Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Elijah and the Voice

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

We’re looking at individuals who have met God in a particularly poignant way, who have actually come into the presence of God. To understand Elijah’s experience, we have to first jump back. Right before this moment in Elijah’s life, we see one of the most dramatic, spectacular events in all of the Bible. But after that spectacular event, Elijah is afraid, running for his life, and in utter despair. Let’s tell the story, and then let’s draw out lessons from it. Let’s look at 1) the three things God does for a depressed Elijah, and 2) the three things Elijah learns. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 13, 1996. Series: Daring to Draw Near. Scripture: 1 Kings 19:9-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. The Bible teaches us that while God is infinite, He is also intimate. In other words, it's possible for us to draw near to Him. But what does it actually look like to draw near to God? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching about what it means to experience God in a way that is personal and intimate. In your bulletin, there's a pretty long passage printed from 1 Kings, verse 19. And it's part, as you will see, of a much longer narrative, but this is really the climax

of it, and we'll read it and see what we can learn from it. Now, we're talking about Elijah, and here in the very first verse, there he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord, God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword.

I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. The Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. And then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. And then a voice said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. And the Lord said to him, go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus, and when you get there, anoint Hasil, king over A-Ram, also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, king

over Israel, and anoint Elisha, son of Shayfath from the of Nimshi, King of Israel, and Annoyed Elisha, son of Sheyfath, from the able Mahola to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sort of hasil, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sort of Jehu. Yet I reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Bale, and all whose mouths have not kissed him. This is God's word.

We're in a series in which we're looking at individuals who have met God in a particularly poignant way who have actually come into the presence of God. Just a note, the Bible teaches us basically through biographies. The Bible teaches us basically not through essays, not through lectures. It teaches us through biography. And just for a moment, let's just think about how wise that is. It's savvy, educationally, it's a savvy educational method because we all know that we get bored with abstract truth, but when it comes to a life, a story, we get involved with it. We remember it. It's much more interesting. But more importantly, the fact that the Old Testament is basically stories, biographies of real human beings. It points to the fact,

as we mentioned this morning, actually. It points to the fact that when God decided to send salvation, he didn't send an airtight argument, he sent an airtight person, he didn't send an abstract principle, he sent a human being. And that's the reason why John in chapter one of his gospel, he says, in the beginning was the word was the logos. Now that wasn't particularly controversial because the Greek philosophers for years had said, sure, the logos is the meaning of life, the reason for life, a logic of the universe. Sure, what God would have it. They've been trying to figure out what it was for years. And so when John says in the beginning,

was the word and the words was with God, the logos was with God, that wasn't new, that wasn't revolutionary, that wasn't even controversial. But then when he says the word became flesh and tweld among us and we beheld his glory, that was revolutionary. Salvation is a person, the principle has become a human being, you see.

The truth has got flesh. Now basically, all the way through the Bible, instead of giving us abstractions, he gives us flesh. And that's the reason why we learned so much when we really see these flesh and blood people. And boy, I'll tell you, there's nobody more flesh and blood perhaps than Elijah. Let me tell you, there's nobody more flesh and blood perhaps than Elijah. Let me tell you, let's do what we usually do.

Let's tell the story, and then let's draw out the lessons from it. Now, the story goes like this. And you have to jump back. You have to go back a chapter. And we have to start this way. In chapter 18, not chapter 19, in in chapter 18 you have about the most dramatic spectacular

Event in all of the Bible I just don't I have no idea why hasn't been made into a movie. It's got movie written all over it Maybe it has somebody's gonna tell me about it afterwards, but it never has and here's how it goes and it's very important Israel For centuries Israel had a trouble with idol worship. You see, Israel believed that there was one true God, and all around Israel were other cultures that were pagan in their approach. Nowadays, the word pagan is just a pejorative term, but paganism is a worldview.

