This morning, we once again consider the Lord's work through Elijah, 1 Kings 19, verses 9 and 10 this morning. 1 Kings 19, 9 and 10. Once you have found that, I also ask that you turn to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. We know that in Romans chapter 9, Paul talks about God's sovereign choice, God's election of those whom He desires to save. At the end of that chapter, he talks about Israel's unbelief and then goes on in chapter 10 to make it clear that they are without excuse, though, that they indeed heard. How can they call on the one they have not believed? How can they believe in the one they have not heard? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? And Paul makes it clear that they did have that word. They did have that preaching. The last verse of chapter 10, he says, But concerning Israel, he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. But then in chapter 11, Paul talks about the remnant of Israel and goes back to the time of Elijah. We'll read together the first seven verses of chapter 11. Hear now God's Word. I asked then, did God reject His people? By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people whom He foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah? How he appealed to God against Israel? Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill Me. And what was God's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain. But the elect did. The others were hardened. we begin reading in verse 7 of 1st Kings chapter 19 which we considered last time the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said get up and eat for the journey is too much for you so he got up and ate and drank strengthened by that food he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb the mountain of God there he went into a cave and spent the night and the word of the Lord came to him What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left. And now they are trying to kill me too. There we end with a reading of God's Word. May He add His blessing to it this morning. Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, desperate times call for desperate measures, as the saying goes. We see that in our day, don't we, with our country, with regard to our struggling economy. Congress and the President are busy in negotiations with regard to our nation's budget and the national debt limit. The same is true with corporations when there are desperate economic times. They come out with major cutbacks in employees and spending. Desperate times seems to be what Elijah faced. Not desperate times, economically speaking, but desperate times because of wicked Ahab and Jezebel and the desperate measures according to Elijah that ought to be taken was that he run. Was that no more time or effort be wasted on Israel. That he himself die. As we have said, for a time Elijah was walking by sight, But notice, God was merciful to him too. God did not answer Elijah's prayer to die, but instead, as we considered before, He refreshes him with sleep and food in order to return to duty. God still had work for Elijah to do, but first Elijah had to be corrected. He needed, if you will, an attitude adjustment. He had to be corrected even with regard to his understanding of the nature of God. God was about to reveal Himself to Elijah differently than he had in the fire from heaven in order to restore Elijah to walking by faith and in order to complete the work that God had for him. But first, Elijah needed to be brought to see his error. He needed to be brought to see his wrong perspective on the situation. He needed to be brought to see his sin. We confess in the Heidelberg Catechism that in order to live and die in the joy of the comfort of belonging to Jesus Christ, we must first know how great our sin and misery are. Apart from that, we will never understand the greatness of salvation in Jesus Christ. Elijah needed to be brought to see his error, his sin, his wrong perspective on the situation. Therefore, as we notice here, Jehovah exposes Elijah's faithless walking by sight. And as Jehovah does that, Elijah himself gives expression to it. Now we almost see Elijah here as Jehovah's military chief of staff giving a report of the battle of progress and it certainly was not an encouraging report. Jehovah exposes his faithlessness here first of all through the searching question what are you doing here Elijah? After the angel refreshes him with food and after he is given sleep and goes for 40 days and 40 nights. What are you doing here, Elijah? It's a question for self-examination, yet it seems like an odd question because as we know and Elijah knew, God is sovereign. God was not unaware. He is not unaware of anything. His question to Elijah was similar to his question to Adam in the garden. Where are you? God knew where Adam was. God knew why he was hiding. He also knew what was going on with Elijah. Just as he knows everything about us, including, beloved, if we are busy in His service and work. If we are busy using the talents and the abilities that He has given to us for His glory. Elijah was not at this time. To Elijah, this question had a two-fold purpose, the first of which was a challenge to him, a reminder of where he was supposed to be. What are you doing here? He wasn't where he was supposed to be. He wasn't doing what he was supposed to do. he wasn't engaged in his calling as the mouthpiece of God. He wasn't engaged in the spiritual battle as Jehovah's representative Jehovah who had shown himself before powerful through Elijah. He wasn't engaged in his calling in the homeland. You may remember that the last command that God had given to Elijah was to leave Zarephath to go back inside Israel's borders. That's the last command that he had received from God. To go back to God's protected area. To go back to the assigned battlefield. But Elijah had taken it upon himself to run because of fear for wicked Jezebel, therefore leaving behind those who desperately needed to hear the Word of God. The sheep were left unprotected where the deadly wolf could attack them undisturbed while God's warrior who had been used by God already on Mount Carmel to break the enemy's power while this warrior was far away by himself. Beloved, how