Nicholson, Boyd: Elijah ~ Victoria Chapel Message

I really appreciated again the interest and the openness to the word of the Lord that has made it easy for us in our responsibility to deliver that message. Let's think of the great loss it would have been to the church and to the ministry of his word if we didn't have Peter's letters after his restoration. I'd like to look into the Old Testament for a few minutes with you, at an Old Testament figure who was restored, and we'll turn to First Kings chapter nineteen. First Kings chapter nineteen. I'd like to read with you about Elijah and the crisis that came into his life and the deep spiritual depression into which he plunged. As we travel around the country, we find that the enemy has been attacking the Lord's people. We looked at Job on Friday, we saw how Satan was at work. But we find also that there are many busy, exercised believers, and they are hit with a kind of deep discouragement, and a spiritual depression gets to them. And there is an answer to it, and there is a cause for it. I'd like to look at Elijah's experience and trust that, should there be such here or in the future, should such an experience be yours, that the Lord would bless you in the consideration of this truth. First Kings nineteen verse one: And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and he came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die and said, it is enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake, bacon on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave and lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks 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, a still small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? Verse nineteen. So he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat. The Lord will bless to us these verses as we consider this man of God, Elijah. Elijah the Tishbite suddenly appears out of nowhere, it seems, on the pages of scripture. It just begins, and Elijah, as though we knew all about him already. But he suddenly appears out of the mountainous, highland country of Gilead. The kind of man he was seems to give evidence that the nature of the country in which he lived had wrought itself into this man's character, for he was a man of the crags and of the rushing torrents. He was a man with thunder in his brow and lightning in his voice. And he suddenly appears before King Ahab, who is given the sorrowful reputation of the king that provoked Israel to sin more than all the other kings. Elijah appears before him and simply says, there's going to be no more rain except by my word, and he disappears. The king thinks he better find this man and do something about him, but he can't find him because the Lord has hidden him by the brook Cherith, where he is cared for by the ravens who bring him meat to eat, and the little brook keeps him satisfied as to drink until his own word begins to catch up with him and the brook begins to dry up. Now, there's a temptation, of course, for him to end the test right there. If he needs the water himself, he could pray and the rain would come, but he knows that the Lord has a, a greater purpose. And the Lord gives him instruction to go off to Zarephath, where a widow woman, as you remember well the story, would take care of him, which she did. And then he decides to visit King Ahab again, and this time he tells Ahab to gather Israel all together and to bring the prophets of Baal, the leaders of idolatrous worship. Bring them up there to the Mount Carmel and gather them up, four hundred and 400 prophets of the groves, eight hundred and fifty evil prophets. Bring them out. And Elijah says, this time we're going to find out who is the true God and who is his servant. And you remember the story well, how he commands them to bring two animals, one for themselves and one for him, and to call upon their gods to see if fire would come down from heaven, and whichever god would send the fire, that would be the true God. And so they cry and they cry and they cut themselves, and Elijah stands by with biting sarcasm, stirs them into a frenzy. Maybe your God's gone for a walk. Maybe he's asleep. Why don't you give him a little shout, wake him up? And so Elijah scorns them until at last they're exhausted and drained, and Elijah says, that's enough. And then Elijah rebuilds the altar of the Lord, and he digs a trench around it, and he commands twelve barrels of water to be poured over the sacrifice, he himself cutting the sacrifices in pieces, putting it on the wood, filling the whole thing with water, water logged, in case they would charge him of some little trick of dropping a spark or something. You get twelve barrels of water on the wood, there's not going to be any spark involved. And then when the thing is soaking, Elijah sits down and doesn't say a thing. He's waiting on something, watching the sun. And as the sun gradually sets, I'm sure a murmur goes around the people and wonders what he's doing. He's just waiting. And then when