And basically, as the biblical worldview is that there's one true God, one power center, and one truth. There's one God, one power center, one truth. Paganism said, there's multiple gods, there's multiple power centers, and there's multiple, therefore, truths. Very different. And over the years, of course, the Israelites had gone through what you might say, spiritual cycles. Sometimes they fell into a lot of idle worship and idle worship became something, paganism became something very widespread, you know, large pockets, and then there would be a revival in the sense that a judge or a king or someone

would, a leader would rise up or a particularly fastidious priest or a charismatic type priest and would purify and the country and people would turn back to the worship of the true God. But something happened when Ahab, the king of Israel, married Jezebel, who was the daughter of the priest king of Tyre and Sidon and she was a fanatical devotee

of the Tyrion Bale. Now the Tyrion Bale was basically Bale, the god of Tyre. And what she did was something that she was able to do and she got married. She married A-Hab as one of these political alliance things that we, you know, from studying history, very often happen. She was able to do something that really no other than never happened before in Israel. That was she was able to install the worship of Bale as the official national religion of Israel. She brought over hundreds of prophets and priests of Bale and set up shop. Instead of really just there being a whole lot of pockets of worship.

Now what we had was we had a central cultists. We had a central religious establishment. They had it all, in a sense. They had seminaries, they had credentials, they had worship centers. They had a hierarchy. They probably had a printing place. I mean, in other words, they had the system.

They created a system. And this was really, this was the most dire. This was the greatest spiritual peril that Israel had ever been in. And so God sends Elijah. And he also sends a drought. In other words, God in order to wake in Israel up, got rid of the rain.

There was one of the worst famines, one of the worst droughts that Israel had ever known. The economy was in tatters. And at the height of this, God sends Elijah to Ahab. And this is where really where it gets dramatic, unbelievably dramatic. Ahab, pardon me, Elijah goes and meets Ahab, and he challenges Ahab to send all the prophets of Bale to Mount Carmel. And he essentially challenges them to spiritual equivalent of the shootout at the okay corral. He says, I'll tell you what we're going to do.

You can bring all of those prophets of Bale up to the mountain, and I will stand as the prophet of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and we will both pray to God to end the drought, pray to God to hear our prayer, and let the true God send rain to Israel. See, this is something. You know, this is what do you make movies about? A. Habs says, you're on. And probably one of the reasons why was that Bale was a fertility god. And because Bale was a fertility god, the idea of Bale being able to send rain, even in the pagan structure, the pagan mentality would be that a god of fertility would be able to bring rain, because rain is what you need to have fertile land and so on. And so not only did 450 prophets show up on Mount Carmel, but also Elijah, all by himself on the

other side, in this corner, 450 prophets. In this corner, Elijah and thousands of Israelites came up onto the mountain to watch thousands of them wanted to come and watch this contest. I mean, who wouldn't? And Elijah says, I can be fair. He says, he says, is you go first. The prophets of Bale build an altar and they slew a bull as a sacrifice, and then they worked.

And what did they do? They began to pray. Not only did they just begin to pray, but they began to dance. They danced around the altar and they began to pray. And it went on for hours. There was no answer. The Bible tells us it went on from early till noon, early in the morning till noon, and they started to get

frantic. After they were dancing and they were running around praying out to be able to please send rain, they started to cut themselves. They began to cut themselves, as it says, as was their habit. It says, then they called on the name of Bale from morning till noon, oh, Bale answer us, they shouted. But there was no response, no one answered.

So they danced around the altar they had made. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them. Shout louder, he said. Perhaps he's deep in thought. Or busy, or traveling. Maybe sleeping, and must be awake. And I and I see that you know when you read the Bible You always say these guys never never behave like I would but here's the guy who does Here's somebody who said this is exactly what you say man, you know my God can look your God and

I'm gonna go to the mountain and I'm gonna show you and of course You know Elijah sees them falling behind you know, and he gets excited. And he says, maybe sleeping, maybe he must be awakened and so on. And so on. Actually, translations never say it, but it basically says maybe he's on the toilet. It says, maybe sleeping, it must be awakened. But I don't know which verb in the NIV it says, perhaps he's deep and thought or busy, yeah, or traveling. That word busy. That's the word. No translation

ever was to say he's off urinating. And actually I probably never said that into the mic in seven years of being here. But you know what, it's really a bad idea to try to be more holy than the word of God. So he shouts and he taunts them and it says, so they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears as was their custom, until their blood flowed, have mercy on us, see our commitment, have pity on us, midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. This is just great, this is great storytelling.

