[0:00] Kings, chapter 21, 1 Kings 21, 1 Kings 21, 1 Kings 21, first part of the chapter is talking about how Ahab and Jezebel tried to get the land that was owned by Naboth and they wanted that vineyard and they wanted it. Ahab liked it, he wanted it and stuff and they plotted how they were going to get it. Then we come down to verse 17, chapter 21 of 1 Kings, verse 17, and I'll read from here to the end of the chapter, no longer than usual, but and thou shalt speak unto him saying, thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession?
[1:08] And thou shalt speak unto him saying, thus saith the Lord, in the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. And Ahab said to Elijah, hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that shut up and left in Israel and will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Naboth. And like the house of Bashar the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord saying, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city, the dogs shall eat. And him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to the things as did the
[2:35] Amorites, which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And it came to pass when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. Let's have a word prayer. Father, we just thank you for this passage of scripture, Lord, and the things it's going to teach us. Lord, as we have been going through these different things about Elijah, we have learned a lot about Ahab as well.
[3:20] As much as Elijah loved the Lord and wanted to do what the Lord had for him, he wanted to follow God in every way possible. Ahab has done the exact opposite. And Lord, we pray that we might learn from these two men, Lord, that we might understand that the things of the Lord are important to be done.
[3:42] And when we walk contrary to them, we're setting ourselves up for failure, we're setting ourselves up for danger because we're not walking with the Lord. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to understand tonight exactly the situation Elijah's in and Lord, that we would learn from it, take and be encouraged by it and uplifted by it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The events that we're reading about here are about five or six years after Elijah was at Mount Horeb. Now, I remember last week, we were talking about the fact that he wound up going to Mount Horeb, which is where Moses got the Ten Commandments, which is where the burning bush was and all of that. And he was up there in a cave and talks about the wind and the earthquake and the fire and the still small voice. So he's been there.
[4:44] He's seen the spectacular things that God can do. But he also has heard the still small voice of God and it spoke to him. Since that time till now, we don't hear anything about Elijah. Five or six years since that time has taken place. Now, what was Elijah doing all that time? Well, remember when we first left him there in the wilderness under the juniper tree, he was depressed, discouraged, and all these things and stuff. And God takes him to Mount Horeb, shows him some things. Whether he's still recovering during that time. And you think of all the things Elijah did. He might have needed some time to just kind of get settled back into being who he was supposed to be after all the things he'd been through. During that time, remember, he also has Elisha. And maybe he's training Elisha during that time.
[5:41] But during those five or six years, he's training him, getting him ready for the things he's going to do. It's been a quiet time, but God's been working on his heart and his life. God's been preparing him. God's been getting him ready because now when we see him again, he's not discouraged.
[5:59] He's not depressed. He's ready to go. God says, I need you to go do this. Okay, let's go. I'm ready. So he's had that time. Sometimes God gives us a chance to have some downtime. Sometimes it's a chance to just recharge, to get our focus back, to spend some time with God and let our minds go back to focusing on him and what he has for us and what he wants for us. It's a time for God to change him, get him back to walking in God's image, walking in the image of Jesus Christ.
[6:34] He's back now. He's ready to serve. He's not disappointed anymore. He's ready to go. If you want a title for this, when God says that's enough. When God says that's enough.
[6:48] And that's about what happens here. Ahab has been living his life the way he's wanted to. He's done everything wicked. And God says, that's enough. He's let him have plenty of time.
[7:00] So we're going to look at some things about this. The first thing we're going to look at is God's mission declared. God has a mission for Elijah to go out and do. He says, I've got something I want you to do and I want you to be ready to go out and take care of this. And there's comfort in that.
