Lessons About God and Life of Faith

Introduction: The Purpose of Elijah's Story and the Context of His Times

0:02 Christ, grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ, and so in beholding this man as an example of faith and obedience and all of these other virtues of the Christian life, we see what the grace of God can do in men, even in us, and should be encouraged on the one hand to know that such is possible and stirred on the other hand to press after the same qualities of Christian virtue. And then the second main reason is because of the parallel of the times of Elijah with our times. And when we see how God met the issues of that day, perhaps we can gain directive as to how God would meet the issues of our day. I remind you that the basic issue at this point in the history of Israel was this, is God God or is Baal God? It had seemed as though God were dead. God had said if his people would go a-whoring from him after idols, he would shut up the heavens and there'd be no rain. This promise, this threat of God, seems unfulfilled until this prophet, probably basing his prayers upon that very pledge of judgment in the shut heavens, stands before King Ahab and says, as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand, there shall be no dew nor rain but according to my word.

1:24 And so the issue at stake is the vindication of the presence and character and rule, and the rule of God in the midst of his people, Israel. Now as God is accomplishing the vindication of his name, he does it through a man, for his method is generally men and women. And so he must make the kind of man through whom the vindication of his name may be wrought. And so all of these stories about the details of Elijah's life, by a brook and then sent to a widow, and later on under a juniper tree and all of the rest, these are not just filler in the book, these are not just filler in the book, these are not just filler in the book, these are not just filler in the book, these are not just filler in the Bible to sort of make it interesting.

2:03 This is part and parcel of the entire purpose of God to vindicate his name at that period of the history of Israel, and to do so he must make a man through whom he can accomplish this work. We looked at the prophet last week as he was experiencing the disciplines of a drying brook. And I trust that some of the lessons we considered there God will bring back to us again and again when he disciplines us, by our own drying brooks. Our study tonight begins with the fresh word of direction that comes to the prophet as recorded in verse 8.

The Narrative of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

2:42 And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow to sustain thee. There to sustain thee. And so he arose and went to Zarephath.

2:59 And when he came to the gate of the city, he was there. Behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.

3:18 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me first thereof a little cake, and bring it forth unto me, and afterward make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, The jar of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail.

4:01 Until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. The jar of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake by Elijah.

Prayer for Illumination and Overview of Sermon Structure

4:28 Let us pause for a moment of prayer, asking God to open up to us some of the richness of his truth in this portion of his holy word. Blessed Lord, we acknowledge again that the Holy Spirit who penned these words must himself illuminate our minds and give us understanding in this portion of holy scripture. Teach us, Lord. Oh, we feel there is so much in this passage for our edification and admonition.

5:00 Give us grace not only to hear aright, but to do whatsoever the Spirit will say to us. Hear us in this our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now to think our way through this passage, I want you to consider with me in the first place the simple facts of the narrative.

5:22 Here we have a historical account of something that happened in the life of the prophet. And these facts of the narrative are very significant, so we want to get them firmly fixed in our minds. Then we shall spend the great time of this morning with you. Thank you.

5:34 In the greater part of our time, seeking to know what do these facts say about doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, for this is the purpose for which the scripture was given, that we might be instructed in all of these areas. The facts of the narrative are very simple. In the first place, we have the explicit command of God in the first part of verse 9. The word of the Lord came to him saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon.

The Facts of the Narrative: Command, Promise, Obedience, Fulfillment

6:10 There may have been several Zarephaths, and so that the prophet would have no question as to what Zarephath God meant. He gives them not only the, what we'd say the city, but the state and the county as well. He lets him know, gives him precise directions. There was no indefiniteness.

6:27 Here was an explicit command of God, and the moment it came to Elijah, Elijah knew what the Lord wanted him to do. He wanted him to go from this pleasant retreat in which he had been hiding for some months, possibly about a year, and as the crow flies, and there were no jet planes then, but as the crow flies, go to a place that was approximately 120 miles from where he now was, through howling wildernesses, through mountain passes, right into the very area where Jezebel's father was a king. And he knew this. We're back in chapter 7.

7:06 Chapter 16, you'll remember where it gives the account of Ahab taking Jezebel to wife. We have this interesting fact about Jezebel. Verse 31 of chapter 16, he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. Here was a man who was in some kind of a league with Ahab, obviously a Baal worshipper.

7:30 He has his own name, he has the name of Baal. And God commands the prophet to expose himself. To expose himself to the danger of the trip of 120 miles through wilderness and through mountain passes, and to plunk himself down right in the area where Jezebel's father reigned as a king. Well that's the explicit command of God, and the prophet clearly understood it.

7:55 Well what's the next factor in the narrative? We have in the next place the sure word of promise. Notice. I have commanded a widow there.

8:05 Notice. A widow there to sustain thee. God not only gives this explicit command, but he puts an appendix to that command by giving this sure word of promise. You'll remember that when he sent him to the brook Cherith, I was corrected in saying Cherith, that is not right.

8:25 And I thought for sure the person who corrected me was wrong, and so I tried to prove them wrong and I proved myself wrong. I looked it up in the Bible dictionary, and so I stand corrected. It is the brook Cherith. And God had told him in 1 Kings 17 in verse 3, Turn eastward, hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

8:46 It shall be that thou shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. In other words, God has given a sure word of promise. I will sustain you and make provision for your physical needs. Now giving a fresh word of direction, entirely different from the former.

