It is encouraging to us all to read in 1 Kings the faithfulness of Elijah. You will turn to chapter 22. In verse 29, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-Gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle. Put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. Here is Ahab, crafty, tricky as always, and he sees that obviously he is a target for Jehovah's wrath, but he's going to disguise himself. No one will know he's just one more soldier. Now, in verse 32, it came to pass when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, surely it's the king of Israel. They turned aside to fight against him and Jehoshaphat cried out. came to pass when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. So the ruse lasted only for a little while, and they soon found out that that wasn't the real king of Israel, Ahab. Verse 34, And a certain man drew a bow at a venture by chance and smote the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. and wherefore he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day, and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died in the evening. And the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot, and there went a proclamation throughout the host about sundown, saying, Every man to his city, every man to his own country. So the king died, and was brought to Samaria. and they buried the king in Samaria, and one washed the chariot in the pool at Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his armor according to the word of the Lord which he spake." Here is an example of providence. Elijah had been the instrument of prophesying that, yes, the dogs would lick the blood of Ahab, right where he had Naboth stoned. And no one thought that that was to be taken seriously. Ahab was dead set against it. He was an arrogant king, and here he goes into battle trusting that by a ruse the arrows may come toward his colleague and not himself. But there was one man who didn't know what he was doing. All he was doing was pulling his bow, shooting an arrow in the general direction of the enemy, he couldn't see the king at all. But some agent, some angel saw to it that that arrow went straight for Ahab, and it hit the target. And here, contrary to all that he had planned, And all that he has schemed toward, yes, he does come to the very fulfillment that Elijah had prophesied. And as they washed the blood from the chariot, the stray dogs came around, lapping up that blood, the blood of a king. Friends, we need to think very seriously about the path of our lives. We can't plan it. like God can plan it. We can't arrange it so that it comes out the way we like it. We're at the mercy of chance and oftentimes adversaries. And life is difficult. There's only one person who can make our life come out right. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone rules in the affairs of men. He alone can ordain the end of a person's life. Friends, we're not here in this world to struggle and strive and seek to accomplish our own purposes. We're here to accomplish his purpose. And as we see it in scripture, as we recognize the pathway that God marks out before us and humbly follow that pathway, We discover that yes, he does providentially order our steps. Yes, he does guide us when we don't realize it even. And he sees to it that we come out at the place of his appointment to accomplish his purpose. He must do that. We can't arrange it. Elijah is the perfect example of that. He had everyone against him, a people that did not care about his leadership, a king who was out to get rid of him, adversaries on every hand he had to hide for his life. But God carried him through every step of the way, and the prophecies he delivered were fulfilled down to the last letter. God is great. God is able to accomplish his purpose. And friends, he can do it through humble instruments. He doesn't have to do it through a great prophet. In this case, he did it through an ordinary foot soldier in the army of the enemy who didn't know what he was doing. He was just doing his duty. God arranged it that it was a divine fulfillment. Friends, when you face difficulties, hardships, whatever adversaries you come up against, remember, you have a God who can overrule all. You have a God who can arrange your steps and guide your pathway so that you will come out precisely where He intends. You can walk that pathway with peace. You can relax because the success of your service does not depend upon you. It depends upon Him. And you need to trust Him to accomplish just that. The life of Elijah is a fascinating one. In 2 Kings, Here he is again called upon to face adversaries. And it's because of the act again of a wicked king, the son of Ahab now, Ahaziah. In chapter one of Second Kings, in verse three, the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub, God of Ekron? Now therefore, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." Now here's a public rebuke of a king, son of Ahab, one who followed in his father's footsteps. And when he became ill, he sent to inquire from a false god. Baal Zibub. Now, Baal is the word Lord in the Palestinian dialect. Zibub is a word that means flies. And that's deliberately put on by the scribes who recorded this. They gave no honor to false gods. And Baal, the Lord, was a lord of flies in their estimate. So the term is an insult. No one ever in his lifetime ever called him that to his face. You can be sure of that. but is recorded in scripture because that's what God's estimate of the man was. Here he was a powerful king, but he was lord of flies. That's all. The Lord of the universe controlled all, including that idol and all that was represented by it. And here the king of Israel goes to consult a false god, an oracle that knew nothing. And Elijah is commissioned to go and rebuke him. Now, in verse 4, Elijah gives the word, Therefore thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. The Lord decrees the death of a king, and Elijah departed. Now, that was a public rebuke. The troops that heard it, they all heard the word, and I'm sure it spread like wildfire. And so the king doesn't want to