Elijah: The Man, Part 2

Introduction: Elijah as a Pattern of Christian Graces

0:02 And now, as yesterday morning, I shall read several verses from the Epistle of James as a background to what will be this morning the continuation and conclusion of yesterday morning's sermon. In James chapter 5 and verse 10, we, as the people of God, are commanded, take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake in the name of the Lord. Take, brethren, the prophets for an example. And then, as a specific application of that commandment, we are told in the latter part of verse 16 in the same chapter, the supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working. Elijah was a man. Not an angel, not a glorified saint, a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

1:23 Having examined the situation in which Elijah was called upon to live and to live, he said, I am not a saint. I am not a saint. I am not a minister in our first study. We turned yesterday to a consideration of Elijah, the man.

1:36 And using these two texts from the book of James as the exegetical or hermeneutical foundation for asserting the validity of setting Elijah as a valid pattern of Christian graces, we then proceeded to analyze this man, not in terms of his extraordinary grace, but in terms of his extraordinary office and the peculiar powers given to him by virtue of that office. But we were examining this man in terms of those graces that are common to all of the people of God. In other words, we were considering Elijah as a regenerate man, and the parallels there are to be found between his life and character as a regenerate man. And I am not a saint. Our lives as those who likewise have received of the grace of God. Now, because you are a relatively captive audience, and the leakage is nowhere near as great in a 24-hour period as it is in a seven-day period, my review of yesterday's material will be very brief.

The Formative Principle of Elijah's Character: 'Before Whom I Stand'

2:49 We first of all considered Elijah, the man, in terms of his name. And we saw that his name was both a declaration of his mission. and the explanation of his life. Then we began to consider in the second place Elijah the man in his character.

3:07 The formative principle of that character is found in the little phrase, The Lord God liveth before whom I stand. And the explanation of this unique man is to be found in that formative principle. All that he was as a man in his character can be traced to this perspective with which we are confronted in the opening words of 1st Kings 17, As the Lord God liveth before whom I stand. And then time ran out when we were considering under this general heading of his character not only the formative principle, but its predominant graces.

Godward Graces (Review)

3:49 What graces predominated in the life of this man? We looked at the Godward graces, his unquestioned obedience to the will of God, his implicit confidence in the word of God, his consuming zeal for the honor of God, and his great power in prevailing with God. That brought us to about 7 minutes after 12, and I should have had sense enough to quit at that point, but instead I tried to condense the first two of the manward graces into 7 minutes and failed at it. And so I'm backtracking to 12.07 yesterday morning, and we now begin our study in greater depth in this second basic area of the graces which characterize this man. Having looked at the Godward graces, or the graces that had more distinct reference to the first table of the law, we shall now contemplate the exemplary conduct of this man in terms of those graces which have a more peculiar reference on a horizontal plane, the manward graces. And the first of those graces, as we suggested yesterday morning, was that of boldness. Now I want us to look at some of the materials.

Manward Grace 1: Boldness

5:12 I just mentioned the references. We didn't read them, but I want you to see them for yourself and seek to feel something of the climate of this grace as it was operative in the life of Elijah. This grace is seen in the very introduction of the man in chapter 17 and verse 1. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead, said unto Ahab, and there's a real possibility that he was not even a Jew.

5:42 One preacher traced this out in great depth and came up with what to some was a very convincing argument that he may not have even been a native Jew. Well, be that as it may, he certainly has no credentials that cut mustard with a king. He's of the sojourners of Gilead. From a people of a rough and rugged background, he has nothing of the elegance of the court.

6:10 You'll remember later on in 2 Kings, a certain man is sent by a leader on a mission and the prophet Elijah stops him, delivers the message of God, and he comes back to his leader and tells the story. They say, what did he look like? And they said, and the Hebrew there is obscure, he is a hairy man or a man dressed in hair. But in other words, he was not a man who was found in the silks and satins and elegance of the court.

6:37 He was a rugged, sojourning man. And this man with no credentials to make him, as it were, acceptable in the very atmosphere of the court, stands in the presence of the king, and declares, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. There's no record that he introduced this with any of the courtesy normally due to the king. There's no indication that he even engaged in social niceties, which for the most part are perfectly proper for the people of God.

7:17 He is so consumed with this message from God, his spirit is so vexed within him at the wholesale abandonment to the worship of Baal, that it's as though he has within him the words of Elihu as recorded in the book of Job, my heart is like wineskins ready to burst. Or in the language of Jeremiah who said, I've had it every time I open my mouth, I'm put down, I'm abused, I'm not going to speak anymore in the name of my God. But he said, though I have problems speaking, I have a greater problem being silent. Thy word was in my heart as a fire shut up within my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay. Here's a man's heart utterly pregnant with the message of God. For according to James, he had been waiting upon God. The shutting up of the heavens was by human instrumentality, traced to the prayers of this man of God, as well as the opening of the heavens.