9:04 Yet it's the same in the first place. Notice. It's the same in that God is saying, when I send you to this place, whether it be in hiding by a brook or through the danger of mountain passes and howling wilderness, to the very citadel of Baal worship there in Sidon, I will provide for you. I have commanded a widow there, and only there to sustain me.

9:27 And Elijah got the message. So whatever other considerations there might be about that terrible place, one thing he knows, that's the place of God's provision. So if I expect to have provision. And this drying brook tells me I sure need some, I better get, and I better get quick.

9:42 Well the third factor in the narrative is the obedience of the prophet. Verse 10. So he arose and went to Zarephath. Isn't that beautiful in its simplicity?

9:53 As we'll see in a little bit, we just read over that, but all that was involved in this. But the scripture is beautiful in its simplicity of narration at this point. No questions asked. No quibbling with God.

10:06 Just. Went. To Zarephath. Just like it was about an hour's walk to the relatives, you know, down the road a piece.

10:12 You don't think a hundred, how many of you realize there's a hundred and twenty miles through a wilderness, through mountains. But that's what he had to do. God didn't pick him up and transport him there. Later on he does something with a prophet where he picks him up and dumps him down.

10:24 But here the prophet had to be exposed to all of those situations, yet he implicitly obeyed. Then we have the next factor in the narrative, and this takes up the rest of the paragraph. The details. The details of the fulfilled promise.

10:38 Did God command him to go? Did God promise he would meet his need? Did the prophet obey? Why, there's only one thing left in the story then.

10:46 To say how God fulfilled his word of promise to the obedient prophet. And that's the rest of the paragraph. So he comes to the city gate, and there's a woman. And we read those details.

10:56 We won't go over them at present. Now those are the facts of the narrative. And the very way they are unfolded is a beautiful pattern of God's dealings with his people. God's clear command, God's sure word of promise.

11:12 Then when there is implicit obedience, your life becomes a history of how a faithful God delights to fulfill his word to his obedient children. Those are the facts. Now, what in these facts does God want to say to us? For I remind you that they are not put here for us to build a sepulcher and fall down in...

Lessons About God: His Absolute Sovereignty

11:36 I'm sorry. Or build a monument, this is the word I want, to the prophet Elijah and bow down in worship. And he was a man of like passions, we are told by James, made of the same stuff of which we are made. But in this passage, according to Second Timothy 3.16, there is profitable doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness that we as God's people might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. May I suggest in the first place? That there are some lessons in this passage about God himself. Some of the very same lessons which God revealed to Elijah in his previous dealings with him, but lessons that are so absolutely vital that the prophet is to serve God in his own generation, that God takes him from one classroom to another to keep driving home that same lesson.

12:31 Now, some of you have mentioned how personal the word of God is to the people of Israel. And I think that's a very important lesson. I think that's a very important lesson. You probably have had a lesson that's important to you and perhaps, in your own devotions during the week, you've been reading something and God has been pressing a certain lesson upon your mind.

12:43 Then you come to the men's class or ladies' class, and you get it there. Then you come to the congregational meeting and you get it there. Well, when you get it there at home, alone with God, then in the Sunday School classes, you begin to say, Maybe the Lord's trying to tell me something. Maybe this lesson is important enough that God's got a few classrooms and I sneak out of one or play hooky in one, lo and behold, God nails me with the same lesson in the next classroom.

13:05 Well, that's what God was doing with Elijah. Elijah. There were lessons that he had to learn if he was to be God's man for that hour. And I submit to you that in a peculiar way, living in the day in which we live, these are lessons which we must learn if we are to stand and serve God in our generation. And no lessons are more important than the lessons scripture teaches about God himself. For the scripture says in the book of Daniel, they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. In the first place, we learn a lesson about God in this area, his absolute sovereignty. The fact that in every sphere of his creation, his will and his reign is extended. Now, how do we learn lessons of the absolute

13:55 sovereignty of God in this paragraph? Well, in the first place, we see his sovereignty in the realm of God. We see his sovereignty in the realm of God. We see his sovereignty in the realm of of providence. Now what is providence? I answer the question from the shorter catechism. God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. We read in the narrative, so he arose, verse 10, and went to Zarephath, a journey of many days, or several days at least, and it says with artless simplicity, when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there. Well, isn't that a strange coincidence? When he came, he got up that last morning and mapped out his plan for the day,

14:48 and when he came, there was a widow. Well, strange coincidence, isn't it? No, the widow was there. The widow was there. The widow was there. The widow was there.

14:55 The word coincidence is not in faith's vocabulary. Faith's vocabulary is a very specialized vocabulary, very limited. And one of the words that's never found in faith's vocabulary nor in faith's dictionary is coincidence. What to the man of the world is coincidence is to the child of God and evidence of providence.

15:18 And here God so ordered the planning of Elijah's day that at the precise moment that he comes up to the gate of the city and not three minutes before, a woman happens to come out of the gate of the city. You'd think here that she knew he was coming in on the 617 commuter train. I mean, the way you read it here, it's as though she knew he was coming at the precise time she's going to meet him at 617. Now, she wasn't going out to meet a prophet.

