oh that the spirit of God would speak these words in a way that I cannot speak them to some of you here tonight what doest thou hear some of you sit here tonight whose hearts once burned with holy love for holy things as much as Elijah was a man marked by his courageous outspoken defense of the truth that Jehovah is God so your life was once marked by genuine sincere simple fervent love for Jesus

18:41 - 19:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Reflect on what has brought you to a place of bondage to sin, ensnared in petty sins like jealousy, suspicion, skepticism, or cynicism.

Describes a past state of spiritual freedom and refreshing grace as 'flying like a bird,' contrasting it with a present 'bondage to sin'.

of you who knew what it was at one time to fly like a bird and to know something of the refreshing grace and strength of God, and now you find yourself in this place of bondage to sin. You find yourself ensnared in the pettiest kinds of sin. Once they were disgusting to you in yourself and in others, those subtle sins of jealousy and of suspicion and of skepticism, those sins of cynicism. What doest thou here? How did you come to this place? Again, was

21:20 - 22:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider how you arrived at a state of dejection, unbelief, and moroseness, having lost your holy scriptural optimism.

Illustrates past holy scriptural optimism as being able to 'see behind or beneath or through or above or around the black cloud to the sunlight of the face of God,' contrasting it with present dejection.

Once you were the mark of holy scriptural optimism. No matter how black things seemed to be, you were always able to see. You could see behind or beneath or through or above or around the black cloud to the sunlight of the face of God, and you knew that no matter how black things were to this eye, everything was all right behind that cloud, and anyone who got near you was always refreshed by that holy biblical optimism that marked your life. It's not that way anymore, is it? You're a constant picture of dejection and unbelief and moroseness. What doest thou

22:34 - 23:16 Read in full sermon