8:21 And boldness is the manward grace that marks him at his first introduction. And that boldness is carried on to a climactic expression upon Mount Carmel. Look at chapter 18, verses 17 through 21. And it came to pass that when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Is it thou, ruler of Israel, responsible for the parched earth and the cries of hungry little children and the distented tummies of those children who suffer from malnutrition? Are you the causers of mothers and fathers who in their destitution cannot provide for their own? Is it thou, ruler of Israel? And oh, how I love the boldness of the answer of the prophet.

9:22 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel. Ahab, your words find no lodgment in my conscience. I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed the Balaam. Thou therefore send and gather to me all Israel.

9:47 You see what he's saying to Ahab? Shut up with all these maladies and all of this foolishness about who is the trouble of Israel. I know and you know. God knows who the real trouble of Israel is and it's time for a showdown.

10:01 Now Ahab, you listen to me. Don't you feel something of the almost astounding boldness? Who is a prophet to command a king? Well, he is the one who stands before Jehovah, who speaks the word of Jehovah, who is in that sense the tangible representation of the authority and person, and person of Jehovah.

10:26 See, the boldness increased as we read in verse 27. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them. Here are the 450 prophets of Baal. And he said, Cry aloud, for he is a god.

10:42 That to shout a little louder, to break his reverie. You see, he's looking off at the stars and the clouds, and he's so preoccupied, he's daydreaming. Shout louder! Shout louder!

10:56 Maybe you can break the spell. He's musing, or he's gone aside, or he's on a journey. Maybe he packed his bags and went away for a conference for the weekend. Holler a little longer.

11:14 Do so, he'll return from his journey and listen to your puradventure. He sleepeth and must be awakened. You see, your god's a deep sleeper. You've been carrying on for hours here, and you haven't awakened him.

11:25 Maybe he's sleeping. So do you see the biting sarcasm, the boldness, the boldness to challenge these 450. Remember now, 450 people could get exasperated by language like this. And if you've got 450 people exasperated and only one man who's the exasperator, the gods are stacked against you.

11:50 450 prophets who've got knives in their hands to cut themselves could turn the knives on you. Whence this boldness? To command a king to mock the false prophets, whence the boldness expressed in chapter 21 in verse 17? Jezebel and Ahab have committed what they think is the perfect crime.

12:15 Ahab, driven by the cruel tyranny of his own sin, sets his affection upon a vineyard and he can't have it. And like a little kid who can't have an ice cream cone when he wants it, he pouts and becomes petulant. And Jezebel comes along and comforts him and says, well, darling, what do you want? I'll get it for you.

12:40 And then she schemes and she plots as to how she can have this man killed and make it appear as though his death was the just judgment of God for his blasphemy against God. And as they comfort themselves having committed the perfect crime and Ahab now has his darling little vineyard, we read in verse 17 of chapter 21, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel who dwelleth in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth whither he is gone to take possession of it. Go right to the tangible expression of his crime.

13:20 And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where the dogs lick the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood even thine. Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found thee, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord.

13:53 Utterly fearless, unfettered boldness. And we find the same quality in 2 Kings chapter 1. 2 Kings chapter 1. 3er And Moab rebelled against Israel and faced death and death.

14:09 4 desenvolved also the

14:30 method. God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the God of Ekron? Now therefore, saith the Lord, thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. Boldness. Every time in the record of the life of Elijah, every time he is called upon to deliver a word in the name of God, that word is delivered with fearless, whole-souled proclamation. And as I suggested yesterday, when the prophet is found retreating, he was not retreating from the burden of delivering a word from God. He was retreating from the expression of Jezebel's anger against him, but in the record of chapter 19, there is not a hint that he was not retreating. There is not a hint that he was not retreating. There is not a hint that he was not retreating.

15:30 He was a Jonah running from an explicit directive concerning the deliverance of a word from God. And since God had hidden him in chapter 17, he said, now I want you to go by the brook Kireth. I will hide thee there. There was nothing wrong with defensive retreat. It's a doctrine taught in the word of God. When ye see these things come to pass, our Lord said, flee. And so defensive retreat in itself. It's not wicked. It's the spirit with which we retreat that may be wicked. But there is no indication that Elijah ever shrunk from this whole-souled, unfettered, faithful proclamation of the message of God. And in the application yesterday, I only touched upon the relevance of this to preachers. And surely, my brethren, it is quite obvious that this is that to which God has called us. He that hath a...

Application of Boldness: Preachers, Parents, and Children

16:35 He that hath a dream, let him speak his dream. But he that hath my word, let him speak that word faithfully. You know, there is a way of being orthodox, and in your orthodoxy, veiling a spirit that is shot through with the fear of man. It's a way of preaching that will comfort and console the initiate that you're being faithful. In other words, the terms, the words, the doctrines that faithful preachers are supposed to preach will be mentioned enough in passing that the undiscerning initiates, those who understand those doctrines and key biblical words, will sit there and say, well, our pastor is preaching the sovereignty of God, the efficacy of saving grace, the necessity of a holy life, the necessity of perseverance, the proper place of the law. You will say enough to salve your own conscience and to convince the undiscerning initiates

17:46 in your congregation that you're preaching the whole counsel of God. But you studiously avoid the careful, definitive opening up of the offensive doctrines within the spectrum of God's word. You carefully avoid penetrating...