[7:17] First of all, there's comfort in the fact that God says, I can still use you, Elijah. I can still use you. Yes, you've been going through some things, but you know what? I can use you. He shows, first of all, his grace in a situation. God shows his grace in a situation. You know, Elijah might have been thinking these last five or six years that he'd served the Lord for the last time. Mount Carmel was it because then he ran off and had all that depression and everything. And you might've thought, you know what? God's not going to be able to use me anymore. I'm done. You ever had times like that? God, I must be done. I don't think God can use me anymore because I did this or I did that or I messed up or you think that Elijah, the prophet, and now he's thinking, Elijah, that has been, you know, sometimes we have that feeling, especially a group like us. A lot of us are older. I had to see a couple of young guys here today. That's nice. But sometimes, you know, we get older, we think, oh, maybe that's it. Maybe I'm all done. God still has a plan. I have to remind my mother that she's 88 years old. She says, why am I still here? Why does God leave me here? I'm not doing, you know, said he has a plan. You're still here. There's something you're supposed to be doing. There's somebody's life you're affecting. So he still has you here.
[8:43] You know, God intended to use Elijah again. And Elijah's experience in God's grace by being taken off the shelf, by being taken out of just kind of being in the background, he's going to be in the foreground again. And he's going to go see Ahab. You know, as you and I travel around the world, sometimes we may think God is finished with us. But God might be getting us ready. You know, we need to use the time we have wisely. We need to pray, seek God's face. We need to learn from God's word. We need to be faithful. You know, until we leave this earth, there's things for us to do. There's things that God has for us.
[9:29] And we need to keep going. God hasn't forgotten about you. Think about some of the characters from the Bible in the past. Jonah. Do you think when he was in that whale's belly, he thought, that's it. I'm done. I'm finished. He was wrong. God had more for him to do. How about when Peter denied Christ by that fire? Nope. I'm not with him. Nope. I don't know him. Nope.
[10:08] You think he thought, you know what? I'm all done. That's it. No more. God's never going to be able to use me again. But he does. How about John Mark? Remember John Mark? He was out on a missions trip with Paul and with Barnabas. And he winds up leaving them and going back home. And John Mark thought, that's it. I'll never get another chance like that again. I'm all done. Winds up going out with Silas. Winds up, Paul, I think it's in Timothy, Paul says, bring John Mark with you. He is profitable for the ministry. You know, we think we do things. I had up on the signboard a few weeks ago, our God is a God of second chances. Our God does. He gives us second chances. We're not finished. And third and fourth, yes, and many more. When we mess up, it doesn't mean we're done. It means we confess our sin.
[11:06] We go back. We pray. We spend time with him. We humble ourselves and say, okay, God, what do you got for me next? What do you want me to do? And we allow him to teach us. So God's grace on us is something very special. And Elijah is finding that out. Also, he's learning about God's grasp of the situation.
[11:28] God's grasp of the situation. As God's talking to him, did you notice he's talking about Ahab and what Ahab is doing? God has always got us in view. He knows exactly what's going on. You know, he's telling Ahab, he says, I know exactly where Ahab is. I know exactly what Ahab has been doing. And that's a comfort to Elijah. God knows what Elijah's been doing. He knows what Ahab's been doing.
[12:02] And he knows that these two need to meet again. Can you imagine? Did you notice what it said there? Ahab, verse 20. And Ahab said to Elijah, hast thou found me, O mine enemy? These two have had a confrontational relationship the entire time. All because Elijah's trying to live for the Lord. Ahab doesn't want anything to do with God. And so they have this confrontation taking place. You know, God sees. God knows. The Bible talks about in Matthew 10. You know, he knows the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. He knows everything that's going on with all of them. He knows everything. Then, look at verse 18. It says, arise, go down, and meet Ahab, king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to possess it. There's a cause. God has a cause for him to go down and find
[13:09] Ahab. He says, look, Ahab has been doing things that are wrong. Again, go back and read the first 16 verses of this chapter. You'll find out all the things that Ahab has been doing to try to get this vineyard and all the things that Jezebel went through to try to get this vineyard for Ahab and all the different things. If you read through those verses, you find out that they committed some horrible sins. They perverted the law of God. They put an innocent man to death. They bribed people to be false witnesses against him. And now they're trying to take something that belonged to a dead man. Something should have gone to his family, and they're trying to take it.
[13:47] So all of these different things have taken place. And this duo, Ahab and Jezebel, probably the two worst people who ever lived. So there's a whole lot of depravity there, and they're about to get the sentence that God has for them, what God is doing, the content of what he has. Look at verse 19. Thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Thou hast killed and also taken possession. Thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In a place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thine blood, even thine. Whoa.
