Welcome to the preaching ministry of Tri-City Baptist Church in Chandler, Arizona. Our desire is that God would be magnified through the preaching of His Word, and that Christians would be challenged, strengthened, and edified in their personal walk with Christ. The Bible is with me tonight, if you would, and we're going to begin in the book of James, then we're going to go back to the Old Testament. but we are going to tonight and next week look at two of the greatest and perhaps most well-known men or prophets at least in the scripture men whose names are oftentimes confused and that is Elijah and Elisha. Elijah His name means the Lord is God. Some translate it as the Lord is my God. Elijah, who followed after Elijah, his name means God is salvation or my God is salvation. These men stand out prominently in the Old Testament for the miracles that are associated with their ministries. And if you're like me, You've probably gotten them confused, attributing to Elisha what happened under Elijah and vice versa. I've done that many times. I said, Elijah did this, and I'm thinking, was that Elijah, was it Elisha? And had to go back and think through which it was. But I do want us to consider these men tonight and again next week as studies of men who, like this, are very valuable for our understanding It gives us an understanding of the type of man that God uses and many of the principles, many of the things, the lessons we learn from their lives are very valuable. The Apostle Paul said that the things that were written beforehand were written for our learning and admonition. So tonight I want us to examine this evening the life of Elijah. Next week we will look at Elisha. Elijah, the man who was named the Lord, is God, or Jehovah is God. I want us to begin by looking in James chapter 5, because there's a New Testament reference here that I think is very important for us to remember, and we'll have a lot to say about this especially towards the end of the message, but it's important for us in understanding this. In James chapter 5 and verse 17, James is using Elijah as a lesson about prayer and talks about how the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Then in verse 17 of James 5 he says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. We read here of one of the great miracles that was performed in the ministry of Elijah. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But I wanna draw your attention to what it says about him that he was a man with a nature like ours. He was a man with a nature like ours. It's easy to read the stories of these Bible characters and to think that somehow they had some special ability, some special power, some unique nature that differs from us. But the Bible makes that point, and especially in James when he's driving home how we need to trust God in the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And he points to one of the greatest answers to prayer in the Old Testament. Elijah and he says he was a man with a like nature as us. He was like us. He was a human being with a sinful nature who had all the limitations that you and I had but he believed God, he trusted God, he was called of God and we see the miraculous things that happened under his ministry. Elijah's name, as I said, literally has the idea of the Lord is God, the Lord is my God, or Jehovah Yahweh is God. That might not strike you as earth-shattering. Most of us have grown up in a society that is impacted at least to a certain degree by Judeo-Christian heritage. Judeo-Christian heritage. We believe in one God, the God of the Bible. And some may question God's existence as we meet and perhaps have talked to atheists or agnostics. And so often in our thinking, it's either God exists or he does not exist. And there's not a third option. However, in much of the world, there is at least a third option in that there is someone or something else that is God. The Hindus believe in millions of gods, literally. Spiritists bow down before their various gods. Buddhists honor all their various Buddhas. Muslims honor a god called Allah, which is not the Jehovah of the Bible. And many other man-made religions teach us that there are things that people worship, or gods that people worship, other than the god Jehovah. Paul said in the book of Romans of the unsaved world that even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God. Rather, they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures. And that's much the world we live in even today. So to stand up and say that there is one God, it is the God of the Bible, it is Jehovah, it is Yahweh of the Bible, that is the God that we worship. To many ears sounds very narrow, sounds very strange, but it's important for us as believers, it's important for us to understand that there is a God that we worship, but just not any God that we worship, we worship the God of the Bible, the Lord Jehovah. and there is one God and he is the God that we worship. And so in the day of Elijah there was great wickedness. We read in chapter 16 of First Kings. If you go back in your Bible now to the Old Testament in First Kings chapter 16 we read of Omri who was the father of King Ahab. And scripture says about Omri in First Kings 16 verse 26 that Omri had made Israel to sin by provoking the God of Israel to anger with their idols. So under Omri, Israel was worshiping multiple gods, idols, that had been set up in place of the one true God. And then when Ahab came along, it says in verse 33 of 1st Kings 16, that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. And that was going a ways. So when Elijah The man named the Lord is God comes on the scene, his ministry and his life are focusing attention on the truth that the Lord is God. It is a truth that Ahab and all of Israel needed to be reminded