take that. And he sends a group of his troops in order to arrest this prophet and drag him back and make him recant. Now in verse seven, what manner of man was he that came to meet you and told you these words, the king requests. And they said to him, he was a hairy man. girt with a girdle of leather about his loins, and he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. Yes, he knew that kind of a ministry. He knew the fearless nature of that prophet. And so the king sent his captain of fifty with fifty men. They're going to arrest him. They're going to make him recant. And in verse nine, he went up to him, and behold, he sat on the top of a hill. and he spake to him, Thou man of God, the king has said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. Oh, here is the fierce prophet once again. He is not going to bend. He is not going to change his message. It is a divinely inspired message. And when the soldiers rebuke him and this captain commands him to come, contrary to God's will, Elijah commands the fire to come down. And it does. And burns up the entire company. In verse eleven, he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty, and he answered and said to him, O man of God, thus saith the king, Come down quickly. And Elijah answered and said to him, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. Boy, again the same miraculous judgment visited upon these soldiers. And that's the answer to the king. You think you can command the prophet of God? God does the commanding. And if those soldiers come to accomplish something contrary to the will of Jehovah, they will be struck down, consumed with fire from heaven. And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came, and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, saying, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burned up the two captains of the former fifties and their fifties. Therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him, be not afraid of him. And he arose and went down with him to the king. Now, here God recognizes in the heart of that soldier there was real submission. He was not an arrogant man like the others. He was an individual who respected the law of the Lord, even though he was in the employ of a vicious king. And so he begs for mercy and God extends it to him. This is the character of God. When even his foes come and ask for mercy, he's ready to give it. Now think of that. Ordinarily, that's not done. When there's a matter of right and wrong, good and evil, the guy on the good side says, no, we won't budge an inch and we'll wipe everybody out who disagrees. But that wasn't God's plan. God's plan was that there should be converts from the other side. And when they came in humility and asked for mercy, they got it. And God has always dealt that way with people. He does not ruthlessly cut down anybody. He gives them the chance to recognize what they should do and ask for mercy upon their lives. He is quick to extend it. He is quick to change a person from a foe to a friend. And everyone who's born again in this room knows exactly what that means. God rejoices when one will come and say, you know, I've done wrong. I'm on the wrong side. Have mercy on me. God is listening. He's prepared to do just that. And here's these rough soldiers who beg for mercy and get it just in the nature of God. He's like that. Now, as we continue in that, verse 16, Thus saith the Lord, forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, god of Ekron, is it not because there is no god in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah leaves. He's given the divine judgment. A judgment of a death sentence on the king, verse 17, so he died. No one could reverse it. The time of that king's life was over. God said so. Now here's the example of Elijah, a stern prophet, an emissary of God who will not bend, will not hide, and will declare the word of the Lord. And the Lord does just what he says he would do. Now that is a tremendous accolade for Elijah. All his life he had to struggle and fight against the idolatry of the land. Wicked kings, in the case of Jezebel, queens, who were out to kill him. Their whole existence centered around getting rid of him. But he could not, because God wasn't through with him. It has been often said, you are immortal. until your job is done. No one is going to remove you accidentally from this world. A good person who is walking in God's will will walk to the very end of that will. You can relax. You can be serenely confident on that score. No one who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ ever dies prematurely. Everyone dies right on time. And that is the best time to leave this world, right on time. Friends, Elijah is a striking example for us all. He had a ministry in which every step was, in the eyes of the world, a very tentative one. His life hung in the balance year after year as he gave prophecies to one wicked king after another. never cringed, never refused to give his declaration. He was always faithful and God led him all the way. Early on in that ministry, there were a lot of people, I'm sure, who thought that Elijah would not last long. He was too outspoken, too blunt in his proclamations. He should have been a little more cautious in what he was doing. But he wasn't. He did what God allowed him to do. And he was successful all to the end. Now, the end. Here is a warrior, one of the great powerful leaders in the whole history of God's dealing with mankind. His life hung in the balance every step of the way. and he never cringed. He always did exactly what he was told. He was a true soldier of the Lord. It is not an accident, friends, that when the end comes, it comes according to God's perfect plan. And here this warrior, this soldier for the Lord, who has been through so many battles, who has fought through the oppression and sinful deeds of one king after another, now comes to the end and finds that there's a chariot waiting for him. Friends, we've got to recognize that whenever the end comes, it is not an accident. It is right on time. And here this warrior has the war chariot awaiting him. He