May God be with us then this
morning as we turn together to consider his word, and we'll
turn to the chapter we read, the first book of Kings in chapter
18, and we'll read together verses 36 to 38. 1 Kings chapter 18,
verses 36, 37, and 38. 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, that I have done all these things at thy
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, for
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou
hast turned their heart 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. Well, we first read of the prophet
Elijah in chapter 17 of the first book of Kings, when we're told
in the first verse that he is commanded to go to the king Ahab
and tell him that there would be famine or there would be withdrawal
of rain, drought for years. And of course, as a result, there
would be a famine. And Elijah therefore goes with
that message obediently to Ahab and announces that the rain would
be withheld because of the sin of the people. But Elijah himself
was provided for in that difficult time. As we know, he was first
directed to the book Cherith, where he was given water to drink. He was fed by the ravens, bringing
him food to sustain him. And then when the brook itself
dried up, he was then sent to the widow, Zarephath, that he
might be supplied for there. God had been with Elijah and
had provided all that he needed. Though the nation largely had
turned away from God and the nation was suffering the consequences
because of their abandonment of him, Elijah was enjoying his
help and presence and provisions. Indeed, he had even known the
blessing of God, hadn't he, in raising the widow's son, and
that miracle that God performed through him. So Elijah had these
wonderful accounts and experiences, that God was still on the throne,
that God was still almighty, that God was still with him. The people may have forgotten
God, but God had not forgotten them. And when Elijah then comes,
as we read in chapter 18, to the account on Mount Carmel,
we can see in the words we've read together, in his prayer,
that his concern was that the people also might know that the
Lord is God. He knew it. He had experienced
it. He had enjoyed God's answers
and helps. He was sure of the presence,
the existence, and the help of God. But his desire was that
the people who had rejected God, who had turned to idols, might
themselves know that the Lord is God. And that is the essence
of his prayer in these verses that we've read together. Lord
God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel. Let it be known that the idols
they bow down to are nothing but bits of stone. Let it be
known that the Lord is God, that I am thy servant, and that I
have done 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." You see, it's lovely
to see, isn't it, in the heart of Elijah that he has a heart
for the people. He has a shepherd's heart for
the people of Israel. He longs for them. He pleads
with them and he prays for them. You could say, Elijah, you are
you feel to be at least one of the only ones left. He said,
didn't he, I remain, I only remain a prophet of the Lord. We know
that there were others who had not bowed the knee, but he felt
to be the only one left. And wouldn't it be tempting to
say, well, keep what you've got, hide away with it, you're enjoying
the Lord's blessing, be thankful for what you have. He was, and
he did enjoy God's blessing, but he had a heart for the people. He had a heart for Israel and
he wants and desires and pleads with God that they might know
that the Lord is God. We have here, I believe, a real
encouragement in Elijah's prayer that we also should take these
words and plead them for others. That we can pray for the souls
of others. Do we not long that perhaps certain
members of our family or certain friends or acquaintances we have
or the world in general around us and society that we walk in
may know that the Lord is God? Those of us who have had our
eyes opened, who can see, have faith to believe in the existence
and the love and the power and the goodness of God, We desire
and long that others also might see this and know it themselves. when we've come to know the Lord,
we can hardly believe that others can't see it also, can we? But
we know, of course, it's faith that's been given, it's the work
of God that's brought us to see. But don't we long that others
may see as well, that they also may have their hearts turned
back again to know and to follow the Lord. Generally around us,
if they're not bowing down to Baal, They're bowing down to
something. They're bowing down to the world,
or its pleasures, or its entertainments, or its attainments. They're bowing
down, perhaps, to themselves, and their own life, and their
own will, and their own ideas. Man will bow down to something,
will follow something, will honour something. But few will honour
God. And don't we look upon the society
that we live in and say, oh, that they might know that thou
art God. They may come to see it. And I believe, therefore, we
can take this prayer. And it's my encouragement to
take Elijah's prayer for the people and pray it ourselves. Because the encouragement here
is that Elijah knew He could not convince the people Himself. He could speak to them. He could
preach to them. He could spend time with them
and prophesy to them. But He could not convince them. He could not turn their heart.
What He knew was that He desired God to do that. that God would
appear, that God would open their eyes and their understanding.