15:47 She was going out to collect a few sticks to cook. I took her funeral sermon, I took her funeral meal. She said, I'm coming out, gather a few sticks, I go back with a little bit of meal and oil that I have, and we're going to have our last supper together. Not a supper of remembrance, not that kind of last supper.

16:04 This is it. We've had it. But in the marvelous providence of God, he arranged things so that this woman's meal was just about run out, just a handful left. Suppose she had made just one extra biscuit that morning.

16:20 There'd be no handful. This handful fits into the whole history. It's the handful that is multiplied throughout the coming years. You see, there's too many little details that go right down to how much is left in the barrel of meal and in the cruise of oil, the time to keep it.

16:38 What is God telling us here? What is he telling the prophet? All he had told him was, I have commanded a widow to sustain thee there. So he goes in the confidence that the God who has commanded a widow to sustain him, not that he spoke verbally to her.

16:53 He's telling him that he has control over all the activities of men, so that when Elijah sees this woman there, no indication as to how God let him know that this was the one, but somehow he knew this is the one, and God got the prophet and the widow together in this most natural way to show to us his absolute sovereignty in the realm of providence. Then we see, his absolute sovereignty in what we might call the free act of men. This is a part of providence. When you read this account, it just looks like here's a kind lady.

17:32 He says to her, Okay, would you get me a drink of water? And she says, Yes, I'd be glad to do that. But as she starts to get the drink of water, he says, Well, maybe I've got a good thing going here. How about bringing me a little snack as well?

17:48 She says to him, No, that's not possible. I'm going to make up the last snack. That's for me and my son. We're going to eat it.

17:54 We're going to eat it and die. He says, No, you give it to me first. Then he gives her a promise, and then she complies with it. And you say, Wasn't she a marvelous woman?

18:03 And if you just read the narrative here, you would say, Well, this is obvious. God just led him to a very kind, gracious, outgoing woman, sacrificial spirit, and all the rest. And you and I would be tempted to place the reason for this in the woman herself, in her kind disposition. No, no.

18:20 Remember, God had said to the prophet, I have commanded a widow to sustain. And why was she kind? She was kind because God was working in her spirit and in her heart to make her kindly disposed to the prophet. She, perhaps, was unconscious of that when she felt, Well, I ought to get this poor, funny-looking fellow here in his hairy coat and his bushy beard.

18:43 It looks like he's been out there burning up in the wilderness. I guess maybe I'll get him a drink of water. Maybe it was just what she thought was a little bit of the milk of human kindness. She didn't know that behind that was the vice-operation, of a sovereign God.

18:55 He had commanded her to take care of that prophet. She maybe didn't even know it at this juncture. That doesn't matter. God knew it and the prophet knew it.

19:05 And oh, what a lesson for us as God's people. In all of our dealings with men, where their decisions and their actions and reactions affect the plan and purpose of God for our lives, what tremendous confidence it gives to know He has an absolute sovereignty, not over, only over the details of providence, not over financial circumstances, but over the free actions of men. So when Mr. Harrison says, no, I'm not disposed to sell you that hunk of land right now.

19:34 Should we have a pity party? No, he doesn't know it. God's got his heart right in his hand. So either the Lord has testing of faith for us, He has another place for us.

19:47 Boy, this takes the sweat out of it, doesn't it, huh? Takes the burden off here and puts it where it belongs. See how practical that is in this whole matter that we're concerned about. Finding a piece of land, the right place, building all of the people we're going to have to touch in terms of seeking to negotiate to get this or that and approaching banks and all the rest.

20:07 What a tremendous, thrilling experience this can be if we have the confidence that Elijah had as God taught him this lesson that His God who promised to meet his need could do so because He can command widows. He can work in what we think are the free acts of men to accomplish His own sovereign purpose for His people. When you go to take a trip somewhere on a train or a plane, you ought always to pray, Lord, you move the person to sit next to me that you want me to talk to about you. And he may just come by and he thinks, oh, well, there's a nice looking guy or he looks like a quiet guy or she looks like a pleasant looking person.

20:45 Eh, go sit down and have a nice chat. See, it doesn't mean that God has to make them aware that He's putting them there for you to talk to them about the Lord. That might scare them away. So they think this is a very free choice of theirs.

20:57 They've chosen to seek. Wonder of wonders, you bear a witness to them and perhaps in the providence of God someone else puts a little more water on the seat and eventually they're saved and they look back and they say, Lord, you commanded me to sit in that seat. I didn't know it, but you did. You see?

21:16 And so as God's people, many times what to us are just our free natural actions, behind them is the guiding hand of a gracious providence. And this brings tremendous comfort and consolation to the child of God. So we see, the absolute sovereignty of God in the realm of providence, in the realm of the free acts of men, and then also in the realm of God's grace. According to Luke chapter 4, Jesus said there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet.

21:48 And if there were many widows in Israel, there were no doubt many widows in Zarephath. Why did God send Him to this particular widow? He says, I have commanded a widow to feed thee there. Why this particular widow?

22:04 Why bypass all the widows of Israel? Why bypass all the other widows of this city? Probably there were many others. This famine had hit that whole area.

