1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:06,840 pathway of history there have been no examples 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:12,060 of the divine intervention in human affairs more 3 00:00:12,060 --> 00:00:16,020 dramatic than that which we have read this 4 00:00:16,020 --> 00:00:19,360 evening in the 18th chapter of first Kings 5 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:25,420 when God answered by fire the faith and 6 00:00:25,420 --> 00:00:31,240 the prayer of his solitary servant Elijah who 7 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,680 stood alone against all the assembled might of 8 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:40,520 this world and believed in God and turned 9 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:46,080 the heart of a multitude of people back 10 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,640 to the true God and eternal life. 11 00:00:53,220 --> 00:00:56,740 There is no consequence people saying well God 12 00:00:56,740 --> 00:00:59,780 doesn't work like this now therefore he never 13 00:00:59,780 --> 00:01:04,000 worked like that but then you see the 14 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:11,030 divine interventions often vary in form even Mr. 15 00:01:11,390 --> 00:01:14,670 Churchill said at the time of the evacuation 16 00:01:14,670 --> 00:01:19,110 of Dunkirk after had been a day of 17 00:01:19,110 --> 00:01:23,580 prayer in this country which the churches were 18 00:01:23,580 --> 00:01:25,100 full and the streets were empty. 19 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,120 Those of all of you who are old 20 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:35,200 enough will well remember the circumstances and 330 21 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:40,400 ,000 men were brought back across the English 22 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:45,920 Channel the only trained men that we had 23 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:50,820 in the service of the King at that 24 00:01:50,820 --> 00:01:57,360 time and Mr. Churchill said the way in 25 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,860 which he only could say it, it seemed, 26 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:07,860 he said, as though some power had intervened. 27 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:11,580 We all know exactly what he meant. 28 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,520 Yes, it's the same power of God which 29 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,040 intervenes in your life and mine. 30 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,060 Your next door neighbour might not know about 31 00:02:20,060 --> 00:02:22,180 it but you know about it. 32 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:23,900 I know about it. 33 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:27,920 We all surely have had those experiences of 34 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:32,620 life when it seemed that some power had 35 00:02:32,620 --> 00:02:33,440 intervened. 36 00:02:35,850 --> 00:02:37,570 Go on believing dear friend. 37 00:02:41,500 --> 00:02:44,640 Someone once said God will not let you 38 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:49,460 down, rather modern language that's what it means 39 00:02:49,460 --> 00:02:54,640 that God is faithful, will be true to 40 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:59,600 his word, true to his promises and if 41 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:01,120 there is a God in heaven and there 42 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:05,640 is we may expect him to intervene. 43 00:03:07,020 --> 00:03:09,980 No, not fire coming down from heaven now. 44 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:12,860 There's no special need for that. 45 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:18,540 There was in that day, the circumstances were 46 00:03:18,540 --> 00:03:19,020 peculiar. 47 00:03:20,980 --> 00:03:23,140 They've never been repeated nor are they ever 48 00:03:23,140 --> 00:03:23,880 likely to be. 49 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,700 There are certain things which the Lord does 50 00:03:29,700 --> 00:03:32,580 which only need to be done once in 51 00:03:32,580 --> 00:03:33,320 all history. 52 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,820 As for instance, when God intervened in the 53 00:03:37,820 --> 00:03:43,460 days of Moses and Egypt, when they crossed 54 00:03:43,460 --> 00:03:49,060 the Red Sea, dry shod and Pharaoh and 55 00:03:49,060 --> 00:03:53,000 his great army, probably the greatest army on 56 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,340 earth at that time, were drowned in the 57 00:03:56,340 --> 00:03:57,180 depths of the sea. 58 00:03:59,020 --> 00:04:02,520 Someone asked me only this week in connection 59 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,500 with that, how it was that there was 60 00:04:05,500 --> 00:04:09,280 no memorial of this on the Egyptian monuments, 61 00:04:09,740 --> 00:04:14,140 nor any reference so far as we can 62 00:04:14,140 --> 00:04:19,180 find on the Egyptian monuments to the fact 63 00:04:19,180 --> 00:04:21,220 that the children of Israel had ever been 64 00:04:21,220 --> 00:04:21,700 in Egypt. 65 00:04:25,930 --> 00:04:28,730 Well people don't put things on monuments you 66 00:04:28,730 --> 00:04:31,110 know, at the time that they happen. 67 00:04:32,370 --> 00:04:35,230 Time elapses, it becomes history, then they put 68 00:04:35,230 --> 00:04:37,810 them on monuments and write books. 69 00:04:38,530 --> 00:04:39,750 It has to happen first. 70 00:04:41,690 --> 00:04:45,030 Before ever they were likely to put these 71 00:04:45,030 --> 00:04:47,950 events upon their monuments. 72 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,640 Well in this particular case, the very event 73 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,820 itself was not an event which any Pharaoh 74 00:04:56,820 --> 00:05:01,760 or any of his architects and sculptors would 75 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,640 have been likely to have commemorated. 76 00:05:06,180 --> 00:05:10,420 Terrible judgements which God visited upon them in 77 00:05:10,420 --> 00:05:12,940 the ten plagues and the final destruction of 78 00:05:12,940 --> 00:05:15,680 their host in the waters of the Red 79 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:16,080 Sea. 80 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:18,920 That's not a thing that you build monuments 81 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:19,820 about you know. 82 00:05:20,820 --> 00:05:23,400 Build monuments to other things, to the triumphs 83 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:25,660 of the country, the great victories which were 84 00:05:25,660 --> 00:05:26,080 won. 85 00:05:26,900 --> 00:05:30,600 Monuments to the great men who triumphed in 86 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:32,440 the battle of Trafalgar or on the field 87 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:34,100 of Waterloo or somewhere else. 88 00:05:34,260 --> 00:05:40,340 Yes, these things are monumentalised in the histories 89 00:05:40,340 --> 00:05:41,060 of nations. 