Lessons About God

Introduction to Elijah's Final Ministry and the Passage

0:04 For the benefit of those who are visiting with us and have not been with us for some time on Sunday evenings, for some 27, this is the 28th I believe, Lord's Day evening, we have been studying portions in 1 Kings and tonight we move into 2 Kings dealing with the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah. We come tonight to the portion which brings us right to the very verge of Elijah's glorious home going into the presence of God, one of the two of the sons of men who has made that wonderful entrance into the presence of God, bypassing death, Enoch and Elijah.

0:49 And it's that strange and unusual happening as recorded in 2 Kings chapter 2, and I shall read that entire chapter in just a moment, but if we're to catch the drift of the real message of the chapter, we must back up to the last three verses of 1 Kings 22, and so I shall begin reading at 1 Kings 22, verse 51, and read right on through to the end of chapter 1 of 2 Kings.

1:28 Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel. Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, wherein he made Israel to sin. And he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the Lord, the God of Israel, according to all things.

2:03 And he did all that his father had done. And Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick. And he sent messengers and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this sickness.

2:28 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the kingdom, the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And the messengers returned unto him, that is, to the king, and said unto them, And he said unto them, Why is it that ye are returned?

3:07 And they said unto him, There came up a man to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And he said unto them, What manner of man was I? What manner of man was he that came up to meet you, and told you these words?

3:40 And they answered him, He was a hairy man, or a man with a garment of hair, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.

3:54 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. And he spake unto him, O man of God! The king hath said, Come down.

4:09 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And again he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God!

4:36 Thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty.

5:02 And the third captain of fifty went up, and came, and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and consumed the two former captains of fifty with their fifties. But now let my life be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go down with him, be not afraid of him.

5:37 And he arose and went down with him unto the king, and he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it because there is no god in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore shalt thou not come down from the bed whither thou art gone on, but shalt surely die. So he died, according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoiada, Jehoram began to reign in his stead in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because he had no son.

6:21 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

6:31 Let us pause to ask the Lord's help as we seek to understand the message of the Spirit of God to our hearts through this passage. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank you for this portion of your holy truth.

6:52 When we read that all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, we believe that this chapter is a part of that all-encompassing statement. And yet we acknowledge that it will not be to our instruction or profit, to our rebuke, unless your Spirit is pleased to anoint our eyes with eye-sab, that we might see, and unstop our ears, that we might hear. Left to ourselves, we shall either completely miss the message of your truth, or we shall rest it to our own destruction. But we believe that by the ministry of your Spirit,

7:35 this passage can be to our sanctification, to our edification, and to some, perhaps, even a portion that you will use to bring out of darkness into marvelous light, so to this end, our Father, be pleased to send of your Spirit in fresh and copious measures, that we may be conscious that the word is coming to us, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Hear us then in this hour cry. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Narrative Facts: Ahaziah's Sin and Elijah's Confrontation

8:21 As we come to this section of the word of God, we're going to approach it as we... We have many of the other sections in the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah, and I'm convinced, if not the only way, at least a very valid, helpful way of approaching any portion of historical narrative where God is speaking to us, not so much in clear propositions, saying this is so and this is not so, but is speaking to us in history, in example, where he's taking the precepts and clothing them in the flesh and blood of living example.

8:59 We must, first of all, fix in our minds the facts of the narrative as they stand before us. What does the chapter say? And then address ourselves to the very vital question, what is the message of the narrative to our own hearts? What profit is there for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness?

9:24 And as we have read... As we have read through the passage, I think the facts of the story are quite easy to hang together.

9:32 After the death of Ahab and the ascension of his son Ahaziah to the throne, you have the record, first of all, of this declension in the influence of Israel. Moab rebels against Israel after the death of Ahab, and that calamity is followed immediately by a further calamity, a personal one in the life of Ahaziah. He falls down...

9:56 He falls down having leaned upon the banister or some kind of a railing in his balcony, and he's sick with a sickness that is quite grave. We would say he was on the critical list. And because he wants to know what will happen to him, he inquires of this Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, literally the lord of the flies. I wonder if this contemporary writer got his title for his book from this.

10:23 I don't know. But this particular...

10:26 This particular god is the god of the flies, the one who either, when he was smiling, withheld the influence of the flies, or when he frowned, allowed a plague of flies to come upon the people of this particular area. But nonetheless, he sends to inquire as to whether or not he's going to live, indicating that these heathen deities, which are mere nothings, Paul says, but those who profess to be their prophets and their priests, had some kind of magical procession, processes of divination, and claim to be fortune-tellers and have some kind of prophetic gift. And so the king sends to inquire of them. And as his messengers are on the way, they are rudely arrested by this unusual personage

11:10 who splants himself right across their path and says, Stop your journey. Don't go a step further. I've got a message for you. And he hurls out his message to them.

11:21 And these people, taken back apparently by the surprise and by the authority with which he speaks, dare to disobey the very mission of a king. And that's no light thing in those days. But when they turned on their heel at the command of this unusual stranger who crossed their paths, they at that point were disobeying their orders from the king who said, You're to go to the god of Ekron and inquire of him. They come back.

