Begins by asserting that a true child of God remains saved amidst life's challenges, experiences God's constant care, and recognizes God's unchanging nature. It illustrates Elijah's experience in 1 Kings 19, where after a series of dramatic natural events, God speaks to him not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a still, small voice. This divine encounter highlights that God's presence is found in quietness and humility, not in outward displays of power. The message emphasizes that this still, small voice is heard by those with a humble heart and leads to a deeper understanding of God's will and a more positive, constructive outlook on life, ultimately transforming believers into new creatures in Christ.
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Exteenth, nineteen.Exteenth and nineteen, and verse nine, the same message we read this morning.Exteenth and nine. And he came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous of the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars and slain thy prophets with the storm.
But I even, I, hold them, am left, and they seek my life, and take it away. He said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. Behold the Lord. passed by, and a great and strong wind went to the mountain, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. The Lord was not in the wind. After the wind and earth came, but the Lord was not in the earth came. After the earth came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire was still a small forest.
And it was so when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out, and stood in the entering into the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, What do this thou fear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous of the Lord John of both because of children of Israel. has forsaken thy covenant, go down thy altars, and slain thy prophecy be explored, and I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. There are three things that I can summarize what we've been saying on Elijah, that dawned on me yesterday, summarizes this way.
And the first is, a true child of God, regardless of the vicissitudes of life and the experiences we pass through, the true child of God knows he is saved. The second thing, we know we have the constant care of a gracious God and a savior. Third, God never changes. I would try and point that out briefly as we go along. The other night, Corey Campbell, he's not here tonight, but Wednesday night he spoke to me and he said, well, I want to thank you for what you said on Sunday. He said, it was a real blessing to me.
You know, he said, several times in my life, he said, I seem to be passing through deep water, stripped of everything. But he said, there was one thing that sustained me, and that was, well, I know I'm saved. And I said, that's wonderful, Brother Campbell. And I said, by the way, I just thought of something, and I'd never thought of it before in my life. I said, when I was a boy, I used to go with other boys, go swimming. Quite often we'd go up the river to have a pretty swift current. Sometimes we'd hold as we look for a place to dive. We were quite dangerous in the time, venturing out, and the water was quite swift, and sometime beyond our depth.
And that happened on two field days. And just when I began to panic and think, I was caught. My feet got a hole of a big wall. And you can imagine the relief that came over me. And a big wall. And I was all right. I was standing on a rock. Sometimes I told them that. I said, no, that's true. Sometimes we get into circumstances and we get a little panicky, panicky, and then... all of a sudden we discover my feet live on a rock. And here is Elijah. He was on the rock. And it's a wonderful thing to know that although I may tremble on the rock, the rock will never tremble underneath.
Here is the solid foundation. I know I'm saved. I know I have eternal life. I know I shall never perish. This is that which sustains us in life. The assurance of our salvation. Then another thing is the way Elijah was taken care of. How the angel looked after Elijah. And it seemed to be a special attention. Isn't it wonderful to know that we have a Savior who gives us all the attention we need and in our time when we need just a little special attention? Here's Elijah. When he got into these difficulties, an angel came and ministered unto him.
First of all, at Tariff, it was the ravens who took care of it. The ravens, they bought them water, and wherever they lavaged the flesh and the breadcrumbs, I'll never know. But they got it, and they bought it too. When they got to Zephan, a widow woman, through a multiplied miracle, meal, turning up every day and oil in the crew, and she took care of it. But when he got under the sycamore tree, when he was despondent, when he was down in the dumps, when he was discouraged, it was not ravens that would have to have care of him there.
It was not the widow woman. It was an angel. And the angel brought water. And I like to think that angel brought the water from the river of God that never runs down. Not like the brook carried the dry and dry, but God has a supply of living water that never runs dry. We think of the widow woman and how she made that cake each day. But I'll tell you the cake that Elijah ate. He went in the strength of it for forty days and forty nights. It was molded by angel fingers.
It was just something special. And there are times when we need just a little special attention. A miser needed special attention when he was down in the dumps when the Lord knew it. He was just stunned and deemed as dirty. When the Lord saw he got the attention that he needed. We need the Lord's help all the time. But we need special help some of the time. We know what times they are when we get into deep waters. think God, the disciples, out on that stormy sea, oh, they loved the Lord's attention to be under his influence during his life on earth.
That was a time came when they needed the very special care and special attention. That was when they were out on that stormy sea, and they thought they were going to drown, and the Lord came to them, walking upon the waters. What a rest. When we're in debt, visited the home in Bethany, and the two sisters were broken, parted over the debt of their brothers. Here's where the Lord came in, in a special way, so grand in emergency, that a comfort he was, and especially when he restored their brothers in life again. Special attention.