And then Elijah rose and was evening. He'd given them all day. And Elijah rose and said, first of all, let's build a new altar and he built a new altar 12 stones for the 12 frams of Israel. And he sacrificed a bull on it. But for the 12 frabs of Israel and he sacrificed a bull on it. But then he said, throw water on it. Everybody said, what?

He said, water, not just a little bit of water, lots of water. Soak this thing. Soak the bull, soak the sacrifice and they poured so much water on it because he kept on saying more, more, more, that the water just came down around it and there was a trench around it and it filled up the trench. He wanted to make sure that nobody thought there was any trick. He wanted to make sure that nobody, nobody, nobody, after it was going to say it was spontaneous combustion.

And so after they filled four large drawers with water, poured on the offering and it ran all over the wood and all over everything. Then at that time, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Let it be known today that you are God and Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, oh Lord, answer me so that these people

will know that you, oh Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again. You just said one prayer, 30 seconds. And at that, fire came down. What actually happened was, according to this, first of all, the fire sprang up and began to consume the bull. But it got higher and greater and it began to consume the altar. And finally, and this, remember, is a wet altar now, next thing you know, it says, what does it say? It says, then the fire of the Lord burned up the sacrifice, the wood and the stones and the soil and licked up all the water in the trench.

The people began to fall back because this enormous blaze didn't just come up and start to consume the bull, it began to consume everything. Next thing you know, this very, very huge altar was completely gone. It had been eaten up, it had been disintegrated. It was gone. And next thing you know, the soil and the rocks and the stones, everything and the people fell back. And what does it say?

They fell down an absolute amazement. They fell down properly in heat prostration. And they, on the ground, they began to yell. On the ground, they began to shout, the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. And people began to shout, people began to scream. And Elijah raises his voice up above the tomb open says,

now it's time to turn back. Kill the prophets of veil. And the people rose up and slaughtered them. And then Elijah and his servant looked off the mountain while all this was going on, and they saw what was this is the way it was put, a little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, a rising out of the sea, and Elijah came over to Abehab, and I just can imagine a look on his face, see. And Elijah came over to Abehab, and I just can imagine, look on his face. And he says, hit up your chariot and get down the mountain before the rain overtakes you. And then the sky grew black with clouds, and the wind rose, and a heavy rain came on, and Abe rode off to Jezreel,

which was his capital. And the power of the Lord came upon Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran all the way to Jezreel himself. That's how the chapter ends. And a lot of commentators are going to be, you'll see why, a lot of commentators say, there's something wrong here. That was the end of chapter 18. There's no way that chapter 19 could have really come after chapter 18, because this is what happens.

Why was he running to Jezreel? A. Ab was on the run. The rain was coming down. The altar had been consumed. Essentially the entire cultists of Bale had been destroyed. An Elijah says, finally, and he ran to Jezebel because he figured one of two things were gonna happen. Either A-hab and Jezebel would fall on the ground

and say, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. This is about, listen, if you can imagine a more spectacular demonstration of the existence of the true God, I want to think of a better one. Just tell me one. Imagine doing this at Rockefeller Center, all the media there. I mean, what more could you ask for? What greater demonstration could you possibly ask for? So he said, either they're going to fall down and say, the Lord he is God or else, the people will rise up and cast them out. And God will again be the God of Israel.

He said, I've done it. I've done everything I wanted. I worked out my program. Everything was going to go fine. So he runs to Jezreel, but he stopped before he even gets to the capital. It says, now, Ahab, it told Jezebel everything Elijah had done. Remember, Ahab was in a chariot, and how he'd killed all the prophets with the source. So Jezebel everything Elijah had done, remember, you know, A.H. was an a chariot, and how he'd killed all the prophets with a sword. So, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to stop him and say, may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time, tomorrow, I do not make you like one of them.

