Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the portion that we read. 1 Kings chapter 18, and reading
for our text, verse 37. Verse 37. This is part of Elijah's prayer,
the last part of his prayer. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou
hast turned their heart back again. To put the word in context,
reading from verse 36, We read, 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, 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
hast turned their heart back again. What a scene that this
must have been on the top of Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel stands
just over 500 metres above sea level. It is quite a large range
of mountains. There's uncertainty exactly where
this did take place, but this one place they think did because
there is a spring that they would have got water from to pour around
the altar, and also where Elijah's servant looked out toward the
sea. And so they think that that's
where it was. But we're told it was on this
mountain. And what a trial it was, and
what a Great strength that God gave to Elijah at this time is
contrasted just a little while after where Jezebel said that
she was intent on killing Elijah, that then Elijah fled, wished
in himself that he would die, but God strengthened him and
brought him to, with 40 days journey, to Horeb on Mount Sinai. And we see really changes there
with Elijah. But here, to picture him, one
man, and later on he did say this, he felt he was the only
one left. But God said there were those
7,000 who had not bowed the knee unto Baal. But he felt that he
was the only one left. And when we read of the persecution
of Jezebel, and how that she sought to slay the prophets and
did slay some of the prophets of the Lord. And Obadiah, he
hid others in a cave. But Elijah is given that strength
to stand before Israel that had been going along with all of
these prophets. 450 prophets of Baal and then
of the groves, another 400 850 prophets, and this is Israel. And it's remarkable that when
the altar is to be built, that there is the 12 stones set up
to remind Israel that though the tribes had split off, there's
Judah and Benjamin, and then the 10 tribes here over which
Ahab was the king, yet they were still part of Israel. And God was still their God,
not Baal. And so Elijah is strengthened
for his day, his generation, and for this specific time. And it's a good reminder to us. In every generation, God has
his people, and he has also his servants. And they're raised
up not for another generation, but for their own. And they're
given the skills, the abilities, the strength that is needed at
that time, not only just as a general way for their generation, but
for the specific occasions that God calls them to, like this
occasion where Elijah is able to stand before a king that at
a word could have had him slain. to stand before a people that
had turned so much away from the true and living God. What
days it was then, and we might say, well, aren't they similar
days now? Doesn't there seem to be so few
that fear God, that truly worship Him? How many go after the things
of this world and their languages depart from us We desire not
the knowledge of thy ways. And yet there are throughout
England, throughout United Kingdom, and in the other nations of the
earth, those that do truly fear the Lord. If Elijah, prominent
as he was, did not know of those 7,000, how many there are that
we do not know? In fact, in England alone, there
are 21,000 non-conformist places of worship. And if that was the
case, even with our little congregation, if we were to gather all that
gathers with us here and online, and we then multiplied it by
21,000, we would surely have, you know, 100,000 or so at least.
And what a number in this land? I know you
might say, well, if there's 61 million in the land, what is
that number? But we know that there are many
congregations that are quite strong congregations. And so
when we think of Abraham saying regarding Sodom and Gomorrah,
if there be 10, would the Lord destroy it? We should never underestimate
the prayers the cries to God of His people. The reason why
He does not destroy a place is because He still has His people
to call out from that people and to quicken and to save. We need to remember that in any
assembly. We might think, why does not
the fire of God come down and destroy those that gather and
even in blasphemy against the Lord? It is because the Lord
still has his people to call out and to save. And here we
have the account of God turning the hearts of his people again. And that is what is before us
here, the hearts turned back to the Lord. On to then with
the Lord's help. Three points, firstly, God-hearing
prayer, God-hearing prayer. A text is a prayer, it's part
of the prayers of, or prayer of Elijah. And then secondly,
this people. In our text we have this word
hear. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people, I want to consider that word, this people, And then
