Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 18 is where I'm
going to actually end up. I'll start a little bit before. Let's begin by considering a
little history. Before we come to the passage
I'd like to deal with, 1 Kings chapter 16, beginning in verse 29, the scripture
declares there was an evil king. His name was Ahab. 1 Kings 16, 29, in the 38th year
of Asa, king of Judah, began Ahab the son of Omri to
reign over Israel and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel
in Samaria twenty and two years and Ahab the son of Omri did
evil in the sight of the Lord above all that was before him.
It came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to
walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat that he took
to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians,
and went and served Baal and worshipped him. And he reared
up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in
Samaria. And Ahab made a grove, and Ahab
did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all
the kings of Israel that were before him." Well, God raised
up a prophet and sent this prophet to give this evil king a message. Chapter 17, verse 1, in Elijah
the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As
the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall
not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." And
for the sake of time, I'll just tell you what happened. The Lord
preserved. Elijah sent him out, fed him
with ravens, protected him, didn't rain. After a while he was drinking
out of the brook, the brook dried up, the Lord sent him and raised
up a widow woman to preserve him. Remember the story, he went
and talked to this widow woman and he said, make me a little
cake and she said, well I just got a little bit of oil and flour
and she said, I'm going to find me a couple of sticks and I'm
going to just cook this for me and my son and we're going to
die. And he said, well, you make me one first. And wasn't being
insensitive to her, but the Lord caused this woman, gave her faith
to believe that God was going to preserve her. And He did.
Preserved her. And the Lord, in time, after
the time appointed, caused Elijah to cross paths again with Ahab. We pick up now in chapter 18.
And verse 17, it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab
said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? You know, that's
the attitude right there of every false religionist concerning
God's preachers. You're the troublemaker. You're
the one that's starting all this. You're the one that preaches
that gospel that's so narrow, just you and a few. Are you the
one that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled
Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. sent and gathered to me all Israel
unto Mount Carmel. And the prophets of Baal 450,
prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab
sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets
together unto Mount Carmel." He had about 850 prophets on
payroll. And Elijah told him, he said,
I'm not the one causing trouble. He said, you are. And basically
what we're going to do is we're going to find out who's right. And then Elijah in verse 21 of
chapter 18 challenged the people of Israel for their waywardness
and their inconsistency. Now listen, they have been sitting,
they're in this kingdom of Ahab and he's raised up this altar
to Baal, the false god. And it's politically correct
now to worship this god. And there's been no preaching,
no preaching of the gospel. They haven't heard anything.
And they're just fearful, and it gives them this challenge.
Chapter 18, verse 21, Elijah came unto all the people and
said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be
God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word. Now this is a very searching, Exhortation. How long halt he
between two opinions? Why do you walk so lamely, is
what he was saying. Why are you acting like a little
bird that just jumped from this limb to this limb? Is God Almighty sovereign or
not? Now, I'm going to be honest with
you. I need to hear this. I need to hear this. Is God God
or is He not God? Is salvation by God's will or
by man's will? Now, here again, somebody says,
well, you don't need to ask a believer that. Oh yes, you do. Oh yes,
you do. I know the answer that a believer
is going to give. But I can tell you this, that's
a good answer, that's a good question. Is God Almighty God? Did Christ die to make salvation
possible for all men? Or did He die to redeem His sheep? Did He save His people? Now how
long halt ye between two opinions? Now I've got two men in me. And I'm going to tell you something,
they don't think the same. They don't think the same. I
got one that believes that man is God. And you that know him do too.