often are we not where we are supposed to be? Not necessarily physically speaking. But how often are we not where we are supposed to be in the sense of living in sin? Maybe not full-blown sin all the time, but something that we cherish and we kind of enjoy. Living in compromise with the world that we conveniently justify that it's okay. And especially when it causes us to be absent from worship. When it keeps us as well from demonstrating and telling the good news of Jesus to those who desperately need to hear it. How often are we failing to represent the Lord well in all of life? Or failing to let our light shine? You see, that is our command from Jesus, isn't it? even as a redeemed people. In Matthew 5, He says, Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. That is what Jesus calls of us, His redeemed people. And that is to be all the time because the battle is ongoing and it is to be everywhere because that battle is everywhere. We too must hear this question, what are you doing here? When we are in places of worldly temptation and danger, when we are not spending time with God in fellowship with Him as we desperately need in prayer, in His Word. We are called to be engaged in the battle without fear because His army will not lose because it cannot lose. Those who faithlessly walk by sight can only run because they see no hope. But those who walk by faith can stand firm in the strength of the Lord because Jesus Christ did not abandon the fight. And instead, He was abandoned as He went on to victory, conquering the great enemy for you and me. And because of Jesus Christ, when God's question finds us where we are not to be, and it does from time to time, doesn't it? When it finds us where we are not to be, we are to hear His call to return because as the Lord says in Isaiah 43, I have redeemed you. You are mine. Our God never fails to continue holding out His hands, His arms to His people, reaching out to you and me, restoring us again and again. The second purpose of this question was to open Elijah's heart to expose his perspective, his wrongful perspective on the situation, which is what happens as secondly, he gives the disheartening report. He replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with a sword. I have been very zealous, but they have done all these other things. Seems kind of strange. You've come all this way, 40 days and 40 nights, just to give that report. But Elijah gives a severe accusation of apostasy against God's people. And that's exactly how Paul describes in Romans 11, verse 2, didn't he? as he said that Elijah appealed to God against Israel. Notice, he was not pleading for Israel, but he was pleading against Israel, reporting how fallen and desolate and hopeless the situation was. And he was making this accusation before the highest court, before the highest judge, as he seems to be appealing for vengeance, the vengeance and the judgment of God, as if to say, and what are you going to do about it, Lord? This is my report as your chief of staff. An echo of the psalmist in Psalm 119, verse 126, It is time for you to act, O Lord, for they have regarded your law as void. It is time for you to act. And to be sure, beloved, Israel did deserve the rejection of Jehovah as Elijah identifies Israel's spiritual crimes, which were terrible to be sure. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. They rejected, they abandoned God's covenant, that covenantal relationship that God had entered into with His people, calling them out to be His very own, dedicating Himself to them, calling for their dedication to Him. This covenant relationship was God's claim upon their whole life, And this rejection, this abandonment of it was seen most vividly in Baal worship. They had given the glory that belongs to God alone, the worship that belongs to Him, to Baal. And they had broken the first commandment. When the first one goes, the others easily fall behind. Through the covenant, God had given Israel a special place, a privileged position over and against all of the other nations. They alone had the promise of God for obedience. they alone had been miraculously rescued out of Egypt. They alone had been provided for in the wilderness all those years. They alone had the hand of God wipe out their enemies before them as they entered the promised land. We were reminded of that when we began this series with the walls of Jericho that were sinfully rebuilt. Those walls laying flat were a reminder that God had opened the door. God had opened the gate for His people to enter the promised land. They alone had all of God's promises. And they were called to be separate under the Lord with their whole life. God had set up boundaries between Israel and the other nations, and by forsaking the covenant, Israel stripped herself of that special position and wiped out those boundaries. The only difference about Israel from the nations really was the covenant that God had established with them. There was nothing worthwhile about Israel. God's covenant was a constant witness to His sovereign good pleasure and His unmerited grace to His people. and as believers beloved we enjoy the unmerited favor of god today as those set apart by his grace alone god's choice of us not our choice of him but god's choice of us makes us different from the world and in christ jesus we are indeed saved forever we have that assurance yet we know too as we consider this morning and in the law that does not mean that we may spurn God's law and His holiness. That does not mean that we may spurn our call to it. The very opposite is true. Those who are in Christ Jesus by faith delight in the law of God. They desire the ongoing sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. They want God to continually draw them closer to Himself. Israel broke covenant, which meant that she no longer wanted to be separate as the Lord's. And therefore, Elijah's accusation was that she threw away her rights and her privileges as the firstborn. She tossed aside the riches and the glory promised to her, and she broke her promise to God. To Joshua, you remember, the people had said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, we will serve the Lord. And on Mount Carmel, not too many days