Introduction: In the last message on Elijah, we saw two of the seven miracles of Elijah’s ministry.  We saw the miracle of the meal barrel and how the Lord provided.  We saw the resurrection of the young lad.  Never recorded in the Bible was anyone else every resurrected from the dead.  I was thinking of the law of first mention of Bible study.  This is the key to the rest of the accounts of resurrections in the Bible.  The key to this is that only God can resurrect someone from the dead.  Also Elijah prayed over the child three days.  This is a type of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus where He was in the grave three days when He arose from the dead.  With the exception of the Lord Jesus, everyone else who was resurrected died again at one point of time.  But when Jesus comes back for His own, dying for the child of God will no longer be a threat.  We will be with Jesus and see Him face to face.

                                                1^st John 3:2-3

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

      I have been finding my Bible more exciting when I put myself in the picture.  As I said last time, I can picture this man that we find in our text as a rugged individual getting excited when our Lord makes this child alive again.  I can almost see the tears running down the face of this man of God.  I can imagine him shouting for the child’s mother as he came out of the loft with her child alive. 

      I was thinking about miracles.  I know that God has not called any of us to be miracle workers but He expects us to be soul winners.  Soul winning is the greatest miracle in our lives.  To take the Gospel and give it unto another and see that person get saved is the greatest work in our lives.  Miracles are like the resurrection from the dead accounts.  Each of the people who had a miracle done unto them will one day need another and/or die one day.

                                                Hebrews 9:27

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”

      I was thinking on subject of miracles and wanted a few questions answered.  How many miracles are recorded in the Bible?  I thought this would be an easy thing to research.  I am still looking.  I even got down Herbert Lockyer’s book on “All The Miracles in the Bible” and realized that I would have to count them myself.  What I did learn is that what one author may consider a miracle; another author may not think so. 

      Then I asked myself the question- what is a miracle?  This was a little easier to get answer.  A miracle is also called a sign, wonder, or mighty work. It is a work so superseding in its higher forms the established laws of nature as to demonstrate the special interjection of God.  A miracle is to be distinguished from wonders wrought by designing men through artful deceptions, occult sciences.  The miracles wrought by Christ, for example, were such as God only could perform; were wrought in public, before numerous witnesses, both friends and foes; were open to the most perfect scrutiny; had an end in view worthy of divine sanction; were attested by witnesses whose character and conduct establish their claim to our belief; and are further confirmed by institutions still existing, intended to commemorate them, and dating from the period of the miracles.  Christ appealed to his mighty works as undeniable proofs of his divinity and Messiahship.  The deceptions of the magicians in Egypt, and of false prophets in ancient and in modern times would not bear the above tests.  By granting to any man the power to work a miracle, God gave the highest testimony to the truth he should teach and the message he should bring.

      The chief object of miracles having been to validate the revelation God has made of his will, these mighty works ceased when the Scripture canon was completed and settled, and Christianity was fairly established.  Since the close of the first century from the ascension of Christ, few or no undoubted miracles have been wrought; and only God knows whether a sufficient occasion for new miracles will ever arise.

      I thought it would be simple.  God only brings miracles.  God stopped the need for miracles done by men with the completion of the Bible.

      Today we are going to look at the second to the last miracle of Elijah.

III. GOD REWARDS Galatians 6:7

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

         A. The situation we find here.  The king is leaning against the latticework and falls off the roof.  He is seriously hurt.  He does not send for God’s man.  He sends his men to enquire of the devil whether or not he was going to recover.  This god was regarded as a preserver from poisonous flies, and hence as a healer of diseases. It literally means lord of the flies.  In the N. T. there is the similar name of BEELZEBUB to whom the miracles of the Lord in casting out demons were blasphemously attributed. 

                           Elijah sends word to the king of Samaria in regards to his sin.  

                                             2^nd Kings 1:2-4

               “And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease. But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the 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. And Elijah departed.”