And we know, don't we, that we can long for a soul, that we
can plead with a soul, that we can preach to a soul, that we
can witness to a soul, that we can spend time with a soul, but
ultimately we cannot change a heart, we cannot turn a heart, we cannot
open their eyes. The encouragement is that as
much as Elijah knew God could do it to Israel, we know that
God can do it today as well. God can open the eyes of the
blind and soften the hearts of the hard-hearted. And therefore
we have every encouragement to ourselves, take this prayer and
say, Lord God of Israel, let it be known this day that thou
art God in Israel. It's rather like, isn't it, that
if we were unwell, some chronic or terminal illness, and we had
been provided with some cure, and it worked, would we not also
desire that the doctor would give other sufferers that same
cure? Would that not be simple humanity?
Would that not be simple kindness? That others also may receive
the cure we've known? Well, in a far greater sense,
if we've known a cure to our spiritual troubles, and we've
known a forgiveness from our spiritual needs, then surely
we also would long and plead with the heavenly doctor that
he would send his cure to other sufferers also. And so we take
this prayer. Lord, let it be known that thou
art the Lord, thou art God in Israel. that Thou hast turned
their hearts back again." Well, Elijah prays this prayer and
what happens as a result? Well, we know that the altar
had been repaired, that the sacrifice, the burnt offering had been prepared
and laid out. The prophets of Baal had spent
hours in pleading and crying into the air with the hope that
something or someone might respond. They had cut themselves, they
had leapt on the altar, they had cried in desperation. And we read that there was neither
voice, nor any answer, nor any that regarded. There was no response
whatsoever. They were earnest, they were
heartfelt, But they were wrong. And there was no response. And
Elijah then prepares the altar and the burnt offering, and he
pours these barrels of water over it and into the trench.
Essentially, there was no possibility in any way that this fire could
be lit in any human terms. And he prays. He prays a simple,
heartfelt prayer. He was earnest. He was heartfelt. But there's a difference between
Elijah's prayer and the prophets of Baal, because Elijah's prayer
was to the true God. Elijah's prayer was to the Lord
God of Israel, the creator of the heavens and of the earth. And he prays to God that the
others might know that it is Him that is God. And then the
fire of the Lord fell. The fire of the Lord fell. And this sacrifice is set alight,
it's burnt completely. The sacrifice, the wood, the
stones, the dust, the water, everything consumed by the fire
of the law that falls. This was a clear, powerful demonstration
of the answer to prayer. It could not be disputed. It could not be denied. It was
impossible that this fire could light in any way except through
the work of God. And as the people stand back,
having heard this prayer and then seen the direct powerful
answer of the fire falling, there was no doubt that God had answered
and the Lord was God. It was so dramatic. If we can
try and just put our feet in the shoes of the people on Mount
Carmel on that day and imagine what they saw. Imagine all the
build-up to this account. Imagine all the time that they
had spent crying to Baal, and Elijah had essentially mocked
them, and there'd be no answer, and their desperation, and yet
their disappointment in receiving no answer. And then Elijah speaks
a simple, heartfelt, faithful prayer, and the fire falls. What
that must have been to see, and to witness. And it had an effect
on them, didn't it? The answer that God sent had
an effect on them far greater and far different and far more
powerful than anything Elijah himself could have said or convinced
them of. They fall down on their faces
and said, Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. There was a direct response.
There was no doubt. that the Lord was God and the
people knew it and the people confessed it. What made the difference? The fire fell. The Lord appeared. In thinking of this subject this
week, it reminded me of the book of Acts. In the book of Acts
chapter 2 we read of how the disciples were gathered together
in the upper room after the Lord Jesus had ascended into glory.
And there they were in obedience to his commandment to stay in
Jerusalem. And they were all with one accord in one place. Now remember what the disciples
have been told they must do. They had been told that they
must go into every nation, teaching, baptizing people in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. They had been given the great commission to go into all
the world. Yes, at Jerusalem, the Jewish
people, but that they would take the gospel to the world. Along
with that commission was Jesus leaving them. In a sense, they
might say, well, we can walk out this way if we have the Lord
walking with us. But in a bodily sense, he had
left them. He had ascended into glory. And
they stood with this wonderful message, but this daunting commission
to go and to preach to a nation and to a world as yet lost in
sin. And they were all there. with
one accord in one place, waiting. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance. the powerful work of God appeared. The Holy Spirit descended in
power and might upon them. It was seen, it was felt, it
was heard when the rushing wind, and they had these evidences
of these coven tongues of fire upon them. It was clear that
there was a difference when the power of the Lord fell upon them.