before, the people had said, the Lord, He is God. They rejected God's covenant. And Elijah says exactly how they did that. By burning the bridges, linking them to Jehovah. The Israelites have broken down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. The altar, the proper altar, was an important part of Israel's worship. The sacrifice for sin was made on the altar. The altar represented prayer to God. Through the altar, the people approached, came to God. So to eliminate that altar was to block the way to God. It was to say that they no longer wanted to come to God. They no longer wanted to speak to Him. They certainly no longer wanted to serve Him. To tear down the altar sent a message that they didn't want to follow the way that led to God. And there's only one other way, isn't there? But not only that, they put the prophets to death with the sword, which means that they also shut down the way that led from God to man. as the prophets came to man on behalf of God. And when the voice of the prophet was silent, there was no redeeming Word of God. And you know what that means. There is no hope. Israel cut off traffic on both sides by shutting off the covenant channels of communication. No fellowship with God. Not receiving it from Him. Not giving it back to Him. Beloved, the foundation of the Christian life is God's Word to us and our response to it by God's grace. The most wonderful privilege that we have is worship as God speaks to us and as He promises to receive us and to hear us. And that worship of Him is to be precious to and is to be a priority for us. The Gospel alone is the power of God and of salvation. It transforms all of life. It leaves one hopeless in life, in this life and in the life to come. The Gospel is to be precious to us. We are to cherish it because we need it constantly. And I know some of you know that full well. You've expressed that to me as you struggle throughout the week depending on what kind of work you're in and those who you are surrounded with day by day. How you need the refreshment of God's Word on the Lord's Day. how you need to hear God's greeting and His benediction blessing, to be reminded of God's grace and mercy and peace. Now, Elijah's disheartening report, we find here also a comparison and a contrast with Moses. Again, Elijah's report was correct. But on the one hand, it was not his call to go out and change his job description, which is what he had done, but his call was to preach to seek the repentance of the people, but instead he gave up. He spoke out against them. He was not holding out his hands any longer to a disobedient and an obstinate people. Now, many years before, Moses came to the very same place because of a covenant-breaking people. In Exodus 32, we read about the golden calf, which we are familiar with. But then, if we go back and read there, then Moses pleads for the people, not against them like Elijah. He pleads for the people, asking God to forgive them. If God will not forgive them, Moses says, then blot my name out of your book. Moses asked the Lord not to apply the demands of justice. He asks for grace, for forgiveness, for atonement without satisfaction being made for the broken law. In contrast, Elijah asks for justice, punishment, and satisfaction without the hope of atonement. His plea was make them pay for their sins. Moses asks for atonement and grace without God being satisfied. Elijah asks for satisfaction. without the possibility of grace. Notice that both Moses and Elijah were so inadequate. Both Moses and Elijah pointed to the need for the Savior, for the Messiah, who also came with a complaint. Jesus' complaint in Matthew 23, verse 37 continues Elijah's complaint. Listen to what he says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Indeed, our Lord has much to complain about, doesn't He? About mankind in general. But also about His people. How often have we, in essence, torn down the altars of prayer by neglecting to be busy in prayer or by offering selfish or thoughtless prayer? How often have we, in essence, killed the prophets shutting the mouth of God by neglecting the preaching or by not really listening, just kind of being here, going through the motions or finding fault without putting ourselves humbly under it? How often have we shut the mouth of God by not reading our Bible, which we have at our fingertips each and every day? We have the treasure, a feast of God's Word, but so often we don't even want to mess with the crumbs. How often do our lives say we don't need God? We have it figured out on our own. How often do we neglect the necessary fellowship with God that we indeed need so desperately, yet He does not abandon us? He has continued to hold out His hands to us. Praise be to God, Jesus brought together Moses and Elijah as he demonstrated the highest love by placing himself before God's judgment and satisfying the demands of divine justice. He not only reads the indictment against us as Elijah, but he also pleads as Moses for our acquittal from God's righteous judgment. But he does so based on his payment for our sins. Listen to how Paul puts it beautifully in Romans chapter 8 after he says that God did not spare his own son. He goes on, Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? His point is, no one can. It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus who died more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ pleads for us today with perfect effectiveness because He has taken fully the plea that was against us. And one day when we stand before the Almighty Judge, our comfort will be that Jesus is by our side to say there is no judgment against them because it has already been poured out fully against Me. And that's why we have the confidence and comfort, the blessed assurance that as we do struggle in this life, and we do, that our God restores us again and again and again for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ who continues to intercede for us. But what terror for those who reject Him because they have no one to plead for them. Well, as Jehovah exposes Elijah's faithless walking by sight, He does so as Elijah also, thirdly, gives expression to the self-righteous claim, or we might say a bitter complaint. Notice again, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. They've done all this other stuff. I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. I am the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. I am your only hope, God. I'm the only one left. A self-righteous claim of zealousness, but indeed, he was zealous. In fact, the inspired Word of God, as we have it here in the original, It doubles up that word, zealous, zealous, as if he is saying, I have been completely zealous for you without fail. Zeal is an earnest, passionate desire for something. Some versions say, I have been jealous for you. We know the Bible describes God as a jealous God. He is jealous not with a sinful jealousy as we are accustomed to, but He is jealous with a righteous jealousy. As I've said before, I think on occasion, some husbands have a righteous jealousy for their wives, not willing to share them with another man. Parents are jealous for their children, to protect them, to care for them, to do what's best for them. Our God is jealous with a righteous jealousy for His people, for their worship, for their holiness. He is not willing to share them. Why? Because He is what's best for them. Elijah was zealous, jealous for the Lord, that the Lord not be treated with disrespect, that he not be forsaken, that he not be sinned against, but instead that he be honored and glorified. And Elijah's zeal was indeed evident in the mighty work that he performed by God's hand. And beloved, may this be our zeal, may this be our desire that others would know him by faith and not disrespect him, not reject him or forsake him, because his judgment goes out against those who reject him. And because Elijah knew that God was jealous and that He would not share His glory with another, and that's exactly what Israel had done. They had given His glory to another. Therefore, Elijah saw no hope for Israel. He saw only punishment, as we have said before. And now he thought that he was the only one left and he was in danger. He thought that he was the last hope for God's Word. And therefore, he thought that his work was useless, that it was a waste of time. and that God now was hostless except for him. Indeed, we know that his was a faulty perspective. He forgot the protecting hand of God for him too. He forgot the power of God that had already been demonstrated. He forgot that God is not defeated. He forgot that God does not depend on him. And all of this would be made clear to him shortly. And he failed to recognize the mercy of God demonstrated again and again and again throughout the generations. Again, as Romans 10.21 says, but concerning Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. He failed to recognize that God had not yet taken down his hands. He was still holding his hands out. He failed to recognize the mercy of God in not giving the nation what she deserved for the sake of the remnant that God had graciously preserved, which he reveals in the next portion of Scripture that we'll consider next time, the Lord willing. With all of his zeal, Elijah could not turn the people around. He could not provide satisfaction for the people. He could not preserve the people, and that was not his job. He was called to bear witness for and testimony to the covenant God, who is our only hope, pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ who could and did provide satisfaction and would conquer Satan and all the forces of evil. And beloved, when God's people do that, when God's people bear witness for and testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, then the rest is up to God and our work for Him is never useless, it is never for nothing, even if it may seem like it to us. Elijah himself was in need of the mercy of God through Jesus Christ and He received it as Jehovah exposed His error and His sin in order to restore Him. And that is why we know Him, isn't it? Because of His mercy in Jesus Christ holding out His arms to us, bringing us to know our sin and misery, how great it is, only then to lift our eyes in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to God that He has revealed to us our sin and misery, our need for Him, and that He has provided. Woe be to those to whom God never reveals their sin and misery. For they will then never understand such a great salvation in Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who continues to gather His army, who continues even today to grow His hosts, even if it looks at times like He's not. And when we are tempted to think that others are too sinful and beyond whole, beloved, may we remember God's mercy to us that He has not treated us as our sins deserve, nor has He repaid us according to our iniquities. In sin, ours were desperate times. But Jesus Christ has provided the desperate measures, giving His life completely, fully, for you and me as a ransom for our sins. Oh, beloved, may this salvation be oh so precious to us. May we stand firm upon the Word of God and to desire to cultivate that relationship that He has brought us into with Himself, to cultivate it beginning with worship, fellowship with Him. And may we desire that relationship with Him for all with whom He gives us contact. To God be the glory. Great things He has done. Amen. Let's pray together. dear heavenly father you have given to us such great reason to rejoice for indeed you have not left us to ourselves you have not forsaken us to hopelessness but with your loving arms with your loving kindness and tender mercy you brought us to yourself through your son Jesus Christ we pray Lord that you continue to fill our hearts and our minds with hope not only for ourselves but for so many others that you still are busy bringing to yourself Father may we be those who delight in being used of you may we desire to be serviceable to you in how whatever way you should choose use us, Father, to give testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope that we have in Him. Father, take away the fear that we experience at times when we look around us and see the situation of life all around. In those times, quickly restore us to see the truth of who we are and that we belong to You both now and forever. Father, hear our prayer. For Jesus' sake, Amen. Thank you.