the sun set, it was the time of the evening sacrifice. While they had been crying at the pitch of their voice, cutting themselves, Elijah stands up and says very simply, hear me, O Lord, hear me. Show these people that thou are God and that I am thy servant. And immediately from heaven comes a flame. The fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. And Elijah takes the prophets of Baal, and they're all slain down by the brook, and Elijah has a great victory for God. Now you think that's a wonderful story, and they all lived happily ever after. Well, it wasn't quite like that, because there was one thing Elijah had to find out, that one victory doesn't win the war, and that his enemy was still very much alive, and still as hateful and as interested in Elijah's destruction as ever. And so he hears that his life is in jeopardy, and he plunges at this point, it seems, into a deep spiritual depression. I want to look at this with you, because I know it's a very real thing in many Christian lives at some time or another. And I don't mean just getting the blues on a Monday morning. I'm talking about that dark, deep depression that settles upon the soul when you feel as though you're just suspended over a yawning hole, and there's no way up, and there's no way out, and there's no light on the calendar pad, and there's no text seems to jump from the Bible, and it just seems as though everything is bleak and gone from you, and you're at the point of just giving up everything. That happens, you know. And if it hasn't happened to you yet, well, just thank the Lord that it hasn't, but it might happen next week. So let's look at Elijah. Let's look at what kind of a man, what kind of a man he was in which this depression was found. Was this some backslider caring little for God and the things of God? Ah, no. This was a serving saint. This was a saint deeply exercised about the service of the Lord and the welfare of the people of God. This was not some backslider way out on the edge of, of a profession and with one foot in the world and caring little about God. This was a saint of God deeply desiring the benefit of God's people and deeply exercised. This is the kind of a man where the depression may well hit, or woman too. He was a serving saint, and of course every saint ought to be a serving saint in some way or another. Campbell Morgan says that the Christian life was never intended to be an initial spasm followed by a chronic inertia. I think that's good. The Christian life is intended to be a growth into fruitful, full, and enjoyable service. We must never think the service of the Lord is a burden. There are burdens to bear in the service of the Lord, but the service of the Lord is the greatest privilege a human being can be called into. It is His Majesty's service, and it's a great privilege. Every Christian should be a serving Christian, but it seems to be, as we look around in the hard facts of life, that when we find someone in the grip of this deep depression, you usually find they are Christians who are concerned about others, who have been pouring themselves out, in fact, for the needs of others. You see, every Christian service demands the outgo of what the Lord calls virtue. It really is Christian energy. And if there's no outgo from the servant, there is no intake from the recipient. If the servant is not sacrificing out of his soul, then there's nobody getting anything. It's just a lecture. What does the Lord say in Isaiah fifty eight? Deal out thy bread to the hungry. Well, that's easy. Loaf of bread? Give him a loaf of bread. But further down, he says a harder thing. Deal out thy soul to the hungry. You see, there are hungers in the human heart that cannot be satisfied with a sandwich. It takes the outgoing of the soul of a servant. It's the pouring out of self. I don't mean the the principle of self, but of the self of the man himself or the woman himself. Christian energy pouring out of that individual, feeding and meeting the needs of others. That person is a target for depression. Because once that outpouring has gone out, he is immediately vulnerable to attack. And it's a good thing, dear Christian, to pray. Every time a brother finishes a message and sits down in the chair, you just think about him right then, for he has nothing left but his shoelaces. If he's been preaching at all, there's nothing left in him. He's been pouring it out, and he is exceedingly vulnerable right then to attack, and he needs to be surrounded by your prayers that he might be preserved and strengthened. That's the kind of a Christian that comes under the attack of the enemy and may be subject to deep depression. Elijah was. Not only was he a serving saint, but he was a strong saint. This was no milk toast. Elijah walks right into the very presence of the king, puts his finger almost on the end of the king's nose and says, nothing's going to happen around here until I say so, and walks out. The guards, the captains, the soldiers all around him, it didn't matter to Elijah. That