I invite you to turn with me this morning to 1 Kings 18 as we continue our consideration of our God's work through His servant Elijah. If we look back over chapter 17, a portion covered about three and a half years of time. Chapter 18 begins, after a long time in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah Elijah, go and present yourselves to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land. If we go back to chapter 17, verse 1, we read again now, Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe and Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word. And it would be easy then to go to 18, verse 1 again after a long time, as if nothing happened in between or we didn't know anything. And as we've said, those things, those circumstances for Elijah that took place in between time, no one knew about. Except for Elijah and the widow and her son, Israel certainly didn't know where Elijah was at. So it almost seems like, well, in a sense, was that a waste of time. But Elijah's time in Zarephath with the widow was not wasted, As we saw, as God revealed Himself to and blessed the widow through Elijah. But also, we ought to understand that it was a time to prepare Elijah for a much more difficult and dangerous task. Preparing him, at least in part, by confirming to him that the Lord indeed was with him. And the Lord had done so through the widow. The last verse of chapter 17, Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is true, an amazing confession from the widow. But also, that would have served as a great encouragement and confirmation to Elijah for what was to come next. That indeed he is the Lord's servant here. God had a task for him to do and he could go forward in faith himself without fear. The first six verses we consider this morning of chapter 18. Hear now, once again, the Word of God. After a long time in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land. So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria, and Ahab had summoned Obadiah who was in charge of his palace. Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water. Ahab had said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals. So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another. May God add His blessing to the reading and consideration of His Word this morning. Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, a favorite redemptive hymn of many says, I sought the Lord and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me. It wasn't I that sought Him. It wasn't I who wanted Him. It was God who came after me, which is comforting because as another favorite redemptive hymn says, "'Tis not that I did choose Thee for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse Thee, hadst Thou not chosen Me." When mankind fell into sin, God banished man from the garden and in essence said to Him, Away from Me! Yet, beloved, our comfort, our hope is that God in His sovereign mercy and grace through Jesus Christ returned for. He came back for His people. And He has given a picture of this in the life and the history of Israel as we have already considered. They rejected God and therefore God withdrew Himself. He removed His Word through His word-bearer Elijah. He removed His Word from His apostate people from the land flowing with milk and honey, instead revealing Himself and His Word of promise outside the covenant community to the widow in Zarephath. Yet the time had come as the covenant Word returns to the land of promise. Now we cannot help but to see here the Sovereign God at work, that he is in control, that everything depends on him. Again, after a long time in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land. He calls the shots, not Ahab. He took his word away. He is the one who determines that it will return and when it will return. Ahab is not in charge. We see that in Obadiah's words to Elijah, which we did not read, but verse 10 says, Obadiah says to Elijah, As surely as your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. Ahab wanted Elijah. He was looking for Elijah, but Ahab was powerless. And now, most likely, we ought to understand it being during the third year of Elijah's stay with the widow. You may remember that in Luke 4 and in James 5, we are told there that both places, that this drought was for three and a half years. It is believed that Elijah spent about a year by the brook and then about two and a half years by the widow. And therefore, we probably ought to understand that it was during the third year of his stay with the widow that the Lord comes and tells him, go and present yourself to Ahab. God was giving the directions. And He gives him a direction for a very dangerous mission because we know that Ahab and Jezebel are angry. We know that they hate Elijah. Yet, Elijah could go knowing that God was with him as was confirmed, as we said a moment ago, through the words of the widow. He could go with confidence as the Lord was sending him in the first place to face a dreadful condition. A dreadful condition in the land physically to be sure, but also spiritually in the land of the heart. But a dreadful condition, first of all, physically, we're told with just a few words of the scorching trademark that God's judgment had stamped on the land. Verse 2 ends, Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And we get a glimpse of how severe in verse 5. Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals. Ahab goes one way. Obadiah goes the other way. Now, here in Southern California, We do receive a tiny glimpse probably of what this was like as eventually we know that what is green now because of all the rain will die and dry up and it will become wildfire fuel. Yeah, we're always blessed, aren't we, with rains every year it seems and the green always comes back. This is three and a half years. It was a desperate condition. The only hope for vegetation would be in the shade of the valleys or near where the streams had at one time been flowing. Maybe there was some moisture down deep where certain plants, certain vegetation could draw it up. Yet even Ahab did not sound too confident or too hopeful. Maybe we can find some grass. Now we know, don't we, that the clear reason for the dreadful condition was not the power of Mother Nature. It was not the cycle of El Nino or La Nina. But it was the hand of God. The hand of God used the means of the forces of nature and He was directing the course of events because of the sin and the rejection of His covenant people. And this should have been clear to Ahab and Israel because of the word of the Lord that was spoken to them. In 17, verse 1 again, Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe and Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, and therefore he was saying, this is what the Lord says, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except by My Word. The meaning of those words ought to have been clear to Ahab. That God's wrath because of the covenant unfaithfulness should have been seen, therefore, in the parched fields, in the dried up streams and rivers, in the empty cupboards. It should have been felt in the heat of the burning sun and in the gnawing hunger that alone filled their stomachs. It should not have been a surprise as Moses had also instructed the people of God many, many years before to listen to the voice of Jehovah blessing or cursing them. in the processes of nature and history. Listen to a portion of Deuteronomy 28 where Moses clearly speaks blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. Beginning of verse 1, Moses says, If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed in the crops of your land and the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Going on to verse 12, the Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. All these and more blessings for obedience. But then going on, verse 15, however, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, All these curses will come upon you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be cursed and the crops of your land and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronzed, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. That was the word of the Lord to His covenant people. And therefore, the very announcement to Ahab in chapter 17, verse 1, was really of no rain, was to announce God's judgment because of sin. And therefore, it was a call to repent. Yet Ahab doesn't go to look for God. He goes to look for grass. It was a dreadful condition in the land physically. Now we might wonder, as a little bit of an aside, we might wonder, does God still speak in this way today through natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, blizzards, tsunamis, even sickness and hardship? Does God still speak today? Well, I believe He speaks through these things. But we might ask, are these a sign in some way of a punishment for a specific sin? We know that certain sins, such as sexual sin, or drunk driving, or drug abuse, or a whole host of certain sins, often produces devastating and painful consequences. We confess in Question and Answer 10 of the Catechism, the temporal judgments of God upon mankind. judgments of God that come upon mankind in this lifetime. We know that God disciplines those He loves maybe even through, most likely, through the difficulties of life. Yet we cannot say. We cannot say like some. And you've seen probably the commercials or the news reports, the Westboro Baptist Church, those that show up at military funerals and picket there. And they claim, for example, that God's wrath, that the war and the deaths and maybe even natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis and so forth, that that is a demonstration of God's wrath on America for homosexuality. Or some might say for abortion. As hideous as those things are. Now, beloved, we know that God was indeed specific with Israel as a nation church. But now His people are no longer contained in one place. But His people are scattered throughout the entire world from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. And as Jesus said in Matthew 5.45, the Heavenly Father makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. And as well, we might say that all, whether righteous by the grace of God or unrighteous, all suffer the effects of sin into this world. All suffer a creation that groans because of sin. We do know that in good and prosperous times and circumstances, that those are to be a reminder to the believer that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He is to be acknowledged for that. At the same time, it's a call to the unbeliever to come and recognize that giver by faith. To bow before Him. And in bad and difficult times and circumstances, it's also a reminder to the believer that our help comes only from the Lord, that He is the one who cares for us perfectly. That He makes no mistakes. In all that we experience, He works for our good. At the same time, again, those things are a call to the unbeliever to recognize the truth of sin in general, to be sure, but specifically in their own heart, in their own life, their own worthlessness and hopelessness, and to call upon the name of the Lord in faith, because their only hope can only be found in Jesus Christ. Beloved, the Word of the Lord does something to everyone. In Isaiah 55, we are reminded that the Word of God will not return to him empty, but that it accomplishes his desire, it achieves his purpose. All who hear the Word of God must take a position either for him or against him. As we see with Ahab and the spiritual condition in the heartland of the people, in their heart. The attitudes of Ahab and Jezebel reveal their answer to the Word of the Lord. Ahab's failure reveals his answer to the Word of the Lord. He searched all over for Elijah. He couldn't find him. Anything that he tried to do to fix the situation failed. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't produce rain to water the land. He hunted for Elijah, but not in order to confess his sin, not in order to repent of his sin, but in order to try to squeeze out of him that one drop of the Word of the Lord that would end the drought. What a dreadful heart condition for Ahab, his response to the Word of the Lord. How different from another of Israel's shepherd kings, David. In 2 Samuel 21, in the face, again, of a fierce famine that we are told lasted as well about three and a half years, he, not knowing the reason, knowing God's covenant blessings and curses, knowing that it was because of sin, but not specifically if you read that chapter, not knowing specifically the reason, he humbled himself before the Lord for the sake of the people. But Ahab, who had it better than David because he knew the reason, he was told up front, he hardens his heart. We see the dreadful condition of his heart in his actions and in his words. There's no mention of God in his words. There's no seeking of God in his actions. And indeed, Ahab's searching with his chief steward, his prime minister Obadiah, was evidence of the extreme situation that the king himself would be looking for grass. Yet we notice, beloved, that Ahab's concern was not for the people, but Ahab's concern was for his own personal property. Notice, he searched not in order to save the people, but he searched in order to save his horses and mules. It seems that he heard their groans over the moans of the poor and over the sighs of the widow and over the weeping of the sorrowful. He searched in order to save his horses and mules because he depended on the survival of his horses and mules for his military power, which was more important to him than the life of the people. Without military power, he would be weak and vulnerable. Indeed, a reminder of our very first consideration of the rebuilding of the walls of Jericho. Ahab trusted in chariots and horses and the strength of the city when he should have remembered, as David says in Psalm 20, The name of the Lord our God. But alongside of Ahab's dreadful heart condition, we cannot forget Jezebel's wickedness. Verse 4 says, While Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water. Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets. It appears that her goal indeed for the religious system of Israel was not Jehovah and Baal, as terrible as that is, but her goal was Baal alone. Her goal was to completely wipe out the religion and the worship of the true God. And we don't know for sure, but maybe in her pagan thinking she figured, well, if there are no prophets of the Lord, then there will be no power of God as if somehow His power is tied to His prophets. And if this disaster truly did come from him, then if there are no prophets, then maybe God is powerless and the rain would come back. Ahab and Jezebel respond to the Word of God with hard, rejecting hearts. And beloved, all of this, I trust you see, points to man's heart condition. The dry, parched, scorched land and hearts reflect the deadness and the barrenness and the stubbornness of the heart of man apart from God. This is the condition that the Spirit of God finds when He comes for the very first time to a human heart. He doesn't find a heart that's been thinking about God. He doesn't find a heart that's been seeking God, that's been somehow drawn in that direction of its own accord. But he finds a condition of helplessness and hopelessness and rejection, totally rejecting God, not really realizing at the same time it's totally dependent upon the life-giving power of God. Indeed, Elijah was called to return to a dreadful condition. Yet the text reveals to us that not all had been lost as Elijah was sent back as well in the second place to find a preserved confession. The confession of the Lord had been preserved in the land through Obadiah, rescuing these hundred prophets. Obadiah most likely is talking about the prophet Obadiah that we read of later on in Scripture in the Old Testament. Obadiah means servant of the Lord, and we're told here that he was a devout believer in the Lord, also in some versions it says he feared the Lord greatly beloved what a legacy may that be our desire to be remembered for that alone to be remembered not for the great things we have done not for our athletic skill or our musical ability but to be remembered for fearing the Lord with our whole heart through Elijah God preserved the confession of his name in the land as even Obadiah is a personal picture of preservation. He was preserved in the employment of the most wicked king and queen. It kind of begs the question, how could one so devout get a job like that? How could he keep a job like that? Did Jezebel at the very least know that he was a devout believer? Did he have to compromise in some way? Did he have to compromise his beliefs and put on a good show? We don't know. That's not told to us. That's not the purpose here. But we do know that he was preserved under the sovereign, providing, protecting hand of God. God Himself planted His servant in the service of Ahab so that maybe it could be said of him like Mordecai said to Esther, maybe, just maybe, you have come to this position for such a time as this. Through Obadiah, God preserved a hundred prophets from the hand of Jezebel. They were preserved even though they were persecuted. Indeed, God's people who were still there at that time, with all of Israel, they all suffered a lack of rain that Jezebel took upon herself to persecute some. And the hundred prophets were a part of the 7,000 that we're told in chapter 19, verse 18, did not bow the knee to Baal. Why? Because they were preserved by the hand of God. God Himself protects and preserves His people in their faith. Satan's plan, beloved, was to wipe out the church through Jezebel. Yet that plan was frustrated by God through Obadiah. Proof. Proof here in this narrative of God's redemptive purpose for Israel to save a remnant by whom to bring forth the Messiah and save a people for Himself. And as well, a beautiful picture, beloved, of God preserving His church under the banner of the cross. That cross which itself brings persecution from the world, yet Jesus Christ is victorious. And therefore, ultimately, we might say to the 7,000 that we read of in this history, Elijah was sent thirdly to