<TITLE>03. Par 10-14</TITLE>L-10 Now, our story starts off tonight with a people that had, like last night, had got away from God. And that is the most miserable thing that I could think of, is someone, a believer, away from God. And we find out here, that this king of Samaria, Ahaziah, the reason he was away from God, because he had the wrong kind of tutoring, the wrong kind of raising. His mother was a heathen, and his father was a backslidden Israelite, Ahab. And through there, he hadn't had very much bringing up in the way of the Lord, though by the people...

L-11 And God has never left Hisself without a witness. And God had a witness in that day, but his father hated this witness. And his name was Elijah the prophet. And his mother hated this witness. But yet, it was God's witness, stood just the same.
God's always got a people somewhere that He can point to and say, "That's it." Oh, I want to be among that number. I'm sure we all want to be there. It's the desire of every heart. We want to be among that number that God can say, "This is My people. Look at them. They're an example of what I am. They are reflecting My Life in theirs. They have surrendered their life, and I'm reflecting Mine Life through theirs." What a beautiful thing. What a--how it must make God feel good to know that He's got somebody He can put trust in. And He had a man, and his name was Elijah.

L-12 And now, this man God had blessed. Not always material blessings mean that you're--you're right with God, 'cause He caused the wicked to prosper. But this man had--had succeeded his father, his father's death, and Ahaziah had preceded him. And he was going right in the same way his father was going, and his mother doing wrong before God. And he fell through the lattice in his house, and was sick. Perhaps, maybe it'd smashed him up inside, inwardly bleeding; or--or some disease set in, maybe an infection from his fall. Might have broke his ribs, or punctured his lungs, or something that he was very sick...
And he wondered about whether he was going to live or not. And so instead of going doing what he should do, he sent some messengers, perhaps a palace guard that he had confidence in, sent them over to Ekron to the god Beelzebub, a devil, a fortuneteller over there, to inquire whether he was going to live or not.

L-13 Now, what a rude thing that would be for a man who was king over a (supposed to be) spiritual people, a people who believed in God, and yet, their own leader consulting something else besides the thing that he ought to consulted. See? He ought to knowed the... He knowed the laws; there were priests in the land, there were churches, and so forth, and there was a prophet who had the Word of the Lord. And instead of doing that, he wanted to take the most popular route.
I think that's what's the matter today. We want that--that most popular route. And when God makes a way... The people gets away from Him, and God makes a way for that people to return back to Him (like I was speaking of last night), and the people refuse to do it, then God asks, "Why?" He always asks that. "Why didn't you do it?"
So if He makes a way and we refuse to do it, then--then He asks why we didn't do it. And I would rather get it fixed up here than to wait for Him to ask me at judgment why I didn't do it. I... Some men's sins go before them, others follow. I want mine to go on before me, confessed. And then, I--I want to be right when that time comes.

L-14 As the old colored brother said, "You know, a long time ago," said, "I talked to the Lord, and I told Him I wanted my way clear. I didn't want no trouble, when I come down to the river." So I think that's about the way we all feel. That kind of expresses it, that we don't want no trouble at the river, because it's going to be a awful pushing, shoving time at that time. So we want to be sure that we're right.


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