                           What was the king’s sin?  He wants to enquire of the idols of the land whether or not he would get off the bed of sickness.  When you turn your back of God and go to the idols of the land then you have sinned against God by breaking His clear command.

                                             Exodus 20:3-5

                     “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me”

            What is an idol?  It is an image or anything or any one used as an object of worship in place of the true God.  As I was researching this word, I found that Easton bible dictionary had eighteen words in the Bible in regards to idols.  I will not give today because it will take away from our study of Elijah.  But I do want to give the closing remark in regards to idols.  "Nothing can be more useful and significant than this multiplicity and variety of words designating the instruments and inventions of idolatry."

            Elijah comes to the messengers of the king and gives them the message that Ahaziah needs to hear and heed. 

         B. The sadness- the King got mad instead of repenting.  Many times in the Bible God would withdraw His judgment when men repented of their sin.  A great example of this is the city of Nineveh.  When the man of God, Jonah came and preached the coming judgment in forty days, everyone from the king down to the lowest citizen got right with God.  It was years before the judgment fell against the city. 

                           Many people get mad instead of repenting.  It is their stinking pride that causes this.  Repentance is showing the Lord that you are truly sorry for your sin.  It is sad when men reject God’s way.

         C. The supreme protection of God is seen here.  The first two captains thought there was strength in numbers. Vs. 9-12

“Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath 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.  Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.  And Elijah answered and said unto them, 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.”

            It is the delight of the enemy to get a man of God down.  This thought can be seen over and over again in the scriptures and in the lives of God’s men for thousands of years.  But here is scripture truth in the pages of our Bible.

                        Nehemiah 6:2-3

“That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”

      When I read this, I was thinking what audacity this man had in commanding the man of God to come down.  People tend to forget.  This man forgot the man that he is commanding to come down.  He thought he was something.  But he is talking to the same man that prayed down fire from heaven.  He thought he was bigger than Elijah because he had all these fifty men with him.  The fire came and killed them all.  These men went from fire here to the fires of hell.  This captain condemned his own men to hell with his audacity.

      The king was not too smart either.  He sent another company of men.  This man had more audacity about himself.  He must have thought that if he were more forceful that Elijah would come down trembling.  Look at how he says it from the first captain.  He says, “Thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.”

      This little puny captain or his men or his boss the king does not intimidate Elijah.  They are small potatoes compared to Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah was the man of god that pronounced the death warrant upon the king’s father and mother and God brought it to pass.  He was the one who killed those four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.  He is the man who ran the marathon back to the city when the rain came.

      The puny captain forgot that God’s power that was exhibited when the last captain came.  Hebrews 12:29

“For our God is a consuming fire.”

      This passage also shows the protecting hand of God for His men.  They forgot what God said on the subject. 1^st Chronicles 16:22

“Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”

      Men and women had tried to destroy the men of God for years.  God has placed His judgment upon this.  These are the wolves in the church that Paul warned the church in Ephesus to watch.  But God can dispose of these problems.

                  D. The smart way is seen here.  It is humility before God.

                                                Vs. 13-14

“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, and said unto him, 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 burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.”

      Somewhere in life, he had learn the lesson of don’t try to touch God’s anointed.   He cared for his life and the life of his men.  He asked humbly for Elijah to come down.  God gives the assurance to Elijah that this is okay.

                        Vs. 15

“And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.”

      Elijah came down from the hill.  When he comes down, he does not come down as a prisoner but as a prince surrounded by his bodyguard. 

                  E. The sovereign will of God is performed. 

                                                Vs. 16-17

“And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son.”

      This man died just as the Lord said he would.  Life and death is in the hands of God.  Even when someone commits suicide, God allows this to occur.  Elijah was simply the instrument in the hands of God.  I see no pride in his words or matters.  God had prepared him for these events. 

Conclusion: This is the last public miracle of Elijah.  He will soon be on his way to glory.  God used this man’s man to do his will in the time of great wickedness in Israel.  People may think that God is dead in our time of some of the greatest wickedness of world history.  But He will show Himself strong in these days too.