of. It's a truth that we today need to be reminded of and we can learn from both the ministry and the man Elijah. that the Lord is God and what that means for us today. I want us to begin by considering first of all the ministry of Elijah. The ministry of Elijah teaches us, in fact I think that's the primary focus of his ministry, was found in his name that the Lord is God and he teaches us as we see how God uses him and the various works that he performs how important it is to know to understand this great truth that the Lord is God Elijah comes on the scene in chapter 17 verse 1 we read that an Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand there shall not be do nor rain these years except at my word. Wow, out of nowhere Elijah seems to come on the scene. Really it describes him as Elijah the Tishbite, his background, he was of the inhabitants of Gilead, he was not from a major place, a major city. Seemingly he does come from almost nowhere, from a very, very small, small area, an unknown area of that day. But he comes onto the scene, God sends him to confront wicked Ahab. And he tells him, God told him to to announce that as the Lord God of Israel lives in other words this is going to be a testament to the fact that the Lord God of Israel lives as he lives before whom I stand there's not going to be do nor rain these three years except at my word so he comes on to the scene proving the Lord is God by withholding the rain by three and a half years And of course, as he does that, as he does that immediately, the Lord takes him to stay by the brook sheriff. And there he, as he is there, as he is busy serving the Lord, as he is doing what God has commanded him, because of the prophecy that he makes because of this declaration because of what God is doing he's affected by it as well and so he by God's care God's concern God sends them to the brook sheriff where God takes care of him. God feeds him miraculously by the ravens who come and bring him. We read in verse five, or verse four, God told him that I will be with you. You shall drink from the brook as I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. And he did according to the word of the Lord. And he went to the brook Cherif, which flows to the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, bread and meat in the evening. And he drank from the brook. But then it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Here again now, doing what God has said, the consequences of God's judgment have affected even Elijah. But God said, I'm going to take care of you. So God sends him then to the widow at Zarephath. And in the following verses, verse eight, through really the rest of the chapter, we read the story of his dealing with this widow woman there, this woman at Zarephath. He says, I have, in verse nine, he says, arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I've commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he did, he went there. He goes and he meets this woman and he finds this woman. He calls to her and he says, bring me a little water and a cup that I may drink. And as she's going to get it, he says, please make me a morsel of bread in your hand. And of course you read here, she says, as the Lord God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, a little oil in a jar. And see, I'm gathering a couple of sticks and I'm gonna prepare for myself and my son that we may eat and die. God sent Elijah to the most unlikely of sources to care for him. A widow woman with her son, very poor, no resources, basing herself at the point of desperation. Elijah says to her, don't fear, do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me. And then afterwards, make some for yourself and your son. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. And she did, went away and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil did run dry according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah. The man whose name the Lord is God has declared through prophetic utterance that there's gonna be no rain. God sends him to the brook Cherif for his protection. That's great for a while, then the brook dries up. God sends him now to this widow of Zarephath, who has nothing, who's poor, desperate. But the Lord is God, right? The Lord is God. And so through the prophecy, through the promise of God, And because of this woman's obedience and faithfulness and trust in the word of the Lord, she does what Elijah says and her needs are met and Elijah's needs are met as well. It would seem that things are going great. All the food's being provided, everything's great. And yet we read as the story goes on how it happened to these things, after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And the sickness was so serious as there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, what have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? And he said to her, give me your son. So he took him out of her arms, carried him into the upper room where he was staying, laid him on his bed. And he cried out to the Lord, said, oh, Lord, my God, you have also brought tragedy on the widow of whom I lodged by killing her son. And he stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to the Lord, oh, Lord, my God, I pray let this child's soul come back to him. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. the soul of the child came back to him and he revived. Elijah took the child brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother and Elijah said see your son lives. Then the woman said to Elijah now by this I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord the word of Jehovah of Yahweh is in in your mouth is the truth. So God proves to not just Ahab, God proves to this widow woman as well that the Lord is God, both by providing for their needs by raising her son up from the dead. You know there's a lot of things we don't understand in this world, a lot of things we don't understand in ministry. Elijah is busy serving God. He is in the middle of doing what God has told him to do. He is ministering to this lady that God has directed him to. He has provided miraculously for this woman and then her son dies. There's a lot of tragedies that happen in ministry that we don't always understand why God has allowed it, other than to prove to us and to point us back to him. We don't understand why sometimes missionaries on the mission field get sick and have to return home. Someone who has surrendered their life to the Lord, who God is using, who have a heart to serve God and want nothing more than just to serve God, and sometimes because of conditions, situations outside of their control, have to return home. We don't understand why believers in some part of the country, in some part of the world, are arrested. Just reading this week of Brother Smith and sharing with us some of the things that believers over in Central Asia have had to endure, being arrested. KGB officers coming into the middle of the church services and threatening to arrest everyone and requiring believers to register and write a confession that they'll never talk about Jesus Christ again. Why is it that God allows that? We don't understand. Other than God's pointing us to remember that He is the Lord God. Why is it that some believers even as we speak now, are facing great trial because their homes are being bombed or their cities are being bombed. Pastors in Myanmar who have been shot and killed by government for no reason other than just the pleasure of the troops who just wanted to cause whatever heartache they could, fear that they could. How do we explain those things. We can't explain those things other than the Lord is God. And he wants to point us back to the fact that he is God. He knows what he is doing. All things are under his control and we need to trust his wisdom. And sometimes it's hard for us. It's hard for us to trust the fact that the Lord is God. But the story of Elijah reminds us that He is God. We need to trust him. We need to be reminded of that over and over again. Thirdly, Elijah proves the Lord is God to the prophets of Baal by sending the fire and then the rain. Chapter 18 is the story of Elijah challenging on Mount Carmel the prophets of Baal. And it's interesting when he does present himself and say he's going to present himself to Ahaz, he makes this challenge, they meet there, they gather together. Verse 20 of chapter 18 says, Ahaz sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. Notice what Elijah asks the people. Verse 21, Elijah came to the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. but if Baal follow him but the people answered him not a word see Elijah the Lord is God God's bringing him here at this point because Israel needs to be reminded that the Lord is God and so this great confrontation now takes place on Mount Carmel Elijah challenges this people the people don't answer which really shows you a lot about them, really helps you understand the situation when you see that the people won't even answer, they won't even admit openly that the Lord is God. So Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal in a contest to see whose God will consume the sacrifice with fire. And so you know the story, they take the altar, they do all the things that they were going to do to make this altar to their gods, and they begin to call upon their gods. And they call, they cry out, they cut themselves, they do all the things that was in their mind to do. Verse 28 says, they cried out aloud, they cut themselves as was their customs with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no voice, no one answer, no one paid attention because their gods were not God. So Elijah said to the people, I want you to come near to me. And all the people came near. He repaired the altar of the Lord. It was broken down. He took 12 stones according to the number of tribes and sons of Jacob. Then with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. He made a trench around the large altar enough to hold two large amounts of seed. Then he put the wood in order. He cut the bull in pieces. He laid it on the wood. He told them to fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. He said, do it a second time. They did it a second time. He said, do it a third time. They did it a third time until water ran all around the altar and filled the trench with water. Here's a question for you. Where did the water come from? I stood on Mount Carmel a number of years ago and I was thinking about that. You're on top of a mountain. Of course, there's a church there now. I'm sure they probably have some kind of plumbing in the church and maybe a well. I don't know. They may have something in there. But that was not there when Elijah was there. There was no well there. There was no running water. There was no access. The only water was down at the bottom of Mount Carmel, which is a fir piece. I don't know how far that is, but I know that's far. So I don't think they ran, some think maybe they ran down and got the water and brought it back up. I'm not sure they did. I think they were probably carrying the water with them. So for his challenge for them to pour the water on the altar was them taking the water that they had in their possession and using it for this purpose, which I think was a challenge to their faith. But they obeyed, they did that. And then Elijah prays, he doesn't do the fancy dance that the prophets of Baal did, he doesn't cut himself as the prophets of Baal did. He just says, he came near and he says, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that