Word of God as we continue our series on Elijah and Elisha. We're going to be in 1 Kings chapter 21. So it's about our fifth lesson in this series of specifically talking about Elijah. We're going to move on to Elisha here in just a little bit. 1 Kings chapter 21, which you found it. Let's stand for the reading of God's Word. 1 Kings chapter number 21. Let's read verse 17 through verse number 20. We'll read verse 20 all together. 1 Kings chapter 21, And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? 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. Verse 20 altogether. and Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O my enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD. Tonight we're going to talk about discernment discernment father in heaven would you bless the teaching the reading of thy word thank you for allowing us to make it here safely thank you for these saints of god that are here on a midweek service desiring to be fed from thy word help us to do so tonight feed us nourish us and take care of us help us to be more like you change into the very image of the son of god in jesus name we pray Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing. First Corinthians 4 or 5 says, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart. Tonight we're talking about discernment. Discernment Men and women of God often have insight that other people do not have because of their spiritual discernment. Can you say that word discernment with me? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines discernment as the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure. How many want that? Amen. They've got to get a hold of something that may be obscure, that may not be totally clear, but God gives you that insight. He gives you that spiritual discernment. God is able to guide and lead us when we are paying attention to Him. And that's so important that we do that, that we pay attention to God so that He can guide us the way He wants us to. He gives us discernment. through experience, by applying the word of God, through situations that are in our lives. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 13, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern, notice, both good and evil. That's discernment. You have your senses exercised to be able to determine, is that good or is that bad? That's a skill. That's an ability that we should all want to have, that spiritual discernment. Elijah learned to do that. He learned to have spiritual discernment, as we'll learn in our story here tonight. He didn't have as much of the written Bible as you and I have today. And we got the complete word of God right here in our laps. And you have that and you have God's word. You have the King James Bible, God willing, in your lap tonight and God's holy word. And you have the completed word of God. Elijah didn't have that. He had portions of scripture. He had a little bit, but he didn't have everything. And so he relied upon the word of the Lord. That's what he relied upon, as we learned in our first study of this particular topic. And so God directly revealed to him the word of the Lord. That's how he spoke to people in those days. He doesn't do it the same way anymore, because we have God's word right here in our laps. God alone is our source of light in a dark world. At least he should be. Amen. He should be your source. To gain proper insight and discernment, we draw near to God, who sees and he knows Everything and he knows all he knows all things if your Bible's good book of Psalms chapter 111 Psalm 111 Tonight hopefully you'll take some key points from the lesson and we will see what your thoughts are at the end of the message tonight and Psalm 111, verse number 10. Scripture says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments. His praise endureth forever. Oh, the fear of the Lord, that's how you begin to have wisdom when we fear Him. In today's study, we'll see how God gave Elijah direct insight into Ahab's situation. He's going to give him his exact location. God's going to reveal that to him. He's going to reveal his actions. He's going to reveal his motives to Elijah. Ahab's motives of his actions and his location. Though men often try to conceal their deeds and disguise their motives, nothing, nothing can be hidden from God. Nothing. We may think we can. No, God doesn't know. No, He knows everything because He's omniscient. Proverbs 15 and verse 3, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Oh, there's nothing that we can hide from God. Amen. So although God doesn't give us his omniscience, he is more than willing to give us some wisdom and discernment. Now, we're not going to be omniscient like God. That means all-knowing. God is all-knowing, right? We're not going to have that. But he can give you some spiritual discernment so you can have a little bit of knowledge to know how to deal with a situation. And I want that. And so we need that for all the decisions that we are going to make and that we are going to face in this life. You go to Psalm 32, 8, and I'm going to read from James 1, 5. Scripture tells us this. