"THE GOD OF ELIJAH"
Intro. Elisha has been chosen by God to replace Elijah as His voice to the people. Elisha has left his farm to serve Elijah, but the time has now come for Elijah to be caught up into heaven. As Elijah journeys toward Moab, when they came to Bethel and Jericho, the prophets in that city tell Elisha that his master will be taken from him that day. Elisha acknowledged that he knew that. When they had passed through Jericho and had come to the Jordan river Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up and struck the water and the river parted and they walked across on dry ground. Finally Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted, and he replied a double portion of the Spirit that rests upon you. Elijah said that he was asking a hard thing but if he was there when he was taken up from him, it would be granted. As they continued on walking together and talking there suddenly appeared a chariot of fire, and Elijah was caught up into heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha cried out my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and
the horsemen thereof. Elisha took the mantle as if fell from Elijah and headed back to the Jordan River. He smote the water of the river and called out, "Where is Jehovah, God of Elijah?"
I. THIS IS A QUESTION THAT WE OFTEN ASK TODAY WHERE IS JEHOVAH, GOD OF ELIJAH?
A. When the nation was turning from God, and it's leadership was corrupted, God empowered Elijah to stand against the evil.
1. Elijah had challenged the false prophets of Baal and God manifested His superiority over Baal by sending fire to consume Elijah's sacrifice.
2. Our nation is being corrupted by its leadership.
a. Our state legislature is passing one bill after another to force us to accept homosexuality as a natural relationship. It is even mandated by State law to begin to educate the children in the practices of the homosexuals, inviting homosexuals into the classrooms to talk about their lifestyles to our children.
b. They are pushing laws that would allow homosexual couples to adopt children.
3. We have killed off and are killing off the succeeding generations. Since the then extreme liberal Supreme Court made the Wade vs. Roe decision, 40,000,000 babies have been aborted. It is interesting to me that one of the candidates for governorship of California, thus far in his ads, is making his support for killing babies one of his chief planks.
a. Abortion has left such a dent in the work force that we must allow illegal immigrants to flood into our country to make up for the lost work force.
b. Our culture which developed such high standards of living because of the Christian influence, is rapidly declining into oblivion. As our nation becomes pagan.
c. It takes 2.1 babies per couple to maintain a stable population.
d. In our Western world, the average is now 1.4 which means that our population is now declining. By the year 2050 the population of Europe will decline by 100,000,000 Europeans.
e. Meanwhile the population of Asia and Africa is growing at a rate of 100,000,000 every 15 months.
4. The reason for our declining population is threefold. ONE: Couples who have decided on no children in order to indulge in material things. The idea is that children get in our way of having pleasure. This is Hedonistic it is the worship of the god Molech. It is against one of the first commandments of God to Adam, "Be fruitful and multiply." TWO: Same sex couples. The sin for which God destroyed Sodom and Gommorah. THREE: Abortion. The ancient worship of Mammon where the unwanted babies were thrown into the bon fires. General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army, once said: "The chief danger in the twentieth century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and Heaven without Hell."
5. Gibbon in his classic volumes on the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire declared that Rome was not conquered from without, but collapsed from within because the moral planks had rotted. He sought to define the reasons why this great empire fell.
a. The rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the foundation of human society.
b. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread or welfare, and circuses for the populace.
c. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal. The gladiators had nothing on the WWF.
d. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, in the decadence of the people.
e. The decay of religion - faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.
f. As we see parallel conditions in the United States today we might well ask, "Where is the God of Elijah?" We need Him to intervene before we have destroyed ourselves.
g. We might better ask, where are the Elijah's? Men of God who are willing to stand as a lone solitary voice against the evil that is pervading our society, men who will speak out against the evils.
h. Men who will dare to challenge the powers that be.
B. We read of another situation, the son of the widow was so sick that he quit breathing, Elijah took the child up to his loft and laid him on his bed. He then prayed "O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again." the scripture tells us "And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived."
1. Our world today is plagued with all kinds of sickness.
a. Jesus said that one of the signs of His coming again would be pestilences.
b. With all of our research and miracle medicines we seem to have more incurable diseases that ever.
1. Cancer.
2. Aids.
3. Exotic viruses that seem to be able to create new strains that are impervious to the medicines developed to kill the previous forms.
c. Our world is fraught with people with mental disorders.
2. When we are asked to pray for people afflicted with these maladies we want to cry, "Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah?"
3. Again we might well ask, "Where are the Elijah's" Men of such faith that they will believe in the power of God to even raise the dead.
C. Still on another occasion when the draught had brought starvation conditions upon the nation and Elijah saw a woman gathering sticks to make a fire, Elijah asked her to fix him some bread. She responded that she had just enough flour and oil to make bread for herself and her son, they were going to eat their last meal and then die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as you have said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring [it] unto me, and after make for you and your son. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day [that]the LORD sends rain upon the earth. And she did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and Elijah, and her son, did eat [many] days. [And] the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by Elijah.
1. Some of you who are going through times of financial stress, you live from paycheck to paycheck and sometimes there is no paycheck.
2. You might find yourself asking, "Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah?"
3. The secret of the widow's supply was giving to the Lord first.
D. When Elisha returned to the Jordan river he smote the waters with the mantle and cried, "Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah, the waters parted and Elisha walked back on dry ground.
II. LET ME ASSURE YOU, JEHOVAH THE GOD OF ELIJAH IS ALIVE TODAY. HE HAS NOT CHANGED. AS HE WAS IN ELIJAH'S DAY, SO HE IS TODAY.
A. He said in
MAL 3:6 "For I am Jehovah, I change not;"
B. In Isaiah's day the people were saying Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. God answered them, Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; He is more or less saying to them, you are calling on Me to awake, but you are the ones who are asleep, you wake up.
C. Isaiah said to the people:
ISA 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not short, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated you from God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.
1. It is not that He doesn't hear, He won't hear.
2. The reason He won't hear is that the hands that you raise to Him in prayer are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered perverseness. No one is calling for justice and seeking the truth, they are trusting in vanity and they speak lies and plot mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
III. THE REAL QUESTION THEN IS NOT, "WHERE IS JEHOVAH, THE GOD OF ELIJAH?" BUT WHERE ARE THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO AS ELIJAH WILL PUT THEIR TRUST AND HOPE IN JEHOVAH, AND STAND UP AGAINST THE EVIL TIDE OF THE WORLD.
A. As Longfellow wrote I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth, good will to men. I thought how as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom, Had rolled along in unbroken song, of peace on earth, good will to men. And In despair I bowed my head: "There is no peace on earth I said," For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men. Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep" The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth good will to men.
IV. WHERE IS JEHOVAH, THE GOD OF ELIJAH?
A. Elisha found that He was right there for the waters again departed.
B. You also will find that He is right here today. As Paul said to the Athenian philosophers, "I want to talk to you about the true God for in Him we live, we move, we have our being. He is wanting to help you, wanting you to trust fully in Him, and walk in His ways. For the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the entire world to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him."
C. God can part the waters for you today. He can use you today to make a stand for righteousness. He can heal you today, He can provide for your needs today. He wants to show Himself strong on your behalf.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