what? You are the God of Israel and I'm your servant and I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, that you have turned their hearts back to you again. And the Bible says the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And I love this, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. That was Elijah's ministry, pointing men to recognize the fact and understand the fact that the Lord is God. Then there's a fourth example of this in 2nd Kings chapter 1. We're skipping over a little bit of Elijah's life for the sake of time, but in 2nd Kings chapter 1 Ahab has died and now his son Ahaziah has become king and the Bible says about him that verse 53 of the last chapter there in first Kings that he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger according to all his father had done. So he's no better than his father. In spite of all these things, of the lessons that they've learned, still the king continues in his wickedness. And in the second book of Kings, chapter one, we read how Ahaziah had fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured. It must have been pretty bad. He wasn't sure he was going to live or not. He didn't want to know. So he sent messengers. And he said to them, go inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury. Didn't send for Elisha, didn't send for the prophet of God, again, Baal worshiper still. So the angel of the Lord says, I want you to go up to Samaria, intercept these messengers and say to them, is it because there's no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. So Elijah departed. So the messengers go back. So we met this man. And he had this message. And he asks us, is this because there's no God in Israel that you've sent for these prophets of Beelzebub? And I said, well, describe the man. He said, ah, that's Elijah. And still I think probably continuing in his anger from his father and mother Jezebel and his hatred for God, decides he is going to call for Elijah to come to him. He's going to demand, he's gonna call for Elijah to come at his beck and call. So he sends, we read in chapter one, a group of servants, a group of 50, he says in verse nine. A captain of 50 with his 50 men. And he goes to where Elijah is sitting on the top of the mountain, on top of a hill. And he spoke to him and said, man of God, the king has said, come down. Well, there's still no respect for Elijah as the man of God. He still does not believe that the Lord is the God of Israel, that the Lord is God. So Elijah answered and said to the captain, if I'm a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. and fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. Then he sent to him another captain of 50 and his 50 men. Same thing again. And he answered and said to him, man of God, thus the king has said, come down quickly. Elijah answered and said, if I'm a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. How would you like to be in the third group? He sent a third captain, a 50, and his 50 men. This time the message is kind of getting through. Sometimes people learn, but they learn slowly. And the third captain came and he fell on his knees before Elijah and he pleaded with him, this time obviously with understanding belief that he is the man of God. And he said, he pleaded with him and said, please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of 50s with their 50s. Let my life now be precious in your sight. And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him, don't be afraid of him. So he went down and he communicated the message to him. He said, because you sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. And we read in verse 17 that so Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord, which Elijah had spoken. Elijah's ministry was one of proving that the Lord is God. He did it by withholding rain before Ahab. He did it by providing for the widow of Zarephath. He did it by proving to the prophets of Baal and sending down fire and the rain. He proved the Lord is God again to the messengers of Ahaziah. His ministry proved, demonstrated that the Lord is God. What an incredible ministry Elijah had. What a great privilege it was to be able to demonstrate that the Lord is God. But you remember what we read in James? It said he was a man with a nature like ours. In other words, he was a sinner. He had weaknesses. He was not perfect. We can marvel at his ministry, but we really don't learn the lesson we need to learn if we do not understand the importance and understand the man Elijah. Because the man, Elijah, teaches us the importance of knowing the truth, that the Lord is God. This truth, if you read, go back to chapter 19, this truth that the Lord is God overcame his fears. It is amazing, you read the story of Elijah, one of the most fascinating aspects of the story is that we read in chapter 19, Ahab told Jezebel, his wife, all that Elijah had done, how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah and said, so let the gods do to me and more also if I did not make your life as one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that he rose ran for his life and went to Beersheba which belongs to Judah and left his servant there. How can a man who calls down fire from heaven, a man who God has used to raise the dead, a man who has done all the things that Elijah done, who has heard personally from the Lord, How can he in an instant turn and run because of a threat, a threat of a wicked queen, of this wicked Jezebel? Because he's a man with a nature like ours. We are prone sometimes to great victories. We are prone to do something we never thought we'd do. God uses us sometimes in ways we never thought he would use us and we praise God for that and then it almost seems like the next day God brings a challenge into our life