11:50 And you can imagine the surprise that's bound up in the words that we read. And in this first chapter, when in verse 5 it says, The messengers returned and he said unto them, Why is it that you're returned? He is surprised that they've come back so soon. He's probably calculated.

12:05 Now let's see. It'll take them so long to get there. Take them so long to inquire of the prophets and for them to go through their rigmarole to come up with an answer. And so in his own mind, he's expected a time when they might return.

12:17 And they come back suddenly. And as he inquires as to the why, they tell him the facts recorded in those first four verses. And it's amazing. It's amazing how accurate they were in reporting the words of God.

12:28 I couldn't help but think as I was reading over them, wouldn't it be to God that preachers would be as accurate in conveying the words of God as these messengers were? They didn't pare down Elijah's words one bit. They gave it to him verbatim. And they said, This is what the prophets said.

12:44 And Ahaziah, who's known well the history of his father's rule, who no doubt was there upon Mount Carmel when the fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, who no doubt was in the corner, court when this prophet appeared on the scene so abruptly in 1 Kings chapter 18 and says, The heavens will be shut up and the key will be in my pocket and they won't be open till I take it out. He knew the history of this man Elijah. And so the moment they tell him the circumstances, his suspicions are confirmed when he says, What did he look like? And when they described him as the man who dressed in an unusual way in the hairy garment and the leathern girdle about his loins, he immediately perceives that this is the prophet Elijah,

13:29 a prophet who for apparently a period of three or four years was in utter obscurity. When he was seeking counsel about whether or not, when his father was seeking counsel as to whether or not to go up to battle, you notice Elijah did not appear on the scene. It was the prophet Micaiah. All of Elijah's appearances seemed to be peculiarly relegated to the moral issues of the state of Israel.

13:52 When there were political issues involved, there were, other prophets that the Lord used to pronounce the mind and will of God to the kings. But the peculiar ministry of the prophet Elijah was moral and spiritual reform amongst the people of those ten northern tribes. And so, once again, this prophet appears on the scene. And he, the king Ahaziah, knowing that it's Elijah, is apparently filled with rage, the same kind of rage with which his mother Jezebel said, By tomorrow this time, this man, shall be as those 450 prophets of Baal whom he has slain.

14:29 And so he sends these captains and their 50 men, not just to sit down and negotiate. These aren't negotiating days. These are days when might was right. And when he sent out that captain with his 50, you see, he intimated that he knew that Elijah was a little bit more than just an ordinary man.

14:49 You don't need 50 soldiers to accost one lonely man. So he acknowledged that he had something more than ordinary powers, and yet the poor fool thought he was reckoning still with a man in that he sends 50. For if he had recognized that Elijah was the servant of God, he could send 50 million. And if it wasn't God's time for him and his ministry to cease, nothing, nothing could stand in the way of God's purpose for his servant, Elijah.

15:18 But he sends them out. And the narrative is clear. Elijah says, If I be indeed a man of God, intimating that they use this term mockingly, O man of God, the king says, come down. You claim to be a man of God, but our king speaks.

15:33 We don't know about your God, but our king spoke it. And he takes their very terms and throws it back at them and says, If indeed I be what you've mockingly said I am, let fire come down from heaven and confirm it. And remember, it was God's fire, not Elijah.

15:49 People say, boy, Elijah was a hard-hearted cuss. Listen, he could say, let fire come down from heaven until his vocal cords were raw, until he could, speak no more. And if it wasn't the good pleasure of God to send fire, there'd be no fire. He was simply verbalizing what he discerned to be the will of God.

16:07 He was merely putting in the form of an outward pledge that which inwardly he was convinced God was disposed to do and says, If indeed I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and fire splits the heavens and their charred bodies lie upon the earth.

16:25 Now, how long it took for word to get back to the king, we don't know. But when it does, you think he'd be sobered. And this unusual manifestation of the power of God would conjure up all the past memories, the fire of God upon Carmel, all of the nation upon its face. Maybe he was one of them, crying out, Jehovah, he is God.

16:44 Jehovah, he is God. You think it would call to remembrance his father's sin and the awful judgment of God upon him. But it doesn't do anything of the sort. He says, all right, if the first fifty can't get him, get me another captain.

16:57 Another fifty. And he gives them the same orders. And these go out with the same impudence. They come and taunt the servant of God and say, oh, man of God, the king says, hurry up and get him down here.

17:08 And he says with the same calmness, if I indeed be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven. The second time they're consumed. And again, I don't know how the report gets back. Obviously, Elijah didn't go down and give it.

17:22 Perhaps the people in that general area saw the charred bodies. Maybe they came and asked the prophet what happened. I don't know. But all I know is that the report got back and the third man comes and he had the report straight.

17:33 So somebody conveyed it accurately. But instead of coming with that taunting, mocking attitude, he comes with a spirit of reverence to the servant of God. And when he falls down before the servant of God and kneels in his presence, he is indicating a posture of brokenness, not only before the servant of God, but before the God whose servant Elijah was. And he seeks mercy.

