We're gonna begin probably around
verse 17, I think I've got it listed in your lesson, 1 Kings
18, verse 17. And just to give you an overview
of what's gone on up to this point, we concluded with Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba last time, but I'm going through the Old
Testament highlights to show Christ in the Old Testament.
That's what I'm doing, I'm not doing verse by verse. through
the whole Old Testament, even though I've preached through
most of these books at one time or another. But, you know, after
the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel divided into two kingdoms. There was the southern kingdom,
which was mainly made up of the tribe of Judah, along with the
tribe of Benjamin, but the tribe of Judah was the main tribe,
and the southern kingdom was called Judah. And of course,
you know, that's the tribe that Christ was prophesied to come
through, and that's the tribe he did come through. The scepter
shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. And so you see the
providence and the power of God working in preserving the tribe
of Judah, probably more than any other tribe, because in the
Northern kingdom, you have the other 10 tribes, And eventually,
they were pretty much scattered and lost. You hear these legends
and all kinds of stuff about the lost tribes of Israel. Well,
they are lost. And there were 10 tribes, they
were to the north. And in the northern kingdom,
the northern kingdom was fraught with idolatry. Almost all the
way through their history. The kings of the Northern Kingdom,
which were not kings from Judah, obviously, they were all evil
kings. And here, when we come up to
1 Kings 18, a man named Ahab was the king. And the Bible says
in 1 Kings 16.30 that Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord
above all that were before him. In other words, it's almost like
saying, this is the worst guy ever. Now in the southern kingdom,
there were a few kings who were godly kings, but they were few.
Most of the kings of the southern kingdom were evil men. And of course, when we say that,
we know what we are by nature, and we know that if it weren't
for the grace of God, there we go too in that sense. But Ahab,
and one of the things that brought Ahab down even further was his
wife. You remember the woman named
Jezebel? That was Ahab's wife, and she
was a heathen. She hated the people of Israel,
and she urged Ahab in this idolatry. The two gods, in 1 Kings 16,
it tells us that the main god that they worshiped was Baal.
You've heard of Baal, and that's just a myth. a heathen idol. And then there was one named
Asherah that they worshiped. But that was the Northern Kingdom.
And so what happened is God sent a prophet, Elijah the Tishbite. You've heard of Elijah. Elijah
was one of the main prophets of the Old Testament. He's kind
of representative of the school and the word of the prophets.
You remember in the book of Malachi when it talks about Elijah shall
return, it's not talking about Elijah himself, but it was talking
about John the Baptist who was represented by Elijah. who preached
the true and living God. And so God sent Elijah to confront
Ahab about this idolatry and God through Elijah, through Elijah's
prayer, and you hear about this prayer in the book of James where
Elijah prayed that God would punish the northern kingdom with
a drought so that the rain stopped. And it did. And of course, later
on, Elijah prayed and the rain came back. But this was God's
judgment on Israel. Well, Ahab, being an unbeliever,
an idolater, and a selfish, self-righteous man, the drought came and he
didn't blame himself and say, well, this is because of our
sin and idolatry. This is the judgment of God.
He didn't do that. He blamed Elijah. And he went
after Elijah, and there's an interesting verse there in, let
me see if I can find it. It's 1 Kings 18, well, look at
verse 17. This is where we'll start. He
says, and it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said
unto him, art thou he that troubleth Israel? Are you the one that's
troubling me in this nation? And I thought about that when
I saw that. I said, you know, that's the way the natural man
looks at God's prophets and God's preachers. We're troublers. When we preach the gospel, that's
the problem. You know, the Bible says that
in John chapter three and verse 19, this is the light that comes
into the world, and men love darkness and hate the light.
That's what Ahab is doing here. He hates the light. He hates
to hear the truth. He doesn't believe it. But he
don't want to hear anybody say it. And so when we preach the
gospel of salvation conditioned on Christ alone and based on
his righteousness alone, what does that do? Well, that exposes
all the refuges and all the self-righteous refuges that men and women by
nature have. It exposes them to be nothing
but, as what Paul called it in Philippians chapter three, nothing
but dumb. And that's troubling to people.
They don't want to hear what we have to say. I think about
Christ when the disciples asked him why he spoke in parables,
and he told them because they, having eyes to see, they don't
see, and having ears to hear, they don't hear. And they close
their eyes and they shut their ears lest they be converted.
They don't want to be converted to what we believe. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither
can he know them. And I saw early on, when I first
started, when I first got under a preacher of the true gospel,
I saw early on, pretty much, is listening to him. And I remember
telling my mother this, driving her home after a church service
one time, and I'd say, Mom, if what he said is true this morning,
I'm lost. And I didn't wanna hear that. But I kept going because of her.