thirdly there's two things known in answer to Elijah's prayer. He says that this people may
know that thou art the Lord God and that thou has turned their
heart back again. Two things that they were to
know that were fact, that had happened, but they were to be
made known. Now firstly, the God that hears
and answers prayer. Himmler says, prayer was appointed
to convey the blessings God designs to give. And there's a lot of
sacred truth in that word. I will for this be inquired of
by the house of Israel to do it for them. Ezekiel 36. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, he gave us the pattern of prayer in what
is termed the Lord's Prayer. He himself in John 17 prays to
his father in a beautiful way, making intercession for his people. At the grave of Lazarus, before
he calls Lazarus from his tomb, he prays and says that I know
that thou hearest me always, yet for the sake of the people
here." Or perhaps if we turn to the actual count, we read
the actual verses there. It's in John 11 and verses 41 and 42. And this is when they
took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid,
that is, where Lazarus was. And Jesus lifted up his eyes
and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. Very different prayer, isn't
it, than with Elijah. Elijah is praying, hear me, O
Lord, hear me. But our Lord, he says, I knew
that thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And then, when he had thus had
spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus, he that was dead,
he came forth. And so we have the account of
our Lord in prayer, and he spent long nights in prayer. He taught the necessity of prayer,
that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And he gave
the parables, the illustration of the widow woman who came to
the judge, avenge me of my adversary. But he would not, and yet he
said, that I will avenge her, lest, by her continual coming,
she weary me. The Lord says, Shall not God
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? God does hear prayer. We have the prayers of Hannah,
who didn't utter any audible words. Only her lips moved there
in Shiloh. Eli misunderstood her, thought
she was drunken. But when he understood, he said,
the Lord giveth thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
She didn't tell him what that petition was until she came back
later with the child. For I am the woman that stood
by thee praying. For this child I prayed, and
the Lord hath given me my petition that I asked of him. The word
of God is full of the prayers of the people of God. even going
to Jonah in the depths of the sea, and cast out feelingly and
literally, you might say, out of the sight of man, at least,
not God. But he cries unto God out of
the belly of hell, cried I. I will look again toward thy
holy temple. We have Daniel praying three
times a day in Babylon, opening his windows toward Jerusalem,
where the temple had been, but was now in ruins. But really
the temple was a type of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's where he was looking
and remembering Solomon's prayer, that great long prayer at the
dedication of the temple, where he spoke of the many different
situations that God's people would get into. And that when
they cried unto the Lord, the Lord would hear them and answer
them. And of course, this in Ahab's
day, the temple, it stood there at Jerusalem. And the people would have known
of that prayer. And yet they turned aside and
turned away to idols and departed from the true and living God.
And yet Elijah, in a very public way, he brings them to trial
here on Mount Carmel, and before the answer is given, and before
the fire falls from heaven, he prays. And he doesn't pray for
fire. That was the condition of the
trial, that there should be that fire from heaven. The God that
answers by fire, let him be God. But he offers up prayer. You might say, well, Didn't the
prophets of Baal offer a prayer as well? Yes, but they were praying
to their God that was no God at all. Paul is very clear about
this. There is only one true God, and
that all the other gods are idols, the gods that have not made the
heavens and the earth. We read in Jeremiah 10, let them
perish from under the heavens and the earth. And so though
they were in an attitude of prayer, Though they were cutting themselves
and crying and shouting, there was none to hear, none to regard. They were not praying to the
true and living God. It is not a matter of, well,
we can just offer a prayer, but it is praying to the true and
living God. We read in Hebrews 11, he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him." And it struck me, reading
this account of the faith of Elijah, for him to, before he
comes to his prayer and the test with his altar, or the Lord's
altar, he is mocking them. He is mocking them. You know,
is it not even a thought, well, what happens if it gets to my
turn and God doesn't hear me? What if he doesn't kindle it?