22:14 And if this poor widow woman comes out to cook her last meal and is about to die along with her son, no doubt there were other widows of equal physical and spiritual need. Why did God go to this particular widow? Why should she have the privilege of an unfailing cruise of oil? And an unfailing barrel of meal?

22:34 And the presence of a prophet of God, a teacher of the way of salvation? Why should she? Why should she? There's only one answer.

22:46 Ultimately, for even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. Even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. The absolute sovereignty of God in the realm of grace. Grace in meeting what we would call the common temple needs of life.

23:04 No indication. No indication that God multiplied the supply of any other widows, any other destitute people. God left them to the natural course of this famine, both in Israel and in some of the surrounding Gentile areas. But this widow's need was met that God might again show us that in the carrying out of the purposes of His grace, He works sovereignly.

23:30 And this woman was probably one of those other sheep that the Lord had purposed to gather. And if He's got to move a prophet from a hidden retreat 120 miles through wilderness and over mountain passes to get to that sheep, He'll get her. He'll get her. Remember it said of our Lord Jesus, He must needs go through Samaria.

23:52 Why? It wasn't the direct route. But there was a woman at that very moment enmeshed in the tentacles of an immoral life who was one of those sheep, those other sheep, whom the Savior must take. Whom the Savior must bring.

Lessons About God: His Absolute Trustworthiness

24:07 So He must needs go through Samaria. And I submit to you, though the circumstances may not be as sensational as having a servant of God traverse the wilderness and mountain passes to bring the message of God to you, there has been no less an inexorable, inflexible hand of divine sovereignty putting all the pieces together to bring you to the feet of the Savior and to bring you to the possession of life. And so God would have us see in this passage this first lesson about Himself, His absolute sovereignty and providence in the free acts of men and in the realm of His grace. Well, the second thing we ought to learn about God from this passage is His absolute trustworthiness. It's a wonderful thing to be able to say of a certain person or have it said of you, you know that man, that woman is as good as His word. What we mean by that is they are trustworthy. If they give you a promise, you know that promise will be fulfilled unless it's physically impossible for them to fulfill it.

25:18 One of the most wonderful things about our God is that He's as good as His word. And this passage teaches us that principle of the absolute trustworthiness. There is no human being who is absolutely trustworthy because though the intention may be genuine, and sincere when they pledge their word, many factors can enter in to keep them from fulfilling the word. But because God is the God who has all factors under His control when He pledges His word, absolutely nothing can arise in any sphere of the universe to frustrate the fulfilling of the word of our God.

26:00 And I say this passage teaches His absolute trustworthiness. And the prophet learned that at two particular points. Will you notice with me the strangeness of God's command to him and the strangeness of God's promise. He was going to teach him, Elijah, my son, you must trust me no matter how strange my ways may seem.

26:24 I am to be trusted, not because what I promise seems reasonable, but because what I promise is the word of myself. I am God. And don't trust me because it seems reasonable, trust me because I am God. Notice the strangeness of the command.

26:42 Why should he have to go 120 miles, expose himself to the danger of the long journey? Why go to the land of Jezebel's father? Certainly she, as has communed with her father and sent messages about the cause of this terrible famine, and here this man in his kingdom is feeling the effects of the famine. His hatred to Elijah was probably just as intense as the hatred of Jezebel and Ahab and other of the Israelites.

27:11 This is a strange command. Go right into the heart of some of your worst enemies, into the heart of that territory and expose yourself. No questions asked by the prophet, no indication that he quibbled with God. Does God tell me to go to Zarephath?

27:28 Then if God's command seems strange to me, if God's command leads through wilderness, through the danger of mountains, through mountain passes, into the heart of my most fierce enemies, God is God. He's to be trusted. Some of God's commands seem so strange to us, for His ways are not our ways, but He's to be trusted. We'll amplify that more in a moment.

27:52 Then the strangeness of the promise. Notice what he says. I have commanded a widow there to sustain me. Now the word widow doesn't conjure up before us the thoughts it would bring to the mind of the prophet.

28:08 This was the day before social security, insurance benefits, when widows can take up jobs and work. No. This would be like saying, you think of the most poverty-stricken area you've ever been in. I think of some of the areas where I ministered down in Augusta, Georgia, where people literally lived in shacks.

28:27 It would be like God saying, now my son, you go down there to such and such a street in that section, and I have commanded a poor person just barely to eke out an existence, on relief, to sustain you and your family. Lord, that doesn't make sense. When I got to drive by all those nice old colonial homes with those wealthy cotton financiers, Lord, that's where you ought to sustain me, not down there in the white trash section. Lord, that doesn't make sense.

28:59 That's what it was equivalent to. When God says, you go to Zarephath, and I've commanded a widow, the very epitome of poverty, to sustain me. No indication again that Elijah questioned. No indication that he quibbled with God.

29:18 No indication that he debated with God. He was convinced that what God had promised, he was able to perform. And I suggest to you that this matter of the absolute trustworthiness is the foundation stone of any practical faith in the promises of God. I read from Romans chapter 4, concerning Abraham, this great man of faith, beginning with verse 19, or verse 18, who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according as it is spoken, so shall thy seed be.

29:56 And without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body, the King James says he considered not. That shouldn't be. He considered his own body, now as good as dead. He said, alright, God promised me something.