90 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:46,040 They don't build monuments to their own shame 91 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:46,880 and confusion. 92 00:05:49,850 --> 00:05:55,870 Therefore it's not surprising that the only reliable 93 00:05:55,870 --> 00:05:58,550 record we have of the God's dealings with 94 00:05:58,550 --> 00:06:00,630 his people in ancient times is in the 95 00:06:00,630 --> 00:06:01,010 Bible. 96 00:06:01,990 --> 00:06:03,910 Where else would you expect to find it? 97 00:06:04,610 --> 00:06:05,350 It's there. 98 00:06:05,690 --> 00:06:07,150 Don't look for it anywhere else. 99 00:06:08,050 --> 00:06:09,530 It's here in the scriptures. 100 00:06:15,350 --> 00:06:18,930 So we read these stories of the divine 101 00:06:18,930 --> 00:06:22,850 interventions and we certainly do believe them. 102 00:06:25,450 --> 00:06:30,530 And we are very comforted to know that 103 00:06:30,530 --> 00:06:34,510 they are true and that when God chooses 104 00:06:34,510 --> 00:06:38,750 he can alter the whole course of history 105 00:06:38,750 --> 00:06:44,690 and change the whole aspect of things in 106 00:06:44,690 --> 00:06:48,150 a land, a country or even a continent. 107 00:06:53,020 --> 00:06:55,100 He sent his son to be the saviour 108 00:06:55,100 --> 00:06:55,700 of the world. 109 00:06:57,660 --> 00:07:02,500 Thirty-three years later he was crucified upon 110 00:07:02,500 --> 00:07:03,120 the tree. 111 00:07:07,580 --> 00:07:09,660 The world, as I said this morning, has 112 00:07:09,660 --> 00:07:12,580 nothing in its histories about this. 113 00:07:15,150 --> 00:07:18,750 These histories are not written for that purpose. 114 00:07:21,220 --> 00:07:25,180 Here was one amongst the thousands upon thousands 115 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,760 who were crucified throughout the Roman Empire about 116 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:31,580 that time. 117 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:37,260 Year after year and century after century it 118 00:07:37,260 --> 00:07:37,880 was nothing. 119 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,320 Rome was also buried beneath the thousands of 120 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:47,020 crosses which were erected in Italy, in Rome 121 00:07:47,020 --> 00:07:49,360 and throughout the Roman world. 122 00:07:51,020 --> 00:07:53,200 One more or less didn't make any difference 123 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:54,440 to their historians. 124 00:07:55,380 --> 00:07:57,920 It's the consequences which flowed therefrom. 125 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:03,560 Because of the death of that one upon 126 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,860 the cross the whole of history was altered 127 00:08:06,860 --> 00:08:11,100 as all subsequent history has testified. 128 00:08:13,020 --> 00:08:15,580 That great intervention by God in the history 129 00:08:15,580 --> 00:08:20,380 of the world has conditioned everything that's happened 130 00:08:20,380 --> 00:08:24,840 ever since, altered the whole course of the 131 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:26,420 thinking of men's minds. 132 00:08:29,010 --> 00:08:32,789 Everything has been changed in this last two 133 00:08:32,789 --> 00:08:33,770 thousand years. 134 00:08:34,610 --> 00:08:36,970 It was a consequence of that great event. 135 00:08:38,130 --> 00:08:42,250 Nobody can say otherwise or challenge that statement. 136 00:08:43,490 --> 00:08:46,090 Yet history knows next to nothing about it 137 00:08:46,090 --> 00:08:50,030 except what is inscribed here in the Word 138 00:08:50,030 --> 00:08:53,410 of God, all the consequences which flowed from 139 00:08:53,410 --> 00:08:53,630 it. 140 00:08:56,050 --> 00:08:59,370 Now this great event in the history of 141 00:08:59,370 --> 00:09:03,650 the children of Israel has so many sides 142 00:09:03,650 --> 00:09:06,550 to it it's difficult to know where to 143 00:09:06,550 --> 00:09:06,990 begin. 144 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,220 We have to remember the history of the 145 00:09:13,220 --> 00:09:19,000 time, the setting, in which this episode in 146 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,880 history is found. 147 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,800 The children of Israel have been the subjects 148 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:29,400 of many great deliverances. 149 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,820 In the days of Moses, in the days 150 00:09:33,820 --> 00:09:37,380 of Joshua, in the days of the judges 151 00:09:37,380 --> 00:09:41,480 who succeeded Joshua, and in the days of 152 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,680 the prophets and kings who came after them, 153 00:09:45,900 --> 00:09:51,500 the centuries were advancing, generations were coming and 154 00:09:51,500 --> 00:09:59,840 going, and this world very soon forgets all 155 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:01,580 the lessons which God teaches. 156 00:10:03,260 --> 00:10:05,220 Even the church does that too. 157 00:10:06,740 --> 00:10:10,300 We are inclined to forget the great lessons 158 00:10:10,300 --> 00:10:13,520 God has taught in our own individual lifetimes. 159 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:15,360 He has intervened. 160 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:16,840 He may be intervening now. 161 00:10:17,460 --> 00:10:18,700 Learn the lessons of it. 162 00:10:19,620 --> 00:10:20,760 Very, very important. 163 00:10:21,900 --> 00:10:23,360 Are you looking for deliverances? 164 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:25,680 Are you praying for them? 165 00:10:26,180 --> 00:10:29,600 Are you praying for them with humility, with 166 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:30,780 grace in your soul? 167 00:10:31,660 --> 00:10:34,920 Are you praying for them with submission to 168 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:36,760 the holy and divine will of God, whatever 169 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:38,000 the outcome may be? 170 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:44,480 This is how our many changes should be 171 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:46,040 met and confronted. 172 00:10:48,810 --> 00:10:51,790 We should always commit the issues to God, 173 00:10:53,050 --> 00:10:56,010 whose wisdom is vast and knows no bounds, 174 00:10:56,950 --> 00:11:00,390 and deep where all our thoughts are found. 175 00:11:03,340 --> 00:11:06,760 So in Israel, they very soon forgot. 176 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:09,520 This was the history of the nation as 177 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:11,500 it is of all nations, but peculiarly of 178 00:11:11,500 --> 00:11:11,820 theirs. 179 00:11:12,660 --> 00:11:16,780 We often wonder why, but then, fathers cannot 180 00:11:16,780 --> 00:11:20,600 pass on their own faith and experience to 181 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:21,460 their own children. 182 00:11:21,740 --> 00:11:22,740 Mothers can't either. 183 00:11:23,700 --> 00:11:25,220 Parents can't do this. 184 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:29,000 Within two or three generations, families die out. 185 00:11:30,340 --> 00:11:32,020 Those who were great become little. 