And I'll never forget one time when I told her that, I said,
I'm lost. She said, well, you are lost. because I didn't believe
the truth. And so Ahab was just like any
other natural man, except he had power of the throne. And he says, are you the one
that's troubling Israel? And so in verse 18, Elijah said,
and he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's
house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord,
and thou hast followed Baal, or Balaam. It's your idolatry. People today are worshiping a
false God. If you don't listen, if you don't
understand and know the great, the sovereign grace of God in
saving sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest
in the flesh, whose righteousness alone, the redemptive work of
Christ on the cross that sealed and ensured the salvation of
all for whom he died. You're coming to a God that cannot
save if you don't know Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father
but by me. That's why this lesson is one
God and one Savior. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. If you're, listen. And think about it this way,
how people think. If you come to a God who you
expect to save you or bless you based upon who you are or what
you have done or trying to do, you're coming to an idol because
that's not the God of this book. The God of this book is a God
who saves sinners conditioned on Christ who fulfilled those
conditions. The God of this book is a God
who justifies the ungodly based upon the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Well, look what happens here.
Now, look at verse 19. Now, therefore, send and gather
to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel. This is Elijah telling Ahab,
you send for and gather all Israel. to Mount Carna, all the people,
and the prophets of Baal, 450 of them, and the prophets of
the groves, 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Jezebel was
kind of like the catalyst here. Ahab wasn't innocent. He couldn't
do like Adam, say, well, the woman that you sent me, she's
the one who caused all this. But Jezebel was very influential
and of course you can read stories about her later and what happened
to her, how she was killed and the dogs ate her and all that. So that's later on. But 450 plus
800 and 50 false prophets and one true prophet of God. Now, isn't that the way things
usually work out? Now, there were a few other true
prophets of God. There was a man named Obadiah,
but he's nowhere to be found here. You can read about him
up in the first part of 1 Kings 18. But here's Elijah standing
alone against 850 prophets. And what do we hear today about
that, about numbers? All those people can't be wrong.
Well, 850 of them were wrong here and one was right. And you
know, it's not that we take pleasure in the fact that there are few
people who hear and believe the gospel, but isn't that what the
Bible says? Isn't that what it says? I know, you know, many are called,
few are chosen. False prophets have always outnumbered
God's true prophets and preachers. And Christ, you know, when he,
in the Sermon on the Mount, I've got it listed in your lesson
here, how he talked about the broad road that leads to destruction,
and what did he say? Many there be that go along that
broad road, and then the straight and narrow gate, which is the
way of God's grace, the way of the cross, the way of Christ,
the way of righteous, and he said, few be there that find
it, It's not that we take pleasure in that, it's just what the Bible
says. And throughout the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant,
the vast majority of the Israelites missed the message of the gospel
that was in those types and pictures, and went after idols. But there
was always, as many of the prophets said, there was always a remnant. Look over at Romans chapter 11. Paul dealt with this in dealing
with Elijah in Romans 11. Isaiah said it in Isaiah chapter
one. You remember he said he's talking
about Judah there, because Isaiah was a prophet to the southern
kingdom of Judah. Elijah was in the northern kingdom.
But later on, much later on, when Isaiah came along, Isaiah
told him, he said, except the Lord of Sabaoth, which is the
Lord of an invincible army, hath left us a seed, we would be like
Sodom and Gomorrah. Nobody know the Lord. remnant and look here at verse
1 of Romans chapter 11 how the Apostle Paul deals with this
he said you know he's talking what he's answering the question
here is when God said all Israel shall be saved and most people
understand that if you read the history of the physical nation
Israel that the vast majority of them perished in unbelief
and idolatry and so Did God, did he lie? Did he not make good
on his promise? And he says, I say then, have
God cast away his people, the people that he promised to save?
Well, no, he says, God forbid, that's not the way it is. For
I also am an Israelite, that's Paul talking about his physical
heritage, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Verse
two, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. That's
foreordained. God foreordained, chose a people
before the foundation of the world, and it included people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And so the
Israel that God promised to save is not the nation Israel, the
physical descendants of Abraham, and Paul made that case back
in Romans two and Romans nine, making it here too. But the Israel
that God promised to save is spiritual Israel made up of all
of his elect chosen in Christ, justified, forgiven of all their
sins by the blood of Christ, justified based upon Christ's
righteousness imputed to him, adopted into his family, redeemed
by the blood, and called out by the Holy Spirit through the
preaching of the gospel. They're believers. And so if
you're a believer, a true believer, saved by the grace of God, you're
a spiritual Israelite. And the word Israel means overcoming, having victory with God. In other
words, success, not beating God, not defeating him, but having
success with him. And how do you have success with
God? By pleading the blood of Christ, by looking to Christ. And so verse two of Romans 11,
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew, What, that
word W-O-T means no. Know you not what the scriptures
saith of Elias or Elijah? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel's sake? Now this is later on after what
we're looking at today about Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
Later on, you know, Elijah ran from Jezebel. Jezebel wanted
to kill him. So here, it's kind of fun. You see, James made the
statement about Elijah that he was a man of like weaknesses
and infirmities just as we are. In other words, Elijah wasn't
no superman. He wasn't a super Christian,
as people say. We're gonna see in this lesson
that he stood boldly and firmly and strongly for the glory of
God. But then later on, we see him running like a whipped cat
from Jezebel. And that's the way we are. We
have our moments of weakness and strength. It's all of the
Lord and in his providence. And so Elijah, when he was out
by himself, he said in verse three, Lord, they've killed thy
prophets, they've digged down thine altars and I'm left alone
and they seek my life. I'm the only one left and they're
trying to kill me, Elijah said. But verse four, but what saith
the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Now, you
know, 7,000 sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But we're talking
about the whole nation Israel. That was a remnant. That was
a small piece. Well, what's God showing us out
of all that? How are we to think about that?
