June 18, 2006
I have spoken on this passage before, but it comes before me again this morning: I Kings 18. It’s well known, and I don’t have time to read it all; this is about Elijah on Mount Carmel. Briefly, Ahab is a wicked king and the people are so far from God that the man of God has to suggest a contest to see which god was the real one. These are the people whom God had redeemed out of Egypt, brought across the Red Sea and wilderness and into the Promised Land. He gave them a law, sacrifices, the priesthood, feasts, and his presence in the tabernacle, all to remember what he did for them. Now they are in Canaan and are established, but they halt between two opinions: who is the real god? Baal or God? It would be hard to imagine this state, except our world is almost to that point. So the contest is suggested and the prophets of Baal and Elijah sacrifice and the god who answers with fire was the real God. This scene came before me: there are the people of Israel, an indifferent nation, rebellious and careless. The prophets of Baal are finished their antics, and it is now time for the evening sacrifice. Elijah has his sacrifice on the altar; he digs a ditch and gets the whole altar drenched in water. And as he is about to call on God, the people who have forsaken God look on. Today we have been to Calvary, another mountain. The sacrifice there was the Son of God. We remembered when the heavens closed and the fire of God fell. Look back to Elijah. When God brought fire down, who should have gotten it? Should it not have rightly fallen on the rebellious people? But it didn’t, as we read in v. 38. Two of our hymns this morning spoke of the storm that broke on the Lord at Calvary. When God brought down his rod of judgement, should it not have fallen on those who sat down and watched Him or those who had no king but Caesar? And if we were there, would it not have fallen on us as well? That is my thought this morning: he was smitten of God for our transgressions. When we think of the love of God and how He sent his only beloved Son to be the object of wrath and judgement just to get a response from our hearts, may it make us bow and worship Him, saying, “He did it for me.”
EG Hymn 346– Jesus who lives above the sky Prayer • When we looked at Jonah, we might have noticed that he was a selfish person; he did what was best for him. In this way, he was a bad example. The Lord Jesus is a good example of one who is not selfish, as we saw in our hymn. Read Proverbs 11:24 & 25. To scatter is to distribute. An example of this would be a farmer sowing seed. When it grows, he will have many more seeds. This is the way we should be: willing to give to others. V. 24 gives us the opposite of this: one who withholds. What are some things we can give to people? A few examples are 1)gifts, if we see someone who is in need of something; 2)help, by giving others a hand in jobs or tasks; and 3)love, with a smile or kind word. If we do not give, the end of v. 24 tells us that we will lose even what we have. V. 25 says that whoever gives will be given to, using the analogy of watering a plant. Read II Corinthians 9:6 & 7. If we only give a little, we will only receive a little. But if we give willingly, we will reap bountifully. A family of missionaries in Costa Rica was expecting a visit from their grandparents. Of course, Grandpa and Grandma brought some gifts and treats for the children, two girls and some younger boys. Among other things, each of them received a big chocolate bar, something they didn’t have in Costa Rica. The boys ate their bars in a few days, but the girls saved theirs. After the grandparents left, everyone was feeling rather sad; the oldest girl, Amanda, got out her chocolate bar, cut it into squares and gave everybody a piece to cheer them up. Her sister Julie looked on in disbelief that she would give away her chocolate. She decided to eat hers all herself one day. The next day one of the boys fell and hurt his knee, so Amanda gave him her last piece of chocolate. Then one day, when her parents were out shopping, Julie decided it was time to eat her chocolate bar. She went to her drawer, but when she opened it she found that sugar ants had eaten the whole thing. When her parents got back, they had a bag of candy that they gave to Amanda for being so giving with her chocolate bar. From this story we can see that “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.”
Hebrews 11:6–10 • Last week we looked at Enoch and saw that he walked with God. He is our third principle in this chapter: first we have the fact of Creation in v. 3; then there is the principle that we have been redeemed by a sacrifice in v. 4. Enoch, in v. 5, shows us that we must live by faith. Looking at this that way makes it personal. But there is another way to look at it: dispensationally. Scripture has only one interpretation, but there are sometimes many applications. To look at it dispensationally is to see it as it fits into God’s scheme for time. In this way, Enoch is type of the church. The whole body of Christ should be walking with God; and one day it will be translated and taken to Heaven. Enoch pleased God and that revolved around his faith. That faith was given to Him; and it is given to us, too, so we can and should please God. “By grace are ye saved, through faith.” It has been said that, “I’m not a man of faith.” No one is born with faith, but if you really want to believe, God will give you the faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The Bible is not an ordinary book; it will be revealed to those who want to understand it—not the critics—and they will be given the faith to believe it; God is a “rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” If you want faith, God will not turn you away. Remember, though, this faith is different from intellectual agreement or human trust. We couldn’t live a day without putting faith in something; this chapter is dealing with saving faith. Now we turn to Noah. He believed things that had not yet been seen. As he worked on that ark, he would have had people asking him what he was doing and ridiculing him when he explained. Dispensationally, Noah is a picture of the Jewish remnant that is carried from the church age, through the tribulation, to the millennium. But there is another way to look at scripture: as types. Noah is used as a type of baptism in I Peter 3:20 & 21. The water saved Noah and his family from the corrupt world around them. Parents can baptise their children to take them off the worldly ground they were born on and place them on Christian ground. This does not save them, but it is what the parents can do, trusting that their children will follow God. Of course, they must also bring them up learning to love God. But both Enoch and Noah were preachers. We find out in Jude that Enoch preached that the Lord would come again. Noah was a living sermon, and his life condemned the unbelieving world around him. Our lives, if they are being lived for the Lord, will condemn the world around us, though they laugh and mock us. But though Noah preached judgement, there is the other side of the message: that God is love, and different people are affected by different parts of the salvation message. EG Hymn 140 – Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, Prayer