17:55 And it's obvious that Elijah is the mouthpiece of God. God is only too willing to show mercy to those who have come in that spirit. And so the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus himself, says to Elijah, don't be afraid. You go on back with him.

18:11 Then we read how he went back and he stood in the presence of the king, showing respect to him as the king, for even though he was a wicked king, Elijah recognized that it's God who puts down one and sets up another, delivers his message, turns on his heel and walks away. And remember, Jezebel was still alive at this point. The same man who, when he got a report, just of words that she's out to get you, runs into a wilderness. Now he marches right smack into the center of her domain, hurls out his challenge, pronounces the judgment of God.

18:47 And while they stand there stunned and powerless, he turns on his heel and walks out. Are you amazed when you read the book of Daniel, how the Lord shut the mouths of the lions? Well, this is a Daniel's lion's den. The Lord is shutting the mouth and restraining the fury of a Jezebel and all the wicked cohorts of that court in Samaria.

19:10 And then, as he predicted, the narrative closes with the announcement that he died. Well, those are the facts. I hope you've got the story in your mind that you could tell it to someone. That's all well and good.

God's Burning Jealousy

19:21 You say it's a very unusual story, very interesting, very fascinating. If you have even a little bit of a poetic strain in you, you wouldn't find it difficult. It'd just conjure up the image of this whole thing. There's all kinds of real-life drama in this.

19:33 It's just one of those passages that just comes alive if you read it with any degree of imagination. But now the crucial issue is here you sit on a hot night in 1969 in a society that's about to blow up in your face, in a world that rocks and reels like a drunken man in its stupor. And you say, what in the world does this have to say to us? What's it say to us?

19:59 Well, the first and foremost thing this passage says to us is that it eloquently declares to us something about the nature and character of the God with whom we have to do. When we went through chapter 20, we went through it three times in three sermons. The first time asking the question, what does this chapter reveal about the nature and character of God? Then the second time, what does it reveal about the nature and effect of sin?

20:25 And the third time we went through and asked the question, what sober warnings does it contain? Well, we're going to go through this chapter not in precisely the same way, but we're going to start at the same point as I wrestled with how to handle the chapter. I came back to this basic principle again that there's nothing more foundational in any portion of Scripture than to start with this question, what does it reveal about God? Don't come first of all saying, what is there in here to give me a little shot in the arm and make me feel good?

21:00 No. The most vital thing about any man or woman, the most telling thing, is his or her concept of God. And if you're here tonight as a stranger to the grace of God, you know nothing of the salvation of God in Jesus Christ. You are, in Scriptural terms, still dead in your trespasses and sins.

21:21 Nothing is more vital for you than to know something about the God with whom you have to do. And if you're a Christian, nothing is more vital than to increase your knowledge of the God who has brought you out of darkness into marvelous light for they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. What then does this chapter reveal to us about God? Consider in the first place that it reveals to us His burning jealousy.

21:53 His burning jealousy.

21:58 I began by reading the last few verses of 1 Kings,

22:03 and in verse 53 we read, And he, Ahaziah, served Baal and provoked to anger the Lord, the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done. He provoked him to anger. The wrath of God was stirred up. But I want you to notice as we come to chapter 1 that it's wrath in the context of a pure and holy God.

22:34 Jealousy. For verses 3 and 4 tell us that when it was known or made known to the prophet that Ahaziah had sent messengers to inquire of this heathen deity, Baal-zebub. I've got to get the B's and Z's right. It was then that he pronounced to him in verse 4, Now therefore, because of this deed, thou shalt not come down from the bed whether thou had gone, but shalt surely die.

23:08 Verse 16 confirms that. And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, For as much, here's the reason, as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed whether thou had gone up, but shalt surely die. The reason for the final judgment of God falling upon Ahaziah was that he sought after a heathen deity for information about his physical well-being instead of seeking after the Lord God of Israel. And God was consumed with a jealousy for his own position in the eyes of Ahaziah

23:52 and the nation of Israel. It is God who entered into covenant with his people Israel. They weren't wandering around in the wilderness saying, you know, we've got a spiritual vacuum here and we have this religious, and aesthetic need and we need somebody to fill it. And so we have a little pow-wow and we say, well, I think the God that we'll serve, let's call him Yahweh.

24:16 And let's say that he's like this. No, no, no, that's not the picture of Scripture at all. The picture of Scripture is that God in grace reached down into a heathen city and he laid his hand upon a man named Abraham. And he entered into covenant with Abraham.

24:31 And it's God who said, really imposing a covenant upon him, upon Abraham, if we may use the term, sovereignly and powerfully, I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bring blessing through that nation and through your seed, which according to Galatians 3 is Jesus Christ, the Father of the faithful. And God having entered into that covenant relationship likens in many portions of Scripture his relationship to his covenant people of that of a husband to his wife. It's very graphically set forth in Ezekiel 16 where God says, when the young woman came of age that he entered into a marriage covenant with her.