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that give it to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. And it shall be given him. God says, if you want wisdom, ask for it. God give me that wisdom. I need the wisdom to make the right decisions. And God says, he will give that to you. He's not going to hold back a braid. If not, that's what it means. He's not going to hold it back from you. He's going to give you that wisdom. If you ask in sincerity and faith and believing, he's going to give you that wisdom. Psalm 32 verse eight, you should be there. Scripture says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. He's going to teach us and guide us. So the very first portion of discernment that we need is we need discernment of the present, right now. We need discernment of the present. Much has happened since we last were in this study. You may have noticed we skipped a couple of chapters. And so we're going to have to catch you up into what we were. We're not doing a verse-by-verse study of the entire book. And so I want to catch you up on what happened, what we missed in our last study in 1 Kings chapter 18 is where we were. In chapter 19, Elijah reacts in fear as he gets threatened by Jezebel, the queen of the land. And of course, that's Ahab's wife, the queen there, and he sank into a dark hole of depression because he was overcome with fear and he wanted to die. Basically, he wanted to die. He wanted God to take his life. He was just so depressed because he was afraid of the threats of Jezebel. Though, he did hear the still small voice of the Lord, and Elijah became renewed in his spirit. He got out of that portion of depression that he was in. At the end of the chapter, Elijah, he, he cast his mantle upon Elisha. And essentially Elisha is going to take over of the ministry. He's going to, he's going to pass it on to Elisha. And that's what happens there. He listened to and obeyed God who gave him the necessary discernment in order to make those decisions. As chapter 21 begins, King Ahab tries to make a business deal with a man called Naboth. And he has a vineyard. And the king wants Naboth's vineyard. He says, I like that vineyard you got. And he says, I want that. Can I buy that from you? And Naboth's like, well, no, you're an evil king. I don't want to sell that to you, basically. He was not to sell that because that was part of his family lineage. That land was part of his family. So he told the king, no, you can't have my land. And so the king wanted to either buy it or to exchange it for another land that would have been desirable. Naboth refused because it was a land of an inheritance. Naboth viewed it as sin to sell the Lord's land. especially to a man who was wicked as King Ahab. He was a worshiper of false gods. And so he was not going to sell it to him. But the king was determined to get that land. Amen. He was determined to get that land. So after he refused, Ahab returned to his palace. He was heavily displeased, the word of God tells us. And his wife saw that. Excuse me. His wife saw that he was displeased. Jezebel, she saw his anger and convinced him that he was deserving of anything he wanted. You deserve that land, king. You're the king, by the way. You deserve to have whatever you want. Now I want you to see how this story unfolds. Look at 1 Kings 21 and verse number 7. And Jezebel, His wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelites. So Jezebel's gonna devise a plan here, and I want you to see the plan. Look at verse number eight. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal. and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters saying, proclaim a fast and said, Naboth on high among the people. and set two men, son of Belial, before him to bear witness against him, saying, thou disblasphemy God and the king. So she sets him up, basically. I mean, it's just terrible. Thou disblasphemy God and the king, and then carry him out and stone him that he may die. What a wicked woman, huh? This guy didn't do anything wrong. But she concocted this plan to have him accused of being blasphemous, and they did stone him. And so the punishment for blasphemy against God is stoning. That's what Jewish law would allow to happen. So Jezebel's plan succeeded and a godly, innocent man perished as a result of her plan. But don't lose all hope. Because justice will be done in this story, amen? It will be done. And it's sad that this man lost his life, and he's an innocent man. But understand, God knew everything, he knows everything, and he would take care of that. And so that's where our story picks up today. So all that's taken place, and now we're going to move forward in the story. And so God knows the man. God spoke to Elijah and he told him exactly what had happened. Elijah had no clue this took place. But God reveals it to Elijah that this is what happened with the king and Abba. Notice verse number 17. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth. whether he has gone down to possess it. And so he tells him exactly what's going on. God tells Elijah. It is both encouraging and sobering to realize that God knows exactly who we are. He knows exactly where we are, amen. And it's kind of frightening in a way, if you think about it, you know, if we're doing the wrong thing. God knows where you are. He knows exactly what you are doing. For those who love God, it can be comforting though. Because we notice that those who rebel against God, justice will find them. And so we may fool others sometimes, but we'll never fool God. God sees everything. He knows it all. And sometimes we get frustrated when people aren't being held to justice for what they've done, but understand God knows, and God will take care of that situation. I want you to notice. Much has happened in Elijah's life since all this has really taken place, but God is going to make it all come to fruition. Go to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. We're going to read a few verses here in Psalm 139 if we can. Psalm 139. It's good to be back on a Thursday night. Obviously, I wasn't here last Thursday. And so it's good to be back in the pulpit and able to teach our lesson. This was ready to go last Thursday. I just couldn't stop coughing. And so we had to give it over to Brother Nelson. Psalm 139. And let's look at verse number one. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting and mine up rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Notice. Thou can pass as my path and my lying down are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? It's a question mark. Whether shall I flee from thy presence? That's a rhetorical question. There's nowhere to go. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee. But the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. I like that. The darkness shineth as the day. There's nowhere you can hide. There's no dark corner we can go that God can't see. Through personal experience, David knew that God knew everything. David knew that. Remember David, we just got out of our study of David and his sin and how he committed adultery and he committed murder. against, my goodness, lost his name at the moment, but we know he committed murder and he committed adultery with Bathsheba and he fell into sin and he knew that God had found him out. And remember Nathan goes and he says to him, he says, thou art the man. That's what Nathan told him. You're the man, the story that I'm talking about here. Oh, David knew that God knows everything because God found him out. The Holy Spirit of God convicted him of that sin. And then we were able to read his confession about his sin. So God knows the motives as well. Not only does he know the man, but he knows the motives. God told Elijah that Ahab had gone down to Naboth's vineyard to take possession of it. God knew that. He said in verse 18, Arise, go down and meet Ahab, king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Nabal. Can you imagine God speaking to you like that? This is what I want you to do. Go to Samaria. I mean, that must have been something, amen? God speaking directly to his heart and knowing exactly where to go. Now, while a casual observer might think Ahab was just out for a stroll into the vineyard, no, he wasn't there. He was there to take possession of that thing. He'd already committed murder. We know he didn't actually do the murder, but he's the result of it, of course. He's part of it. Even as God knows Ahab's motives, he knows ours as well. He knows our motives. Hebrews 4, verse 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful. sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's what the Word of God can do. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Wow. Sometimes we don't even know our own motives. God knows them. We don't even know what our true motives sometimes are. God knows what they are. God's opinion is the only one that truly counts. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. The Bible says that the heart is wicked. It's deceitfully wicked. But the world tells you to do what? Follow your heart. Follow, follow. Nike says, just do it. Burger King says, have it your way. In other words, follow your heart, whatever you want. Disney in particular says, let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely. That's their slogan. But God's word is so contrary to that, isn't it? So don't trust yourself. Don't trust your heart. Your heart is wrong. It's wicked. Don't follow your heart. So not only do we have discernment of the present, we have discernment of the past. God's law is higher than any human authority. You see, the king thought he was above the law. He really did. I'm the king. I should have that land. God informed Elijah about everything that led to Ahab being in Naboth's vineyard. And so he gave Elijah discernment about the present and discernment about the past, too, because he knew why he was there. That's pretty cool. He revealed the what, the how, and the why of the situation to Elijah. God knows what happened because he's omniscient. That word, it's a Latin word. It means all and to know. So to know all. That's what omniscient means. God knows all. He knows everything. There is no place where we can be hidden from God. In fact, Jeremiah said in chapter 23 and verse 24, Can any hide himself in a secret place that I shall not see him? Sayeth the Lord, do not I feel heaven and earth? Sayeth the Lord. And so God showed his omniscience in this particular story. Now notice verse number 19 in our text. Chapter 21. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. So God has a rhetorical question for Ahab. Hast thou killed and also taken possession? God already knows the answer, right? He knows. It's a rhetorical question that God often answers or asks, and He already knows the answer to. Although Ahab did not personally carry out the murder of Naboth, the responsibility still laid with him. He still was responsible for that murder. And so knowing that God has omniscience, he knows all, that should give us also peace and comfort in our hearts, knowing that he will exact justice in this crazy world that we live in. So God not only knows the end from the beginning, but he's also aware of everything in between. So the beginning, the end, and everything that's in between. This is a great blessing for the Christian. It will prove very sorrowful, those who are lost. on their way to hell, though, because God knows everything. They will have to account for themselves at the great white throne judgment as they learn that God knew everything all along. And they'll be like, whoa. There'll be no excuses when the unsaved get to the great white throne judgment. Revelation chapter 20, verse 12 speaks of it. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and the death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. So Ahab believed his selfish acts would go unnoticed and unpunished, but God had other plans for him. Look at verse number 20. 