18:11 ...of those doctrines. Conscience that you're an expository preacher, that you're preaching the whole world. But you...

18:26 ...to those portions that will really...

18:37 It's at that point that the words of Jeremiah are applicable. Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood. Some of you draw...

18:59 ...to be sharp, but what you will...

19:03 ...to the consciences of your hearers. Now that's the boldness that marks Elijah. He didn't commit... ...for Ahab in these encounters and speak in vague and nebulous terms. Have I found you my enemy, troubler of Israel? He didn't say, well, I believe you're a little bit wrong in your analysis of the situation. I would encourage you at your leisure simply to consider that perhaps there may be other and more subtle or more obvious reasons for the present declension of the nation. Ah, trouble Israel, but in that you've served...

20:02 That's bold. ...that boldness in preaching. That's boldness in preaching. And I say the root of that boldness is to be found in the formative principle of the character. God lives, and if he lives, then all of the sum total of all of his glorious attributes call upon me to speak his word faithfully, lest I misrepresent the mind of the living God. And since I stand before that great God, and my soul is filled with the wonder of my reconciliation to him, of my solemn obligations before him, of my accountability to him, I dare do nothing less than speak

20:52 his word faithfully. But you see, that not only applies to preachers, it applies to parents. Some of you lack boldness in dealing with your children. And you know why? It's because you don't stand before the living God when you deal with your children. Some of you parents are afraid of your children. Some of you who have young children, you're afraid of them. When they throw a temper tantrum, you're just...you just don't quite to do. Well, Johnny, Sally, don't do that. Now, that's not nice. That's not good. Instead of setting the child up off the floor and upon your knee and saying, stop that immediately. And if the child doesn't,

21:38 firmly and lovingly... firmly and lovingly spanking that child until the will is sweetly submissive. There's no boldness in your dealings with your little ones. Why?

21:53 Why? Because you're not standing before the Lord God, receiving His instructions about the discipline and training of those children. Some of you quake before your teenagers.

22:06 And when they come to that place where they begin to develop the actings of a mature will, they must begin to learn to make independent decisions and we are encouraging that and trying to teach them how to make responsible decisions. And we're trying to get all that sorted out and lo and behold, they start making decisions in areas for which they are not competent to make intelligent decisions. And they don't even come and ask you about the situation. They say, Dad, I'm going here or I'm doing this.

22:34 Oh, you are? Who says so? And boldness in confronting the sinful expressions of that normal development of independence is absolutely essential. And that boldness will come when you constantly remember and feed upon the wonderful reality that you stand before God.

22:58 You are God's representative to administer His rule and to bring His word to bear upon that situation in your home. And you children, it's not an easy thing to be the only kid on the street who has any reverence for God's name, is it? Huh? Huh? It's not an easy thing to be the only kid in the street that honors the Sabbath in obedience to Mom and Dad. And when you're on the playground or at the local pool or in the local ballpark, it's not easy when all the kids start passing around their four-letter words and expect you to use them to prove that you're a big shot like they are. What do you kids need? You know what you need?

23:39 You need, if you're the children of God, if you fled to Christ in Hebrew, and you belong to Him, you need to say, Lord, I stand before You. Who are these fellow playmates? Lord, I stand before You, and You'll dare to rebuke them. But you don't learn that once for all. I'm going to tell you something you'll be surprised at, but you need to know it. During these conferences, my routines to get up in the morning and do my running early in the morning and go to a little place down the road here and get a quick breakfast and come back and have the time quiet when you're all over there hooping and hollering in the breakfast dining hall at breakfast time. And I was shocked at what I saw in my heart again yesterday morning. Here I was meditating on this very phrase before whom I stand and when I sat and my breakfast was brought to me. There was an ungodly

24:31 man on my left, obviously, and an ungodly man on my right, obvious because of the language I heard. And do you know that my immediate reaction was one of shame as I started to bow my head? Think of it. The thousands of times I've bowed my head in public on planes and trains and restaurants.

24:51 My first reaction was to keep my head unbowed. A shame to acknowledge that that food had come from my Savior. But you know what corrected it? I thought of the very things I was going to preach to you. The Lord God liveth before whom I stand. I stand before God in that restaurant. I sit before God. Who are these men that I'm speaking to? I should fear nothing.

25:21 And do you know what happened? It was a joy to bow my head and to thank this God before whom I stand for the food He provided. But I tell you that story, kids, so that you realize that's a true story. It's only 24 or 27 hours old that you realize this doesn't come once for all, even for preachers. You see some of us preachers up here quoting the Bible and you say I'll never know the Bible like that. And you see us get all excited about the Lord and you say well, they must not. Listen, listen, we have the same problems you have. A little more complicated, but the same basic problems.

25:59 And where are you going to be bold to witness to those kids on the block? Where are you going to get boldness to speak the word of the Lord? And when they want you to lie and listen to their dirty jokes and when they want you to use their foul language and be a big shot and sneak behind the house or into the woods and smoke your first cigarette to prove you're a man or a woman, where are you going to get the boldness? Oh, listen to me, boys and girls, you'll get the boldness when you can say with Elijah as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand.