25:10 Therefore, whenever his people go after anyone else, it is the proclamation of a lie. It's saying in essence to Jehovah, you took us into covenantal relationship with you. And you pledged that you yourself would be all that we would need. You would be our portion.

25:29 You would meet every need that we could ever encounter. Now when the people of God would turn aside from Jehovah to any other God, they were proclaiming a lie. They were saying, no, Jehovah cannot fully meet our needs. We must seek to another God for the meeting of our needs.

25:46 In this particular case, it was the need that a man felt to know whether or not he was going to recover. And it was not uncommon in those days for kings to inquire of the prophets to get some insight from God. Earlier, God had given to the priests the Urim and the Thummim, whatever they were. I know they aren't what Joseph, Smith claims they were for him, his special glasses to read the holy plates that were left by the angel Moroni.

26:13 I'm going to leave off the I. But here was some way of discerning the mind and will of God. Some of you are a bit slow in spelling out what that spells.

26:27 So when this man, Ahaziah, sends to a heathen deity, he is proclaiming a lie to the entire nation. He is saying, Jehovah, cannot be and will not be all that he's pledged to be. And God, as the covenant God of his people, is moved with a burning jealousy for his own glory. He's moved with a burning jealousy for the affection, the undivided affection of his own people.

26:55 And it's this burning jealousy of God that causes him to disclose this message to the prophet Elijah and sends him into the presence of the king and pronounces, pronounces that message of judgment and doom that shall come to this land. Ah, but someone says that's in the old days. God was a God of jealousy, of burning jealousy when he was concerned primarily just with that nation of Israel. But now in the New Testament broad biblical universalism where God is concerned with all the nations, we don't find that jealousy anymore.

27:32 Is that true? I remind you that the last, one of the last utterances of the Lord Jesus, Christ, you don't find it in the Gospels, but you find it in the book of the Revelation, is the complaint of a jealous lover. For he says to a church that had very, very much to commend itself to our admiration. I'm quoting now from Revelation 2.

27:56 He said, I know thy works, thy toil, thy patience. Thou canst not bear evil men. Thou hast tried them that say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience for my name's sake, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee that thou didst leave thy first love. Repent, therefore, or I'll remove the candlestick.

28:24 That's a pronouncement of impending judgment.

28:30 As our Lord's speaking in the pure and holy jealousy as the heavenly bridegroom of his people. Scripture says of him that God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, Jesus Christ, Scripture declares that we are complete in him. We need seek no divide outside the circle of his revealed will and his sovereign plan. And here are people whose hearts have run out in affection to other objects.

29:03 And the Lord Jesus speaks as a jealous lover, and I say it in its purest, highest sense, and says I have somewhat against thee.

29:16 If you're here tonight as an unconverted person, there's a sense in which God's heart burns with holy jealousy. He made you to be an instrument of his praise. He created you that you might give unto him the love and the worship of your heart. That volitionally and delightfully you might be found accepting your place as a creature.

29:41 Utterly dependent upon him, the creator for all things, and gladly acknowledging it. You are dependent though you acknowledge it or not. And if you're not a child of God thanking him for the air you breathe, you're breathing borrowed air in a very ungrateful manner.

29:58 But you see the child of God has been brought to the place where he's glad to confess he's a creature. Utterly dependent upon God for all that he has. And if that's not your portion, there's a sense in which God's heart burns with jealousy. He didn't make you to just run around doing what comes naturally for your own ends and for your own purpose.

30:21 The life you have is not your own. It's created life.

30:28 And it's owned by the creator.

30:32 And perhaps a sight of the holy jealousy of God would cause you to shake with horror at the thought that you should dare to dissipate your energies and expend the life that isn't yours in a way that is opposed to the very purpose of the God who created it.

30:53 But dear child of God, this passage and this principle speaks worlds to us. We sang, or maybe it's a hymn similar to it in the words that came to me, when all created streams are dried, thy fullness is the same. No good in creatures may be found, but may be found in thee. I must have all things and abound while God is God to me.

31:19 Dear child of God, why in the world are you running to your Baal Zibon? Why are you having to dabble in that particular area of fleshly carnal delight to gratify yourself? Isn't that going to Baal Zibon? God has promised to be your portion.

31:36 Why are you having to dabble in that area of heathenism, of thought and of life and of attitude? God's jealous for the undivided affection of your heart. You may not have sent people on a trip to Ekron, to some geographical place, but in your heart you've made many trips to the shrine of heathen deities. ...some fulfillment,

32:05 but you think, well, I can't have that in Christ. Oh, may God's word be in Elijah to stand in your path tonight and point the accusing finger and say, what are you doing? I, the Lord, quoting from Exodus chapter 20, I, the Lord, am a jealous God. When he formalizes those ten commandments which were the expression of God's will and purpose for his covenant people, he weaves into the very fabric of those commands this aspect of his character, in Exodus 20 and verse 5, for I, the Lord, am a jealous God.