And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. And when he had come to Bershi, but in Judah, he left his servant there. Why? Why did he leave his servant? And then it says, he went a day's journey into the desert and he came to a broom tree and sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

I have had enough, Lord, he said, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. And then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Now, what do you see here? The reason he let go of his servant was he had no need for him. He was out of the ministry. Not only that, he had gone out there and he said, Lord God, kill me. Now, you know, this is something very, very important to see. A lot of commentators, a lot of interpreters have said, this is bad editing. This story of 1 Kings 18, the incident of Mount Carmel,

and this incident here when he gets despair, he gets suicidal, he falls into utter despondency, and he asks the guy to take his life away. These things couldn't have happened that close together. Look, look, this is verse 46 of 18. It says, and the power of the Lord came upon Elijah and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran to Jezreel.

Four verses later, four verses later. He says, I've had enough Lord, take my life, I am nothing. I'm no better than my ancestors. And some commentators say, there's no way that a person at the height of his success, there's no way that a person who's not only serving the Lord, but serving the Lord successfully, who is filled with the Holy Spirit, the power of the Lord comes upon Elijah,

who has brought about this incredible triumph. There's really nothing like it anywhere else in the Bible. Four verses later, he is in despondency, and he's in despair, and he wants to kill himself. They said, that just can't happen. And you know what? That tells you nothing about the text. It tells you a lot about the interpreters.

It tells you the day you don't know much about the human condition. And also it tells you they probably don't know much about Christianity. Because you know, I can think of three people who said, Lord, take my life away. Moses in Numbers 11. Elijah here in First Kings 19. Jonah in Jonah chapter four. These are not weak links in the body. These are not immature people.

In fact, there's actually some, if you look carefully, you'll see in every case, they've just had a tremendous success. This is telling us, the Bible is telling us that the strongest Christians, the strongest believers, in fact, people who are very effective in service, in fact, people because of their effectiveness in service, get suicidally depressed. It's the integrity of the Bible,

don't you think, to show us this, to tell us this. It's important for of the Bible. Don't you think to show us this? To tell us this. It's important for us to see. There's a realism about the Scriptures, a realism about Christianity. And what do we see that God does? Well, he does three things. And the first one, I have to read to you in the second two,

you read, and then we will draw out the lessons. The first thing we told us this, he fell asleep, and once an angel touched him and said, get up and eat. He looked round and there by his head was a cake of bread, baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then laid down again. And the angel of the Lord came back a second time

and touched him and said, get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights till he reached Horob, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and spent the night. And the rest, we read. And if you think about it, you'll see that there's really

three things that God does. The first thing God does for a depressed Elijah, he does nothing. He doesn't lecture him, doesn't counsel him nothing. He sends an angel, and all the angel does is cook. It's amazing. He says, get up, and the angel has created a cake. Right?

Okay? I'm going to say it before you say it. It's angel food cake. There it is. It's angel food cake There it is It's all he does the second time he bakes him another meal and all he says is the journey is too much for you No lectures, no counseling, no support groups, no therapy No calls to repentance, no nothing You need a good meal. You need a good sleep. You need a good rest. That's the first thing

You need a good meal, you need a good sleep, you need a good rest. That's the first thing. The second thing he does is he meets him on Mount Sinai. Mount Horib is Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. And he comes to him and he says, I want you to experience the presence of the Lord. So he goes out and out comes, first of all, an incredible wind. It tears the rocks apart. And then after that, I mean, that's a wind, okay? That's not a, that's a wind. And then after that comes an earthquake and after that comes fire, earthquake, wind, and fire. The three signs of the presence of God in terms

of judgment, they are forbidding things, They are destructive things. And yet, Elijah realizes that God is not in them. God is not able, you can't talk to God in these things. It doesn't mean that they're not from God. It doesn't mean that they haven't been sent by God. It doesn't mean that they are in outskirts of his ways and so forth. It doesn't mean that God doesn't judge, but that's not how I'm going to find God. He's not in them, and then suddenly up comes a gentle whisper. The Old King James Bible says it's a still small voice. Literally, in the Hebrew it says, there was a quiet breath. There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we have heard in recent years.