26:31 You see, that's why your devotions are so important. You see, devotions aren't some kind of a magic little ritual that you put in a nickel worth of devotions and get out a nickel worth of spiritual power. One of the great blessings of your devotions is it brings near the reality that you live that day that is before you. In the presence of God.

26:53 You see, being what we are, we forget that so quickly, don't we? And the blessing of having early morning devotions is that you remember God is God and I am His creature. God is God and I am His servant. And this day, my words, my mouth, my ears, my eyes, my feet, everything is answerable to God.

Manward Grace 2: Compassion and Sensitivity

27:16 And so we see in Elijah this manward grace of boldness and may God grant a new dimension, a new dimension of that grace to us as people. But we see in the second place the manward grace of compassion and sensitivity. As I just mentioned very briefly yesterday, we often think of men with Elijah's boldness as being men who become insensitive and callous in human relationships. But Elijah was so much like his Lord, the Lord who would later with fiery zeal make a scourge of cords and drive out the changers of money in the temple and yet be the same Lord in whose presence children felt at ease. And they would come and they would sit upon His knee. In whose presence repentant harlots felt at ease. In whose presence the weak and the diffident were never threatened.

28:19 Who was the friend of publicans and sinners. And I want you to look now at some of the details of the incidents that underscore the compassion and the sensitivity of this man of God, Elijah. Chapter 17. And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. He died. And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Thou art, art thou come unto me to bring my sin to remembrance and to slay my son. And he

29:05 said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into the chamber where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto Jehovah and said, O Jehovah, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.

30:10 Think of the issues at stake. Elijah is conscious at this point in the history of Israel that the great issue at stake is the issue of who is God. Jehovah or Baal. He is praying that God will keep the heaven shut according to his own word of threat and of promise. His soul is filled with nothing less than the whole concern of the nation of God. And yet a soul filled with the concerns of a nation was big enough to find room for an individual widow and her broken heart. He did not look upon this scene and say, Woman, I'm sorry your child's child has died, but I'm afraid I cannot give mental and spiritual energy to this individual need that has no implications before the nation. If your son had died upon Mount Carmel in the sight of all the nation, perhaps I might be concerned. Pray that he be healed,

31:19 that he be raised up as a testimony. But remember now, this is an obscure household. A widow's household. Just a widow, just her son and possibly some others because it speaks of her household earlier on in the chapter. But do you get something of the emphasis of this passage? From the great concerns of the opening verses that involve the nation, here's a man with a large enough heart simply to pray a little prayer and say, Oh God, please you raise him up. If not, your will be done. No, no. Here's a man and the scriptures go to great detail to speak of his deep in the need of that widow woman. He carries the child. He lays him upon the bed. He stretches himself upon him. He cries to Jehovah.

32:15 And though few of us know anything of this kind of prayer, the few times we've touched on the borders of it, when the whole soul are engaged,

32:32 though that few exercises are more draining upon all the resources of your humanity, this man abandons himself to that present need, engages God, in fervent prayer. And God, wonder of wonders, hearkens to the voice of his child and his servant. You see the compassion. You see the sensitivity.

32:57 As we noted in passing yesterday, he understands the present state of her mind and her spirit. He does not enter into a theological debate with her when she blurts out these words, If you come to bring evil upon me, O man of God. That's no way to treat him. He didn't come to bring evil. She's alive because this man had come and the blessing of God was manifested in the unfailing cruise of oil and barrel of meal. Yet Elijah showing sensitivity to that moment of deep emotional distress. And even when he comes back, he doesn't rub it under her nose. He just says, Thy son there. He manifested that love that covers a multitude of souls.

33:46 You see the same. Same thing with reference to Obadiah in chapter 18. Here's this godly man who fears the Lord right in the court of this wicked king and his wicked consort Jezebel. And he at the appointment of Ahab has been scouring the land to try to find a place to feed the horses.

34:09 Think of the beastly nature of this man Ahab. The whole nation under judgment and children dying and widows crying and he's concerned about his horses. Oh the parallels in our own day. But Obadiah meets Elijah in this pursuit of grazing places for the horses of Ahab.

34:31 And then you'll remember if you've read the record there is this discussion between Obadiah and Ahab. And he says go back to your master and tell him that I'm going to come and appear before him. But now Obadiah is scared. Verse 11. And now thou sayest go tell thy Lord. Behold, Elijah's here. It'll come to pass as soon as I'm gone from thee. The spirit of the Lord will carry thee whither I know not.

34:55 And so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find me, he'll slay me. But I thy servant fear the Lord for my youth. Was it not told my Lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord? How I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And now thou sayest go tell thy Lord. Behold, Elijah's here and he'll slay me. Now if Elijah were a light of light, like a lot of important preachers, he would have said look here, Obadiah, who in the world are you to question me? I'm God's servant.

35:26 I'm the unusing Amaliah. Such thing. He was sensitive, sensitive to the whole within Obadiah. Be fearful.