32:44 And if he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, he is just as jealous of God today. Jealous for the undivided allegiance of his covenant people. Jealous that they, by their very conduct, should declare to the world, Jesus Christ alone is sufficient. See, that's what Israel was to be.

33:06 Living in such a way that the heathen nations would say, look, you people are content. You people are blessed. You people have all things, but you don't get them the way we do. You aren't driven by the same passions that we are in terms of feeling you have to have this for prestige and this for importance and this for station.

33:24 Their very marked difference was to be their glory. The philosophy in our day is our sameness with the world will be the bridge of our contact with it. So we'll open up our so-called Christian coffee houses.

33:41 And have rock and roll music and Jesus thrown in. And countenance dancing of the modern form with all of its suggestive, seductive movements. And then ask the people of God to pray that this will be blessed. It's going on in New York City tonight.

34:02 It's going to Baal-zebub. And his truth and his ways are not enough. We've got to borrow from Egypt. Gotta go down and make to win Egypt.

34:23 And you just end up being conquered by Egypt. God's a jealous God. He's jealous for his church. That his church be willing to believe and then express by its practice that it does believe that the word of God is the sufficient rule both of faith and of practice.

God's Absolute Sovereignty Over Nations and Justice

34:47 Well, in the second place this passage declares to us concerning our God not only his burning jealousy but it sets forth very vividly his absolute sovereignty. What do we mean when we speak of the sovereignty of God being absolute? We mean, at least I mean when I use the term, that God is utterly unfettered by anything outside of himself in the exercise of his own will and his own plan. There's nothing outside of himself that binds him.

35:23 To use scriptural terminology, who can stay his hand and say, oh, wait a minute God, who gave you permission for that? I see my son going to the ministry in the medicine cabin. I say, where are you going? What are you doing?

35:35 Well, I'm going to get some band-aids. Who said you could? Well, mummy or nobody. I have the right and the responsibility as a parent to stay the hand of my children many, many times.

35:45 You might walk into the bank Monday morning and see after figuring things out your paycheck and your bills and there's a discrepancy and you'd like about another thousand to just sort of clear up some back bills and you might just start reaching your hand into the teller's drawer. If you had an arm that long I'm sure there'd be an iron hand on it going along saying, hey, what are you doing? Oh, I'm taking a thousand dollars. Who said you could?

36:08 And you'd be under the authority of the officials at that bank. Now, when God starts to put forth his hand to do something, who's going to put their hand on God and say, hey, wait a minute, who gave you permission for that? That's the question Daniel asked. Who can stay his hand and say unto him, hey, what are you doing?

36:27 God is answerable to no one but himself. And when we speak of the absolute sovereignty of God, we are asserting in those terms this scriptural concept that he is utterly free from any consideration except those that lie within himself. Now, where do we see that and how? First of all, in the disposition and direction of nations and secondly, in the administration of his justice.

36:54 You notice how the chapter began and this troubled me when I first started studying it. And Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And I figured, well, what in the world is that in there for? I can see some sense to what it says about Ahaziah and his going to Ekron and the prophet coming.

37:12 But what's this in there for? Well, you notice it begins with the and and I backed up to the latter part of the last chapter of 1 Kings because there is an integral connection between these things. Ahaziah is a wicked king and he's not been in the place of authority long when Scripture says that he follows in the path of his father and then that wicked witch of a woman, Jezebel, his mother. And he provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel.

37:39 Now, how does God's anger display itself? The first way is right here. Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Moab had been conquered under the reign of David and for many years had been a servant nation to Israel.

37:56 And God had allowed this relationship to exist in which Israel was the conqueror and Moab was the conqueror. But now, in judgment upon this wicked man, what happens? This nation says, hey, we've had it long enough. They're imperialistic Israelites.

38:17 We want national identity. You think the problem of the emerging nations is a new thing? It's no new thing. You've got it right here.

38:27 We want independence. We want our own representative at the UN. The same old problem. But listen, behind all of this there's the activity of God.

38:37 And this was God's judgment in part upon Israel and in particular upon Ahaziah to let his own political stability be undermined by this revolt of Moab. Now, why did it happen at this precise point? There's only one answer. From the human side, it happened because of the sin of Ahaziah.

38:57 From the divine perspective, it shows the absolute sovereignty of God over the affairs of nations. And God, as it were, to speak anthropomorphically, to speak in human terms, backs off from the scene and says, Aha, he's going to react that way and he's going to, as it were, throw his clenched fist in my face and defy my laws. This is how I'll bring judgment upon him. I'll take this nation and cause it to rise up and kick against him.

39:27 And so God moves upon the leadership. And how? Scripture doesn't tell us. I don't know if the antiquity, history, profane history would tell us how the actual thing happened.

39:39 Maybe a spirit of intense nationalism possessed the people. And they said, we want our own independence. We want to preserve our own way of life. We want our own culture.

39:48 But regardless of what means were used, the conscious things that men knew that moved them to seek independence, viewing from the scriptural perspective, we see that God was sovereignly disposing this nation to rebel against the leadership of Ahaziah. Oh, dear ones, if we don't understand yet may God the Holy Ghost make it real to us. There is a history behind history. There is a plan behind the chaos.