186 00:11:32,660 --> 00:11:34,200 Those who were little become great. 187 00:11:35,260 --> 00:11:39,140 Those who were pious become the opposite, or 188 00:11:39,140 --> 00:11:41,980 the reverse, if what we are now thinking 189 00:11:41,980 --> 00:11:43,480 of is a time of impiety. 190 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:48,400 Who knows what another generation may bring forth 191 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:50,980 in the mercy and providence of God? 192 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:54,880 No, it doesn't matter what a family or 193 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:56,620 a nation's history may be. 194 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:01,840 Every succeeding generation has to know its own 195 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:02,480 deliverances. 196 00:12:03,300 --> 00:12:05,540 The deliverances of their fathers are not sufficient 197 00:12:05,540 --> 00:12:10,830 for them, and the generation soon forgets. 198 00:12:11,890 --> 00:12:15,330 And so it is that even the people 199 00:12:15,330 --> 00:12:18,250 who had crossed over the Red Sea, they 200 00:12:18,250 --> 00:12:21,410 hadn't advanced a few weeks upon their journey 201 00:12:21,410 --> 00:12:24,070 through the wilderness, but they were murmuring against 202 00:12:24,070 --> 00:12:28,170 Moses and against God because they wanted a 203 00:12:28,170 --> 00:12:29,770 drink of water and couldn't find one. 204 00:12:31,190 --> 00:12:35,410 They forgot the deliverances of God, were ready 205 00:12:35,410 --> 00:12:38,930 to turn back to Egypt because they didn't 206 00:12:38,930 --> 00:12:40,070 have flesh to eat. 207 00:12:41,110 --> 00:12:43,810 And so God sent them flesh, and it 208 00:12:43,810 --> 00:12:44,950 wasn't a blessing to them. 209 00:12:45,710 --> 00:12:47,930 While the meat was yet in their mouths, 210 00:12:49,330 --> 00:12:54,700 the judgment of God overtook them, and the 211 00:12:54,700 --> 00:12:57,380 dead lay in heaps in the midst of 212 00:12:57,380 --> 00:12:57,820 the camp. 213 00:13:00,850 --> 00:13:02,930 They didn't learn either the lessons of judgment 214 00:13:02,930 --> 00:13:05,710 or the lessons of grace and favour and 215 00:13:05,710 --> 00:13:08,970 mercy, because that is the heart of man. 216 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:13,400 We soon forget. 217 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:15,760 We ask God to forgive us our sins 218 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:18,300 and go away and commit the same sins 219 00:13:18,300 --> 00:13:19,180 again, don't we? 220 00:13:20,860 --> 00:13:22,480 We see our own wrongdoing. 221 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:27,200 At night time we pray maybe when we 222 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:30,100 go to sleep, lest we shouldn't wake up 223 00:13:30,100 --> 00:13:30,700 in the morning. 224 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:33,340 We should find ourselves in eternity. 225 00:13:36,180 --> 00:13:38,620 We pray very earnestly for the forgiveness of 226 00:13:38,620 --> 00:13:41,400 our sins, and then go and do the 227 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:42,980 same things the next day or the next 228 00:13:42,980 --> 00:13:43,260 week. 229 00:13:46,510 --> 00:13:48,190 This is the history of nations, it is 230 00:13:48,190 --> 00:13:50,990 also the history of individuals, the individual soul. 231 00:13:51,690 --> 00:13:54,970 When will we learn the lesson that we 232 00:13:54,970 --> 00:14:03,340 are in ourselves altogether corrupt, sinful, inconsistent, contradictory? 233 00:14:04,700 --> 00:14:06,720 We need the grace of God, we need 234 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:07,920 the preaching of the Word. 235 00:14:08,820 --> 00:14:10,280 We need to come to this house or 236 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:12,940 whatever house it may be in order to 237 00:14:12,940 --> 00:14:15,500 worship God and sing His praises, to get 238 00:14:15,500 --> 00:14:20,610 strength here, that we may stand in the 239 00:14:20,610 --> 00:14:23,710 evil day and having done all to stand. 240 00:14:25,230 --> 00:14:27,070 There is evil in your heart and in 241 00:14:27,070 --> 00:14:27,550 mine. 242 00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:30,730 We are not proof against any of these 243 00:14:30,730 --> 00:14:32,090 trials and temptations. 244 00:14:33,070 --> 00:14:35,610 We need the grace of God continually. 245 00:14:36,590 --> 00:14:39,510 Sovereign grace and mercy in all our circumstances. 246 00:14:40,390 --> 00:14:41,910 We know not what a day may bring 247 00:14:41,910 --> 00:14:42,350 forth. 248 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:45,880 So this was the history of the children 249 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:47,760 of Israel right up to Elijah's day and 250 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:48,300 afterwards. 251 00:14:49,300 --> 00:14:50,920 They had received great deliverances. 252 00:14:52,100 --> 00:14:56,280 They knew who the true God was, but 253 00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:59,880 they wanted another form of religion than that 254 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:01,160 to which they were accustomed. 255 00:15:02,060 --> 00:15:03,980 There was no drama in it, it didn't 256 00:15:03,980 --> 00:15:07,940 excite their interest or their piety. 257 00:15:09,220 --> 00:15:11,800 They wanted something to see, not a God 258 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:12,580 who was invisible. 259 00:15:15,460 --> 00:15:17,240 So they were tired of the ways of 260 00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:19,460 God and the preaching of His servants and 261 00:15:19,460 --> 00:15:20,820 the reading of His Word. 262 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:23,640 And so they went to Tyre and Sidon 263 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:27,440 and they got a fresh load of gods 264 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:28,180 from there. 265 00:15:28,940 --> 00:15:34,200 In particular, they got the god Baal and 266 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:39,280 they got his infamous mistress, a heathen god 267 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:42,640 known as Ashtoreth or Ashtarth. 268 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:45,960 She appears here as the god of the 269 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:46,660 groves. 270 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:51,300 Some say the word groves there means the 271 00:15:51,300 --> 00:15:52,340 goddess Ashtoreth. 272 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:56,920 And of course, like all heathen gods, both 273 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:02,640 Baal and Ashtoreth were very, very worldly gods. 274 00:16:03,220 --> 00:16:05,680 And they were very, very adulterous gods. 275 00:16:06,140 --> 00:16:09,260 Because when men make to themselves a god, 276 00:16:10,020 --> 00:16:14,740 they fashion him according to their own evil 277 00:16:14,740 --> 00:16:16,440 desires and imaginations. 