I'm sure all of us know something of getting this special care in life. And there's never a circumstance or an experience that comes along. It will trust the Lord with what the Lord wants me to our lead in that time of death's release. I wonder why the Lord cared for Elijah like this, a little more. Given in this special care and attention, I believe it was to encourage. Here is Elijah, and he's so despondent, and this is to convince the prophet he was still not. by a gracious God, a God who loves, a God who cares.
I hope we'll realize that. And so we know we're safe, and we know we're the objects of his care and special care when necessary. This is something else true about this incident. Here the prophet, he had run away and ran across the desert, and here he finds this sycamore tree. Now trees are lovely. They're nice to look at. And some trees are nice to sit under. And enjoy their shave. Whatever you do, keep away from the sycamore tree. The tree that speaks of despondency and objection. Don't sit under that tree.
You won't get any shade or comfort there. But hereafter this long day traveled, He finally exhausted the thunder of the city, and he fell asleep. And an angel came and touched him, and awoke him, arrived and he reached Elijah. And there was his evening meal. After he ate it, he went back to sleep. He ate and he retired. He had a good night's sleep. And in the morning the angel awakened him again. Arise and eat, Elijah.
Lift it. Friendly eat, retire, eat and retire. Friendly morning, rise and eat. I believe it's a good thing, a good practice when Christians get into what happens, a true quiet life. A day. Before you retire, retire, eat there. Oh, we should think of the body, though. I got another bite, I got another snack for that little bit. What about the spirit of the Son? Get something to eat with your soul's breath, and make it a pillar for the sleep of. Yes, he gave him something to eat with Elijah's prophecy.
And then pray for me, Elijah, with a nice first thing in the morning to get a morsel from the Lord, and go in the strength. Elijah went in the strife of that breakfast that morning, forty days and forty nights. It took Cherluen, but he got to where he wanted to go. How the Lord anticipated his need, and he took Cherluen. He planned for it. How happy the Christian is, he wrote something of eating and retiring, rising and eating, he cried and sighed. I wonder if you will, just a little snack in the morning.
Sure, every morning we did our eggs and paper and coffee with the body, because we didn't have souls when we needed some time during that day, just a few verses. If you've only got a minute, read the first Psalm. If you've got two minutes, read a little longer Psalm. It's always a chapter in the Bible, just the length of each the time you have. So he'd done retire, and then we're ready. Arise and eat. And he went in the strength of that. That's how you can get strength for the day. What do you think, Pastor, of this incident?
We talked about the disciples in the book, and those of Bethlehem. The no true friends are often found in trouble. The Lord knew just every time His prophet was in Jupiter. I don't know how many times in my life my first people say, well, I didn't know how many friends I had until this happened to me. A tragedy struck, death in the family. They said I never knew how many friends I had. We find friends more than friends with interest. We should have friends all around.
But it's like to have them friends We are in trouble. Some friendships are shadow friendships. They're friends when the sunshine. When the clouds hang low, they're not their friends. Shadow friendships. God's not like that. His friendship is constant. A friend must stick it closer than a brother. This is the kind of friendship the Lord offers you. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Over in Roman days, didn't he give the list of things? And one of them is distress.
Does distress separate me from him? No. Depression? No. And he lists things present and things that come, things here and things up there. In heaven and earth, nothing here can separate us from the love of God. A friend loveth at all times, rightly. A true friend loves it all. You know what a true friend is? One that knows all about you and loves you just for change. That's true friend. And that's the Lord's friend. Despite of what he knows, he loves you.
I just can't apprehend that, but I rejoice in it because he says, this is one with the truth. And I want to say this, you might as well dare to violate the law of gravity as defy the law of love. You do it as you have. You pay the price. You break the law of gravity. And if you defy the love of God, it will become. The next thing you notice is the next thing The third thing I mentioned, God never changed.
I never saw this this week. We mentioned Job in one of our messages, how he, like Elijah, had an upset. He read that and he spoke on, Elijah drove his spirit. But this one thing's special. In the last chapter, God hadn't changed, and God was the only one. that hadn't changed in his attitude toward Job. And I'm going to read you a few books. In Job the last chapter on verse seven. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliaphans, the demonite, My wrath is from Hymn, against thee.
This is one of his fends. And against thy true fends. For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant shall have. God is coming to this defense and justification of this. Therefore God says to his three supposed friends, one called of a liar, or the other self-righteous, and other that he was a fool. Therefore take unto you now seven bullets, that seven rands and gold to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you.