35:42 So he gives him this oath and Elijah said as the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. Knowing that he was a true man of God whose yea was yea and nay was nay. And that he stood in his presence when he made as it were this vow and sealed it with an oath. Obadiah's heart he said at rest. Here's a man of compassion of sensitivity to people. And I want to pause to underscore this principle by way of application. No man can stand before the Lord God of love and compassion and not himself be a man of compassion and sensitivity.

Application of Compassion: Preachers and People

36:30 The apostle Paul who reflects this Elijah like boldness said some of the most tender words in all of his writing in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and I want you to look at it for a moment. In verse 4 he reminds us that he does not fear men nor seek to please men. We've been approved of God, 1 Thessalonians 2 4 to be entrusted with the gospel. Even so we speak not as pleasing men but God who proveth our hearts. He's not speaking of the future judgment. He says right now I stand in the presence of God. This God who proves who searches examines my heart. For neither at any time were we found using words of flattery as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness. God is

37:21 witness nor seeking glory of men neither from you or from others. He underscores the elements of boldness unfettered fidelity to the message but now notice the contrast verse 7. But we were gentle in the midst of you as when a nurse cherisheth her own children and the picture is of a woman who's a wet nurse who sells her services to nurse other babies who loves children so much she'll even suckle another mother's child and he says when such a woman has her own child the fruit of her own womb at her breast what bonds of love. He says we were as gentle as a nurse cherishing her own children. Verse 8 even so being affectionately desirous of you we were well pleased to impart unto you not the gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye you as people were become very. Now does that language sound effeminate to you? If it does it's because you're thinking unchristianly hear this man who feared no man who says we did not flatter we did not trim the message to please

38:50 the carnal is of men's is the man who says we were gentle as gentle as a nurse we were not in that sense so preoccupied sense of truth that we lost sight of the fact that God's purpose is to bring truth to bear upon people and the man who is most effective in the accomplishment of that end is the one who can say we were willing to impart not just the message but all of their very so that you were become dear affectionately desirous of you one of the great concerns of my heart as I seek to be sensitive to my own corruptions and seek to be sensitive to what God is doing in our own day and in particular in our own circles. I believe a note of warning and exhortation needs to be sounded to my ministerial brethren. Thank God that with the restoration to an understanding of historic biblical truth that has been nicknamed Calvinism or the reformed faith, thank God, and I say that with no tongue in cheek, that there has come a renewed vision for some, an initial vision of the centrality of preaching in the accomplishment of the

40:17 divine purpose. And thank God that with that has come the realization that preaching must involve wrestling with the great and lofty concepts of the whole counsel of God. And many of us have said by the grace of God we are forever done with little ditty sermons and homiletical drivel and all the rest of it. It is not enough to call the people of God and to dump out this great wad of the truth of God. We must be able to say of those to whom we deliver it, ye were become very dear to us. We were willing not to politely desirous of you. We must become lovers of people who are not afraid to let it be known that we love people.

41:33 And I stand... I stand to protest against any notion as being Christian that says it is less than Christian manhood to say to people of you have become very dear to me. Without this element I remind you of the language of the same apostle, though we speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and though the truth we speak be glorious reformed truth, we have become very dear to us. And we have become so much the same. I have become so much more than just theANTICAL, the most transcendent being of the world. I have become so much more than something that is a symbol of beauty, of the Comedy of the world, of the beauty of nature, of the fete spirit, of the beauty of God and of the holy girls and the wonder, of the beauty and the glory of life.

42:16 I have become so much more than just the sound of brass and clanging cymbals. Could it be some of my straight reformed brethren of your people, sensitive persons who have a narrowed, riveled, uncompassionate heart? I remind you though you speak with the tongue of a men or an angel, of men or of angels and have not love you have become clanging cymbals. Tinkling cymbals. I remind you of the language of John. The man say he loved God and does not love his brother.

43:21 How can a man love the unseen God when he does not love the brother whom he can see and touch? I'm suspicious of any preacher who's insensitive to children.

43:36 Elijah showed the greatest sensitivity and compassion to this young man. And if he'd been the austere, distant domine with the little boy who felt comfortable taking him by the hand when it says, and he presented him to his mother.

43:59 I'm suspicious of the man who cannot weep. If not publicly, that may be a matter of genes and training, perverted ideas. But if he knows nothing of the sobbing heart and cannot convey to his people that there's something of the sobbing heart,

44:21 there is a chronic defect. But in such a ministry, I hurry on to the third manward grace manifested in this great man. And it's the grace of humility.

Manward Grace 3: Humility

44:34 Some have called this virtue the queen of all graces. What is humility? Well, I think it's better described negatively. It's the absence of arrogance, swagger, self-assertiveness, self-centeredness.

44:50 Humility may have nothing to do or has nothing to do with personality type, a very aggressive personality. A very aggressive, outgoing, ebullient type of person may be very humble. A very quiet, diffident, reserved person may be as proud as the devil.