that may bring fear to our heart and may make our knees shake and maybe like us cause us to run away from God away from everything. We read in verse four that he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die. He says, enough now, Lord, take my life. I'm no better than my father. He doesn't want Jezebel to kill him. Lord, you take my life. And it's interesting what the Lord does to him. The angel of the Lord touched him. He said to him, arise and eat. He fed him a cake baked on the coals. He gave him a jar of water. He ate and he drank. He laid down again. Sometimes we look at this and say, you know, from just a human nature standpoint, sometimes part of our problem is physical. We're discouraged because we haven't slept, we haven't eaten, we're weak, and oftentimes because we're on our physical bodies, our physical bodies sometimes make us prone to discouragement. God seems to understand that. He took care of him, he fed him, gave him rest. Then he sent him And he says, I want you to go, and he sends him 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. He said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? And Elijah said, I've been very jealous, zealous for the Lord of hosts, the children of Israel. I've forsaken their covenant. They've torn down your altars. They've killed your prophets. And I am alone. And they seek to take my life. And God tells him, he says, go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains, broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire is still small voice. And so it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and stood in the entrance of the cave and suddenly a voice came to him and said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts because your children of Israel have forsaken their covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with a sword. I alone left and they seek my life. And quietly the Lord says to him, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And gives him instruction what he is to do there and what his ministry will do there. And Elijah's ministry continues. You see, the truth is that because of our nature, we have to be reminded, we have to sometimes Just have these times where we can get alone with God and be reminded that the Lord is God. The Lord is God. We can be running all of our life. We can be busy. We can be doing great things, trying to do great things for God. But then we just, if we're doing it on our own strength, we run out. And God takes him and he puts him in a place where the evidence of his presence seems to be all around him, the fire, the earthquake, the wind. But it wasn't all those things. It was the still, small voice of God that Elijah had to be quiet enough to hear. God got his attention, and now he's listening. And it's the word of God that stirs his heart and that sends him back into service and ministry again. You know, God does not speak to us today audibly in dreams and visions because he's given us a more sure word of prophecy, his written word. But sadly, sometimes we're too busy to listen, to read, to meditate on his word. You see, If the man whose name is the Lord is God needed to be reminded that the Lord is God, don't you think you and I need to be reminded the Lord is God? We need to be listening to that still small voice of God. We need to be in his word. We need to humble ourselves before his word as he teaches us, reminds us, confirms in us that he is the Lord. And finally tonight, the truth that the Lord is God enabled him to overcome the grave. In 2 Kings 2, We read the story of how Elijah is translated into heaven. There's only two men who did not see death, Enoch and Elijah, who is transferred from the earth. And here Elijah is transferred from the earth in a fiery chariot to the heavens. Jesus said he was not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. One day an entire generation of believers from all around the world will be miraculously translated into heaven in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. We'll meet the Lord in the air. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's why the Apostle Paul could say, O grave, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory? Because it's been removed in Jesus Christ. You see, we live in a world today where we face wicked rulers, men like Ahab, who defy God, who just make a mockery of the things of God. We live in a world today where there's great need, physical, spiritual, emotional needs are very, very real, where we need for God to provide. We live in a world where there's prophets of Baal all around us who are doing all kinds of things, defying the Lord, claiming that their gods are God, and challenging the truthfulness of the scripture. We live in a day where wicked rulers would challenge the very men of God, as Ahaziah did. Things haven't changed really that much. through all the centuries. Human nature is still the same. Today, just as in the day of Elijah, we need to be reminded and hold to the truth that the Lord is God. He is our rock. He is our strength. He is our enablement. It's to Him we must turn. It's to Him we must trust. It's to Him we must look. I believe that the story of Elijah, his life, his testimony, his ministry, is a loud, resounding lesson to us to remember. Even in a world that is filled with evil men, desperate need, false religion, the Lord is God. I guarantee this week you and I will hear things on the news that will trouble our hearts, that will stir us to wonder, Lord, where are you? Lord, why did you let this happen? Why is this taking place? Here's someone defying you very openly. And we need to come back and remember from Elijah's life and ministry, the Lord is God. And we're going to trust in the fact that the Lord is God. Let's bow our heads for prayer.