278 00:16:17,340 --> 00:16:19,180 That's why the heathen have the kind of 279 00:16:19,180 --> 00:16:20,180 gods they have. 280 00:16:21,300 --> 00:16:23,920 Because they're brought out of their own hearts. 281 00:16:24,540 --> 00:16:27,480 They're fabrications of their own wicked imaginations. 282 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:32,040 And they make gods which tyrannise over them 283 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:32,360 too. 284 00:16:33,780 --> 00:16:36,120 As men are afraid of their own imaginations 285 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:37,500 and their own dreams. 286 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:40,520 Terrified of the thoughts which go through their 287 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:41,020 minds. 288 00:16:43,350 --> 00:16:47,390 And they take the form of phantoms and 289 00:16:47,390 --> 00:16:50,630 apparitions which rise up in their imagination and 290 00:16:50,630 --> 00:16:51,250 their dreams. 291 00:16:52,990 --> 00:16:56,490 And so, Satan sees to it that those 292 00:16:56,490 --> 00:16:59,270 who make gods for themselves eventually become the 293 00:16:59,270 --> 00:17:00,850 slaves of their own gods. 294 00:17:02,450 --> 00:17:07,109 And in nothing more so than the slavery 295 00:17:07,109 --> 00:17:14,010 of their own evil passions, murders, adulteries, wickednesses 296 00:17:14,010 --> 00:17:15,069 of all kinds. 297 00:17:16,109 --> 00:17:18,990 Wickedness sometimes unmentionable and unprintable. 298 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:23,400 And so down to the present day. 299 00:17:23,940 --> 00:17:25,099 And they're still at it. 300 00:17:26,380 --> 00:17:31,760 I see the form of a denomination of 301 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:33,620 Sodomites in the United States. 302 00:17:33,740 --> 00:17:35,460 There are so many of them these days 303 00:17:35,460 --> 00:17:39,060 who have invented a form of religion and 304 00:17:39,060 --> 00:17:41,640 they've actually, I believe, applied to the World 305 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,180 Council of Churches to be recognised and taken 306 00:17:44,180 --> 00:17:46,700 in as part of the body so they 307 00:17:46,700 --> 00:17:52,700 can say delegates to the triennial meetings of 308 00:17:52,700 --> 00:17:55,320 the World Council of Churches. 309 00:17:56,060 --> 00:17:58,440 It's what Mr Malcolm Muggeridge said about the 310 00:17:58,440 --> 00:17:59,000 last lot. 311 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,140 And writing in a great journal about it, 312 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:06,540 he who is a very great journalist, probably 313 00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:11,200 our leading journalist, he attended the meetings of 314 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,880 the World Council of Churches as an observer. 315 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:17,420 He came back and he said these men 316 00:18:17,420 --> 00:18:24,850 were prepared to agree on almost anything because 317 00:18:24,850 --> 00:18:27,390 they believed practically nothing. 318 00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:34,480 That's why all wise evangelical bodies have kept 319 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:36,040 out of the World Council of Churches and 320 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:37,360 have nothing well ever to do with them. 321 00:18:38,020 --> 00:18:41,300 We wait to see whether they'll admit the 322 00:18:41,300 --> 00:18:44,680 church of the homosexuals, the church of the 323 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:50,520 Sodomites, the worshippers of Sodom and Gomorrah. 324 00:18:51,860 --> 00:18:54,880 Oh yes, men will make a religion out 325 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:56,440 of their own sins, out of their own 326 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,720 crimes, out of their own shame, in order 327 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:02,020 to deceive themselves that there's no shame at 328 00:19:02,020 --> 00:19:02,460 all. 329 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:06,160 What a wicked world it is indeed. 330 00:19:07,060 --> 00:19:08,800 You say why doesn't God intervene and do 331 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:09,400 something about it? 332 00:19:09,420 --> 00:19:10,980 Well he's doing something about it now. 333 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:13,820 He's causing his people to preach the word 334 00:19:13,820 --> 00:19:14,440 about it. 335 00:19:15,260 --> 00:19:17,040 And there's all kinds of things happening. 336 00:19:18,100 --> 00:19:20,240 The money that you have in your pocket, 337 00:19:21,140 --> 00:19:22,980 the money in the Bank of England even, 338 00:19:23,660 --> 00:19:26,140 is becoming more and more worthless. 339 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,800 Well hasn't God done something about that? 340 00:19:29,460 --> 00:19:31,280 There never was so much machinery, never so 341 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,980 much science, never so much organisation, never so 342 00:19:34,980 --> 00:19:37,220 much cleverness in the world as there is 343 00:19:37,220 --> 00:19:37,320 today. 344 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,440 And we're going down this steep slope down 345 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:45,220 into poverty and ruination and bankruptcy. 346 00:19:46,140 --> 00:19:49,480 Not only this nation, but quite a large 347 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,820 number of the nations, if not all of 348 00:19:51,820 --> 00:19:52,000 them. 349 00:19:54,220 --> 00:19:55,800 Isn't that something to make you think? 350 00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:58,980 And all kinds of other things happening. 351 00:20:00,020 --> 00:20:04,140 The violence that's being shown, the urban guerrilla 352 00:20:04,140 --> 00:20:06,620 movement, which the governments of the world have 353 00:20:06,620 --> 00:20:11,120 found no answer yet because they've made easy 354 00:20:11,120 --> 00:20:11,780 laws. 355 00:20:13,460 --> 00:20:15,720 They've their own ideas of morality. 356 00:20:17,500 --> 00:20:22,040 They've abolished the one penalty which can restrict 357 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:25,260 the power of wicked men, that is to 358 00:20:25,260 --> 00:20:28,740 take their lives from them who wickedly and 359 00:20:28,740 --> 00:20:31,580 wantonly take away the lives of other innocent 360 00:20:31,580 --> 00:20:32,040 people. 361 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:35,640 And there's no other remedy, no other way 362 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:36,320 dear friend. 363 00:20:38,540 --> 00:20:40,520 They can't overtake their own errors. 364 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:46,500 We're in this appalling situation where people are 365 00:20:46,500 --> 00:20:51,460 afraid to venture in civilised England, Christian England 366 00:20:51,460 --> 00:20:52,480 as it once was. 367 00:20:53,620 --> 00:20:56,700 People afraid to venture out into the darkened 368 00:20:56,700 --> 00:20:59,300 streets at night or to open their doors 369 00:20:59,300 --> 00:21:00,360 when there's a knock there. 