30:09 He says, you're going to be a daddy. Now here I am, about a hundred years old, I've got sense enough to know that I'm no spring chicken anymore. I can't be a daddy. Yet God says I'm going to be.

30:21 And he looked over at his wrinkled wife, who'd had her 90th birthday. That's what it says. He being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He had seen her go through the change of life.

30:35 He had lived through that difficult period with her. This is what it's saying. Come on, let's root into Scripture the things that are a part of life. That's what happened.

30:43 He knew. She'd passed the flower of life. She'd gone through the change of life. No more possibility of conception.

30:49 And he looks over at Sarah, and he touches her under the cheek and says, Sarah, you know as well as I do, you can't be a mama. You know as well as I do, I can't be a daddy. Now let's look the facts square in the face. This promise don't make sense.

31:04 If the only factors are natural factors, considered his own body, considered the deadness of Sarah's womb, yet, now listen, yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but he waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God. And what caused his faith to wax strong? Here it is. And being fully assured that what he had promised, that he was able to perform.

31:36 There's the key to it. Sure, I'm an old codger. Can't bear a son. Sure, she's an old lady.

31:46 Can't be a mama. But there's God's promise. And I dare to look at my old wrinkled frame and my Sarah's wrinkled face, and I dare to say, my God is able. He's trustworthy.

31:59 And he glorifies God and says, Lord, the promise will yet be fulfilled. No doubt people thought that with age, senility was creeping in. Poor old Abraham. He got some sentimental hopes he's still going to be a daddy someday.

32:14 That poor old fool. He's a nice fellow. His religious life has been a good example. He actually thinks he's got a whole little boy in his arms someday.

32:25 He'd see his neighbors, young couples come out, their families growing, brag about their big families. Abraham would say, well, my time's coming. Huh? Were people any different then?

32:41 Especially in a society where bearing children was a status symbol of spirituality. And the failure to bear children was a reproach. All those factors were there. But what did Abraham do?

32:53 He rested his case in the trustworthiness of God. Being fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform. That's what Elijah did. Does God give me a strange command?

33:03 Does God give me a strange promise? But it's God who gives the strange command. It's God who gives the strange promise. And so the command must be obeyed and the promise must be fulfilled.

33:16 And so there is that lesson. The worst aspect of unbecoming and the worst aspect of unbelief, beloved, is this. It casts aspersions upon the trustworthiness of God. That's the worst thing about unbelief.

33:28 What it does to you is nothing compared to what it does to the character of God. Unbelief will choke you out from blessings. But what it does in casting aspersions upon the character of God is a terrible thing. But everything does come to pass because God is trustworthy.

Lessons About God: His Fearful Judgments and Inscrutable Ways

33:49 Well, let me mention just briefly two other lessons about God because I do want to hurry on to several other areas. There's a lesson about His fearful judgments in this passage. Not only His absolute sovereignty, His absolute trustworthiness, but His fearful judgments. Though there's an element of divine sovereignty in selecting this widow, there's not arbitrariness.

34:10 In Luke chapter 4 we have a hint as to why He was sent to a Gentile widow. The Lord Jesus has come to His own town. He stands up in the synagogue to read. He sits down and expounds the Scripture.

34:23 And then people begin to be amazed at the words of grace that proceed out of His mouth. And they say, Hey, isn't this the carpenter's son? Whence did he get all this learning? And they began to say, Oh, we know who he is.

34:34 He's just Joseph's son. I mean, let's not get too excited. He may impress us with his talk and the rest, but he's just Joseph's kid. Jesus said, A prophet is not without honor save in his own country.

34:48 Then from that statement, he moves to show them. There were many widows in the days of Elijah. But Elijah wasn't sent to his own country. They refused to recognize the prophet of God among them.

35:00 So God bypassed them and sent the prophet to a Gentile. Many lepers in the days of Naaman. God didn't send the prophet Elisha to any Israelite. He sent him to a Gentile Gentile.

35:15 And in this passage, I believe, we have a picture, a foreshadowing of what God was to do in cutting off the privileges of the nation of Israel as we read in Romans 9 to 11. Breaking off the natural branches, grafting in those unnatural branches, and sending the gospel to the Gentiles because this nation that had such privilege rejected that privilege. And so God withdrew it. Why was not Elijah sent to any widow in Israel?

35:46 At least one of the reasons, though it's all within the scope of divine sovereignty, is that here is a people who had rejected the word of the Lord. And the Lord says, All right, if you reject my word, my judgment will be, I'll no longer send my word to you. And so the prophet who is the mouthpiece of God is sent to a Gentile woman. Beloved, this is why I fear whenever I see any attitude of despising the pure preaching of the word of God.

36:13 Sure, the prophet's presence is sometimes a nuisance, always probing, always exposing sin, always holding up the inflexible standard of God, always seeking to prod the people of our God on to greater zeal, greater holiness. But what's the other choice? You get weary of a prophetic ministry that probes and wounds and prods. God may give you up to the smooth words of false prophets to lull you to sleep.