What does the Bible have to say about it? And how does God's Word help bring about justice? In Tim Keller's book, Generous Justice, you'll discover that the Bible gives us a rich and complex understanding of what justice is and what it means to live it out. The book provides a biblical framework for justice, one that calls every Christian to a life of generous justice, fueled by grace. Generous justice is our thank you for your gift

to help Gospel and Life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. and he puts his foot over his face because he realizes now I'm talking to God, and he listens. And the second thing was, there was counseling there, I'll tell you what that is in the minute.

And the third thing he says is, I want you to get back to work. Go annoyed, has the old, King over A-Ram, which is Syria. I want you to annoyed J-Hoo, who will be the new king over Israel, and I want you to annoy J-Hoo,

who will be the new king over Israel, and I want you to annoy J-Hoo, who will be the new king over Israel, and I want you to annoy J-Hoo, who will be the new King over Israel, and I want you to annoy Elisha and raise him up as a leader because he's going to be the prophet after you. So the three things he does is he gives him a rest, he gives him counseling, and he sends him off back to work. What do we learn? Number one, I would say actually Elijah learns something about

the world, something about himself, and something about the Lord. First of all, he learns this about the world. This is very important. Elijah's pride made him too optimistic and then too pessimistic. You see, what's very interesting about what he learns about the world is he thought if he got his way, he thought if his program would work, everything would be put right. And he's just overwhelmed and overcome, and he's shocked and surprised, and he's in despair over just how deeply entrenched the evil of the world is, just how wicked people are, how sinful people are, how stupid people are. You know what?

See what actually happened was pretty much like this. If you would do this at Rockefeller Center and all the media were there and two days later all they, nobody thought that that meant we should change anything about our lives. It was just that, wow, that was quite a show. Singed my whiskers and that's it. And Elijah is amazed. He says, how in the world could people see something like that and not have their hearts turned back?

Remember, that was his prayer. Lord, this is going to turn people's hearts back, hearts back, and it didn't. Elijah was in despair because he really had an inadequate understanding of sin. His theology of sin just was very shallow, and he is totally bummed out, he's totally surprised at how sinful people really are.

And you're gonna be in despair, as you deepen your theology of sin. But actually, if you think about it, the reason his sin is, his theology of sin was shallow, was actually because his pride was so great. When I was preparing for this talk, I listened to a tape

of Dick Lucas' tape, and Dick Lucas' British pastor, and he was speaking on this subject, and he found this very interesting quote in a British paper that most of you probably never heard of, but it's something, it's like the Times or the Wall Street Journal or something like that, it's called The Spectator. Not a Christian, a newspaper at all, but he found this very, very interesting quote.

And this is what the quote said. It says whether you're a communist, a fascist, or a libertarian, the real problem we have is not what we think the program ought to be, but that we think our program will solve the problems. These people believe if only their theory were enacted and accepted all would be well. They think that there is a correct analysis of society.

As a society, we're a machine. And you only have to remove the monkey wrench in the works for it to function perfectly. Because of this belief, the world lives in a fermint of extravagant hope and bitter disappointment. Every day, politicians promise health and wealth and peace. Newspapers demand an end to crime or crash programs to stop poverty, sickness, or cruelty to children. And every day, politicians and newspapers, therefore, are forced to admit

that people are still poor and still ill and still fighting one another and still dying, and therefore, they desperately have to blame their enemies for all this wickedness. All this is pride. Now the reason that's such an important quote, the reason that he brought that up and the reason I'm bringing it up is, they're right. If you believe that the real problem out there in the world is that my program isn't being followed. You instead of seeing the real problem out there as the depth of sin in people's hearts,

you will assume that the reason the world is in the mess it's in is because of your enemies. In other words, if you're a conservative politically in some of you are, or if you're a liberal politically and some of you are, if you're a Christian, this is something you've got to utterly avoid. If you're a conservative politically, you must not demonize the liberals.