is a general. He was despised here. People thought they could get rid of him with no problem, but he was one of the great leaders. And so the chariot, the honorable transportation of the General of the Army, is waiting for him. Friends, we've got to realize that God knows exactly what he's doing. He understands precisely what he asks his people to do. And he knows the hardship. He knows the dangers. He knows the opposition. He knows the slights and the slanders and the barbed arrows that are fired at his people. He understands all of that. But when the end comes, that's when the reward is. That's when the honor is given to those who fight the good fight of faith, who stand firm, will not compromise, but are on the Lord's side and take what comes. And so Elijah goes now by faith. He knows this is the end, but he doesn't know how it will end. And so in the next chapter, We see him traveling from one city to another, and each one is a center of the schools of the prophets. Those young men that he had been counseled, those young men that he had been training to carry on the work when he was gone. He knew that the opposition was going to continue. He knew that it was going to be difficult. And he was preparing them for what they had to face. And so, place by place, he goes. And Elisha, his successor, is going with him. He stays with him each step of the way. And the sons of the prophet ask him, do you know that the Lord is going to take up Elijah from you? And the answer is, yes, I know that. He's going all the way to the end. He won't stop. And Elisha is there. Time after time, the same question, the same answer until finally they come to the last place. In verse eight, Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smoked the waters, and they were divided hither and thither so that they, too, went over on dry ground. And it came to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee." And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee. But if not, it shall not be so. Yes, he had asked for a very specific thing here. The double portion went to the firstborn, the successor. And so here is Elijah asking for the privilege of picking up the mantle and being the successor. And Elijah is quick to say, that's not for me to say. It's not within his power to do that. But he says, if you have spiritual perception when I'm gone, the gift will be yours. So he left it entirely in God's hands. It was God's power that makes a prophet. No human being ordains a man of God like that. God alone can do that. And so here Elijah says, if you have that spiritual perception, it'll be because God gave it to you. And that is the power. And so in verse 11, it came to pass as they still went on and talked Behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Divine transportation from this veil of tears to a celestial realm where we will see him again, but in a position of authority and power, he was a great prophet. and his ministry still had more to come. For on the Mount of Transfiguration, Elijah comes back along with Moses to speak to the Lord Jesus himself, to be a testimony in that scene of the faithfulness of God and the power of God in accomplishing his work through his servants. Elijah is a testimony to us all. He did a miraculous ministry He couldn't have done it except by the power of God. He did it humbly walking the pathway that God directed him to follow. It was difficult, he was persecuted, but he was never caught. Though kings sought him with their armies, he could not be taken prematurely. And here at the end, it is a peaceful departure where he walks, strengthening his disciples, to the place of appointment and goes home right on time. Friends, we must look at life with faith, not with trepidation. We tend to look too much at the dangers, too much at the hardships, too much at the adversaries. We need to look to the author of life, the sustainer of life, the consummator of life. God has it all in control. God is accomplishing everything. And when you come to the end of your pathway, finishing the work that God has given you to do, you too will go home right on time. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to believe in chance. There is none where a believer is concerned. God guides our steps. God blesses the ministry. God knows the exact time when the ministry is finished. and each one of us will depart right on time. That gives us tremendous peace. There is no danger that can transcend the will of God. There is no hateful enemy that can remove you from the service of the Lord. The devil himself hates you, and he cannot touch you until the time comes. Friends, we should walk with serene confidence, step by step, however the difficult path may look forbidding. It isn't, because it's God's pathway for us. And we can walk with peace and confidence. We can recognize that whatever God calls us to do, He can empower us to accomplish. And we ought to be glad for the opportunities. glad for the ability to pray for one another, that we may encourage one another along this pathway. It is a blessed pathway, walking with God, learning to follow his leading, accomplishing his program, not ours. So it doesn't matter if our plans fail. They're not necessarily God's plans. His plans are not going to fail, and we can be confident that He will be with us all the way to the end, to the very last step. He never deserts His people. Always, everything is right on time. How great is our God! How loving! How blessed in His care for His people! We can rest as dear children in the providential care of God, knowing that he doeth all things well. O Lord, how we thank thee for thy loving care, for thy guidance through thy word, and providential leading. And we pray, Lord, that Thou wilt put within our hearts a confidence, a trust in Thee, whatever appearances may be. We ask that Thou wilt guide us, lead us, and by Thy grace accomplish Thy purpose in the hearts and lives of each of us. Help us day by day that we may walk with thee, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ will bring us to himself right on time. Give us that faith and confidence for Jesus' sake. Amen.