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. Where do evil actions come from? They come from an evil heart. They come from an evil heart. It's not a surprise that we're all sinners, amen, and so that's where it comes from. Our actions reveal our true nature, and God knows exactly what those actions are. Mark 7 verse 20 said, And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. That which cometh out defileth the man. The actions of man proceed from the heart that are not having much fruit inside that heart, fruit of righteousness. So that wickedness, that evilness comes out because there's no fruit within that heart. Can you look at Galatians chapter number five? Let's look at the fruit and the lack thereof in this verse, Galatians 5. Galatians chapter 5. Let's look at verse number 19 tonight. Galatians 5, verse number 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. Here's the works of the flesh. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, which I tell you before, As I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. So instead of those things, notice verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no what? No law. Nothing forbidding you from taking those on, those attributes in your life. When our lives are controlled by the Spirit, the fruit will be godly. That's why it's so important to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, so that we can have the fruit of the Spirit of God. It's His fruit. It's not our fruit, it's His. When He's controlling us, those elements of that fruit will exhibit itself in the life of the Christian. Ahab was not being controlled by the fruit of the Spirit, as far as that goes. He was quite evil. So we find also we can have discernment for the future as well. God knows proper justice. Sin's consequences are never pretty. Amen? They're never pretty when we see the results of our sin. God, not King Ahab, was ultimately in charge. Let's go back to our text. I want you to look at a couple of verses in our text. 1 Kings 21. Verse 19, And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? 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. Verse 21, 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. That's talking about the male in the line that will be cut off. And him that is shut up and left in Israel, verse 24, him that dieth of Ahab in the city, the dog shall eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. That's the consequences. It's pretty quite severe. What God is saying is going to happen to Ahab as a result of his his sin. Ahab and Jezebel considered Naboth's life to be worthless. That's what they did to him. I mean, they really thought he was worthless. Think about it. They killed him for a piece of property. You know, I know people, I've seen people killed for, maybe less than that, too, but, you know, people killed for a drink of alcohol or an argument over a video game or something, but, you know, but to understand, they thought his life was absolutely worthless. But God knows proper judgment. Psalm 89, 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. God is a just God. 2 Chronicles 19, 7. Wherefore, now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Take heed and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. Scripture says. So by Jezebel and Ahab doing what they did, shedding his blood, they would be guilty of this shedding, this innocent blood. And God does not take that very lightly. God rightly decreed that Ahab's blood would be shed. as retribution. And by the way, the death penalty is okay. Amen. God is that way. He's for it. Amen. As we see right here. And as we see. And so a society that's run properly will have a death penalty. God's quite in favor of it right here as you can see. So Elijah was able to declare these messages. Why? Because of the discernment that he had. God had given him the discernment. And you and I, I'm sure that we should want that in our lives as well. God to be able to give us spiritual discernment. Say, you know what? God, I want that. I want to be able to know your heart. I want to be able to make the right decisions. Can you give me spiritual discernment of the past, the present, and the future? Amen. And that would be great. I want that. And as we know, as we read, fearing the Lord brings wisdom into your life. His wisdom and discernment is what we need. We want to receive that and then apply that to our lives. Oh, we need discernment in this life. Amen. And it will save us from a lot of headaches in life when you have spiritual discernment. know when to be quiet, amen? Sometimes we need spiritual discernment not to say anything. No one ever got in trouble for not saying anything, amen? But we get in trouble for opening our mouth sometimes, don't we? And saying the wrong things. And so sometimes we just need spiritual discernment to say, you know what? I don't need to say anything right now. Maybe I just need to listen and be quiet. And so we want spiritual discernment. And so hopefully this lesson has helped us to understand the importance of it and the fact that we want that in our lives so we can be good Christians and make less mistakes in this life. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your love. Thank you for taking care of us. And thank you for Elijah and what we've learned so far in his life about having confidence and having courage and and having discernment within our life. I pray, God, that you would help us to have all these attributes of this wonderful prophet, this man of God that was used greatly by you. He wasn't perfect, Lord, but he definitely listened to you and to your word and he obeyed you. and so help us to do that too and father we'll give you the praise for what you're going to do in our lives in the name of our lord jesus christ we pray all god's people said amen