was a man. He was a strong. And it's strong Christians who seem to be subject to spiritual depression. You see, the weak Christians don't get so deeply involved in issues, and therefore the reaction is not so deep in their lives. But it's those who get involved in body, soul, and spirit. These are the ones who become subject to this possibility of depression. Elijah was a spiritual man. He was a man who cared about the honor of his God. He was a man who cared about the needs of his people. He was a man who was willing to lay down his life for the people of God. He was a spiritual man. And no unspiritual Christian will ever have spiritual depression. It is the spiritual saint, that is those who give preeminence to the things of the spirit, that will find depression in the realm of the spirit. Now, there may be emotional distress, there may be other kinds of depression, but I'm speaking of that which relates to the spirit life and spiritual service. Elijah was a spiritual man. The things of the spirit he knew were the most important things. What kind of a moment did this take place in? We've seen what kind of a man. What kind of a moment did the depression hit him? Strangely enough, it was a moment of answered prayer. He had just had one of the greatest prayers of his life answered. Now, just you put yourself in Elijah's position. There were eight hundred and fifty avowed enemies of him, of his standing right there. It was their lives or his. There was a whole nation of Israel, and there was King Ahab looking on. And he goes out there, and he hangs his faith upon God and upon one simple prayer. Hear me, O Lord. And that prayer was answered with a mighty blast from heaven, and doubtless a crack of thunder. The vehemence of that flame sweeps the whole thing. Sacrifice, wood, stones, and water out of the ditch, and even licks the very dust out of the ditch. That was some flame. What a victory. You imagine Elijah as he sees this. Imagine the prophets of Baal, and immediately the people respond, the Lord, he is God, the whole nation crying allegiance to the Lord. What a moment of victory. That was the moment that was followed by depression. You remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, and those three lovely disciples, the Lord had a very special place for Peter, James, and John in his heart, for in crisis moments, in relationship to death, he always took Peter, James, and John with him. He took them up into the mountain top. This was in view of his exodus. And there before their vision, he was transfigured. Oh, what a sight. To see the Lord Jesus, his face radiant as the sun, his garments glittering like snow with the sunlight upon it, and forth from his person flashes of light bursting like lightning. Peter, James, and John are aghast. What a moment. What a thrill. They never forgot that moment. They wrote about it. We beheld his glory in the Holy Mount, they said. But what happened immediately after that? The very next verse says, and when they came down from the mountain, and they came into a valley, and there was a valley with a boy, demoniac, filled with the spirit of Satan, and they couldn't do a thing about it. They were beaten, licked, couldn't touch it. Until the Lord came, and he had to deal with the problem. From the Mount of Transfiguration into the Valley of Defeat. You know, it's often that way. We go to a conference, and our spirits are lifted, and we are filled with joyous thoughts and wondrous visions, and Monday morning comes. There's always a danger of the slide down into the valley. This is what we must beware of. It was in such a moment, a moment of answered prayer, and a moment of unusual power and a moment of divine approval. Because remember, not only did he ask that the Lord would consume the sacrifice and send the fire, but the reason was that the people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their heart back again and that I am thy servant. It was important that they would know who was God's official representative, and so when that fire came down, it was a mark of approval on Elijah. It was at such a moment of answered prayer, of unusual power and divine approval, that he was hit by this severe depression immediately afterwards. Over what kind of a matter? Well, it must surely have been a tremendous issue. After all, he's been facing that whole multitude on the Mount of Carmel. What was it that really got to him? Well, it was the unexpected. It was the threat of one single woman. That was the unexpected. Oh, that's how so often we're hit, isn't it? The unexpected gets to us. Not what we planned at all. We think we know just how things are going to work, and all of a sudden, from behind or some unexpected point, comes a threat, and it throws us. It was the unexpected, and it was the urgent. She said, tomorrow about this time. It was an urgent thing. There was pressure of time involved. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Oh, that's an awful thing. There's a little tract. If you can get it down in the book room, I don't know if it's there or not, but you ask them to get it for you. In fact, ask them to get about five hundred of them and try to get them into the hands of all the Christians in this town. It's called The Tyranny of the Urgent. That's a tremendous little tract. Give it to all the businessmen you know. The Tyranny of the Urgent. What that little tract says in a word is this. There are things that we must do that are important, but there are things that are urgent, and we do them first. We sit down at the table and we get our Bibles out, we're going to read and pray, and the phone rings. Reading and praying is important, but the phone is urgent, so we answer the phone to some light and trivial conversation. The urgent, the pressure of urgency is constantly upon us, and it can get to us. The unexpected, the urgent, and the unconditional. There was no alternative. She said, tomorrow you'll be dead. It wasn't a case of, come on and we'll talk it over, we'll make a little deal, Elijah, that if you will do this and so you can live. There was just no deal. It was tomorrow, Elijah, you're a dead man. It was unconditional surrender. There was only one way, it seemed there was no way out. Did you ever get into wit's end corner where there was no way out? No way up, no way down, no way in any direction. It seemed as though you're absolutely boxed in by the circumstance. That's the moment of danger right there. Panic. What kind of a man? What kind of a moment? What kind of a matter? What are the fruits, immediate fruits of spiritual depression when it hits? How did it affect Elijah? The first thing was flight. Let me get out of this. In other words, it's simply, in modern parlance, I give up. I quit. No more. I'm finished. Through, kaput. That's it. That's flight. Now that's the first warning sign of the onset of spiritual depression, the desire to flee. Well, you won't be the first one, and you won't be the last one. Just take comfort in that. For better men than you have wanted to flee, and here's one of them, and David was another. Oh, that I had the wings of a dove, I would flee away and be at rest. Flight from the circumstance seems immediately the answer, because it seems as though that will give us the relax, the, the peace, the relief from this depression, flight, escape from the circumstance. Of course, we know that isn't really the way. We pointed that out the other day, didn't we? That wherever you go, you go. And this is where the problem is. It's internal, not external. The second thing was sleep. He lay down and slept. That's withdrawal, withdrawal from reality. In modern parlance, it's I'm not going to get involved no more. I'm just not going to get involved. Let them do it their way. I'm not going to get involved. Do you ever feel like that? I don't suppose there's an elder in this meeting that does never felt like that at some time or another, that hasn't said both, I quit and I don't want to get involved. Maybe there's one, I don't know, but I think most who engage in the Lord's work at some time or another have felt that. And I tell you honestly, it's not so long ago when I was reading the wanted ads, employment wanted ads in the Toronto paper, and the only trouble is that the reason I didn't apply for a job is I couldn't find anything I could do. So I have to stick to preaching. I quit. That's a real thing, though, isn't it, brethren, sisters? Sunday school teacher, didn't you ever get to the place where you just said, no, I'm just, I'm just going to give up my little class. I'm going to give it up. Elder, I'm sure I speak to some of you, and you've felt many a time like saying, no, I just cannot go on. I quit. Withdraw. I'm just going to withdraw. I'm just going to be a technical member of the assembly. I'll just be there and just let things go on, and I will withdraw. Danger signal. Danger signal. And the third is despair. Oh Lord, take away my life. Take away my life. That's really despair. Of course, sometimes the devil puts it this way, commit suicide. And it's not the first Christian that has heard that voice in his ear. Commit suicide, take your life. But the more passive way is to pray, Lord, take me out of this. Oftentimes I find that we have prayed for the coming of the Lord. Lord, come. But usually we pray when we're in extreme difficulty. Lord, come now. This is the time to come, Lord. Please come now. But things take a turn for the better, and things begin to process, say, all right, Lord, whenever it pleases thee to come, that'll be all right. We seem to want out when we get into despair, and that's very, very natural, and it's very real because Elijah went through it. Elijah went through it. These are the fruits of spiritual depression. How is it fostered, this spiritual depression? How does it, how is it generated? It seems in Elijah's life, God for himself or for the people of God, and he feels very much alone. And Elijah cries out in verse ten, oh Lord, he says, I, even I only, am left. You ever feel like that? Maybe not