And then there's another one in there that knows God is God. And I'll tell you, what we need
is we need a consistency in the hearing of the gospel. Paul said,
for me to say the same things to you is not grievous. You know, I think sometime I'll
be preaching and I'll think to myself, this is what I said last
week. This is the same thing I said
last week. But you know the amazing thing
about that? Believer hears it like you've heard it for the
first time. You think, that was so good. Is the gospel of God's free grace
in Christ? Is the gospel the power of God
unto salvation, or does the Holy Spirit just bless any message? Well, you know, I believe God
could save somebody under, you know, just a free will message. I believe He could. Well, let
me say it like this. He said He didn't. He said He
would not. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. Elijah came to all the people
and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be
God, follow Him. If Baal, then follow him. The
people answered him, Not a word. Not a word. And after Elijah challenged the
people of Israel, then he challenged and he mocked the gods of the
false prophets. Now listen to this, 18 verses
25 to 29. Elijah said unto the prophets
of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves and dress it first
for you are many. And call on the name of your
gods and put no fire under. And they took the bullock which
was given them, they dressed it, called on the name of Baal
from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any
that answered. They leaped upon the altar which
was made, it came to pass at noon, Elijah mocked them and
said, Cry aloud, for he is a god, either he's talking, Or he's
pursuing. Maybe he's got some other interests. Maybe he don't have time for
you. Or he's in a journey. Or peradventure he sleepeth,
must be awakened. And they cried aloud and cut
themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till
the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass when midday
was passed, they prophesied to the time of the offering of the
evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice nor any to
answer, nor any that regarded." You know, I do not, under any circumstances,
want to be unnecessarily hard or cruel or mean. I don't. But I can tell you this,
Elijah was God's prophet, and he challenged God's people.
They'd become lax, like the church at Laodicea. And he asked them,
he said, how long are you going to halt between two opinions?
How long are you going to just jump around? How long are you
going to be, you know, just lazy? If God's God, and you worship
Him. If Baal is God, then you worship
Him. And he mocked the prophets of Baal. He mocked the hired
hands of Ahab and Jezebel. Like I said, I'm not trying to
be unnecessarily insensitive, but as I said before, a false
prophet, one that does not preach the gospel of God's free grace,
One that does not set forth the sovereignty of Almighty God.
He is not called of God. He is a liar. And Elijah mocked
him. And based on the mocking of this
man right here that God had called, I'm not going to give them the
time of day either. They're liars. They make merchandise
of men's souls. And they cut themselves and jumped
up and down and tried to make a drum up something, had a big
Pentecostal revival, but after all of their silliness and fleshly
attempts to work up something emotional, nothing came. And Elijah then prepared the
altar of God. Verse 30. to 35. And I was so, as I read this,
I thought to myself, this just, when we read this, think on this.
He wasn't in a hurry. He wasn't emotional. He wasn't
trying to, he was just calmly believing God. He knew that Almighty
God was God. He was going to do as he was
pleased. and the army of heaven among
the inhabitants of the earth. And here's what happened. Verse
30, Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. I read that and I think to myself,
how tender. How tender. He loved them. That was the Lord's people. Come
here. Come here. Come close. And all
the people came near unto him. He brought them to see. I want
you to see what's about to happen. I want you to witness this. And
he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Let me tell you this. The altar
that is broken down is where the gospel has not been preached
and inconsistent. I thank God that God Almighty
has allowed the gospel to be here. allowed the truth of God's
sovereign grace to be here over these 60 years. I've said before,
I don't know how long. I don't know how long. I don't
know how long he'll leave me here. Will he send another preacher? I don't know. I don't know. But
we have today. He repaired the altar of the
Lord that was broken down. He took twelve stones according
to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. It hadn't rained for three and
a half years. Baal worship had been all over
the place. It's come to this. God in mercy
has sent this preacher. And he came, the scripture says,
and he took those twelve 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. And with the stones
he built an altar in the name of the Lord, made a trench about
the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed, And he
put the wood in order. He cut the bullock in pieces
and laid him on the wood and said, fill four barrels with
water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time.
They did it a second time. He said, do it a third time.
