Chapter 18, verses 38 through
40. Then the fire of the Lord fell
and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,
and the dust, and lit up the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw, they fell on their faces, And
they said, the Lord, he is the God. The Lord, Jehovah, 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 Chisholm and slew them there. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for the
Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that's in him. Lord, our great desire is that
we might be found in him. Lord, we ask that your gospel
would be preached in the power of your spirit and that you would
give us hearts to receive what you say from your word. Deliver
us, oh Lord, deliver us from hearing the words of a man, man's
opinion, man's thoughts, but let us hear from thee. Lord,
we're so thankful that salvation's by grace. Lord, we confess our
sins, they're ever before us. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing.
Lord, how we thank you for the sacrifice of your son that makes
us clean in your sight. Give us faith to believe your
gospel. Be with all your people wherever they meet together.
Lord, we pray for your mercy upon our nation. Give our leaders
wisdom. Lord, how thankful we are that
the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And as the rivers
of water, he turneth it with her so ever he will. In Christ's blessed name, we
pray. Amen. Now, after seeing the fire fall,
and consuming the sacrifice, the people were no longer halting
between two opinions, were they? They said, Jehovah, he is the
God. Not just Jehovah is God, but
Jehovah is the God. The God that excludes any other
ideas of God. The God that makes Baal non-existent,
a non-entity. something that is not real. I would have loved to have been
there and experienced that. I hope I'd be one of those people
falling on my face saying, Jehovah, he is the God. He is the only God. And then
after that took place, something very, I hesitate to say unusual
because it was according to the law, but I want you to picture
in your mind, 850 prophets were apprehended, taken down to the
Brook Kishon, and there Elijah killed every single one of them. Now picture that in your mind,
this one man, they were all held, apprehended. Evidently the people
wanted this to take place at this time. And Elijah killed. We're not told how he did it.
I imagine he just took a sword and he killed every single false
prophet. And Elijah was doing this according
to what the law said to do. Now let's read verse 40 again.
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 Chisholm, and slew them there. He put every single one of them
to death. Turn with me for a moment to
Deuteronomy chapter 13. He was obeying the law in doing
this. Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse
1. If there arise among you a prophet,
or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign, or a wonder, and
that sign or the wonder comes to pass, where have he spake
unto thee, saying, Let us go unto other gods, which thou hast
not known, and let us serve them? Thou shalt not hearken unto the
words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord
your God proves you." He's testing you. He sends this prophet who
says this wonder is going to take place and it does in fact
take place. The Lord is testing you whether
you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your
soul and you should walk after the Lord your God and fear him.
Keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve
him and cleave unto him and that prophet that dreamer dreams shall
be put to death. Because he hath spoken to you
to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out
of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage,
to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded
thee to walk in, they're trying to seek to turn you from me,
so thou shalt put away the evil. from the midst of thee." Now,
for the sake of time, I'm not going to read the other verses
I've got written down, but Deuteronomy 13, 12 through 18, if you want
to look at it later, Deuteronomy 17, 25, and Deuteronomy 18, 9
through 22 were given the same instruction. Kill the false prophet. Stone them. Put them to death. Does that mean we should execute
false prophets? Should we? I mean, think of how
evil they are. Anybody who doesn't preach the
gospel, the gospel preached right here is a false prophet. He's seeking, he may be a real
nice man. You may like him. as far as a
human being goes, but he is seeking to turn men away from Christ. That's what his motive is. That's
what's going on. Now, should that person be put
to death? Now, the answer is no. Simple answer. No, they should
not be put to death. You see, if they should be put
to death, like the law says, you also ought to put to death
disobedient, rebellious children. Same thing. If you find somebody
picking up sticks on the Sabbath day, what happened in the Old
Testament? Stoned them. Put them to death. As a matter
of fact, there are a whole lot of laws in the Old Testament,
I know of at least 22, that demanded capital punishment. Put them
to death. And if you're gonna put the false
prophet to death, you also gotta put the disobedient child to
death. You gotta put the person that breaks the Sabbath to death.
In other words, every one of us are gonna be put to death.