36:45 That's a frightful judgment from God. Frightful. May it never come upon the Trinity Church. But never forget, if in the process of time when God moves us into a building of our own and we have the respectability of having some brick and mortar, though we're not quite respectable in the eyes of some yet as we meet in the gymnasium, we ever get to the place where we say, well, you know, now that we've got a respectable building and more people have come in, maybe we ought to have a kind of ministry that's a little more positive.

37:22 I mean, we don't want to offend people. Why don't we have strangers and visitors come in and to have the kind of ministry that nails them the first time with the fact of their sinfulness and the absolute sovereignty of God and the infinite holiness of God and the inflexibility of His law and future judgment. Well, we believe all those things, but let's just be a little more thoughtful. If that day ever comes, may God send an earthquake to shake the brick and mortar and send it down in rubble and raise up a little unrespectable group to meet in a hall somewhere that will want the pure preaching of the Word of God and the probing voice of a prophetic ministry.

38:02 Frightful lesson here. The prophet is sent all the way to Zarephath bypassing all the widows of Israel because this was a nation that had rejected the Word of God. And then the last lesson about God Himself that we see. I'm sure there are others, but ones that stand out in my own thinking is what we might call the inscrutability of the ways of God.

38:25 I like the word inscrutable not because it's a big word, but because it says precisely what the passage teaches. Something is inscrutable. It's unfathomable. You can't trace it out to its ultimate cause and, as it were, see how all the strands fit together.

38:41 And now we see in this passage something of the fact that the ways of God are past tracing out. Here the prophet's been told, I'm going to take care of you by a brook. You know how I'm going to feed you? I'm going to have ravens come.

38:52 How stupid. What a weird way to provide a man's needs. If God can move ravens to pick up bread and meat and drop it, he can drop it himself right out of heaven. Now he says, go to a widow to sustain me.

39:06 Of all the unlikely people to sustain you, a widow. Of all the unlikely ways to meet a woman's need, as we see in this passage, the whole drift of it seems to be that God never filled the cruz or the oil, or the cruz of oil, or the barrel of meal, but apparently kept just what we call a last-ditch portion in there that just never failed, maybe always on the border line of failing. The ways of God, so strange. As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways.

39:42 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? You can't bring the principles that operate in the business world and in the educational world and then impose them upon the church and try to operate the church that way. Many an evangelical church is blighted because people won't acknowledge the inscrutability of the ways of God. His ways are not our ways.

40:05 The business world ways is amass your men and get the best ones and cull out the others and find the best technique and program and get the machinery going and get yourself on the map and send your stocks soaring highward, skyward. Well, what does God do? God goes around and gathers the little weak things, the things that are not. To do what?

40:23 To bring them off the things that are the things that are the things that are the things that are the things that are the things that are the things that are he drew out the things that are the things that are the things that are the flesh of glory in his presence. His ways are not our ways. He wants to teach a prophet of God's lessons. He does some strange things.

Lessons About the Life of Faith: Tested, Grounded in Promise, Exercised in Obedience

40:43 Well, let us hurry on to consider briefly some of the lessons about the life of faith that we see in this passage. For scripture tells us that we walk by faith and not by sight . But, what does it mean to walk by faith? Well, God gives us pictures.

40:57 He teaches the doctrine of the life of faith by showing us a man of faith. Now, You have to see And I would suggest this evening three things about the life of faith in this passage. Number one, faith must be tested and tried to be developed and strengthened.

41:16 Remember the disciples prayed, Lord, increase our faith.

41:22 One individual prayed, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Well, how is faith strengthened?

41:29 Well, it's strengthened by being tested and tried. Elijah's faith is tried as he comes out day by day and he sees the dwindling of the brook until there's nothing but a dry riverbed, nothing left. His faith is tested. Shall he begin to scheme and plan how he'll meet his own needs and run off hithering on?

41:47 Or shall he wait, believing that God will take care of him, that God will give him the next word of direction?

41:55 Apparently there's delay in the word of God coming. He doesn't see the brook begin to dry up and God says, now look, that brook's halfway dried up. When it's fully dried up, then you get up and go to Zarephath. No, the narrative says the brook dried up and then the word of the Lord came.

42:09 Not until then. Not until then. Faith is tried by the delay in the process of the drying up of the brook and the fresh word of direction. The difficulty of the journey, the source of the provision, all of these things were aimed at trying the faith of the prophet.

42:25 Will he believe in spite of circumstances that don't seem conducive to the fulfillment of the promise? Yes. A widow to sustain me? Ridiculous.

42:34 But God said it and so it makes sense. That's what God does to us. For in that period when faith is tested, our hope and our confidence in God is put to the test. Will I believe him like Abraham in spite of what I see, my own wrinkled face and saris?

42:55 Do I believe we shall yet cradle an infant in my arms, our arms? Now at times his faith weakened and when he went out, helped God fulfill the promise and had a child by Hagar, he plagued the nation of Israel for centuries to come.

43:11 That so often happens to us. Our confidence in God is shaken and so we begin to scheme and plan and the fruits of our scheming plague us and others to the end of our days. This happens in churches time after time when the way of God seems so difficult and so they scheme and plan and incorporate the principles of the secular business world and the secular educational world. and they blight unborn generations in the future of that church ministry.