What are we to conclude when we read things like that? We'll
look at verse five. Even so, then at this present
time, also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if it's by grace, then it's
no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. What's God teaching us? What
was he teaching Elijah? Salvation from every part of
it is all of God's grace based upon the merits of Christ's blood
and righteousness. One God, one Savior, and he saves
his people. Now go back to 1 Kings 18. Well,
as you read through this, It says, verse 20, so Ahab sent
unto all the children of Israel, gathered the prophets together
into Mount Carmel, and Elijah came unto all the people and
said, how long halt ye between two opinions, two thoughts, two
different ideas? If the Lord be God, follow him,
but if Baal, if Baal's God, then follow him. And the people answered
him not a word. Now what's happening here? In their minds, they had not
forsaken the worship of the true God, but they had just added
Baal along with him. And Ashtoreth, whoever that other
one is. It's like people today, you've
heard of pluralism? Let me explain pluralism to you
in a statement I know you've heard somewhere. We're all worshiping
the same God, we're just going different ways. You ever heard
that? That's pluralism. You know what
that is? That's idolatry. Because the
same God doesn't save in different ways. The God of the Bible saves
sinners one way. And nobody can serve him with
a divided mind. or with a divided heart. No man
can serve two masters, Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount.
You'll either serve God or you'll serve mammon. Now there he's
talking about something else, but it's still a different God.
Isaiah spoke of those who pray unto a God that cannot say. Do
you know that's what most people are doing today? praying to a God who loves everybody
and trying to save everybody and it's up to you whether or
not you're saved or not. That's an idol. How long shall
you, and so what's this question really leaning towards? I'll
tell you exactly what it's leaning towards. Repentance. Repentance. You can't turn to Christ without
turning away from your idol. You see what I'm saying? Now,
most of you have heard the terms Arminianism and Calvinism and
all that, and you'll hear people talk about, well, they were saved
as an Arminian. That's freewillism, conditional
salvation. But then they saw in the scriptures
that God's sovereign, and they've changed their doctrines. But
here's the point. Have you changed God's? Because
that's what this question, how long are you gonna halt between
these two thoughts? The God of free willism and conditional
salvation is no God at all. The God who's sovereign, who
foreknew his people and sent Christ to save them, he's the
only true God. The Apostle Paul saw that when
he saw that he thought he believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, but he was trying to be saved based upon his efforts. And then when he saw the holiness
and the justice and the glory of Almighty God, that God must
be a just God and a Savior, and he saw the glory of the person
and work of Christ, what did he do? He said, I count all things
but loss, dumb, that I may win him, that I may be found in Christ. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. Don't halt between two opinions.
Well, look at, and it's interesting, the people answered him not a
word. They didn't know how to answer him. We could say, well,
what we should have done, what they should have done, just to
me, is that we're gonna worship God, but they didn't. Because
they knew, look, 450, 850 guys here. In verse 22, it says, then Elijah
said unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the
Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. I'm outnumbered. Now
again, you know, people reason naturally, well, that many guys
can't be wrong. That many people can't be wrong. Yes, they can. And most of the
time are. The gospel has never been in
the majority in any place or any part of history. I think
about Noah. He preached for 120 years while
he was building the ark. And only eight people were put
upon that ark by God. Does that mean there was none
of God's, I don't know. But I know this, they all drowned
in the flood. The majority did not believe.
Well, Elijah tells them to bring two bullocks and let them choose
their bullock and cut it in pieces. This is verse 23. And build an
altar and put it on the altar, but don't build a fire under
it. Now, you know, the altars were to have fire because that's
what they were called, brazen altars. and they were to consume
the sacrifice. But Elijah says, don't put any
fire on it. And then he says, and you call upon the name of
your gods. And I'll call upon the name of
the Lord. And the God, this is verse 24, the God that answereth
by fire, let him be God. Don't put any fire on it now.