Every one of us, without exception. There's something, there's some
reason why we ought to be stoned. If someone is caught in adultery,
what does the law say to do? Stone them. Put them to death. Now, I'm so thankful that the
Lord fulfilled the law. He said, don't think I've come
to destroy the law and prophets. I've come not to destroy, but
to fulfill. He fulfilled the law. He honored God's law. And now, according to the scripture,
that law has been done away with. You're not under law, but under
grace. Amen. You're not under law, but
under grace. And if I'm going to be consistent,
well, if we ought to kill that false prophet, well, I need to
be the one stoned too. Every one of us, there's a reason
to stone us and put us to death. But that law has been done away
with. Christ honored it. He fulfilled
it. He kept it. And the scripture says, you are
not under law, but under grace. Thank God for that. That being
said, the spirit, not the letter, but the spirit of the law still
is in effect. That man is a false prophet. That man is a false prophet and
I'm not to view him in any other way. A man or woman that does
not preach the gospel and I think of that little simple scripture John gives in 1 John
chapter 4, who so confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is antichrist. He says there's many false prophets
who have gone out into the world and here's the simplicity of
this is amazing. Anyone who doesn't confess, that
means speak publicly. that Jesus Christ is not come
in the flesh. Now, in that little statement,
it says he's an antichrist. In that statement, we have the
whole gospel. Jesus Christ was before he came. He's the eternal, uncreated,
omnipotent God the Son, the uncreated God, the creator of the universe.
He was before he came, and he came in the flesh. He became
flesh. God was manifest in the flesh
and that's such a God. The creator became man. He came in the flesh and in coming
in the flesh he did what he came to do. Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And beloved,
he did. And that is my hope, that he
actually saved me. Not that he made me savable,
but that he actually saved me. And my salvation became historical. As a matter of fact, it's always
been in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He came
in the flesh and he saved his people from their sins. Now,
that's the gospel, and somebody doesn't preach that, it's false
prophet. False prophet. While we're not to kill them,
we're not to acknowledge them to be anything but what they
are, a false prophet. Somebody doesn't preach this
gospel. Now, Charles Spurgeon used this verse, verse 40, as
a springboard into Elijah killing all the false prophets. And he
didn't talk about false prophets, but he used this as a springboard
into killing every sin. Not to spare any sin. Don't let one escape. And you
know, there is no such thing as little sin, is there? And
there's no sin that should be allowed. Anybody disagree with
that? Well, you're wrong if you do.
Sin is an infinite evil. And John said, these things write
I unto you that you sin not. Who's going to disagree with
that? Whatever comes under the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life is sin. And no sin is to be spared. No darling sin, no pet sin. There's no little sins. And that's the way Spurgeon used
this. against sin, put them all to death, and who's going to
disagree with that? But remember what the false prophets
were coming to do. They were coming to take Israel's
eyes off of the Lord Jehovah. Now, I think this thing, what
I'm going to talk about, you know, how many times have you
looked in the scripture about crucifying the flesh? and mortifying
the flesh and putting death, putting to death the flesh, the
sins of the flesh, and you wondered what in the world does all that
mean? I want to do it, but what does it mean? Have I done that?
Have I put to death any sin? Have I destroyed any sin and
stabbed it to where it doesn't rise up again? You know, I've
heard preachers talk about repentance, and they've said repentance is
turning from your sin. and not returning to it. That's not good, is it? That's
not what repentance is. Now, what is this thing of mortifying
the flesh, putting to death, stabbing, crucifying the flesh? What is this thing of mortifying
the flesh? Now, like I said, No sin, no sin is to be countenanced
and allowed or said, well, you know, God's sovereign. It's his
will for this to have taken place. I don't need to, I mean, I can't
worry about it. God, you never look at sin that way. It's all
your fault. It's evil. It's wicked. No sin is to be
allowed in that sense. But what did these false prophets
do? They were trying to get Israel
to look somewhere other than Christ only. Now, think of this
scripture, Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory, that
I should have confidence in anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. All I have confidence in is that
what Christ did accomplished my salvation. If he left anything
undone, I'm toast. I'm toast. And I'm going to stab,
I'm going to pierce through anything that's contrary to that because
it takes away my only hope. Stab it. Don't let it live. Any
hope other than Christ only. I thought of several scriptures.