If you understand sin, you know that the real problem of the world is not liberal policies. And if you're a liberal, and you're a Christian, you would never demonize the conservatives because you will know if you have a decent doctrine of sin, that the real problem of the world is not conservative policies. But the fact of the matter is, unless you have a deep, deep understanding of the inveterateness of evil, you see.

And actually the irreducibility of evil. And unless you understand just how deep that is and on human hearts, and therefore how partial any victory will ever be between now and the time the Lord comes back. You will demonize people because you're pride. You'll always be upset. You will live, as they said, in a ferment of extravagant hope and bitter disappointment and fury at your enemies and sometimes despair.

And it's all because pride in your program, which is concomitant with a shallow understanding of sin. And that's one of the reasons you're going to be depressed. But it's not just that we have to apply this to the politics. I'll go once and further. Elijah has been shown here and we are being shown here, that we have got to be very, very careful to think that our little program is going to solve anybody's problems ultimately. Have you ever found that you've invested in somebody

and you've invested in that and they're doing well and they fall back? Or have you felt like you were doing so well? And you've had these great victories. The next thing you know, you do something and you say, how in the world am I capable of that? You'll be in despair unless you learn what I lied you learned the hard way.

See, your little program is never going to completely overcome it. All the victories are partial, and it's pride that's leading you to your despair. But when Elijah gets down into despair, God sort of ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. First of all, Elijah says, I'm the only Christian left, in a sense. Now, he's not using the word all, Elijah says, I'm the only Christian left, in a sense, and he's not using the word Christian. He's the only one left. There's nobody else in all of Israel. And what does God say?

He does two things. The first thing he says is, there's at least 7,000 people who also serve me. Now, you know what's going on here? This is very, very typical. As I said, pride is what keeps you from really, pride is what keeps you from this incredible, in a sense, optimism,

a utopianism about the world. But also, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's part of me. Pride leads to that utopianism, but pride also leads to your pessimism. One of the reasons that Christians are always in despair about the way things are is because we have a tendency to look at ourselves. And we say, yeah, over there, there's that church, and they kind of believe, and they're over there, there's that church, and they kind of believe, but we're the only ones that really have it together. And because of your pride, you say, we're the only ones. I mean, Kathy and I do this to each other all the time.

Just try to, we know that there's something in our heart that makes us want to think, we're the only ones. I mean, Kathy and I do this to each other all the time. Just try to, we know that there's something in our heart that makes us want to think, we're the only ones that really have it together. And sometimes we say, well, every Christian in the world is unbalanced, but me and you, dear. And you know, sometimes, I wonder about you. And we do that. Why do we do that?

We have to make fun of ourselves because we know that Catholics will say, you Protestants, you're kind of believers, but really, you don't have it together in Protestants. you Protestants, you're kind of believers, but really you don't have it together in Protestants. So you Catholics, you kind of believers, but you don't really have it together. And the Charismatics will say, you hear it, Redeemer, you know, you don't have the Holy Spirit. And the people at Redeemer will look around and say, you guys are kind of into emotionalism.

And because of our pride, we start to say there's nothing going on. Just our poor little corner. You see, and it's pride that leads you to not see what God is doing in the world. God says, I'm doing all kinds of stuff, but your pride is keeping you from seeing it. Your pride led you to this ridiculous optimism that has brought you down, and now your pride is keeping you in this pessimism, you need to get up. And then he actually says, and this is, to me, amazing, he says, go anoint, has the Al, the King of Syria. Now, this is absolutely astounding. A prophet of Israel is going to anoint a pagan king. There is no indication anywhere