45:07 It has not to do with caste, temperament. It has to do with the gracious work of God producing a proper assessment of who I am and what God is and enabling me to live in the light of that. You say, where is humility manifested in the prophet Elijah? Well, it's manifested in that incident in the widow's house.

45:27 I mean, let's be reasonable. I'm the prophet of Israel. I deserve a little something better than just little cakes made of bread and oil.

45:39 I mean, I at least had some meat with my meal back there by the book.

45:44 But the scripture is very plain in asserting that while he was there in that household, Elijah got no special treatment either from the Lord or from the widow. Look at verse 15 of chapter 17. The widow went and did according to the saying of Elijah and she, the widow, and he, Elijah, and her house, which includes at least her son and maybe a servant, I don't know, did eat many days. The jar of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. He was willing to take the posture of being served this humble fare in this humble home, in humble circumstances. And there's no indication that his pride was wounded thereby.

46:48 Further on we see, and I think this is the crowning example of his humility, it always is in a preacher, his attitude to his appointed successor, whose appointment was announced before he was dead and off the scene.

47:03 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 9 and 10.

47:08 After the Lord restores his servant, he gives him a job to do. And one of those jobs is to appoint his successor, I'm sorry, let's look at 19, chapter 19 of 1 Kings first, I'm sorry. Chapter 19 and verse 17, it shall come to pass to him that escapes from the sword of Hazel, I'm sorry, verse 16, and Jehu, you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. God says this man is, going to be prophet in your room and in your stead. Here is your appointed successor.

47:58 And the amazing thing is that such a relationship develops, of intimacy and mutual confidence, that when it comes time for God to take Elijah, Elisha doesn't want to be out of his sight. He feels so much at home when the man is so far beyond him in experience and knowledge and dealings with God, and then he asks for this strange blessing, in 2 Kings chapter 2, verse 9, and it came to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said unto Elisha, ask what I shall do for thee before I am taken from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me, probably a reference to the right and inheritance of the firstborn, Deuteronomy 21, 17, that the right of the firstborn is the double inheritance. In other words, he says, I want, not just the spirit that rested upon you, but I want the portion of the firstborn. I want a double portion, so that the might and power that was operative in you to withhold the wholesale going over to Baal may be operative in me to the honor and glory of God. There's not a hint that Elijah is filled with any form of jealousy, saying, oh, wait a minute now, if you have a double portion of the spirit, you may outshine me.

49:19 Your miracles may go beyond, your usefulness may exceed mine. No, no, his only answer is, you've asked a hard thing. However, in essence, he says, if you're qualified for it, you'll receive it. And then we read the subsequent history of the life of this man and know that God answered that desire.

Application of Humility: Preachers, Husbands, Wives, Children

49:41 May I speak to you, my preacher friends, again?

49:44 Could it be that pretended zeal for the honor of God is really zeal for your honor that would be, the immediate consequence of a blessed ministry?

49:59 I'm scared to death whenever I hear a preacher praying, oh, God, make me a Spurgeon. Oh, God, make me a Whitfield. I'm scared to death when I hear a man pray like that. On the one hand, it could simply be immaturity.

50:14 And as a young Christian, he's read of the usefulness and he really wants to be useful. He knows nothing of the travail and the burden and the crushing weight of spiritual leadership in response. And in his naive ignorance, he prays, Lord, use me in my generation as you use Whitfield. That is excusable ignorance.

50:36 When a man is praying, Lord, make me a Whitfield, that is, give me thousands to preach to. I fear that often that which drives such a prayer from his lips is so that when I die, people will write biographies about me too. And while I live, people will, upon the announcement of my name, gather by the hundreds of thousands, the great test, my preacher brother, of the measure of your humility, or one of the great tests is this. Can you rejoice in the gifts and usefulness of your brethren whose gifts and usefulness totally eclipse yours?

51:21 How do you feel when that man comes? You invited him, you see, for meetings. You invite him as your peer. And lo and behold, the Holy Ghost came upon him with power and he preached with such boldness.

51:34 blessing that your people not thinking how this would register on your ear. Halfway through the meetings, they said, Pastor, this is wonderful. I've never heard preaching like this before. And what happened?

51:46 Huh?

51:49 Your pride was wounded. Instead of saying, Hallelujah, never have I heard such preaching. Isn't it wonderful to have the Lord minister to my heart? And then go back to your closet and pray, Oh God, give him a double portion. If you've blessed him the first three nights, Lord, come upon him tonight. That'll equips all of the previous blessing. But, oh God, use him to get the hearts of my people. Can you rejoice in the gifts and usefulness of another? I say to balance the question and the exhortation, one of the things that has been of such a great delight to me in the fellowship of this conference, and in whatever God has done in raising up churches committed to what we call historic biblical faith, is that in our relationship with each other, I have never sensed that jockeying for position. Somebody wanting to be the kingpin. Somebody wanting to be the one whose voice was heard above all others. It's a tragedy. Let us cry

52:55 to God that it will never come amongst us. But that we will rejoice in whatever gifts and usefulness God gives to any of us. And pray as I've heard some of the brethren in this place pray, Lord, lay hold of men whose gifts and usefulness in a short time will eclipse the usefulness of all of us.