The faith of Elijah was so strong, absolutely certain that the Lord
would hear. And yet, he still prays in this
way, hear me, oh God, hear me. But what a short prayer. We read
that they went from all those hours of the day, and that there
is nothing from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear
us. That's their prayer, O Baal,
hear us. But delight you, hear me, O Lord,
hear me, that this people may know. It is vital that we pray
with faith and pray through our Lord Jesus Christ and pray to
the true and to the living God. And you might say as well with
Elijah's prayer, what was his reason for prayer? It wasn't
going to consume it upon his own lust. He wasn't to lift himself
up. It wasn't for his own pleasure,
but for the honour and glory of God. And as he said that he'd
done all these things at thy word, that which he was doing
was according to the word of God. And these are things that
we need to really remember as well. In our petitions and prayers,
we pray according to the word of God. We do not pray as we're
warned against in James's epistle to consume it upon our own lust. But we seek for those things
that are for God's honour and God's glory. And those things
that we do have need of, we are to commit our way unto the Lord. We are to trust also in Him and
He shall bring it to pass. We are to be like those who've
gone before us. And as we've mentioned several
in the Scriptures, we have these patterns of prayer. Many of the
Psalms are actually prayers. And if we take them even as a
pattern sometimes, using the very words in a way of prayer,
we think of Daniel in Daniel chapter 9 in captivity and how
he prayed as he realized those 70 years were coming to the end,
confessing his sin, the sin of his people, and humbling himself
before God, exalting the Lord in prayer. If he would know how
to pray in many ways, we can look at the prayers of scripture
and be a pattern for us. But what a wonderful thing that
the Lord has appointed such a way. The God of heaven and earth,
of which when Solomon dedicated the temple, he said, heavens
cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I builded,
that he should actually hear the voice of a man, that he should
hearken unto us. That is what prayer is, man speaking
unto God, man coming to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why in our prayers we
always ask for Jesus' sake, For thy name's sake, it is through
the Lord Jesus and his merits. We come to the throne of grace,
we come to the mercy seat, we come to a God that has chosen
to appoint this means, whereby he hears from his people, he
hears from sinners, and then he answers. Don't ever be put
off by prayer by thinking, well, the Lord knows anyway. And we
are told as well, that before they call, I will answer. Well,
how far before? Five minutes? Ten minutes? A year? Two years? In eternity
past? Some have been praying for help,
and that help has been given them, and they've found out that
those who have been the means of supplying that help have already
started to put it in motion an hour or two before, they have
seen the result of it. If one was praying for a person
to come to them that was two hours' drive away, and as they
finished praying that person turned up, that person would
have started their journey two hours before. But the Lord gives
prayer and answers prayer. and has ordained prayer. And
those are very humbling times, when we realize that God has
not only answered our prayer, but he has given us our prayer
as well. And that we are in that path
that God has chosen, when he determines to do something in
providence, when he determines to bless a people, he'll put
it in their hearts to pray for those things. Don't ever resist the promptings
of the Holy Spirit to go and pray. May you always seek the Lord
and lay before him that which is upon our heart, out of the
abundance of our hearts. Well, here is Elijah, and it
is very evident the Lord did give and hear the prayer that
he offered up. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. We want to look then secondly
at this word, this people, that this people may know. The people that he gathered round,
the children of Israel, the people that by reason of the famine
that had gone on for those three and a half years, had been made
willing to be put to such a trial as this and to be part of it. The preparation of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. And
John the Baptist, when he came before our Lord Jesus Christ,
his express purpose of his mission was to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. And when the Lord came, there
was a people in expectation. In fact, they wondered whether
John himself was the Messiah. But he said, I am not. But he
that cometh after me, I'm not worthy to lose his shoe. And he was able to point to the
Lord, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. We do need to be prepared. to
be willing to receive the Word of the Lord, willing to be corrected,
willing to walk in the ways of the Lord, willing to even hear
the Word of the Lord. And the Lord in this case used
the famine. It has been our prayer during
this pandemic that the Lord would use the illness, the suffering,
the death, the restrictions, things that have been put upon
us by our government in seeking to curb the virus, those things
that have profoundly affected our lives, that it would make
an impression on us, on the church, and on those round about us,
so that we are willing to hear the word of the Lord and to have
our hearts turned back again. that the Lord has that purpose
in view. And that was the reason that
God had in view for Israel at this time. Now we've only gone
just over a year since the pandemic started. And yet here was three
and a half years before God moved. They might have been thinking,
and those that feared the Lord in that time, how long? How long
will this go on? How will it end? Is there any