yet, but you will, likely someday. A sense of loneliness in the will of God. And the third thing is that fosters spiritual depression is a sense of weariness in the work of God. Remember what he has just done. He's waited a whole day almost while those clowns were prancing around there, phony altar, and with great patience, mind you, in spite of his sarcasm, he waited out all that long time. And then when that was all finished at the end of the day, he didn't go home and have a rest. Right then he began to work on that altar, and he built it. And then he got a shovel of some kind, and he dug that trench all the way around the altar. That's hard work. And then he killed that animal, and he cut it up in its pieces, and that's hard work. And he put it all together. The only thing he didn't do was pour the barrels of water on, but he kept out of the way while that was being done. Weariness. Now, just try to catch Elijah's thinking right about now. After all that, and the fire of God coming down from heaven, consuming the altar, everything. After all that, and there was still no startling revival among the people of God. They said, the Lord, he is God, but Ahab was still on the throne, Jezebel was still in power. We don't read of any startling results after that. Sometimes we think, well, Lord, what is it going to take to reach some kind of restoration and revival among the people of God if the very fire of heaven won't do it? Lord, what's going to do it? I'm exhausted. I can't do anything more, Lord. And he was weary in the work of God. And that's what fosters depression, a sense of sinfulness in the sight of God, that is a preoccupation with our failures, and a sense of loneliness in the will of God, and a sense of weariness in the work of God. How was this problem faced in Elijah's case? Well, first of all, there was a very practical ministry. The first thing was rest, sustenance, drink, comfort for the body. Elijah hadn't done too badly. He began with ravens, then he moved up to a widow, and now he's eating food prepared by an angel. The disciples did better, didn't they? They had a meal prepared by the Lord of heaven and earth. But here he is, and he's brought a cake baking on the coals, imagined by the very hand of an angel. And water in a cruise, and it's my conviction that that water was not taken out of any brook on earth. I believe that water was of the water of life from heaven. I believe that cake was angels' food. For the, he went on the strength of that one meal for forty days. Think of the, the vitamins in that meal. Tremendous. The first thing was a practical ministry. Dear Christian, if I'm speaking to you now and you feel the fingers of depression at times touching your soul, maybe what you need to begin with is a good rest. Now, that may seem very trite and very unspiritual, but the Lord Jesus knew the value of that with his disciples, and he said, come apart and rest a while. Maybe you just need to get away for a few days. And mind you, I'm not behind hand and telling some of our brethren if I see the danger signals. In fact, I called up the travel agent and made all the arrangements for one brother. I didn't pay the bill, but I made all the arrangements for one brother, and I called him and I told him, I said, I've arranged for you to go to Bermuda. I knew he could afford it. But that's just what he needed. You know, brethren, I think we should look after one another in this way. If we see dear Christians that are on the point of collapse, if they don't have enough sense to lie down and have a little rest, then you help them. Give them a little word of advice, tell them a little place to go, just get away and have a little rest and a little physical comfort, comfort for the body. That's what the first ministry was to Elijah. He needed his body. The stewardship of the body is a very real ministry, and we need that comfort. At times, we desperately need it, but we keep boring on and on and on until suddenly, all of a sudden, we fall apart. And if you fall into a hole like that, you can fall in in a minute, but it'll take you a year to climb out of it. That may not sound too much like preaching, but I believe that's real practical ministry, and I think it begins here, and Elijah saw the reality of it. Rest and comfort of the body. That was the first thing. It was a very practical ministry. And then there was a very personal message from the Lord. The voice of the Lord spoke to him personally. Wasn't that kind of the Lord to speak to Elijah? But how did he speak? Well, the voice of the Lord was not in the great strong wind that broke the rocks. And then there was an earthquake, but the voice of the Lord was not in the earthquake that shook the mountain. Then there was a fire, but the Lord's voice was not in the fire that burned, but it was in the still small voice, and I like the revised version here. It says, the sound of a gentle stillness. You ever been all alone in the woods and you just stop and listen? Or perhaps out in the end of the breakwater on