They did it a third time. And the water ran round about
the altar and he filled the trench also with water. Now, it hasn't
rained in three and a half years. Water would be a premium. It took 12 barrels of something
that was so precious that I dare say it was worth its weight in
gold. If you don't have anything to
drink and there's no rain, water is
a precious thing. But he said, I want you to take
12 barrels of water and you pour it on that sacrifice right there. Elijah believed God. God's going
to answer. The Lord's going to provide.
I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
They took that precious water and they poured it on top of
that altar, that bull, filled up that trench, all that wood,
everything soaking wet. And the Scripture says, verse
36, it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening
sacrifice. Even the timing of this event
was so ordered that it had an eye to the one all-sufficient
and finished sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Time
of the evening sacrifice, about three o'clock in the afternoon.
Well, it says right here. came to pass at the time of the
offering of the evening sacrifice. Matthew 27, 46 says, at about
the ninth hour, ninth hour, that's three o'clock, three o'clock
in the afternoon, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? For a sinner to have any hope,
Christ must be known as God's Lamb. To know Him is to trust
Him, to love Him, to come to Him. And here was the time of
the evening sacrifice and all of this mockery and all of this
silliness and all of that false Balaam worship people and hurt
for it, and suffered for it. And Ahab raised up this altar. And Almighty God, who in mercy
and grace and compassion sent a preacher. What if He wouldn't have sent
a preacher? You see what I'm saying? What if He wouldn't have
sent a preacher? What if He wouldn't have sent
a prophet? He said, I'm going to send you pastors after my
heart, and they're going to teach you, give you some understanding. God Almighty, when He's pleased
to show mercy to a people, sends the gospel. He sends the gospel. He sends a preacher. And He sent
this preacher, and this preacher challenged him. How long halt
you between two opinions? I can tell you this, those that
knew him, Affectionately. Can you imagine how that just
pierced their heart? Been so silly. And Elijah came,
took that water and poured all that water on that altar. I tell you another verse that
comes to my mind often. Seek ye first. the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And what's going to happen? All
these things are going to be added unto you. You think they'd
be the losers for pouring that precious water?
And you know that Elijah did that at the command of the Spirit
of God who prompted him to do that. He was led by God's Spirit
and God Almighty moved him to pour it on there. Somebody would
say, well that would be a waste. Judas said that one time, remember
that? Why was this not brought, that precious ointment not sold?
Three hundred pence, that's almost a year's wages. We could have
gotten a year's wages and given it to the poor. He didn't care
about the poor. He poured that precious water,
put it on that altar right there. He began to pray. Verse 30, it
came to pass the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice
that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, let me tell you who our God is. He's the God of mercy and compassion
according to His everlasting covenant of grace to whomsoever
He chooses to be merciful and compassionate. Before the foundation
of the world, He is the triune God engaged with Himself concerning
the salvation of His elect, His church, His body, the body of
His precious Son. And I'll tell you this, according
to this God that Elijah was praying to, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, he formed and settled according to the counsel of peace
for his people, for his elect, for the bride of Christ. All
of this was settled before the world began. Let me show you
that. Hold your place right there in 1 Kings 18. Turn to Titus
1. Titus 1, verses 1 and 2. How long has this been settled?
This thing of salvation, I realize it comes to pass in time. That's
when God Almighty is pleased to call His people out of darkness. When He pleased Him, He reveals
Himself to His people. But let me ask you this. When
was this thing of salvation established? as far as Almighty God is concerned.
Titus 1, verses 1 and 2, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle
of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and
the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness in hope
of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the
world began. Now let me ask you this. If Almighty
God promises, what do you think is going to happen? The counsel of the Lord is going
to stand. Who shall thwart His purpose? Look at 2 Timothy. Turn back
to 2 Timothy 1.9. 1 Timothy 1 verse 8 and 9, Be not
thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us, and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began." Elijah, back in 1 Kings 18, verse
36, as he prayed that 63-word prayer, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel,
the Father who in electing grace chose a people from before the
foundation of the world that they should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, the Lord Jesus Christ, the covenant
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and all like them, chosen in
Christ, the elect. That's who the son died for. He said, John 10, 15, he said,
I laid down my life for the sheep. I laid down my life for my people. When he died, he was dying for
somebody. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
Savior. You know why? He's going to save
His people from their sins. How many are going to be in heaven
for whom the Lord died? All of them. How many are going
to be in hell for whom the Lord died? Nobody. John 6, 37 says,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out." The Father chose a people.