For him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the things of the right, like my servant Job. So, and here they eat pro at this day, though alive and, and the demonites, and Bildad the Shuhite, and so far the Mammothite went, and did according as the Lord commanded him, the Lord accepted good. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Where they had been, his friend? They had been his enemies.
What a time they gave them for about thirty chapters. When they were trying to corner Job, criticizing him, and did you call him, Ket? Well, I couldn't say he is. Then came there unto him in verse eleven, then came there unto him his brethren. He had brothers who read nothing about them during all this time, the children of his brothers. Nothing is said of what is brother. And his sister, Job had some sister. He read nothing about their coming to visit their brother, and said the more.
And there that had been of his acquaintance before, he had lost to the grave. The closest acquaintance he had that he read about to this night, she told them that first God would die. Here is Job, he's all alone, in this sad situation, and all have forsaken him, except God. And did he, there came his acquaintances, and did he tread with him in his pounce, and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all evil. The child of the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
Now notice it. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. It was a wonderful thing. God never changed it. Through all that experience of Job, why his friends, his acquaintances left. He was left alone. But in the end, as God listened to that conversation, he rebuked Job's free friend. He justified Job, and Job graciously prayed for his so-called friend. And God blessed the latter end of Job more than his people. God was the only one that was free.
to a jolt to all that experience, I wonder for it to know that God gives up that shame of him. Through all our trials and life and temptations, earthly friends may face for each, one day through the next day, but this friend will near the field. Oh, are we left? For Elijah, he says, I only am left, and they sit by them. Lord, everybody's forsaken me. No, Job. Everybody has. The one thing the Lord has. And the Lord has given him the test of death.
Heavenly ministry. Sending birds and widows and then angels. That they pair that Job and all is buried me. So this is the summary of Elijah's experience. And this morning we were speaking on... at a quiet time. And I want to conclude with that tonight. The still small voice. What does this mean? It means the still voice, the still small voice of God that's heard in quiet. Not in a rack or in a mill.
It's the still small voice, the voice of God that's heard in the silence of a humble heart. That's the condition. This still small voice is not heard in a potty heart. It's not heard in an angry heart. It's not heard in a rebellious heart. This still small voice is heard only in the quietness and solitude of a lowly heart. Be still and know that I am one. You need, and so do I need, to hear this still small voice.
This is the lesson. After all that storm, the rent, the mountains, the wind, and the earth break from the fire, then a still small voice. This is a remarkable text I read over in Ecclesiastes nine. The words of the wise men are heard in quiet. and more than the cry of him not drain of the monk's food. For these wise men their words are heard in quiet more than a king who reigns over food. That must be some palace, some kingdom, a king reigning over a bunch of thousand food.
So, says Solomon, better is a king to have a king and has those counselors Wise men who can meet together in that inner chamber and disrupts the affairs of the state. Then he says in the next verse, Wisdom is better than weapons of war, that one sinner destroys much of you. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. Suppose you had a great army with all modern weapons of weapon, and there wasn't one at the head or head with... Those different parts of the arms serve. And the commander-in-chief you have with me.
Men of this. To know how to direct that arm. If the army is left in itself this one wants to break off under this captain, this one knows for an honor. And it would all break out. It was a struggle. But then there's a man of wisdom. Then there are the heads of these different departments and their wives. Then that army can accomplish it. but led by men of distance and of experience. Then the visiting, the third and the fifth, and the more so on, the primary prophet, and brethren of the world. God tonight, we mention this reproductible from Revelation. When Eisenhower sat at the head of that long table before the invasion onto the continent, when he asked the question of Israel at the head of the departure of the armed forces, and also the weather caught.
Everything was in the apartment, the left. And the reporter who sat there and looked at it, and I have it on my part, he said there was a hawk. He said it was oppressed. The same people were afraid to breathe because of the awesome decision that Eisenhower had to make to release and release all that power and all those men up and down the English culture that walked up front into the ground. Yes, men of wisdom, we discuss these momentous things in silence and touch, but after the business is done, the decisions are made, actions are eternal.
This is what God wants us to do. to get together those who are in favor of responsibility, into the presence of God, into an atmosphere of quietness and divine stillness, and acquire his will to make decisions that are profit of all themselves. So we have this still, small voice heard only in quiet and quiet, and a willingness on our part to listen. You notice here, connection with Elijah. There was a remnant in Israel that heavenly heard this still small voice, and Elijah was nearby.
