<TITLE>13. Par 101-107</TITLE>L-101 It is said that ninety-seven percent of Finney's converts held out. Seventy-five percent of Moody's backslid in a year. And of Wesley's, the holiness group, it was constantly backsliding. But Finney had ninety-seven percent. Little bitty, skinny, baldheaded guy walked out to the pulpit and look over that audience like that, and men would faint, because he stayed in the bushes one day until the Holy Ghost took ahold of him. That was it. He was a sign to the ending, about two hundred years ago, of that great revival that Wesley and them had had, judgment coming on. He was a sign. That sinful generation...

L-102 And how Elijah could stand there, bold and stern by himself (Amen.), nobody with him; but he was God's sign. The rest of the clergy had all went with Ahab in the way of modernism. They'd got modern in that generation. But how old Ahab, or--old Ahab and all of his great gain, and had brought all of the church into Cathol--not Catholicism, but about the same thing, into idolatry, had brought them into a place where they was wishy-washy, some could worship this way, and just freedom; "You can do anything you want to," and got in that kind of a condition...

L-103 And how that Elijah stood there bold with THUS SAITH THE LORD. Oh, God, give us men like that. He wasn't afraid to tell Jezebel about her condition. He wasn't scared of Ahab. He wasn't afraid that he was mistaken. He stood with boldness, walked up to Ahab, and said, "Not even dew will fall till I call for it." Amen.
What was He? A sign to that sinful generation. Did Israel see it? No. They laughed at him, made fun of him. He predicted that there'd be a drought, that there would be--there would be trouble, hunger, starvation. And he prophesied boldly, standing by himself with THUS SAITH THE LORD. Said, "Lord, they've killed all the true off. They've killed them all off. I'm the only one's left that's standing with Your Word." What was the trouble about? The Word of God.

L-105 Elijah wanted to stay with the Word. He was a real prophet. The other prophets had said, "Oh, well, it doesn't make much difference. Jehovah doesn't care, you know." Jehovah does care. It's got to be His Word. And Elijah stood boldly on that Word with THUS SAITH THE LORD. God give him a little secret one day. He said, "I got seven thousand, Elijah, that you're witness to out here. They haven't got the nerve enough to come out and claim it. They're hiding around in bushes; but yet in their heart they're My servants. They haven't bowed a knee to Baalim. They're afraid to do it, but I'm giving you a sign, and you are a sign. Stand out there and stand on My Word. I will take care of you. Give them a sign." Hallelujah. God send us something like that, who will be a sign of God's Word. And every promise God promised will be backed up in that person, 'cause he's a sign, a forgotten sign.
Oh, they thought because Ahab was a great king and all the nations feared him, that was good enough. But Elijah was a sign of the Word. That's a true prophet: a sign of the Word. So while he was being the sign of the Word, they didn't believe him; they had no use for him.

L-107 He was a sign to the widow when God sent him off of Mount Carmel, off of the, up at the brook Cherith, sent him down there after he'd been fed by the ravens and the brook dried up. He went down to this widow's house. What a place for a preacher to go. But he went down there, because God told him to go. But He went down there and said, "I've commanded her to feed you."
She ought to have been a sign... He ought to have been a sign when she was out there, had enough meal to make one cake and her and her boy eat it, enough cruse to--and enough oil in the cruse to make a little shortening to go with it. She said, "I'm out here picking up two sticks."


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