The Son died for them, redeemed them. And the Holy Spirit in
quickening grace calls them and regenerates them and keeps them,
seals them. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel. You know, this world thinks that
God is one that can be bargained with. One that's trying to do
something. One that's hoping somebody will
give Him their heart. They say He wants to save you
if you'll let Him. Well, then He's not God then.
Why don't you just pray to the ones that need God? Why don't
you just pray to them? If God's done all He can do,
why don't you just pray to these people over here? Pray to them.
They're the ones that are going to make the final decision, they say. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel. Numbers 14, 18 says, The Lord
is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and
transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty. He's God.
Sin's going to be dealt with. God's going to deal with sin.
He's going to deal with sin and His people. But He's done it
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that the Father gave Him
for them, He was made sin. And the Father dealt with Him
in absolute justice. That's why He cried, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Elijah continued to pray,
Let it be known this day, Thou our God in Israel, that I am
Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy
Word. Now let me just say this. If we cannot back up what we're
saying by the Word of God, then we have no authority whatsoever
to preach it. But if what we preach is what
Almighty God has said, then let it be known this day, that according
to the gospel that we preach, according to this Word right
here, we're not like those that rest, twist the Scriptures and
try to make them say something that they don't. When our Lord
prayed in His high priestly prayer, when He said, Father, I pray
for them, that is those that You've given Me. I'm not praying
for the world. I'm praying for those that you've
given me." What did he mean? Well, let me just try to make
it clear. He was praying for those that the Father had given
him in electing grace. Praying for them. I'm not praying for the world.
I'm praying for those that you've given me. Let it be known today
that I am thy servant. I've done all these things at
thy word. You know why we preach the gospel? The gospel of God's free grace,
the message that declares God Almighty to be the originator
of salvation, that Christ purchased it, paid the debt, that the Spirit
of God applies it and effectually applies it. And all that God
Almighty has everlastingly purposed to do, He does, He does. You
know why we preach that? because the preaching of the
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Is it necessary to
hear, turn to Romans 10. Hold your place, Romans 10. Is
it necessary? Man, I've heard people, I remember
as a kid, growing up in South Louisiana, hearing this statement, well
I don't have to hear preaching, I can go out, I can do this,
I can go fishing, and I can be just as near to God as, you know,
being out in nature. No you can't. No you cannot. Now listen, Romans 10, 13-15. How necessary is it to hear the
preaching of the gospel? Romans 10, 13, "...shall call
upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." Now let me ask you
this. Who is going to call on the name
of the Lord? I'll tell you who it is. Those that gives a willing
heart. In the day of His power, God's
going to give them a willing heart. You leave a man to himself,
he's not going to call. Why? Because he's dead. He's
spiritually dead. They say, well, he can exercise
his free will. He doesn't have a free will.
He's dead. He's dead. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in Him
whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent? As it is
written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. It's necessary. It's necessary
to hear the preaching of the gospel of God's grace. It pleased
God through the preaching of the truth to save His people. It's by the mercy and grace of
God that He'd send and bless the gospel of salvation to His
people. And this gospel is His gospel.