But the God who answers with fire falling from heaven, that's
the one who's gonna be God. That's the one who is God. And
all the people answered and said, well that's okay, it's well spoken.
We'll agree to that Elijah. And so you remember what happens,
how the prophets of Baal, they got their bullock and they prepared
it. They dressed it, look at verse 26. They called on the
name of Baal from morning until noon. Now notice what these guys
are doing, these false preachers. They said, oh Baal, hear us.
Listen, answer. But there was no voice nor any
that answered. They leaped upon the altar which
was made. Now, the idea here is they're
dancing around the altar, they're leaping upon the altar, they're
just in this frenzy. In this emotional frenzy. These
450 prophets of Baal. Verse 27, it came to pass at
noon that Elijah mocked them. Now, Elijah, he'd be considered
mean today. He mocked them. He said, cry
aloud. In other words, you need to cry
louder. For he's a God, either he's talking,
or he's pursuing, or he's on a journey, or perventure, he's
sleeping. He's gotta wake him up. Now think
about one man standing here against 450 prophets. They cried, listen to this, verse
28. They cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner
with knives. In other words, this was a common
practice, after their manner. Lancets, verse 28, till the blood
gushed out upon them. They cut themselves. They were
sacrificing themselves. They weren't killing themselves,
I don't think. But this was a common practice to these guys. Slicing
themselves. Verse 29, it came to pass when
midday was passed and they prophesied until the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, there was neither voice nor any to
answer nor any that regarded. No answer. Well, what does that
tell you? Obviously, you think these guys
were serious about their religion? I think they were. You think
they were sincere? I know they were. But I'll tell
you what they were, they were ignorant. You know, Paul said,
and he said, I bear record that the Jews have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. What
is the righteousness of God? Verse four, for Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And that's the problem with these
false preachers. They didn't know God. They didn't know God's
way of salvation. They didn't know Christ. And
so afterward, after all that happened, Elijah, look at verse
31, he took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of
the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying,
Israel shall be thy name. These 12 stones represent the
12 tribes of Israel. Now spiritually speaking, they
represent the elect of God. That's the spiritual application
of this, because that's what the 12 tribes of Israel represented,
the totality of the elect of God. And so that's the picture
there. And he says in verse 32, and
with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and
he made a trench about the altar. Now listen to what Elijah does
here. Most of you probably read this before, but if you haven't,
it's just something that really grabs you. He said, he dug a
ditch around that altar. As great as wood contained two
measures of, I got my little marker there, of seed. And he
put the wood in order and cut the bullock in pieces, laid him
on the wood, and he said, fill four barrels with water and pour
it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Now there was no
fire yet. And he said, do it the second time. Four barrels
of water and then put four more. And he said, do it the third
time. 12 barrels of water. And verse
35 says, the water ran about the altar and he filled the trench
also with water. This was a wet sacrifice. This
is almost like a swimming pool. And verse 36, listen. And it
came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice
that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham.
Now he prays, I think I've got in your lesson, I think I got
the number of the words right. A 63 word prayer. 63 word prayer. Now compare that
to what the prophets of Baal had done. Morning to noon and
then on up into the evening, dancing, jumping, cutting themselves. Elijah just prays to the Lord
God. And here's what he says, Lord
God of Abraham, verse 36, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known
this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant
and that I have done all these things at thy word Hear me, O
Lord, hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord
God and that thou has turned their heart back again. That's
all he said. Look at the next verse. Verse
38, then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice,
the wood, the stones, consumed the stones. Think about how hot
this fire was. The dust, consumed the dust and
licked up the water that was in the trench. Nothing left. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces. And they said, the Lord, he is
the God, the Lord, he is the God. And Elijah said unto them,
take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they
took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook of Kishon
and slew them there. That's the fire of God's wrath
against all unbelief, all sin, where sin is imputed. Think about
that. The people, for a time, they
were brought to repentance. It didn't last long, but when
God shows his people, his children, his true children, his glory
in the face of Jesus Christ, and that's what's going on here
with this fire, the fire coming down and consuming our surety
in our place, our substitute, Our Redeemer, when we see that
glory by the power of the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel,
which reveals the righteousness of Christ, it turns our hearts,
our minds, our very being to Christ alone and turns us completely
away in repentance from every other way, every other supposed
way, every other supposed God, in repentance of idolatry and
dead works. And there's no question about
it, This is not something we come
to later when we're brought to faith in Christ. You can't turn
to Christ without turning away from the idols of this world.
You can't halt between two opinions, see. There's only one God, and
he's known by his works and his ways and his nature, and he justifies
sinners based upon one ground, And that's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ freely imputed and received by God-given
faith. And there's no other way. Every
other way is a false way. And when God the Holy Spirit
brings us to see that, we're not halting between two ideas,
two thoughts, two opinions. We know there's one idea, one
thought, one opinion. It's all Christ. One God, one
Savior. Okay.