40:19 There is order behind and underneath and in the midst of disorder. Oh, again, Pastor, what practical implications does this have? Well, it has plenty. If you're not convinced of that, you don't have much comfort living in the day we live in.

40:37 What kind of comfort do you have if you don't believe that God is absolutely sovereign in the disposition of nation? You see a nation like Red China rising up that's not the least bit embarrassed to say what its goal is, world conquest. It doesn't have the subtlety of the Russian brand of communism that talks peace and love out of one side of the mouth, but has the dagger of conquest and the rest out of the other. No, no, no, no.

41:09 It just blatantly says, starting revolutions all over the world. And what can you do? What can I do? You feel helpless, powerless.

41:18 You say, something's got to be done. Yeah, what are you going to do? Are you going to go over and sit down and talk with Mao and change him? Say, now let's be reasonable, sir.

41:26 Is that what you're going to do? What do you do when in our own nation you see certain men raised to heights of political influence just because of their name? I don't know of anything that gets me more angry than that. There are times I just feel so frustrated I could chew on wood.

41:41 And I say, because somebody's name is such and such and there's a strange mystique. He's done nothing, nothing to merit the kind of adulation and respect and the following. And yet because somebody's got a certain name, a certain amount of money, he's all of a sudden elevated to places of national prominence, affecting the destinies of millions of people. You know what my only comfort is?

42:03 Right here. There's a God who's holding the reins. See? Very practical tool.

42:12 It gives the child of God comfort, particularly in the midst of unusual national upheavals. And certainly we're living in such days. And then it'll also bring submission to the child of God. But remember, there was a godly remnant in Israel at this time.

42:32 And they had to experience some of the instability that came from the rebellion of Moab. Some of those 7,000 the Lord had reserved to Himself that hadn't bowed the knee to Baal. Why didn't they get together and organize some kind of a military movement to go down and crush this rebellion? Well, I would like to believe that they had learned the lesson, that the Lord was on His throne.

42:56 And Moab, or no other nation, could rise up and come to a place of ascendancy without the hand of God being in it all. And so, child of God will produce a spirit of sweet submission if you're involved and feel the pinch of the movements of nations. And some of us, I'm convinced, are going to live to see unusual upheavals that are going to put tremendous pressures upon us. And you're going to say, how could it be a righteous, just God, letting a wicked nation like this overrun this nation and this wicked movement, as it were, swallowing up this other child of God?

43:34 I hope you remember this chapter. And in the little statement, and Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Why after the death of Ahab? Remember what God had said?

43:45 All these judgments will not come to pass in your days, but after you're gone. Right? So after he's gone, God says, all right, now it's time to fulfill it. There he is, perfect control.

43:55 So we see the sovereignty of God, but not only in the disposition and direction of nations, but in the administration of his justice. In this passage, we have the record of a king who dies in his sins, what we might call a gradual death. He has this fall from his balcony, place of security, he thought. There's that nation warring or rising up, and he's not down there to get mess.

44:25 He's in the security of his own palace. Maybe he's even leaning back, musing about, how wonderfully secure he is. Cracked, the railing breaks. He falls and is fatally ill.

44:35 But he's given a period of days. He has a deathbed. There's a space for the man to reflect. There's time when the men come and say, this unusual personage has arrested us on our way to Ekron.

44:50 And the message is given, and the soldiers are sent out. There's a period of time before the final acts of justice falls upon the neck of Ahaziah. Time in which he could seek the Lord. Time in which he could muse upon his ways.

45:03 Time in which he could reflect and prepare himself to meet his God. But there are 102 other people. They get up one morning. They go to the chow line, tell the latest dirty jokes they've heard as soldiers will do.

45:14 Polish up their armor. Report to the king. He said, I have a special message for you today. A special task.

45:21 And they're given their tasks. And on their way out, they're singing their bawdy songs. Can you hear them? Can you hear them?

45:26 Can you hear them? Can you hear them? Can you hear them? Can you hear them?

45:30 Can you hear them? Can you hear them? Can you hear them? Carefree as they can be, they throw out their mocking taunts to the prophet.

45:37 And ten seconds later, nothing but their scorched corpses lie upon the open field. Why did a wicked king, with all the opportunities he had, have a longer period in which to reflect and repent? And these soldiers who probably had nowhere near the light and opportunity and privilege, they may have been imported by Jezebel from one of the nations with which they were in league, I don't know, but it's obvious they didn't recognize the prophet. And had they been Israelites, they would have.

46:14 They would have been involved in all the events that had preceded under King Ahab. Why should they be cut off instantly, without a moment's warning, while a wicked king is given space to repent? Why? There is no answer, but that answer which is resolved in the sovereignty of God that is absolute, not only in the administration of nations or the disposition of nations, but in the administration of His justice.