370 00:21:02,830 --> 00:21:05,170 Wondering what they can do for life and 371 00:21:05,170 --> 00:21:07,830 safety of themselves and their property. 372 00:21:10,430 --> 00:21:14,250 May not these be divine signs to bring 373 00:21:14,250 --> 00:21:15,890 us law and to make people think? 374 00:21:16,970 --> 00:21:19,730 They propose to themselves all kinds of gods 375 00:21:19,730 --> 00:21:22,750 and religions or no religion at all. 376 00:21:23,470 --> 00:21:24,890 Well let them get on with it as 377 00:21:24,890 --> 00:21:26,250 they are getting on with it. 378 00:21:27,450 --> 00:21:29,630 They're not prospering as a consequence. 379 00:21:31,030 --> 00:21:33,570 It's about time then that some of them 380 00:21:33,570 --> 00:21:36,990 began to think and to ask the real 381 00:21:36,990 --> 00:21:38,770 questions which ought to be asked. 382 00:21:40,110 --> 00:21:42,550 No we cannot sit in judgment upon these 383 00:21:42,550 --> 00:21:47,270 Israelites, wicked as they were because the same 384 00:21:47,270 --> 00:21:51,250 tendencies are with all mankind today. 385 00:21:54,170 --> 00:21:58,130 And so God sent the famine through the 386 00:21:58,130 --> 00:22:00,470 word of his servant Elijah, lasted for three 387 00:22:00,470 --> 00:22:01,890 and a half years and the time was 388 00:22:01,890 --> 00:22:02,950 drawing to a close. 389 00:22:04,050 --> 00:22:06,370 Ahab sought in all the countries round about 390 00:22:06,370 --> 00:22:06,970 for Elijah. 391 00:22:07,130 --> 00:22:10,630 If he could only find Elijah, he would 392 00:22:10,630 --> 00:22:11,690 know what to do with him. 393 00:22:12,250 --> 00:22:13,970 He would soon and quickly put him to 394 00:22:13,970 --> 00:22:14,290 death. 395 00:22:15,250 --> 00:22:17,250 Because he was the man who troubled Israel. 396 00:22:17,650 --> 00:22:19,190 He was the man who brought all this 397 00:22:19,190 --> 00:22:20,070 trouble upon them. 398 00:22:20,950 --> 00:22:22,230 God's faithful servant. 399 00:22:23,110 --> 00:22:24,730 They knew who to blame didn't they? 400 00:22:27,250 --> 00:22:29,950 What Elijah hid was hidden by God by 401 00:22:29,950 --> 00:22:30,770 the brook Kerith. 402 00:22:31,670 --> 00:22:34,510 And the ravens came and fed him. 403 00:22:34,970 --> 00:22:36,970 Morning and night they brought his breakfast and 404 00:22:36,970 --> 00:22:37,890 his supper for him. 405 00:22:38,470 --> 00:22:40,190 Day by day in their beaks. 406 00:22:40,910 --> 00:22:42,890 Until the waters of the brook Kerith ran 407 00:22:42,890 --> 00:22:45,230 out and he sent him to a widow 408 00:22:45,230 --> 00:22:46,730 woman in Zarephath. 409 00:22:47,450 --> 00:22:49,050 As we have seen this last two or 410 00:22:49,050 --> 00:22:49,570 three weeks. 411 00:22:50,370 --> 00:22:51,730 There to care for him. 412 00:22:52,410 --> 00:22:54,770 And how wonderfully he was in that household 413 00:22:54,770 --> 00:22:56,590 where a barrel of meal did not waste 414 00:22:56,590 --> 00:22:58,710 nor the crews of oil fail. 415 00:23:01,470 --> 00:23:03,850 My aunt used to tell me of a 416 00:23:03,850 --> 00:23:07,430 modern instance of how the Lord looked after 417 00:23:07,430 --> 00:23:11,950 those who cried unto him in their need. 418 00:23:14,020 --> 00:23:16,860 She told me that there was a Dr. 419 00:23:17,020 --> 00:23:22,460 Robert McDonald, a medical man who used to 420 00:23:22,460 --> 00:23:25,200 ride on his horse in those far off 421 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:30,120 days, the beginning of last century, out upon 422 00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:30,860 his rounds. 423 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:36,060 And he was passing on a very, very 424 00:23:36,060 --> 00:23:39,540 lonely road miles from anywhere and way there 425 00:23:39,540 --> 00:23:41,560 in the distance he saw a cottage. 426 00:23:42,980 --> 00:23:45,320 And for no accountable reason he turned aside 427 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:48,140 and drove his horse across the fields. 428 00:23:49,860 --> 00:23:53,360 And the door was open and he entered 429 00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:57,580 in a woman's voice as he came in, 430 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:03,500 said in the old Scots, I can't you'd 431 00:24:03,500 --> 00:24:03,920 come. 432 00:24:04,900 --> 00:24:06,180 I can't you'd come. 433 00:24:07,180 --> 00:24:08,640 I knew that you'd come. 434 00:24:10,900 --> 00:24:12,800 There she was on her knees and an 435 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,520 open Bible in front of her, praying for 436 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:16,580 God to send help. 437 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:19,660 For her mother was there dying and there 438 00:24:19,660 --> 00:24:23,060 was no means by which either she could 439 00:24:23,060 --> 00:24:26,420 leave her mother and go for help or 440 00:24:26,420 --> 00:24:29,560 find anybody who would help her in her 441 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:30,240 distress. 442 00:24:30,980 --> 00:24:35,240 Isolated alone she prayed for God to send 443 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:35,720 help. 444 00:24:37,460 --> 00:24:40,340 Dr. Robert McDonald was a Christian man. 445 00:24:41,740 --> 00:24:44,100 He became a friend of Robert Murray McChane 446 00:24:46,580 --> 00:24:50,180 and he always remembered that circumstance. 447 00:24:50,740 --> 00:24:52,360 I knew you'd come. 448 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,960 Her faith was strong that God would be 449 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:00,580 as good as his words and would hear 450 00:25:00,580 --> 00:25:03,500 her cry in the time of her utter 451 00:25:03,500 --> 00:25:04,800 and absolute need. 452 00:25:06,580 --> 00:25:09,360 I could tell you many instances of the 453 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:12,140 same, how God sends deliverance. 454 00:25:12,900 --> 00:25:14,780 It doesn't get into the history books because 455 00:25:14,780 --> 00:25:19,380 it's just all the record of some poor 456 00:25:19,380 --> 00:25:22,700 person whose name we don't know perhaps, who 457 00:25:22,700 --> 00:25:25,540 came here and lived and died and gone 458 00:25:25,540 --> 00:25:26,960 to her or his reward. 459 00:25:27,900 --> 00:25:30,500 It doesn't get into the story books, but 460 00:25:30,500 --> 00:25:33,220 these are the great events in the kingdom 461 00:25:33,220 --> 00:25:33,780 of heaven. 462 00:25:34,260 --> 00:25:37,060 Like the poor widow of Zarathustra, and I 463 00:25:37,060 --> 00:25:40,660 pointed out last week, you remember, how Zarathustra 464 00:25:40,660 --> 00:25:43,600 comes again and again into the scriptures and 465 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:47,140 it comes in through the tiny little prophets, 466 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,380 the shortest prophet in the Old Testament, the 467 00:25:50,380 --> 00:25:56,640 prophet Obadiah, actually mentions Zarathustra and the tide 468 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:58,940 of God's mercy reaching as far as to 469 00:25:58,940 --> 00:25:59,480 Zarathustra. 470 00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:02,500 About the only time it's ever mentioned in 471 00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:02,900 prophecy. 