53:23 Humility. He can eat in a widow's home at a widow's table having simple fare and his nose is never bent. I abominate this red carpet treatment of preachers as though they were some kind of ambassador or something else from another country, putting them up to the poshest motels and giving them unlimited expense accounts. It's so unlike the master and so unlike his true servants such as Elijah.

53:57 Now where was that humility engendered and how was it sustained? The Lord God liveth before whom I stand.

54:06 You see, standing in the presence of the great, the infinite, the eternal God, filled with something of the awareness of his majesty and glory. Pride cannot long exist in that spiritual context. And dear preacher, this is why we must live much in the secret place, beholding the glory of the enthroned Christ, the majesty of the one who alone was worthy of praise and honor and relinquished all of it and went to the depths of Gethsemane and Golgotha. The agony of that forsaken hill shrouded in blackness of the heavens under the judgment of God and now he's been given that place of exaltation. And when we behold him in that position and when we behold him in his self-emptying as recorded in Philippians 2 and expounded to us Sunday morning by Mr. Elliot, pride can have no place when we stand before such a God. You husbands and wives, this is the answer to being willing to take admonition from one another.

55:18 Why do you husbands bristle when your wives point out your faults? It's your stinking pride. Stinking, rotten pride. The one who's most qualified to point out your faults and you won't take it.

55:35 You know why? You're not standing in the presence of the Lord.

Manward Grace 4: Consistent Personal and Domestic Piety

55:40 You wives bristle at the criticism of your husband. You children, why do you resent the loving correctives of your parents? Pride! Oh, how desperately do we need the grace of humility to be nurtured as it was in Elijah, before whom I stand. And then the fourth grace that shines brightly in this great man was his consistent personal and domestic piety. Follow closer now because again the time has so quickly gone from us. It's clear that his stay in that widow's house was a lengthy one. We read in chapter 17 and verse 15, and he did eat many days.

56:20 He lived in that little humble home many days. And when the son of the woman dies and she's all upset emotionally and all distraught, notice how she addresses him in verse 18. She said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee? Who thou man of God?

56:41 Art thou come to bring my sin to remembrance and slay my son? Notice, when her spirit is most agitated and most disturbed, she still calls him what? Not an angel of God, a man, but a man of God.

56:58 Now remember, she called him this after he had lived in the home many days. And there's nothing like the intimacy of the domestic sphere to show a man for what he really is. And after living many days to watch his table manners, to see if he was selfish, if he took a whack off the bread first or whether he passed it to her in deference to her, and to the son, and then took for himself. To see whether he was too high and mighty in his official ministerial capacity to offer to clear up the dishes.

57:36 To see if he felt she should be his servant and always make up his bed, and too high and mighty to pull up his own sheets. She had a chance to observe him in all of these little things that combined are a tremendous index of character.

57:55 She was a widow. There's no record that he had a wife.

58:00 She had emotional and physical needs. She wasn't too old a woman because the child was young enough for him to carry the child. Probably a lad.

58:10 Elijah, with his fiery, passionate nature, was no doubt a man who could love strongly and deeply. But there was never an indiscretion in that widow's home. She says, O man of God,

58:25 O man of God, O man of God.

58:31 That personal and domestic piety is further seen in that unique relationship with Elisha. And would that we had time to open it up, I can only point out this that to me has been so striking. Living so closely from the time he anointed him, you'll remember he bid goodbye to his family, Elisha did, and he follows him as his servant. He enters into such a relationship of esteem and confidence and respect that when Elijah says, look, it's time for me to go, you stay here, he says, I will not leave thee as thy soul liveth.

59:03 As God lives, I'll not leave thee. And when he goes, he says, my father, my father. Oh, what a respect and esteem and confidence he had, and my friends, it was earned. It was not conferred because of his position.

59:21 It was earned because of his conduct. Now you just forget the time for the next few minutes as I seek to bring application to this principle.

Application of Domestic Piety: Preachers and Parents

59:32 I speak to you, my fellow preachers, and I trust you listen with judgment day earnestness. Listen, listen to me. When your wife is most irritated with you,

59:46 is she still forced to call you, oh man of God?

59:52 When your kids are most upset with you, are they still forced to call you, oh man of God?

60:03 Or does the growing hypocrisy of your inconsistency, of your pride and unwillingness to own your sins in front of your wife and your children, in time of pressure, is it thrown up in your face that in the heart you say, God to me?

60:43 Or do they sit there rot in hypocrisy and shatter?

60:58 She said, man of God. She saw his weaknesses. She didn't say angel, but man of God.

61:08 In the interrelationship with Elisha, my father, bond and esteem in the day by day expression of consistent godliness and domestic piety. And I say to you my preacher friend, if you cannot have that from your wife and your kids, I beg you in Christ's name, step out of that pulpit until you can. You'll send your kids to hell, cursing the name of the God you preach and cursing your name forever, preaching it. I'm not saying if preacher's kids turn out wrong, it's because the preacher was a hypocrite. I did not say that. You can never go, beyond the free choice of God in the selectivity of his own.