that this guy was a believer, and there's no indication that he ever became a believer. And what is God saying? God is saying, Elijah, I am in charge. Elijah, I am doing my work. I'm using pagans. I'm using people that aren't in your court to keep wisdom alive, to keep beauty alive. I'm working out. I'm doing things. What's it matter with you? See, if you have a proper understanding of God's grace,

deep understanding, and a proper understanding of God's sin, of our sin. In other words, if you have a good understanding of our sin and also see how God in his grace is working with all kinds of people who aren't correct. If you don't see that God does things through grace and we are the depth of our sin, if you don't understand sin and grace, which is the gospel, you're gonna be whiplash back and forth

from extravagant hopes to utter despair, just like Elijah. It's very important. That's what he learned about the world. He learned, he started to learn how to see the world through the gospel. He didn't understand the sinfulness of sin and he didn't understand the gracefulness of grace. And as a result, he was whiplashed. Secondly, he learned something about us, about himself, about us. And this is not really the main point, but I think we have to see this. An awful lot of times we are so super spiritual about people's problems. We figure if you're depressed, you just need to pray about it. Or you need to let me tell you why the Lord, why you're sending and so forth.

We have a physical nature and sometimes we're depressed because physiologically we need rest. We don't need a lecture, we don't need a quiet time, we need a walk. We need something, because we have a physiologically, we're not just, we're not disembodied spirits, we've got a physiological nature and sometimes, part of our depression is physiological and we've got a relational nature therefore.

Let's draw this out. Sometimes we need friends. We're lonely and we've got a creative nature. Sometimes we need beauty. We need a good book. We need a wonderful piece of music. You see, we're so quick, very often, to immediately say all your problems must be sin, all your problems must be that you need to pray, you need a quiet time. You know, God Himself was careful about this and gave, in a sense, a multiple discipline, He, God as a counselor takes a multidisciplinary approach. At first, all He did was He sat there in a sense with Elijah. He just let him sleep. He let him in a sense, had some what He said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he ways, you know, we're two super-spirits, and then we're not spiritual enough.

When's the last time you spent 40 days seeking God's Word? You see? Now, lastly, we learn about God. And what is God saying when he brings the earthquake, wind, and fire by? And clearly, they're from God. And yet, Elijah realizes that's not how I get in, that's not how I really find him. Well, why would you have these dramatic events versus the still small voice and there's two possible

ways of understanding, I think they're both valid. First of all, God is clearly saying, mount Carmel is not the way to go. So first of all, he's trying to say, do you not see that the earthquake wind and fire, the dramatic events don't change people's lives, but my voice does my word. You don't need miraculous, dramatic answers to prayer and these events, you need my word. So the first thing he's trying to say is, if you want to really know God, instead of looking to saying, Lord, I'll know you're there.

If you heal my hip, you're going to know God a whole lot better if you sit down with his word and read it until you hear his voice through it. I mean, that's how you find God. You don't find God by making all these kinds of asking for all these kinds of acts. God can do the Mount Carmel thing. That's just not the way he usually does it.

And besides that, look, it didn't touch anybody's hearts. It's the Word of God, it's the voice of the Spirit, it's the quiet breath that changes people's hearts. This is the reason why, remember, when the rich man is in hell, in that famous parable that Jesus tells of Lazarus and the rich man, he's in hell. And he saysable that Jesus tells of Lazarus and the rich man. He's in hell and he says he calls up, he says to Father Abraham, Father Abraham,

if Lazarus can come back from the dead and go and talk to my brothers who are still alive, then they won't come to hell. And Abraham says, what? What does he say? Exactly what God says to Elijah. He says, if somebody came back from the dead, that's not going to change their hearts. They have Moses and the prophets. What's that mean? He says, don't you realize it's God speaking through the Word of God that changes hearts. Not Steven Spielberg type special effects.