forward a gracious comfort, to bring forward to them God's word of comfort, and I will send rain on the land. That was a word of salvation. A promise for physical life once again, because we know that water is essential to life. This would be a demonstration of the power of the Lord, of Jehovah, not Baal. it is the Lord who gives it is the Lord who takes away blessed be the name of the Lord confirming the word of the Lord and His power over those who take counsel against the Lord and against His anointed as Psalm 2 says a promise here that the punishment was over that God's favor and blessing once again would be upon the land as His mercy beloved would shine bright against the backdrop of His judgment. Yet that leaves us with an important question. How could God do this? Not how is He able to. But how could God do this? Come back and send the rain and restore when there had been no repentance yet? Did God give in to the wickedness? Was it too much for Him? Absolutely not. Remember, the rain would not come until after the challenge on Mount Carmel was settled. Yet God Himself was preparing His people for His return. He was preparing His people to confess that the Lord, He is God. He must prepare them because just as the hard rock, hard crusty soil needs to be cultivated and prepared, Otherwise, the water is only going to run off, as you know. In the very same way, the stone-cold heart of man needs to be changed to a heart of flesh before it will repent of sin and confess the true God. Beloved, this points to the Son of God for whom God preserved His covenant people. Sent to those who didn't even want Him. Who rejected Him. Yet by whom alone God will forgive all of our sins because Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed and fulfilled God's law. He perfectly kept the Word of God. And His cross, beloved, is a picture of God's wrath and judgment meeting His mercy and grace in Jesus Christ. Those two things coming together. God's mercy and grace shining brightly against the backdrop of His wrath and judgment. His cross is where He returned for His people. It is where He laid the foundation for and accomplished our justification by making satisfaction for our sins. And therefore, the cross of Jesus is a message of the sin of man and God's hatred for that sin and His anger against that sin. And at the very same time, It is a message of God's mercy and forgiveness to those who heed the call to repent and believe. That cross of Jesus does something to everyone, whether they believe it or not. Everyone must respond to the cross of Jesus. And those who spurn that cross and reject it, they will suffer the eternal fire of God's judgment. And you and I know, beloved, that's why it is so critically important that God's people be engaged, participating in the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Spreading the good news of Jesus Christ to a dying world. Because apart from Him, there is only the certainty of God's never-ending wrath. But for those who respond in repentance and faith, for them there is the eternal refreshment of God's glorious presence. And beloved, we are brought to know and understand that the believer's response is also of God's gracious work. Because of the saving work of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit who finds our hearts dry and barren and parched and scorched in sin, regenerates and transforms them to receive that living water because God chose us. That's what we are brought to understand once we are brought to faith. That it is God who came for us. God returned for us. He chose us. The Holy Spirit moved our souls to seek Him seeking us and to respond to the Word of God. Not with hardened hearts, but in faith. Beloved, we are alive. We live. We believe only because our God came to us in Jesus Christ to save us. And by His Holy Spirit to enable us to respond to His Word in faith with joy and gladness as living sacrifices of praise. We live because of the work of Jesus Christ. Our lives belong to Him. And He gives assurance and certainty to His people that because God returned for His children, Because He would do such an amazing work for you and me, He gives us assurance and certainty to live with patience in adversity, to live with thankfulness in prosperity, and to live in the comfort that He will never lose us. And therefore, beloved, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, may we respond today and every day by God's grace to His Word by faith, demonstrated in a life of confidence in and gratitude to Him as we wait for the final glorious return of Jesus Christ to bring us to Himself forever. To that sweet and blessed country, the home of God's elect, O sweet and blessed country that eager hearts expect, Jesus in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest who art with God the Father and Spirit ever blessed. Amen. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that there are many circumstances and situations in life that we cannot fully understand. At times that we have a hard time appreciating, and we don't know why they come upon us, why You allow us to be visited with them. But then You open our eyes to see that You have returned for Your people, that You sent Your only begotten Son to do for us that which we could not do for ourselves, to render to You the perfect obedience alone that earns that great blessing of God for us. And Father, then when you bring us to understand, to see and understand that too, then it becomes much less difficult to endure the hardships of life as we see your hand of blessing in all things, as you care for your people perfectly. Well, Father, indeed, continue to build your church, continue to work powerfully in the hearts and lives of those who have not yet been gathered in. Bring them to the joy of the Lord. And together may we look forward to an eager anticipation and expectation to the final return of Jesus Christ to take us to You in glory. Oh, Father, what a day that will be. And until that day, may a song of praise be always on our lips. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.