Colossians chapter three, verse 11, Christ is all. You know, he's all in the Bible. He's all in my salvation. I can't
say that clearly enough. He is all in my salvation. Everything
God requires of me, He looks to His Son for. He's all in every
Bible doctrine. He's all in justification. He's
all in election. He's all in sanctification. He's
all in redemption. He's all in preservation. He's
everything in salvation. He's all. Stab anything that
would subtract from the glory of that statement. Christ is
all. Colossians 2.10. You are. Anybody know the next word? Complete
in Him. You don't lack anything. Stab
as Antichrist wicked works anything that is contrary to that. You
are complete in Him. By grace you are saved. You put to death, you slay anything
that is in any way contrary to that. Now that is the main meaning
of this. Now that's putting to death the
flesh. What Paul is saying in Philippians
3, 3, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence, no confidence
in the flesh. Anything that excuses your sin
in any way, put it to death. It's wrong. May God enable me at all times
to truly take sides with the Lord against myself. Always. Anything contrary to
that, put to death. That's what Elijah
was doing. He put all of those false prophets
to death. Now, while I was thinking about
this, for some reason my mind was drawn to a sermon that I
read by Charles Spurgeon very early in my life as a believer
that affected me greatly. I was in college when I read
this, and I can remember how greatly it affected me. The name
of the sermon was Boasting Excluded. Grace exalted and boasting excluded. And I thought about the way Elijah
killed all these false prophets with their false message of Baal,
Baal worship. And I, for some reason, thought
about this sermon. And I wish I could do this the
way Spurgeon did it. Can't, but I'll tell you what
he said. I'm not gonna be able to say it as well as he said
it, but he painted a picture of a fellow by the name of Mr.
Boasting. That's what he called him, Mr. Boasting. And he comes
knocking at heaven's door and says, I want in. This man named
Mr. Boasting. And this was taken
from Romans chapter three, verse 27. Where is boasting? It's excluded. It's excluded. Boasting excluded,
grace exalted. And Mr. Boasting knocks on the
door and wants in. And the answer is, why should
you be let in? And Mr. Boasting answers and
says, I should be let in on the ground of election. God chose
who would be saved because he foresaw who would believe and
made his choice based upon that. And I have believed, therefore
I should be let in. And the way this virgin of ought
he fiend is the way he would, get back, you're not getting
in. You know, that's the way we, and so Mr. Boasting sits there and thinks
and says, well, well, I ought to be, granted entrance because
of my regeneration. I've been born again. I've been
born from above. I've been born again, and it's
because I believed. It's because I have an act of my free will,
accepted Christ and believed the gospel, and I'm born again,
and I ought to be let in because I've been born again. And once
again, the way Spurgeon would say, a vaunt ye fiend. I don't
know how he said it, but get away. You don't get in. The fellow
thought a little bit longer and he said, well, he said, we have
to believe, don't we? I mean, no one believes for us.
We have to believe, don't we? The man said, yes, that's true. We do have to believe. Nobody
can believe for you. You must believe the gospel. Well, I ought
to get in on the basis of my faith because I believed and
somebody else didn't. I did something to, I, whatever. No, you can't come in. You're
coming on the wrong ground. You've not killed the works that
you're holding on to. And then he thinks a little bit
more and he says, well, surely I can come in on the basis of
I've persevered. Now we've got to persevere, don't
we? The man said, yes, we do. We must persevere in the faith.
Well, I've persevered in the faith. I have, through my diligence
and efforts, I haven't fallen away. I've persevered in the
faith. You can't come in. You still have a ground of boasting. You can't come in. And the fellow's
looking for a last ditch effort, last straw, and he says, well,
surely I can come in on the basis of rewards in heaven. At least
I can say I've done something that somebody else has not done,
or refrain from doing something somebody else has done, and I
can get a higher place in glory. Surely I can come in that way.
He's turned away again because boasting is excluded. It's all together cut off and
destroyed. The only one we're allowed the
glory in is Christ himself. Boasting is excluded. In your
salvation, now think about your own experience. Question, is
boasting excluded with you? Do you know in your heart of
hearts that the only reason you're saved is because of what Christ
has done for you and you don't have anything to boast in of
yourself? Kill every hope that would drive
you away from that. And my dear friends, that has
something to do with what it means to crucify the flesh with
its affections and with its lust, that desire to boast before God,
that desire to glory before God. I'm gonna say this out there,
but I'm gonna say it in here too. It's not your sin that will keep
you from Jesus Christ. It's your righteousness. Now think about that, you're
gonna hear it again. If you believe you're a sinner, you know what
it'll do? It'll drive you to Christ. It's not your personal
sin that'll keep you from Christ. It's your personal righteousness. And that needs to be stabbed
and put to death. right now and the problem is
you're going to wake up in the morning and it's going to be
there again. You're going to have to stab it again in the morning and the next day
and the next day. However, put them all to death.