He said, I own him that. God said, no, Elijah, there are seven thousand. The heaven bowed to me today. They hear my voice each day. I'm able to speak to them. There are seven thousand that hear my still small voice. blocked of the arch, I wound the one behind me. Elijah liked the important stuff to the instrument. Jesus said, Lord, I only am left. And when he heard of the seven pounds, he liked it, but, well, I am the most important, I should be at the head of that seven thousand. You know what I did a little bit of it.
Supposing you put one at the head of seven thousand, you've got seventeen thousand. and heaven thousand each day. No, Elijah, you're not worth ten thousand, not the way you've acted. And to say seventeen thousand, but you're one, yourself in the process of seven, that's all. Elijah, the way you've acted, you really belong at the end. That means seven thousand and more. You're there. Taking the last one. And the presence of God and the quietness of God's presence enables us to take a lapse. Seven thousand English are not as important as I think I.
Flogs and get along with us. These lessons are learned in quiet. The still small ones. Oh, what that was going to come. I think one time we saw this in another connection. It was found in the reader. reader I had when I went to school, and I mentioned that, about the man or the discussion that went on between the sun and the wind. Rick with the strong with the sun or the wind. And remember there was a hammer on the road. And so the son says, God, I can make that man take out his foot.
And then he says, no, I can make him take out his foot. And so the challenge of him. And the decision was that the wind was to go first. And the wind blew, and it blew, and it blew. And the man flung through his throat. He flung through his throat. The more the wind blew, the more on the tighter he hugged. And the wind blew. And the wind was exhausted. It couldn't achieve. So it was. It was. It made that father make up his throat. All right. It flung through your chest. And the sun came out in all its brilliance with water. And the travellers got down.
By the first gradation broke out all over. We got so hot. The mystery of the storm. The noisy wind. Or the silent sun. The silent sun made it take off. Oh the silence of the dead. It's there to reshend. Our hope of pride, conceit, enmity, hard feelings are those spokes, those robes, those garments gathered by the silence of the heavens of God. It's in that quiet place, that solemn place, alone with God, that we have to remove those things that are of naught to us in a shock.
This is the quiet place. I hope we know. more of us. Be still and know that I am God. The third of the verse of this quietness is over in Philippians chapter four, six and nine. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be known unto God in the peace of God, oh that divine quietness. which has of all understanding. You just can't explain that Christ. There's stillness that comes over the soul and God of you.
And it says, The peace of God which has of all understanding shall keep or garrison your heart and mind. Please thank you. We've been talking about upset now. It's wonderful to know there's a garrison. around those who carry out these exhortations here, that a garrison protects your heart and your mind. You'll be able to discipline your mind. Finally, God, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, Whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
And that's where you think on these things in the quiet place of Lord God. What a man thinks in his heart, what a man thinks is so is it. What you think, that's what you are. and you'll notice everything is positive. Think of these lovely things. True, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtue, praise. He says, think on these things. The President made a remarkable statement the other day speaking to the press board, and they deserve it.
And this is what he said. I realize that bad news is new. Good news is not. These newspapers that are but scandal secrets, they don't want any in the script, and news media almost as a whole are voting and waiting and scurrying to try and get something bad. Let's just say that. And bad news will get far more attention than good news. I remember during the time of demonstrating on the campus of private abuse of all. Billy Graham made reference to this.
There were five thousand colored young people in Greenville, North Carolina from the college there, who went down to sleep, singing him and praising the Lord. And that college man, they were not demonstrating against anybody. They were far something. Billy Graham said, I noticed that didn't turn up on the evening news, but a half a dozen radicals were causing trouble on a certain college campus. That's not the truth. The poor wants something that back on the human mind without divine assistance wants the same thing.
Bad me. My how people like this pray in the garbage can do something. God says think positively. Think on these. And if you do, you know something of divine quietness in yourself. If you don't, there'll be a constant tempest in your heart. God will not enforce this concealing of God's danger this mission. Here are some of the letters for the quiet. Bad news, said the Dutch kid. But he said good news, was bad. The good news of the gospel, the world doesn't know.
And that's the best news that ever hit this planet. The news of God's salvation will live. Girl wants something. Look at your book rats in their store. look at the covers and not the terms of shit. Where are your book racks, magazine racks filled with all this shit? That's what the public wants. That's what they want. Have an Excel showing the town every single year they'll be filled. Are they all throwing over here? Time to run? People don't want something that's good.