43:41 No, if our faith is to be strengthened, it must be tested, it must be tried. This principle is found throughout the entirety of Scripture, particularly in the Gospels. When the disciples are trying to row against that terrible storm, when does the Lord come to them? Not in the first watch of the night, not in the second, not in the third, but in the what?

44:00 In the fourth watch of the night, the Lord comes. Fourth watch. Just when all hope seems to be gone, He comes walking on the water. Remember the message came, come on down, Lazarus is sick, come and raise him up.

44:15 And the Lord gets diverted until they come and say, no hope now. He's not only dead, He's been dead, this is the fourth day, He's stinking.

44:24 All hope gone. Faith being tested. Faith being tested. The nobleman, I'm sorry, Jairus' daughter, waits until she dies.

44:32 The message comes while she's still alive. He waits until she's dead. What's the purpose of all of this? That Syrophoenician woman who came, crying out for help for her daughter.

44:42 First of all, the Lord ignores her. Then He gives her a direct refusal. Then He insults her. What's the purpose of all of this?

44:48 To test her faith. For the testing of faith is to the believer what exercise is to the athlete. It strengthens the muscle fiber.

44:58 May God grant that we shall learn the lesson that Elijah learned. When our brooks dry up and every human resource is gone, and we must either wait and cling in confidence in the promise of God's sight unseen, or scheme to work our own way out, may we learn to wait by drying brooks until God speaks a word from heaven. Second matter about the lesson about the life of faith is that faith must have a word from God to plead before Him. Faith is not a leap in the dark.

45:34 It's a nailing yourself down to the promise of God and refusing to let your flesh wriggle, free. That's what faith is. Now, in all of this, what word did Elijah have from God? Well, he had this word.

45:47 I have commanded a widow there to sustain me. So all the way as he plods through the burning sun, cloudless sky, no rain in that whole region, making his way across the wilderness, spending his nights up in the cool mountain passes and the dangers of that journey, something sustains me. At that place in Zarephath, God has a widow, that He's commanded to sustain me. Well, if He's going to sustain me by a widow there, that means He's going to get me there.

46:17 So the thing that encouraged him to believe in his safety all through the wilderness is God had already promised, I'm going to take care of you there. He didn't say, I'm going to send a widow from there to bury you in the wilderness. She's going to take care of you there. God was promising He'd get there.

46:30 So any danger she faced, He had that promise to hold on to. Then when this unlikely provision comes out, He says, I'm about to cook the last meal and die. Hallelujah. In the world, is she going to meet my needs?

46:41 I can't be so heartless as to tell this woman to give me her last meal. And yet God had said, I've commanded a woman there to sustain thee. So He's able to plow through all in the realm of sight that seems to contradict the promise and clinging to that promise, pleading it before God. There is this wonderful fulfillment of the promise, verses 14 to 16, For thus saith the Lord, The jar of meal shall not waste, etc.

47:10 Verse 16, And the jar of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail. Elijah pleaded the promise God gave to him, and this widow woman pleaded the promise that Elijah gave to her. Elijah's needs were met, the widow's needs were met, even after the prophet went. For it says that this cruise of oil and this barrel of meal did not fail until rain came.

47:34 Well, Elijah left before the rain came. For he still had this contact with Obadiah that we shall see. He still had to, rather, the prophets of Baal together. Can you imagine the day the prophet went and the woman said, Boy, the prophet's gone.

47:48 All the while he's been here, that word that he gave me has been true. I've gone to bed some nights and the cruise was empty. I took out the last bit of oil.

47:59 The barrel of meal was empty. Tomorrow's another day and I need to fix some breakfast for myself and the prophet and the children. And she'd get up in the morning and there'd be some for her. Maybe she'd get down to the last handful and say, well, I wonder if that'll be it.

48:12 And there'd always be enough. But one morning, she waves goodbye to the prophet and he takes off down the road. Can you imagine what might have went through her mind?

48:22 Well, that prophet's gone. I know God's committed to take care of him. He's a prophet. I'm just a poor old widow woman.

48:30 I wonder what God will do for me.

48:33 Now she was left not even the presence of the prophet, just the naked promise of God.

48:39 That's all she needed because behind that promise was the character and power of the living God himself. And it says that God fulfilled his promise. And so one of the vital lessons of the life of faith is that faith must have promise to plead before God. May I suggest that this is one thing that disturbs me about much of our own praying, my praying, and our praying together, even in our prayer meetings.

49:06 It seems that so seldom are those of us who lead in prayer actually pleading specific promises before the Lord. Now that should not be. How do we know? How do we have any grounds to expect God will give us what we ask?

49:21 Well, we need to plead his promises before him.

49:26 Plead them before him. What we do corporately is just a reflection of probably what we fail to do privately. Are there sins that seem like insurmountable obstacles in the life? What does God want us to do?

49:39 Plead before him these promises. Sin shall not have dominion over you. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Lord Jesus, perform in me that which you will.

49:51 The word promises is your mighty word. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And so we are to plead those promises before him. When there is necessary supply of physical or spiritual need, God wants us to plead his promise.

50:09 Shall he not? How much more shall he not give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Luke 11, 13 ought to be a promise that all of us plead before God continually. When there is material need, we ought to be pleading Philippians 4, 19 and these other portions of Scripture.