46:46 Yet the acts of justice, one suddenly and without warning, the other with a period in which to reflect. That says worlds to us. There are some of you who in your present state are marked for the acts of justice. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

47:08 And if God is to be God and true to His word, you too must be cut off in your sins. I could wish for all such tonight that God would give you a broken lattice and a death bed upon which to reflect and think and prepare to meet your God. But I doubt that He has that for all of you. And none of you knows that He has it for any of you.

47:43 What a terrible thing to be cut off in the justice of God, but to be cut off suddenly. In one of the old prayer books, one of the prayers is, And from a sudden death good Lord save us. This is sober business, folks, because our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Jesus Christ has not, as it were, canceled out this kind of God and replaced it with another.

48:13 He's the one who said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if only you had known the things that belonged to your visitation, but now they're past, and there's nothing ahead, but destruction, woe be unto you. The same Christ who began His ministry in the Sermon on the Mount with those seven blessings closes with those seven woes in Matthew 23. And God is sovereign in the administration of His justice, in the when of His justice, and also in the how of His justice. On the one hand, He used second causes.

48:52 You who are in the men's class a week or two, you know the adult class who remember we talked about second causes. How does the justice of God find its mark with Ahaziah? Oh, some carpenter left a loose board or didn't put enough nails in, and he's leaning. Or some man at the mill let a piece go through that should have been thrown away that was defective.

49:16 I don't know. But all I know is he leaned upon a banister that he thought would hold him, and it broke beneath his weight and he fell. He died of what we'd call natural causes, internal injuries. Those 102 soldiers and their captains died by a direct intervention of God.

49:37 Which death was worse? They both sealed the eternal destiny of those whom it found. God is sovereign in the administration of His justice, both in the when of that justice, and in the how. And I should think this thought would strike fear to the heart of any unconverted person in the sound of my voice tonight.

50:04 To think that if it pleases God, He could open the heavens tonight and send fire to consume you in your state of rebellion. Doesn't that strike fear to your heart? I tell you in my unconverted days I used to live in dread and torment that I might just be sucking in a good mouth of air because being a mouth breather I can't breathe through my nose and have a bee stick in my throat and have me choke and die. At times I get a piece of gristle caught in my throat and I think this is it.

50:35 God's cutting me off. You say, I don't have the fuss to have of God. I tell you, living in the light that I had and in the rebellion I was living it was the only sober kind of thinking to do. I, a little worm of the dust trampling underfoot the blood of the Son of God, despising the spirit of grace, counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, choosing to keep the bit in my teeth and go my own ways.

51:01 Anything less than some holy fear would have been greater moral and spiritual insanity. I tell you, dear ones, we're dealing with a God who's a consuming fire. That which is going to bring in any measure sinners to their faces and knees in our day is not a general preachment of the love of God. It's going to be a sober reckoning with these aspects of His character which ought to make sinners quail and tremble before Him.

God's Haunting Omnipresence

51:32 God is a God of burning jealousy. He's a God of absolute sovereignty. We see in this passage also another attribute or characteristic of God. He's the God of what I'm calling in this context of haunting omnipresence.

51:50 The doctrine of the omnipresence of God, the fact that He is everywhere, is a very comforting doctrine to the child of God. Psalm 139 indicates this. When David contemplates that even there as he was being formed in the womb of his mother, he was being held under the shadow of the hand of God, he says, such thoughts are too wonderful for me. They are high.

52:13 I cannot attain unto them. He's willing to be lost in spiritual reverie at the thought of the omnipresence of God. But to the heart of an impenitent man or woman, it's a haunting concept that everywhere I go, God's there. You see what this man tried to do?

52:31 By running away from the counsels and truth of God, he thought he could escape the God of truth. I won't go and seek out a prophet of Jehovah. I'll go seek out Baal, Baal of Biza. I'll seek out this man, this God, and by so doing and avoiding the counsel and the truth of God, I'll avoid God altogether.

52:55 And what does God do? He plants Elijah right in the path, saying in essence to Ahaziah, look, you can spurn my counsel, you can turn your back upon my truth, but you haven't escaped the sphere of my control and my knowledge of all that you are. And how his conscience, as seared as it may have been, must have come alive when the messengers came back perhaps with white-drained countenances and said a strange man met us. Here's the message.

53:22 What did he look like? And they tell him, he says, it's Elijah the Tishbite. And conscience begins its terrible work reminding him that God is everywhere. He saw you, Ahaziah, when you whispered your instructions to those messengers.

53:39 He sees you now upon that bed. He sees you in your spirit. He sees you in the state of rebellion. You cannot escape him.

53:48 Oh, dear young people, listen to me. One of the most futile, futile efforts you'll ever make, and I'd be willing to wager that you all have made it at one time or another, is you're convinced you can somehow hide something from God. I'm going to hide it from God. And so you avoid those aspects of his truth that remind you, thou, God, seest me.

54:13 All things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do. And you escape those areas of truth and the counsel and the kind of ministry. Even while I'm preaching, you're doing your best to think about next week and next year and about your latest dress. And though your eyes are here, because you know your mom and dad will give you a dressing down if you don't, your mind is actively employed turning aside the truth, turning aside the truth.