a quiet night, just stop and listen. You wouldn't really say necessarily there was much sound, there's a sense of a gentle stillness. In that, God spoke to Elijah. You see, Elijah might well be asking about this time, Lord, if the fire of the Lord doesn't shake thy people into revival, what is it going to take? An earthquake? A fire? And the Lord taught him a little lesson. And the message, the pertinent message, I believe, to Elijah that day was this. Because God did not continue sending fire down from heaven, it didn't mean that God had stopped speaking. For God can speak in the voice of a gentle stillness, and in fact very often does. We've often looked for the breaking ministry of the wind. We've often looked and prayed for the mighty shakings of a spiritual earthquake. We've often prayed that somehow the fire of God would break in amongst God's people, and then the Lord teaches us a lesson. And he says, you know, I'm still speaking in the sound of a gentle stillness. What do you mean, Lord? What kind of a sound? The unspoken, the unspoken aching of a burdened heart. And I just thank God as I look down upon this company, for godly sisters, and they have burdened hearts for the people of God, and nobody hears their voice, but in their hearts there is the sound of a gentle stillness as they cry upon God. That's the evidence that God is still at work. We see that sound in the unhindered tears of the intercessor. Oh God, help us never to lose our tears. General Doby, the found- uh, General, uh, Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, got a letter from one of his officers in a very difficult place, who was complaining that he had tried everything to win souls in that place, but it was one of those hard mining villages in the old country where nothing seemed to penetrate the ice-bound hearts of the inhabitants. And he wrote to General Booth, he says, do you have any advice to help me? And the general wrote back two words. Try tears, try tears. A preacher I heard of was often seen to weep as he preached, and it got to be a little an embarrassment to him because people called him a little over-emotional. And he asked the Lord to deliver him from his tears. But when he was delivered of his tears, it seemed that his life, his ministry was barren, and he had to go back into the presence of God and ask, oh God, give me back my tears. Brethren, when we sit around the Lord's Supper, this carpet ought to be wet. Where are our tears? I believe that's one of the evidences of the voice of God in the midst of his people, when the tears are dropping on the floor. I think of a dear brother, Bill Green, his name was. He was saved in Middle life, forty years of age. He was a sailor on the boats, tough as nails, drunken most of the time. They called him Popeye. That was what the sailors called him. He had a terrific reputation, and he rolled into our gospel meeting one Sunday night. A local brother was preaching on John three sixteen, for God so loved the world, and God smote Bill Green, and he never knew until that night that God could love a sinner like Bill Green and have broke him to pieces. And this great big hulk of a sailor was saved, and the lion was turned into the lamb. And he and I used to go up and open the hall every Sunday night and get the hymn books and the seats all ready for the gospel meeting. I did it because I love to be with Bill, because I love to go downstairs, just the two of us, and have a wee pray. You know, I never heard Bill finish a prayer yet. I never heard him finish it yet. He get down on his knees in those old wooden creaky chairs we used to have in the basement, and he always addressed God, Merciful Father. He knew the value of the mercy of God, and he'd pray for the souls of men till he would break down, and the hollow of that chair would be wet with his tears. He never finished a prayer. I tell you, that man won souls for Christ. No preacher. He didn't know how to preach. Used to stand on his days off in the, between the rows of traffic on the highway with a big sign that said on one side, prepare to meet thy God, and on the other side, Christ died for your sins. He just turned it around, did it all day on his day off. He's a man who knew how to weep. I tell you, when we see the tears back in the eyes of God's people, we know that's the sound of the gentle stillness God is speaking among us. The unspoken aching of the burdened heart and the unhindered tears of the intercessor, and the inexpressible groan from the saint that doesn't know what to pray for. But thank God for the Holy Spirit who makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. We can see this in the life of the Lord Jesus, can't we? What did Israel expect? The coming of the Messiah. What did they expect? Why, they expected the king and his beauty. What did they see? A carpenter. A carpenter coming into the synagogue. Who's this? Isn't not this the carpenter? And they were completely taken aback. It was the voice of a gentle stillness. Israel expected that he would