sign of the abating of the wickedness of Ahab? Is there any sign of
the abating of the wickedness of Jezebel? Or are they doing
something about these prophets of Baal? And we might think the
same. There's no sign. England is still as much full
of the world, an anti-Christian of the true faith. as it ever
was. There's no room for those that
will faithfully proclaim the word of the Lord in our land. Yes, we can proclaim parts of
it, but other parts we cannot touch. It's not publicly. Those are pulled off their platforms
and forbidden to preach in the streets that preach those doctrines
that come against the sins of this nation. Those that stand
for government, as they are in Northern Ireland at this time,
who proclaim that they are young earth creationists. In fact,
they believe the word of God, and yet they are ridiculed and
they're despised by men. And this is in a country that
is professedly Christian. We may despair at these things,
but here we have God's national people, his special people, and
the depths that they went, and yet God still did not cast them
off, he still brought his word, and this was not the first time,
it wouldn't be the last time that he had done this and was
to do it for them. So this people, it is Israel,
it's those that had been troubled by the famine and prepared in
that way, It was idolaters, it was wicked people, wicked people
that had gone along with the false gods that they'd been forbidden
to learn the ways of the heathen when they came into Canaan. We
cannot picture or cannot paint the children of Israel as being
worthy of such blessings and help and turning again. What
an encouragement it is for us. When we know our sin, we know
our shame, we know the deceitfulness of our heart, how easy we turn
aside from the Lord and from His ways. May we be a people that instead
of cast off the trials and things that we go through, to have that
hope raised up that we be numbered amongst this people. that the
Lord would turn back again. So I want to look then in our
third point at two things, two things known in answer to Elijah's
prayer. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that Thou art the Lord God. What a terrible thing that it
was even to be suggested that here is God's people that didn't
know that the Lord God of heaven and earth was the Lord God. People that did not know the
true and living God. You know later we have the Apostle
Paul coming to Athens and Mars Hill and there is altars to all
sorts of gods, and then just in case they'd missed one, an
altar to an unknown god. And he used that as the basis
for his sermon. Him that thou dost ignorantly
worship, I declare unto thee. Unto you. And so it is that here
there is a people that they do not know the true God. They are content to put a trial
and to agree to a trial between the true and living God and an
idol as if they were the same thing. Do not we find the same
today? That men will drag the Lord from
his throne and put him on the same level as the scientists
and the evolutionists and the man with a degree and the man
with some knowledge of history or knowledges of science, falsely
so-called, or even sometimes proper science. A man thinks that God is such
a one as himself. The Lord charges that. Thou thoughtest
that I was such a one as thyself. What was to be done here in the
answer to Elijah's prayer was that they would know who was
the true and living God. Now, let us remember the fire
from heaven. It consumed the sacrifice and
Elijah made sure that it was really clearly seen as a miracle
by pouring the water upon it, a completely sodden offering,
an altar, And instead of coming up from beneath, well, if any
of you have seen a video of lightning falling upon a tree or as near
as what we could see is fire coming down from heaven, how
quickly that descends and how it consumes that which it hits. And this would have been such
a fearful sight. for fire to descend from heaven
in that way and consume the sacrifice. And it is to be noted, and I've
said it many times here, that the fire, when it fell, it did
not fall upon the prophets of Baal or of the groves. It did
not fall upon Israel that had suffered these things. It fell
upon the sacrifice and it consumed the sacrifice. It is very important
for us to realise that this wasn't just a demonstration of God answering
with fire and consuming stones and wood and a bullock. What
it set forth was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The sacrifices
were times. He was type of the sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus Christ would make those 850 years later at
Calvary. It was the eternal Son of God
made manifest in the flesh, a body hast thou prepared me to endure
the wrath of God in the place of his people. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And as our Lord suffered on Calvary's
tree, he suffered in this way, to have the wrath of God fall
upon him. Let thy hand, we read in Psalm
80, let thy hand be upon the man at thy right hand, the Son
of Man, whom thou madest strong for thyself. And the spiritual
of Israel, those that were given faith, they not only would have
seen the fire descended and realized that this was an answer by the
true and living God, they would have also seen that which they
had seen before or heard of before. Because when Solomon dedicated
the temple, the sacrifice was also consumed in the same way. And the children of Israel knew
what it was through the wilderness to have the sacrifices kindled
in that way. David had had that on Mount Moriah
before the temple, when he numbered the people, before the temple
was built. God answered him by fire upon
the altar. These things Israel had known
before, but they, not only that they would have known that this
pointed to the Messiah, the spiritual of Israel would have seen beyond
these things, and they would have seen the Lord Jesus Christ. As later on, if the Lord will,
we observe the Lord's Supper, ye do show forth the Lord's death