[14:32] That sounds pretty nasty. Sounds pretty severe. And he's telling Ahab, this is what you did to Naboth. Guess what's going to happen to you. It goes back to the old eye for an eye, you know, type thing. Notice the sin that took place. God knew what Ahab had done. He knew the extent that he had gone to, gone to, to take care of Naboth and get him out of the way. Nothing is ever out of the sight of God and what's being done. God knows exactly what he was, what they were doing.
[15:13] And he knows and sees all. He deals with men on the basis of their sin. And he's about to deal with Ahab on the basis of his sin. Take your Bible for just a second. Hold your finger there. 1 Kings, familiar verse, but go look at it. Proverbs 15.3. Proverbs 15.3.
[15:44] Hopefully this is an encouraging verse to us, but not for the sinners. 15.3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Hopefully when he looks at us, he's seeing the good. A lot of times he's looking at those like Ahab, Jezebel, who are doing evil. He says, it's not getting past me. I know what's going on. I see it all.
[16:10] And then he points out the sin that's taking place. He points out the sentence. The sentence. Ahab's sin. It can only be one sentence. He killed people. He had Naboth killed. He did all these different things. He says, look, you're guilty of murder. You're guilty of theft, deception, idolatry. All kinds of wickedness and evil has taken place under your leadership. He said, you know what? You're guilty in the sight of God. And there's only one thing that can happen. You know, God gave him plenty of time to repent of his sin. He gave him time after time after time when Elijah showed up and said, Ahab, God says this and God says that and God says something else. He's had four or five years, six years between things. And he still keeps doing evil, even though he has, he, he, even though he was standing on Mount Carmel when that fire came down. And he says,
[17:27] I'm still going to keep living the way I've been living. God gave him chance after chance after chance. And now God says, okay, that's enough. Time to face what you have been doing. Time for you to face the deeds that you have done. That's enough. You know, he allows us time. He allows us to wander and go our own way. But he's always trying to get us back, come back and try to get us to repent of our sin.
[17:59] But he, you know, he gives us time. But what do we do with it? In, uh, numbers. Numbers 32, 23. Numbers 32, 23.
[18:19] Yep. Numbers 32, 23. It says, But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
[18:41] He says, you sinned, it's going to come a time when your sin will find you out. There's going to come a time when you're just going to be, that's enough. No more. But God always gives us time to come to that realization.
[18:57] But if we don't, there's going to be time to pay. We need to be so careful that we're walking with the Lord, always doing what he wants.
[19:08] Not allowing Satan to have any foothold in there. There's a story I like, I'd heard it a long time ago, about a man in Haiti. And he wanted to sell a house.
[19:21] That's from back a while ago, because the house was only going to be $2,000. But, huh? Haiti. Haiti. There was a man who really wanted a house.
[19:36] But he couldn't afford $2,000. So they kept talking back and forth. And finally, the owner agreed to sell him for half. $1,000.
[19:47] But in the contract, he sold it to him for $1,000. But he kept possession of one thing. He kept possession of one nail over the front door.
[20:02] That's all he wanted. You can have the house for $1,000, but I own the nail. Okay? A few years later, the original owner decided, you know, that house was actually pretty good.
[20:12] I think I want that house back. Well, the guy who bought it, of course, doesn't want to sell it back. He got a good deal out of this. Why would I sell it back? The original owner, who owned the one nail over the front door, found a dead dog and hung it from the nail.
[20:30] And the smells and everything made, finally made the house where it was unlivable. So they sold it back to him. All because he had that one nail that he owned.
[20:42] We leave Satan with one little piece. We need to throw him out. Don't let him have rule. Don't let him have the opportunity. Ephesians 4, 27 says, neither give place to the devil.
[20:57] Don't give him any room to do anything. Make sure we have our life cleaned up. Make sure we have our life centered on Jesus Christ.
[21:09] Make sure we have him as the ruler of our life. Don't let Satan have any entrance at all. And we'll stop there for tonight.
[21:19] Amen.