They want something bad. And the Christian out of fellowship with God is just the same. Here is positive faith. These are the things God says, you take on, and you'll get my peace. There's a condition. You take on these. I didn't say this. God says, you'll have my peace. How does all this affect the life? I was somewhat sickened yesterday when I read these verses. How did this still small voice affect the life? Before the still small voice, he says, I owe him less.
Here he is, back to his old self again. Then he saw that display of God's power. He hadn't changed much. Then he heard the still and small voice that pulled him out of that inner cave to stand in the front. He heard the still small voice. What did this do for Elijah? Is he reading it? Noted. The same question is asked after the storm, as before the storm. What doest thou, dear Elijah, that's verse nine, before the storm?
And before the storm, after he was asked what we were found here, he goes ahead with those same expressions. Now the still small voice has spoken. And verse forty. And he says, I have been very jealous of the Lord God of hope, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, grown thou nine always, and slain thy prophet, with a sword. And I even I owe him blessed, and they seek my life, the same old melancholy line set. Why, he didn't get anywhere. God spoke with a stone, the elements of nature, and then he spoke with a still small voice, a light goes back to himself with it.
God says, go and appoint your successor. And the speaker not, God willing to reach. God says, I can no longer use you the way I am. I'll point to your success. All you're taken up with is your kingdom. My life, he says. He doesn't mind those two words. That is his foretainment. My life! They seek my life. Everything now in Elijah revolves around my life. My life is not mine. It should be on the earth. My life, the poor lives there, the Lord's people are wrong.
I'm only one of them. Your people have done this, your people have done that, Lord, and I'm only one of them. Poor me. Poor me. Taken up with occupied with stuff. What can God do with a man or a woman that after hearing a still small voice? goes back to this melancholy subject of me, me, me, my son, and I. That's it. There's still a small voice in the arena. I thought I had that. No wonder the Lord said Elijah.
As far as you're concerned, as any real public minister will choose a point Yes, I'm sorry. That's for him. God can take just so much of even some of his people. Perkins was made the beginning about that hymn of a friend who was a Jew. And the one thing I've learned long enough to know that God should, I just like children. Yet there are childish ways in women to come. Quiet time settles a lot of it. But quiet time makes us grow up into a glut that thinks maturely.
Not on everything negative, but things that are positive and constructive. Little boys one day, he threw his little tantrum. He was in the other room, kicking his feet, pumping the floor with his fist and the power. Father said, right at the heart. Sit up. All of a sudden, all of a sudden, he stopped abruptly and she wondered what happened. She walked with the bow, walking toward her with a surprised bow. She says, what made the stop her?
Mommy, I made me obey me. What do you mean? I said, stop crying. I did. He discovers, I made me open. We listen to the practice that same thing. On your knees, let go of the atonement. Go on the thump in the fore with your fists and swamping around. That's no place where you're fit. Go on, there's no wrong, until you're going to know it's a ring. And make you rebellious, stop that child. waste in your time and just wasting my name as one of my children, acting like a spoiled, captured child.
Another father, a little girl, had disobeyed him, and she knew what it was when he took her into that room. Finally, she was still cutting up, and he took her up into his arm, and she told him to scream in a fright, He said, you ain't gonna have to do that. She said, have a guy on me. He said, listen. All right, walk. Just a quiet talk. And I'm going to be certain. And she began to listen. And she was struggling.
I mean, she was just a quiet talk. And her little body fell in. God wants to have those little quiet thoughts. So we've got to get to a place where he can move. In your room, on your knees, your body will. This is the place. It's a quiet place. It's still. This you can draw a look. No tantrums or no hard deal. That's where the ankles are ironed out of our lives. Be safe and moved. I've got but still smaller.
I hope you think all these things. I need them. I've always done this. And I knew that's the place to go. If I'm going to be in any shape, you know, on that platform, minister word of God, I've got to get these things out of my heart and mind. I've got to know something of that divine still that time. before I can handle the fire of the day. Many of you who are on the stage this morning, we mentioned what God was not in. He was not in the wind. He was not in the earthquake. He was not in the fire.
And I say to you tonight, God is not in first memory. God is not in water. God is not in water. in the communion. God is not in good work. These things by themselves mean nothing. Only when you come to know Christ and the Spirit of God, that still small voice speaks to your guilty trembling heart. Jesus is still. When you hear the still small voice in salvation, Through Christ and Christ the Lord, you are tricking them to a new creature in Christ.
Then these other things do need to. Church fellowship, the Lord's Son, have to do. I'm with you. I plus the still small voice, as you heard by, not only Christians tonight, John speaking through this whole, unruly family. My voice of old is here, contrary. God wants to speak to you. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask thy blessing upon thy word. We thank thee, O thy will.