62:13 And he made it evident at the annunciation of that covenant with Abraham that it has nothing necessarily to do with bloodlines. Never forget it.

62:26 Not Ishmael, but Isaac. Not Esau, but Jacob. Covenant. One elect. Therefore I would not teach that wicked doctrine that when the children of godly men turn out bad, the preacher failed. No, no.

62:48 Many do. There was no domestic piety. You see, Elijah certified in the study and in the living room all that he proclaimed upon Carmel that the Lord is God, worthy of homage and service. What about you, preacher?

63:19 Is your constant walk of godliness the sharp arrow that is continually applying pressure? To the consciences of your people so that when the shaft of truth comes, there is already an entrance to the conscience because of your life. That's apostolic.

63:40 But Paul could say our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance even as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And there was a direct relationship between the word coming in power and the life that was a manifestation of the power of the gospel in ethical, moral transformation. Some of you parents wonder why you have so little influence in your discipline and instruction of your children. Perhaps the cause lies here. Truth is blunted because of the shoddy life you lived before.

64:21 Now I'm really going to stick my neck out.

64:24 How can you teach your children submission to authority when in this conference there's been open defiance of the authority of the elders of Grace Baptist Church? And I don't know who's involved so I can look with a clear conscience that I'm not using the public place to make private accusation. At the opening meetings you were instructed if children disturbed, take them out. And I've sat through meeting after meeting where I've had to cry, Lord help me to concentrate with the bin of squawking babies.

64:51 That's been open defiance of the authority it constituted in this conference.

64:57 I'm subject to that authority. I wanted to preach something else. And I told the elders at Carlisle and they said you'll do nothing of that sort. You preach what we told you.

65:05 Now they did it much more sweetly than that.

65:09 But when you boil it all down, that's what they were saying.

65:15 And I, by the grace of God, accepted that authority. You say, Father Martin, that's cruel. No, it's true. It's true.

65:26 How can you dads teach submission to constituted authority when your son sees you break the speed limit day after day and week after week when you drive? No one knows what the Bible says about husbands. Love your wives, be sensitive, be gentle, and they see you treat your wife like a thief. Oh, may God help us to see.

65:56 And in the life of this great man, Elijah, it was the consistency of personal and domestic piety that makes his life so filled with the fragrance of Christ. Well, what's the ultimate source of all these graces? Do they grow upon native Adamic soil? No, my friends, they don't.

The Ultimate Source of All Graces: Christ's Redemptive Work

66:14 And I want you to turn to a New Testament passage in closing. What's the ultimate source of these graces Godward and manward? Whatever God may use in terms of the constitution of a man, man's whole inner life, at his conception, whatever God may use in training, ultimately the source of these graces is not to be found in man. In the ninth chapter of Luke, in verse 28, we read, it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and James and John and went up into a mountain to pray.

66:52 And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment became white and dazzling. And behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah. Now look at verse 31, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease or his exodus, his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. The last picture we have of Elijah is talking with his Savior about his death for sinners. The last picture we have of Elijah is on a mountain, talking with his Savior about his death for sinners. Every single grace manifested in Elijah was the fruit of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in the mind and the reckoning of the eternal God. Every true virtue imparted to every saint before the coming of the Son of God in time was nonetheless the fruit of that redemption that he himself would effect for sinners. And so the

68:06 source of these graces was the regenerating work of the Spirit, which is but the fruit of the objective work of Christ on behalf of needy sinners. And Elijah was the kind of man he was because he had the kind of Savior he had. And if you've looked at this life and said, oh God, that's so far beyond me, I can never attain to it. That's been the preaching of the law.

68:33 You see, the law is preached when you hold up the standard of a holy man. It's not preached only when you turn to the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. Any valid expression of the will of God is the proclamation of law. And in a sense the preaching of Elijah's life has been the preaching of law.

68:50 What should it do? Well, it ought to lead on the one hand to despair. And you say, oh God, that's not in me. Hallelujah if you've made that discovery. But it is in Christ. And Christ stands ready in the virtue of his own almighty person and in his own sufficient work to impart those graces to all who come to him. And if you're a child of God, the preaching of Elijah's life ought to have the function of the law in the life of a true believer. What is it?

69:23 It's the standard to which your heart responds and says, oh God, I delight to know that kind of life. But oh God, I cannot live that life in my own native strength. Oh may the fullness of Jesus be my portion that I may know his virtue working in me to the end that I may be made like unto him. Elijah the man, his name, his character, and we'll have to wait for another session to deal with his destiny. Where in the world do men like that go when they're done down here? Well, there's only one place for them. But if you ever hope to be with him, you better be made by the grace of God what he was. Let us pray. Oh Lord,

70:14 we thank you that all virtue dwells in you. And we pray that by your own almighty spirit you will bring many to seek in yourself that which is not in themselves by nature and give to all of us the grace to add diligence that we may by your spirit perfect more and more these virtues Godward and manward that being filled with the fruits of righteousness, praise may be brought to you through Christ our Lord. Amen.