54:36 Why? Because you think if you can turn away the truth, you can turn away God. But you can't. You can't.

54:43 Ahaziah found it out. I won't think about Elijah. I won't think about Jehovah. Go to that heathen God.

54:51 I'll tune God out. God says, you may have tuned me out, but you haven't brushed me out of my world. It's my world and I made it. And I'm the Lord in the midst of it and I fill it and I know all that transpires.

55:04 And this passage is a vivid demonstration of that aspect of God's character, his haunting omnipresence. A frightening thought to the sinner, but a blessedly true comforting thought to the saint. And then I see also in this passage a fourth characteristic of God. What does it tell us about God?

God's Burning Anger Against Impenitent Sinners

55:29 It tells us of his burning anger against impenitent sinners. God's anger stirred up to Ahaziah that brought judgment. God's anger to these impudent soldiers that brought fire from heaven. And remember, and I intimated this earlier, don't ever question why Elijah did this.

55:50 It wasn't Elijah's fire, it was God's fire. It was the fire of God that fell. I think maybe underneath, we aren't quite brazen enough to say, God, why did you do it? So we feel, well, why did Elijah do it?

56:04 He was pretty much a sorry cuss to pull a thing like this. No, no. He was powerless to bring that fire out of heaven. He just ratified and verbalized what God had purposed to do.

56:16 And I submit to you that the fire is many times in Scripture symbolic of God's judgment. And I don't fool around with symbolism, finding a symbol in every blade of grass on Canaan's mountain sides. But I think one must read the Bible with his eyes half closed not to see that fire is the symbol of judgment. When that fire fell, God was vividly displaying His judgment is a consuming judgment, for our God is a consuming fire.

56:44 Now follow me closely. God has not changed one whit. He's the same God today. Ah, but you say, I don't hear that He sends fire out of heaven and judges men as He did then.

56:54 No, generally He doesn't. I haven't heard of this in recent days either. But listen closely. God's character is the same, for He is the changeless God.

57:04 But in the revelation of His character there are certain aspects of His character that He reveals with greater vividness and clarity at certain periods in the history of mankind and in more particular, the history of His church. We call that progressive revelation. God reveals in a progressive scope. So take the two words, justice and mercy.

57:31 They are both revealed in the Old Testament everywhere you turn. They're both revealed in the New Testament. But will you picture those two words up here in big block letters? Justice and mercy.

57:47 Now picture the words justice in bright red day glow paint like they have on some road signs. And mercy in a very soft off-white color. That's basically much of the Old Testament. Justice!

58:06 When we come to God's fullest revelation in Jesus Christ, we don't find justice canceled out. But we find that the day glow is now upon mercy with the promise that at the final consummation justice will once again be in the bright orange paint. For He will come in flaming, fire-taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of His glory. 2 Thessalonians 1.

58:44 So though the primary focus of God's revelation in the present hour is that it is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time. Don't for a moment think that God ceases to be the God who sends fire to consume the soldiers. He's still that God. And He'll be clearly revealed as that God again at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory and in power.

59:13 And this passage reminds us that He is that God of burning anger against impenitent sinners. Woe be to the man who meets Him as such in that day. And if I had to close here, I'd say, Lord, just let me preach from another chapter, my last point, if I can't preach it from this, but it's right here. And this chapter reveals in the fifth place, and I'll only touch upon it briefly, that God is a God of overflowing mercy and grace, who, though He resists the proud, gives grace to the humble.

God's Overflowing Mercy and Grace

59:53 For we see the picture in this third captain who comes and who, in contrast to the others, comes not with impudence, but with humility, who comes not with an arrogant spirit that reflects a disposition of anarchy against God, but who comes with a submissive spirit reflective of the disposition of his heart to Jehovah. And it's not as though the prophet is there saying, Oh, shucks, I wanted to see it happen again. That's the picture some would give. No, no.

60:25 The moment he sees any inkling of a disposition of brokenness and humility, the whole mood of the chapter is that he's glad to heed the voice of the angel of the Lord that says, Go down with him. No fire from heaven this time. He's not going to be a Jonah pouting because he can't see judgment. Jonah pouts because he can't see the city consumed, not Elijah.

60:47 And Elijah is evidencing just a little bit of the character of Jehovah his God, who's a God of overflowing mercy and grace. Grace that distinguishes. Why should this soldier have that disposition and not the other? Well, you say, maybe he had a better upbringing.

61:09 Yes. Why? Well, maybe because his parents had been somehow connected with the true worship of Jehovah. Yes, but why?

61:17 And you see, you keep tracing back the whole chain of events. And though there may have been a thousand different little streams, rivulets, flowing in to make this man what he was at the point that we find him. Ultimately, we ask the question, who maketh thee to differ the one from the other? And the answer is God, the God of sovereign grace and mercy, who by that grace works in the heart of proud sinners that spirit of humility and submission and reverence for the living God.

61:45 And God delights to confirm mercy upon those whom he has disposed to receive mercy.