472 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,520 I told you this last week, very remarkable, 473 00:26:07,260 --> 00:26:09,040 but here's something else which happens in our 474 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:11,900 chapter, in the early portion which we didn't 475 00:26:11,900 --> 00:26:12,320 read. 476 00:26:17,580 --> 00:26:19,880 That at the time when God was going 477 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:25,720 to send rain upon the famished land again, 478 00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:29,800 Elijah, on the instruction of God, went to 479 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:31,360 show himself to Ahab. 480 00:26:32,540 --> 00:26:35,980 And about that time Ahab called the governor 481 00:26:35,980 --> 00:26:38,580 of his house, that is his principal servant 482 00:26:38,580 --> 00:26:43,380 at the palace, to go and find wherever 483 00:26:43,380 --> 00:26:46,460 there was any water remaining, any springs still 484 00:26:46,460 --> 00:26:50,020 coming up, that they might find some bit 485 00:26:50,020 --> 00:26:52,240 of green pasture in order to keep one 486 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:55,360 or two of the horses alive till the 487 00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:56,100 end of the famine. 488 00:26:57,220 --> 00:26:58,680 And what do you think the man's name 489 00:26:58,680 --> 00:26:59,100 was? 490 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:01,440 It was Obadiah. 491 00:27:02,300 --> 00:27:04,780 No, he wasn't the prophet Obadiah who mentions 492 00:27:04,780 --> 00:27:07,620 Zarathustra, for his name was Obadiah, just the 493 00:27:07,620 --> 00:27:07,920 same. 494 00:27:08,460 --> 00:27:10,200 Maybe the prophet was named after him. 495 00:27:10,660 --> 00:27:13,200 He was a godly man in the household 496 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,420 of wicked king Ahab, the wickedest king that 497 00:27:16,420 --> 00:27:17,720 Israel ever had. 498 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:19,320 Isn't that remarkable? 499 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:24,360 He had the prophet Obadiah there, a man 500 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:28,760 named Obadiah there, a man who prayed and 501 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,060 who was known to the king and to 502 00:27:31,060 --> 00:27:33,960 Jezebel, his wicked wife, why the two of 503 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,300 them might have represented Baal and Ashtaroth between 504 00:27:37,300 --> 00:27:38,020 the two of them. 505 00:27:38,620 --> 00:27:40,600 Jezebel came from those regions anyway. 506 00:27:41,060 --> 00:27:44,020 She introduced the worship of Ashtaroth, the worship 507 00:27:44,020 --> 00:27:45,460 of the groves into Israel. 508 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:48,680 They had slain many of the prophets of 509 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:49,140 the Lord. 510 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,660 They thought they had extinguished them altogether, all 511 00:27:53,660 --> 00:27:59,400 except Elijah, the great prophetic generation in those 512 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:01,620 days that sought them out and killed all 513 00:28:01,620 --> 00:28:03,280 the godly men that they could find. 514 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,600 But Obadiah, unknown to his master and mistress, 515 00:28:09,700 --> 00:28:12,540 had hid a hundred of them in caves 516 00:28:12,540 --> 00:28:15,660 at one time and fed them. 517 00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:18,640 If he had been found out, he would 518 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:23,000 have been put to death by the wicked 519 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,840 king and queen, but they never discovered it. 520 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,260 And he, this godly man, the only thing 521 00:28:30,260 --> 00:28:31,400 we ever know about him. 522 00:28:32,580 --> 00:28:35,200 We wouldn't have heard about him otherwise, but 523 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:37,320 in the divine record it's put down. 524 00:28:38,260 --> 00:28:40,580 He saved the lives of a hundred men. 525 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,960 You may be only a servant of somebody 526 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:45,660 else's. 527 00:28:46,260 --> 00:28:48,600 You may be some obscure person. 528 00:28:49,700 --> 00:28:52,980 Your name never gets into the medal list. 529 00:28:53,980 --> 00:28:56,400 You're never decorated for anything that you do. 530 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,800 You just live and die and pass away. 531 00:29:00,300 --> 00:29:02,360 As far as the world's concerned, that's the 532 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:03,020 end of you. 533 00:29:04,100 --> 00:29:05,720 You're just the number of a grain. 534 00:29:06,540 --> 00:29:08,220 You're just the name upon a stone. 535 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:10,240 Doesn't mean a thing. 536 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:15,440 But maybe you saved the lives of a 537 00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:20,680 hundred men by your prayers, and perhaps almost 538 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:21,780 unknown to you. 539 00:29:22,740 --> 00:29:25,120 You did great things for God and you 540 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:26,680 never knew that they were great. 541 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,980 And nobody else ever knew about it, but 542 00:29:29,980 --> 00:29:31,960 God heard your prayers. 543 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,880 He honored your little testimony and all your 544 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:36,680 obscurity. 545 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,580 It was only the event which brought out 546 00:29:40,580 --> 00:29:42,060 what Obadiah had done. 547 00:29:42,060 --> 00:29:46,660 Otherwise, he was only a chief servant, a 548 00:29:46,660 --> 00:29:49,920 kind of a major domo in the palace 549 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:51,520 of King Ahab. 550 00:29:53,890 --> 00:29:56,510 And so Elijah meets Obadiah and says to 551 00:29:56,510 --> 00:29:59,830 him, Obadiah, and you notice the connection, he'd 552 00:29:59,830 --> 00:30:02,630 just come from Zarephath. 553 00:30:03,530 --> 00:30:05,670 And the man who took the name of 554 00:30:05,670 --> 00:30:11,830 Obadiah, generations afterwards, he's the only prophet who 555 00:30:11,830 --> 00:30:17,250 mentions Zarephath until Christ comes and visits that 556 00:30:17,250 --> 00:30:18,790 same region. 557 00:30:18,790 --> 00:30:21,150 And so it all hangs together. 558 00:30:22,050 --> 00:30:23,910 Those who attend to the scriptures and know 559 00:30:23,910 --> 00:30:26,650 something of the wonder of the Bible will 560 00:30:26,650 --> 00:30:29,250 know that these things are pointers given by 561 00:30:29,250 --> 00:30:29,810 God. 562 00:30:31,690 --> 00:30:35,250 Fingerprints of the Most High upon the sacred 563 00:30:35,250 --> 00:30:37,670 page to show us that everything is under 564 00:30:37,670 --> 00:30:40,950 control and that everything has been arranged from 565 00:30:40,950 --> 00:30:42,230 the beginning to the end. 566 00:30:42,850 --> 00:30:46,090 And so Obadiah meets Elijah. 