50:26 As we think of the need we have as a church of land and a building, we ought to be in our own devotion scouring the Scriptures for promises that seem to apply and then plead them before God. Maybe that's why the Lord's delayed. He has some lessons of faith he wants to teach us that are far more vital and important than a hunk of real estate and brick and mortar. If so, he'll go right on holding off till we die.

50:51 We learn those lessons.

50:53 They're too vital. He doesn't want us to miss them. He doesn't want us to miss them. So may I encourage you and exhort you as the word of the Lord came to Elijah and through Elijah to the woman and pleading these promises before God their needs were met.

51:08 Expose yourself to the word in the consistent devotional reading and as you come for the exposition of Scripture and then those words of God that come home to your own heart with power plead them before him. The third thing I see in this passage about the life of faith not only must it be tested and tried to be strengthened not only must it have a word from God to plead before him but faith can only be exercised in the path of implicit obedience. Both for Elijah and the widow a promise came attached to a clear command. Go to Zarephath I've commanded a widow there to sustain thee.

The Necessity of Implicit Obedience and the Principle of Giving

51:50 Elijah says to this woman get for me first notice in verse number 13 go and do as thou hast said but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it forth unto me and afterward make for thee and for thy son for thus saith the Lord the God of Israel the jar of meal shall not waste neither shall the cruise of oil fail. In both cases the promise was inseparably attached to a command and the fulfillment of the promise was contingent upon obedience to the command. Elijah go to Zarephath there I'll take care of you. Widow lady bring something to me first and God will see to it there's enough for you and your son. What a tremendous principle. As with Israel wherever the cloud went they were to go and wherever they were found beneath the cloud of the directive of God in his presence the manna fell. They decided to go off and camp somewhere else while the cloud was here.

52:54 There'd be no manna out there camping in the territory of their own choosing. And so often the fact that the promises of God we say and let's be honest there's some of us in our hearts who say they just don't work for me. They work for George Muller and they may work for the pastor and may work for Miss so-and-so and Mr. so-and-so but they don't work for me.

53:16 I've got to disobey God to see my needs get met.

53:20 Is that so? Why don't they work? Because God hasn't promised to fulfill his promise is in any other path but the path of obedience. That's why the child of God knows something of Isaiah 28, 16.

53:35 He that believeth shall not make haste. I don't need to scheme and plan how my material needs shall be met. If somehow there is a withholding of material supply it's a call not to scheming but to prayer. Lord, why?

53:50 Is there some disobedience? You promised to meet all my needs. Is there some area where I'm not walking according to your revealed will? That's why delay is often God's means to bring us to searching of heart.

54:03 That's why this delay in God's provision of land and property is a call to us to searching of heart. Lord, could I be an Achan holding back blessing? Is there unbelief in me, Lord? Search me out.

54:16 Then as by God's grace we walk in the light of the precepts we shall have the unspeakable privilege of pleading the promises. Well, I only got about two-thirds of the way through so I'll have to go. I'll have to quit.

54:32 I'll just suggest to you you ought to look up some lessons on obedience here and give you the headings because it would be too hard to put this on the end next week. Elijah's obedience was immediate, unquestioned, and complete.

54:46 The moment God said go to Zarephath he packed his duds and he went. Immediate. David said, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments. Delayed obedience always ends up as downright disobedience.

54:59 If you don't obey when the issue is fresh and the consequences is sensitive it isn't long before you disobey. And there's no indication that he questioned God. He just did what God said and he did all that God said not like Saul who gave partial obedience. And then there's a tremendous lesson about the principle of giving.

55:18 I think maybe we'll have to preach on that. I don't know what to do. It's a problem. Give to me first.

55:25 One of the most cruel things that a prophet ever said to a woman who's in despair. Give to me first.

55:31 But in obeying it she had one of the most rich blessings that anyone could ever have. Tremendous principle about giving. Not just giving money. That's the least left.

55:39 But giving yourself. Giving your time. Giving your energy. Wonderful principle.

Conclusion: Call to Apply Lessons and Embrace Elijah's Savior

55:44 Perhaps we'll enlarge that as a message in itself. Well, may the Lord instruct us about himself. May he reprove us for our unbelief and our disobedience. May he instruct us in the way of righteousness.

55:58 And may I say to any here tonight who are strangers to the grace of God there's a beautiful touching scene with Elijah in the New Testament. He's standing upon a mountain with the Lord Jesus as recorded in Matthew 17. You know what he's talking about? He's talking with Christ about his death.

56:16 And I think that's tremendously significant. Indicating that Elijah recognized that his only hope of acceptance before God was not his faith not his obedience but the Savior whom God would send. And your only hope my friend if you're a stranger to God's grace is not to try to imitate Elijah's faith or his obedience but first of all to know Elijah's Savior and throw yourself upon his mercy and then being his disciple he'll begin to teach you the lessons about himself his absolute sovereignty his absolute trustworthiness his fearful judgments his inscrutable ways he'll teach you lessons about the life of faith that faith must be tested and tried to be developed faith must have a word from God to please God to please faith must be exercised in the context of obedience but all those things follow when Elijah's Savior becomes your Savior. But if he is then the grace available to Elijah through Jesus Christ is the grace available to us. May we apply to him for it and by his grace be Elijah's in our spirit service bringing glory to our God. Let us pray.