come in a blaze of majesty with a blast of trumpets, and he came wrapped in swaddling clothes and weeping as a man as he grew for the souls of men. Israel expected crowns and glory, and he spoke of a cross and suffering. You see the whole principle of it. The sound of the gentle stillness. Oh, beloved, with all the cacophony of noise that is filling our minds and ears in these days, we have to attune our ears to the quiet voice of God speaking in the hearts of his people. Discouraged servant, Elijah, he heard the voice of the Lord. I like what he did here. Stepped into the mouth of the cave, and he didn't say, here I am, oh God. Oh no. Elijah knew more about God than that. He took his mantle, and he wrapped his face with it, and he stood there, available for God. Does that remind you of someone in the New Testament? Lazarus coming forth from the grave, and it says he was bound in grave clothes and his face covered with a napkin. That seems to say to me that when a man hears the voice of the Lord, a woman hears the voice of the Lord, he's going to use the words of the apostle. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, not I. I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. So he covered himself, covered his face. The Lord asks him a very pressing question. He was in the cave. The cave speaks of discouragement, escape. Elijah, what doest thou here? You've no right to be in this place of discouragement, Elijah. Dear Christian, what doest thou here in this place of discouragement? That's not where the Lord intends you to be at all. Not ever. Not ever. What doest thou here? But the Lord had made very wonderful provision, hadn't he? Thousands of others who had not bowed the knee to the false God. Dear Christian, I know you may feel alone, but you're not alone. There are others who have the same exercise as you have. They may not express it in the same way, but there are others. You're not all alone. You may be weary. You may be distressed. But the Lord wants to reach you today, to encourage you and to recommission you. What did he do with Elijah? He sent him out after he was restored and refreshed. He sent him out again. And then he said, to make sure that you're not going to be alone again, here's a brother. Go down there and get a hold of Elisha. And he found Elisha, and they had fellowship in the work of the Lord. We all need somebody. We cannot go it alone. And it's a very beautiful thing when we can enjoy the fellowship with a kindred spirit, someone we can pray with, someone we can open our hearts to, someone we can share with. That's a great preservative from spiritual depression. Dear Bob McClurkin, a preacher some of you know, said to me many years ago something I didn't quite understand, but I do a little more now. He said, Boyd, if you're praying and you can't break through alone, get somebody to pray with, because the power of prayer is cumulative. And I've proved that to be true. If you find it difficult to pray alone, you get a kindred spirit, a heart that is one with yours, and pray together. And you'll be able to break through more easily with two of you, because fellowship in the things of the Lord is one of the preservatives from spiritual depression. May the Lord encourage our hearts, and recognize that the experience that you are having or may have is not unusual. It is not an uncommon thing. Great men have known it. Exercise, strong men, saintly men have known it, but God cares about you, and he doesn't want you to get into it. He doesn't want you ever to get into it, and he wants to preserve you in his service, to recommission you if you feel you've been out of business, and to assure you you're not alone in the will of God, and certainly the Lord is with you. May it be so, for his name's sake. Shall we pray? Father, as thy little children in these New Testament days, we thank thee for the example of mighty men of God. We thank thee for this great servant of thine, Elijah, for his great courage. And as we read of this deep experience that has been left on record among all the other experiences of his life, that we might be helped and instructed and preserved, should we ever be afflicted by this spiritual depression, the reaction to spiritual outgo that so often affects us after a time of joy and victory and power and answered prayer. We pray thou will preserve us from extremes and keep us, Lord, in the place where we can be used by thee. And oh, we thank thee that we're never alone. Not only do we have thy Holy Spirit, thy gracious presence, but we do thank thee for the saints of God. That there's always someone we can go to and pour out our hearts and get down and pray together. Oh, we thank thee for thy wonderful provisions. Lift up thy saints, Lord. Strengthen the feeble knees. Lift up the hands that hang down. Recommission some weary servant today, and send us all forth in the strength of the Lord, conscious of thy personal care for our good and blessing. These things we pray, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.