567 00:30:47,090 --> 00:30:50,350 Elijah says, go and tell Ahab, Elijah is 568 00:30:50,350 --> 00:30:50,670 here. 569 00:30:51,810 --> 00:30:53,650 And poor Obadiah fell at his feet. 570 00:30:53,790 --> 00:30:57,170 He says, you know very well what the 571 00:30:57,170 --> 00:31:01,130 result will be, that if I go and 572 00:31:01,130 --> 00:31:03,890 tell Ahab Elijah is here, the Lord will 573 00:31:03,890 --> 00:31:05,070 take you away somewhere. 574 00:31:05,070 --> 00:31:08,870 And when we come, I look as though 575 00:31:08,870 --> 00:31:11,290 I've been telling lies and Ahab will put 576 00:31:11,290 --> 00:31:11,890 me to death. 577 00:31:12,570 --> 00:31:15,430 And you know, you know, very few others 578 00:31:15,430 --> 00:31:18,710 know, but you know, Elijah, what I did, 579 00:31:18,790 --> 00:31:20,930 how I hid the sons of the prophets 580 00:31:20,930 --> 00:31:23,290 by fifty in caves so that one hundred 581 00:31:23,290 --> 00:31:27,250 men were preserved in their lives and piety 582 00:31:27,250 --> 00:31:31,250 still kept alive in this awful heathen land. 583 00:31:31,250 --> 00:31:33,610 You know that I did these things. 584 00:31:34,550 --> 00:31:37,010 Elijah said to him, it's all right, Obadiah, 585 00:31:37,130 --> 00:31:38,250 calm your fears. 586 00:31:38,350 --> 00:31:40,450 He said, make no mistake about it. 587 00:31:40,470 --> 00:31:42,530 He said, I'm coming to see Ahab. 588 00:31:43,770 --> 00:31:45,470 And he's the man who will be put 589 00:31:45,470 --> 00:31:48,790 to shame, not you, nor the servant of 590 00:31:48,790 --> 00:31:49,710 the Lord Elijah. 591 00:31:50,790 --> 00:31:52,270 And he came forth. 592 00:31:54,010 --> 00:31:57,610 You know, dear friends, we're going to adjourn 593 00:31:57,610 --> 00:32:00,470 the fire coming down from heaven to next 594 00:32:00,470 --> 00:32:00,710 week. 595 00:32:00,810 --> 00:32:01,990 It'll be just as good then as it 596 00:32:01,990 --> 00:32:02,450 is now. 597 00:32:03,090 --> 00:32:04,010 God preserving us. 598 00:32:06,390 --> 00:32:10,330 We never know what is going on in 599 00:32:10,330 --> 00:32:11,850 the kingdom of God, do we? 600 00:32:13,470 --> 00:32:15,230 We don't know what's going on today. 601 00:32:15,390 --> 00:32:17,130 We look around, we say we wish that 602 00:32:17,130 --> 00:32:19,910 the Lord would do something, wish he'd fill 603 00:32:19,910 --> 00:32:21,850 this house with worshippers. 604 00:32:22,430 --> 00:32:24,290 Thank God for all the worshippers who come. 605 00:32:24,390 --> 00:32:26,150 It doesn't look bad from the platform anyway. 606 00:32:30,050 --> 00:32:32,090 But we could always do with millions more, 607 00:32:32,170 --> 00:32:32,590 couldn't we? 608 00:32:32,970 --> 00:32:34,070 So would all the churches. 609 00:32:35,010 --> 00:32:38,350 It may look like the kind of day 610 00:32:38,350 --> 00:32:41,090 where it doesn't matter how men preach, how 611 00:32:41,090 --> 00:32:44,310 faithful they are, whatever they're doing, there seems 612 00:32:44,310 --> 00:32:45,730 to be no reward, there seems to be 613 00:32:45,730 --> 00:32:46,990 no movement forward. 614 00:32:47,730 --> 00:32:49,870 It doesn't matter what we do, nothing seems 615 00:32:49,870 --> 00:32:50,310 to happen. 616 00:32:51,110 --> 00:32:54,210 Well, you never know what is going on. 617 00:32:55,910 --> 00:32:56,950 You never know. 618 00:32:56,950 --> 00:32:59,350 I know what it is to feel disheartened. 619 00:32:59,370 --> 00:33:00,810 I often feel disheartened myself. 620 00:33:01,830 --> 00:33:04,390 How many times we've thought of handing in 621 00:33:04,390 --> 00:33:07,670 our notice and saying it's alright, find somebody 622 00:33:07,670 --> 00:33:09,430 else, carry on. 623 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,660 Well, when we're at ordinary secular work, there 624 00:33:14,660 --> 00:33:16,160 are times, aren't there, in the life of 625 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:19,060 every man, when the only ambition he's got 626 00:33:19,060 --> 00:33:20,880 left is to give the boss the sack. 627 00:33:22,060 --> 00:33:24,180 But we're never able to do that, are 628 00:33:24,180 --> 00:33:24,380 we? 629 00:33:24,420 --> 00:33:27,300 We never just get that far. 630 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:30,300 But life is like that. 631 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,980 But we never know what is going on 632 00:33:33,980 --> 00:33:36,080 in the Kingdom of Heaven. 633 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:41,120 The ceaseless activity of the Eternal Throne. 634 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:46,420 The secret working of God in His Church 635 00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:49,500 and through His Church and through the preaching 636 00:33:49,500 --> 00:33:50,440 of His Word. 637 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:52,960 There were many godly men in the days 638 00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,980 before Martin Luther appeared, especially in Northern Europe, 639 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,600 amongst the Germanic peoples. 640 00:34:02,220 --> 00:34:04,080 There were plenty of godly men who were 641 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:08,659 arising from time to time, but no reformation, 642 00:34:09,699 --> 00:34:12,980 no widespread upheaval such as was necessary in 643 00:34:12,980 --> 00:34:13,739 those times. 644 00:34:13,739 --> 00:34:16,840 And good men looked to God and nothing 645 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:17,600 was happening. 646 00:34:18,420 --> 00:34:20,900 No answer to their prayers seemed possible. 647 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:23,920 Everything was going on just the same under 648 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,560 the terrible ecclesiastical tyranny of the times that 649 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,360 were then present. 650 00:34:31,260 --> 00:34:35,060 Then in an obscure part of Germany, God 651 00:34:35,060 --> 00:34:35,960 had His man. 652 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,780 He had a monk in a cell, praying 653 00:34:39,780 --> 00:34:43,520 and putting himself to all kinds of voluntary 654 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,020 tortures of his body, trying to keep his 655 00:34:46,020 --> 00:34:49,120 temptations down and thinking that this was the 656 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:49,460 way. 657 00:34:50,060 --> 00:34:52,920 Finding his way into the library and coming 658 00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:57,800 across a book of the Holy Scriptures, which 659 00:34:57,800 --> 00:34:59,060 he begins to read. 660 00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,080 There was no circulation of the Scriptures at 661 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:02,760 that time. 662 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:08,000 And he comes across some great sentence in 663 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:09,100 the Word of God. 664 00:35:09,100 --> 00:35:11,740 And he stared up to his innermost depths 665 00:35:11,740 --> 00:35:13,640 again and again and the Word comes and 666 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:15,000 nobody knows about this. 667 00:35:15,500 --> 00:35:18,620 Nobody knows because we never know what is 668 00:35:18,620 --> 00:35:19,900 going on. 669 00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:23,220 Suddenly, suddenly he emerges and it's like a 670 00:35:23,220 --> 00:35:25,480 flash of lightning coming down from a clear 671 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:28,700 sky and a tremendous peal of thunder and 672 00:35:28,700 --> 00:35:31,280 you never thought that the thunder was so 673 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:31,600 near. 674 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,440 You never thought that such a change could 675 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,060 take place on such a beautiful summer afternoon. 