It's ours by His grace, but it's His by conception and accomplishment
and by the application of it. Verse 37, 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." You know, there's no greater comfort for a believer
than to acknowledge the Lord to be the Lord, our help, and
our security. I tell you, He turned us first
by giving us a new heart. Ezekiel 36, 26, He said, I'll
give you a new heart. I'll give you a new heart. And
he didn't wait, thanks be unto Him. He didn't wait for me to
do it because I'd have never done it. But we never fail to need
to be turned from the stumblings of this life. Can a believer
stumble? Look at Luke. Hold on. Luke 22,
31. Luke 22, 31. Peter was a man that, according
to the Scriptures, after the Lord had risen, the Lord asked
Peter. He said, Peter, do you love me
more than these? Three times he asked him that. That third
time Peter was grieved because he asked him. And he said, Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you. But you look back and listen
to these words. Luke 22. Verse 31 and 32, the
Lord said unto Simon, and the Lord said, I'm sorry, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift
you as wheat. But I prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,
and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Now let me ask you this. You
think Peter was a regenerated man. Yeah, he was regenerated. Well, what does it mean, though,
when thou art converted? Look the word up. It means returned.
When you're returned. Did Peter stumble? Did Peter
deny the Lord three times? Did the Lord tell him that he
was going to do that? He said, Peter, Satan hath desired
to have you sift his wheat. But now listen, I've prayed for
you that your faith fail not. And knowing what you're going
to do when you're returned, and I'll return you, strengthen the
brethren. And let's remind each other,
when we stumble, there's not a one, there's not a believer
in this room this morning that won't admit how prone I am to
do that. We sing that song prone to wonder,
Lord I feel it. There's an old man in me that
hates this gospel. And there's a new man in me that
loves this gospel. And there's a fighting and a
war that's going on. They're contrary one to the other.
And when I see the frailty of this flesh and the stumblings,
thanks be unto Him. Lord, pray for me. Pray for me. Back in 1 Kings
18, I'll hurry. Lord let it be known thou has
turned their heart back again." They had to have been there first
to get turned back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell
and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and
the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. That sacrifice right there was
a glorious, picture of what would, in time, take place. This was
a picture right here, Neil, of the crucifixion. That bullet that was on there,
that was a picture, that was a picture of the type of our
Lord. And Elijah, God's prophet, he
prayed that prayer, Lord, let these people, let it be known
that you're God. Let it be known that you're the God of covenant,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Lord, let it be known I'm your
servant, and I preach what I preach according to your Word. Lord,
let it be known that you're God, and that you have turned their
hearts back, that you, Lord, who promised you'd never leave
them, never forsake them, You turned them back, and Almighty God answered. And
the fire fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood
and the stones and dust licked up the water in the trench. I
tell you there was a day coming when Almighty God, precious Son of God Almighty,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was actually that sacrifice, And
the fire fell on him in the stead of the people for whom he was
dying. He was dying for somebody. And Almighty God spewed out His
wrath and forsook His precious Son. According to the Lord's
Word, He did. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Because I'm not going to forsake
them. And you're going to suffer. and He laid down His life for
the sheep. And Almighty God in absolute
justice, in judgment, and where sin was found, He was made sin. I don't understand the depth
of that, but Scripture said, He hath made Him sin, who knew
no sin. Precious that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. And the fire of God's wrath fell
But there was one big difference. In the type, the burnt sacrifice was consumed. But in the reality of His crucifixion,
He consumed the wrath. He consumed the judgment. And
now, based on His work, His finished work, He says finished, there
is therefore now No condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, seeking justification before
God according to the flesh, but they walk after the Spirit. Laod
taught that salvation is of the Lord. And the scripture says
in verse 39, and I'll stop right here, 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. Here's a confession of a settled
heart. You want to hear what a believer
says concerning salvation, concerning providence, creation? You want to hear what a believer
says? The Lord, He's God. He's God. The people saw it with
the eyes of faith. and fell on their faces in reverence
of Him. When a believer sees Him, I tell
you what they've seen also, they've seen something of themselves.
You leave it to me and I'm gone. I have no hope. And they said,
the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. There is
no God but the Lord. The Lord bless these words to
our heart for Christ's sake.