till he come. But the emblems are literally
bread and wine. But we look past them and we
show forth Christ's death. We look back to when he suffered. They look forward. to when he
was to suffer. And so, the Lord, God will provide
himself a lamb for burnt offering. He is that burnt offering. And he has suffered. We look
back in gospel days, and this event here, we can see so clearly
that how much the wrath of God fell upon our Lord. perhaps even
more clearly than reading the accounts in the Gospels, and
to see how consuming that was, consuming everything, and that
it came from heaven. Christ's sacrifice is a propitiation
for sin. It is a wrath-ending sacrifice. And this is where God showed
this people they were deserving to be destroyed themselves. But
instead of them, it was a sacrifice. And so this was the first reason
that they were to be brought to view that this was the true
and living God. This was the God that was the
creator. This was the God that had given
the promises and the seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's
head. This is the God of salvation,
merciful and long-suffering. The second thing that they were
to know was that Thou hast turned their heart back again. What the Lord does in the heart
is not seen, yet it is evidenced later in fruits, and it was certainly
in this case, because when they saw the fire, they said, The
Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is the God. He is the God. The Lord brought them to acknowledge
it and to believe. And not only that, but when Elijah
said, take the prophets of Baal, not one of them escaped, they
did it. They dealt with those prophets
willingly. If the Lord turns our heart back,
we will deal with the idols in our heart, we'll deal with our
idolatry, we'll separate between those false teachers and those
that are leading us astray, and we'll cleave to the true and
the living God. So, it was to be made known what
God had done in their hearts. His prayer was not that thou
wilt turn their heart back again, but that thou hast turned. It's already done. It's already
done. The Lord making known what is
done. And you know every poor sinner
that is convicted of his sin that falls before the Lord in
repentance and godly sorrow for sin. He is to be shown not what
can be done to put away his sin, but what has been done. When
David was convicted of his adultery and murder and fell before it
and said to Nathan, I have sinned, Nathan did not say, I'll have
to go to the Lord and find out what he will say about this.
He said, the Lord hath also put away thy sin, thou shalt not
die. The matter was already settled.
The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to give repentance and remission
of sins unto Israel. And then he makes it known, makes
it known to his people, and shows them the blessings that he has
given them. And they had it here. We had
it recorded in the word of God. And for the history of Israel,
they could look back. They would not have forgotten
this scene on Mount Carmel. Striking a great scene it was. And to know this was a demonstration
the Lord had turned their heart back again. I do like that word,
again. Back again. Now the Lord was
asked once, how many times shall my brother sin against me and
turn and repent and I forgive him, till seven times? And the
Lord said, no, till 70 times seven. Again and again and again. And how many times Israel, even
through the wilderness, let alone when they came into the promised
land, that they turned aside from the Lord and had to be brought
back again and again. And you and I, if we know our
hearts are right and we know our lives, and how many times
we have departed from the Lord and turned aside, then we'll
be thankful for this, that the Lord never wears out. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He turned their heart, He worked
their works in them, He dealt with it, and then there was the
rain that was sent again from heaven. And that also was by
prayer. We have a contrast there, that
here we have only one prayer or one petition, But when it
comes to asking for the rain, then Elijah says to his servant,
go and look toward the sea. And it is, go again, seven times. And for those six times, the
servant comes back. He says in verse 43, there is
nothing. He said, go again, seven times. And may we be encouraged in that.
And maybe some of you have had answers to prayer that have been
very quick. You only need to pray once. The other times, the
other matters that you pray over again and again and again, well,
go again seven times. We remember this contrasting
account, answers to prayer, but very different number of times
that the throne of God is sought. Sometimes the Lord would try
our faith. Sometimes it would be that it
is not yet, and that the Lord would have us to wait. until
his time. And so this account is a very
encouraging account, encouraging for our day and generation. May we still pray, and may we,
as the Lord gives us that, stirring up and strengthen help to stand
before those round about us, to speak and not keep silence,
and to be his messengers, and to be in his hands, to use us
as seemeth him fit. The Lord didn't use Obadiah in
this case. He didn't use any of the other
of the hundred prophets, 50 in a cave, that he could have used. He chose to use Elijah. And the Lord will use whom he
does choose for that work that he has them in in the place that
he have them to be. So may the Lord be pleased to
bless this word, give us to be a praying people, give us to
be a people who sees that the turning back is through what
Christ has accomplished at Calvary. He has endured the wrath of God,
he's suffered in our place, and the blessings come to us through
that sacrifice, that offering made there. Hear me, O Lord,
hear me. that this people may know that
thou art the Lord God, that thou hast turned their heart back
again. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.