676 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:40,220 But there it happened. 677 00:35:41,540 --> 00:35:44,520 And in a few short years the whole 678 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,040 of Europe and the world was ablaze. 679 00:35:49,220 --> 00:35:53,480 Everyone was talking about the one thing, the 680 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,740 one topic of conversation and of study in 681 00:35:56,740 --> 00:35:58,700 all the universities of Europe. 682 00:35:59,620 --> 00:36:01,560 And they were either for or against this 683 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:02,280 that was happening. 684 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:06,060 We never know what is going on. 685 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:11,600 Faithful, persevering in our obscurity. 686 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,520 Don't let us lose heart, dear friend. 687 00:36:15,140 --> 00:36:17,140 Don't you lose heart just for yourself and 688 00:36:17,140 --> 00:36:17,980 your own affairs. 689 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:21,000 Your own family and everything else that's happened 690 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:21,560 to you. 691 00:36:21,740 --> 00:36:23,720 Or is happening, will happen to you. 692 00:36:24,220 --> 00:36:25,560 Don't lose heart. 693 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,620 You don't know what is going on. 694 00:36:30,060 --> 00:36:31,620 We didn't know that. 695 00:36:32,860 --> 00:36:35,480 Many people in Israel didn't know anything at 696 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,820 all about Obadiah and the hundred prophets. 697 00:36:39,220 --> 00:36:41,540 They didn't know that God had reserved to 698 00:36:41,540 --> 00:36:44,000 himself 7,000 men in Israel who would 699 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,940 not bow their knee to the image of 700 00:36:45,940 --> 00:36:49,000 Baal and wouldn't do, even if their lives 701 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:49,740 were at stake. 702 00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:53,220 But they were obscure, they weren't known. 703 00:36:53,780 --> 00:36:55,300 They weren't even known to Elijah. 704 00:36:56,060 --> 00:36:58,180 He thought he was the only one left. 705 00:36:58,320 --> 00:36:59,620 He had good reason for thinking he was 706 00:36:59,620 --> 00:37:00,640 the only one left. 707 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:03,620 We don't hold it against him that he 708 00:37:03,620 --> 00:37:05,040 thought he was the only one left. 709 00:37:06,140 --> 00:37:07,600 So it wasn't thought at times there aren't 710 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,500 many more besides us that we don't have 711 00:37:10,500 --> 00:37:12,460 the same reason for saying that as Elijah 712 00:37:12,460 --> 00:37:12,840 had. 713 00:37:14,100 --> 00:37:16,260 We easily get down hearted, can't we? 714 00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:23,720 Faithful, persevering, obscure was Obadiah but he saved 715 00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:25,180 the lives of a hundred men. 716 00:37:26,820 --> 00:37:29,520 God knew what he was doing and when 717 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:33,660 the moment came, in one tremendous day, fire 718 00:37:33,660 --> 00:37:37,100 came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices. 719 00:37:37,100 --> 00:37:39,780 The prophets of Baal and the prophets of 720 00:37:39,780 --> 00:37:43,000 Ashtaroth were slaughtered to a man down there 721 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,980 by the brook Kishon which flowed red with 722 00:37:45,980 --> 00:37:49,400 their blood and those wicked evil monsters of 723 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:53,440 cruelty and vice and abomination, those men were 724 00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,800 swept in one afternoon from Israel. 725 00:37:56,980 --> 00:37:59,660 And the rain came down in torrents from 726 00:37:59,660 --> 00:38:04,460 heaven following the fire and following Elijah's prayer 727 00:38:04,460 --> 00:38:06,980 and a great shout went up to heaven, 728 00:38:07,100 --> 00:38:08,920 the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, 729 00:38:09,060 --> 00:38:09,860 he is the God. 730 00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:12,700 And for generations afterwards they were unable to 731 00:38:12,700 --> 00:38:15,480 suppress the power of the gospel in Israel 732 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:18,520 even though they continued to have wicked kings. 733 00:38:19,220 --> 00:38:22,060 Their history was lengthened out by a century 734 00:38:22,060 --> 00:38:27,360 or two before finally God foreclosed upon the 735 00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:28,160 wicked nation. 736 00:38:29,620 --> 00:38:32,200 That is part of a story we have 737 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,860 to tell as time goes on. 738 00:38:35,620 --> 00:38:37,460 May God bless us, may we trust in 739 00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:40,200 our God who sent his own son into 740 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:41,240 the midst of history. 741 00:38:42,070 --> 00:38:44,320 As I have already said and altered the 742 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,280 whole course of time and he who suffered 743 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:49,400 upon the cross is now upon the throne 744 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:51,820 and he is there to reign and to 745 00:38:51,820 --> 00:38:53,500 complete his task. 746 00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:56,920 We never know what is going on in 747 00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,560 our time and generation but the Lord, he 748 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,740 is the God, the Lord, he is the 749 00:39:03,740 --> 00:39:04,100 God. 750 00:39:04,860 --> 00:39:05,360 Amen. 751 00:39:08,130 --> 00:39:11,770 Now we are going to sing number 127. 752 00:39:12,290 --> 00:39:14,470 Luke, ye saints, the sight is glorious. 753 00:39:15,270 --> 00:39:17,410 See the man of sorrows now from the 754 00:39:17,410 --> 00:39:18,950 fight he turned victorious. 755 00:39:19,490 --> 00:39:21,370 Every knee to him shall bow. 756 00:39:21,710 --> 00:39:22,310 127.