Not George Lucas types, you know, Star Wars kind of special effects. That's not it. But that's not all. The most important thing is this. The earthquake in the fire are the tokens of God's judgment. The still small voice is the gentleness of His grace. And what Martin Luther said about this is very interesting to me. I probably need to qualify this, but I don't have time. Martin Luther says, judgment, God shows us here that judgment

is strange work. Judgment is not His primary work. Judgment is only a means to an end. Judgment is not the main way that God's going to go about things. And Edmund Clowney is a wonderful Bible scholar, points out that when Jesus Christ deals with John the Baptist in Matthew 11, and the reason I'm thinking about this is I spent

two months almost on Matthew 11 in the morning services. Jesus talks to John the Baptist. John the Baptist says, how do we know you're the one who is to come? Jesus quotes Isaiah 35. He says, John, don't you know that the deaf are hearing and they've blind or seeing and the poor have good news preached to them and the lame are being healed? And Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 35.

And of course, this is described as John the Baptist preserved because John the Baptist is Elijah. John the Baptist has the spirit of Elijah. Jesus continually says that. And he has the mindset of Elijah. And John the Baptist, the spirit of Elijah. Jesus continually says that. And he has the mindset of Elijah. And John the Baptist, just like Elijah, thinks that judgment is the main thing the world needs. And Jesus drives him crazy by quoting Isaiah 35,

because this is what Isaiah says. Isaiah 35 says, strengthen the feeble needs, hands, and study the needs, your God will come. He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution, he will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be open, then will the ears of the deaf be on stop, then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongues chat for joy. The prophecy is, when God comes in judgment, then all these wonderful things will happen. The eyes of the blind will be open, the ears of the deaf will be on stop. John the Baptist

looks at Jesus, so I don't get it. Here you are doing these works of the kingdom, but where's the judgment? You've come in weakness. I'm in prison, and I'm your servant. You look like you're about to be killed yourself. Where's the fire of God, see? Salvation is, God bringing down the fire and destroying the wicked.

That's John the Baptist, and that's Elijah. It says, that's how God is going to save us. And Jesus is saying explicitly what God said down back to Elijah implicitly. And that is, listen, if God sends the judgment, if God sends his fire of judgment down, he won't just consume Herod. John, he'll be consuming you too.

If God would really come down in judgment, we'd all be lost. Well, John says, how in the world are these wonderful works happening? Where's the judgment? And Jesus says, you see, I came to receive the judgment. The judgment of God is falling, the fire of God is falling, but it's falling on me, and that's why the eyes of the blind are open, the ears of the deaf are unstopped. Why is it that the earthquake when and fire did not destroy Elijah? Because you see, the earthquake, Jesus was the one who was shaken. Jesus was the one who

got the fire. Jesus was the one who inherited the wind. You know that place, that curse where it says he who troubles his house will inherit the wind. Jesus inherited the wind. Jesus got all that. The reason that the still small voice is there for Elijah and for us was because the reason the grace was there is because Jesus took the judgment.

Elijah didn't understand that. He thought judgment and spectacularness was the way to go. And what God was trying to say is, judgment's my strange work. My judgment is a means to an end. Judgment comes down on Jesus so I can give you grace. There we have.

Through the gospel, you can understand the world. Otherwise, you'll be whiplash back and forth between pessimism and optimism. We not only, and also the gospel help you understand yourself. But most of all, a gospel helps you understand the Lord. He comes in grace. He comes through the Word. He's in a still small voice.

He is the one who comes in gentleness. He's the one who comes in weakness. He's the one who comes not to bring vengeance, but to take vengeance so that we can have his gracious voice. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for showing us these things. And we pray that we might understand them well enough that it would really change the way

in which we move out into the world. Help us to be people who breathe grace and not judgment. Help us to be people who do not demonize our opponents. Help us to be people who are stable. Help us to be people who do not demonize our opponents. Help us to be people who are stable. Help us to be people who see your work everywhere. Keep us from the pride that would whiplash us back and forth between optimism and pessimism. We pray, Lord, that you would grant these things

because we're looking at these stories. We thank you that you sent us not a piece of principle, a lecture, but you sent us a person. And so, Lord, help us to apply these things to our hearts by your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and

Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast. Just visit GospelUnlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel Unlife podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Brideemer Presbyterian Church.