It was clear because they were given boldness to speak. Now
they would stand before thousands and thousands of people in Jerusalem
to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they would go on to preach
to thousands in the years to come. And they were also given
the miraculous gift of tongues to spread the gospel to the nations
and especially to the people on the day of Pentecost so that
they could hear in their own language. They couldn't do that
before. And now the power of the Holy
Spirit made all the difference. Like the power of the fire falling
from heaven made all the difference on Mount Carmel, so the fire
of the Holy Spirit falling on the disciples made all the difference
to them for the years to come. I wonder if we, Each one of us
here know anything of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Now I very much doubt that any
of us have seen fire falling from heaven like they did in
Mount Carmel. And we have not heard a mighty
rushing wind or cloven tongues of fire. And we have not been
given the gift of tongues to speak other languages. But each
and every true Christian has known the powerful, mighty work
of the Holy Spirit. A powerful change in the heart,
which has brought them, like Israel on Mount Carmel, to say,
the Lord, He is the God, because He has done something which only
He could do. Have we known the powerful work
of the Holy Spirit? Not something that someone else
has convinced us of. Though we may have appreciated
their message, their preaching, or their conversation. But it's
not something that they have just turned our mind and made
us see in a natural sense. But there has been something
within, there has been something powerful within, which has convinced
us of the reality of the things of God. Well, maybe a helpful way to
consider whether we've known the work and power of the Holy
Spirit is to think, well, what does that work do? What is the
evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit? And that's really what
I want to consider this morning in the light of this chapter
in 1 Kings 18. What is the evidence of the work
of the Holy Spirit? Well, what was the evidence?
What did the fire do when it fell on this altar? Well, the
first thing that the fire did was it burnt up the sacrifice.
It fell on the offering that had been prepared and laid on
the altar, and it consumed the burnt sacrifice. It's as it were,
the sacrifice was accepted by the Lord. It was offered to Him,
and it was accepted as the fire fell and consumed that sacrifice. Thinking of that, one of the
clear, undeniable evidences of the Holy Spirit, the work of
the Holy Spirit, is that He always shows us and directs us to Christ. always shows us Christ as the
acceptable sacrifice, as the offering that God received and
was well pleased with. The Holy Spirit always works
to lead us to the Saviour. Many people may rest their religion
on a warm and happy feeling, Many people may rest their hope
on the experience they've had and that they've felt. But if
your warm experience and your happy feeling has not led you
to Christ, then it is not the work of the Holy Spirit. We can
feel warm and happy about all sorts of sinful things. The work
of the Spirit leads us to Him. Yes, we need to have a feeling
religion. Yes, we want to have experiences,
but they want to be grounded in faith and hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ, not in just how we feel. The sacrifice was received. The work of the Spirit is to
lead us to this glorious sacrifice. As Jesus Himself gave Himself
a sacrifice for sin on the cross, as he offered his life and his
own soul in that suffering on the cross in the place of others. And that was, as we read, a sweet
savour unto God, well-pleasing and received by the Father. And
as we look on him, we look on a sacrifice on behalf of others,
a sacrifice that others also may not suffer as he did. So is the Lord Jesus Christ precious
to us? Do we look to his offering as
our hope? Do we look to him in our place
because we need a substitute for us? Have our eyes been opened
to see something of the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, precious
in his dying love? That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
He will direct us to show us that we need the Saviour and
to show us the suitability of Christ as a Saviour. Have we
been led there? That's an evidence that you have
experienced the work of the Holy Spirit because only He will lead
you to Christ and He will lead you nowhere but Christ. So the first evidence, the first
work is the burning up of the sacrifice. The second thing that
the fire did was that it burnt up everything else. Yes, it consumed
the burnt sacrifice, but also the wood, the stones, the dust,
and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Everything
was burnt up, everything was consumed in this powerful pouring
out of the fire of heaven. It's as if the altar was cleansed. All the dust was removed. It was cleansed of all around
it. God's people, a true believer,
is cleansed, is washed, is clean. All the dust and dirt is removed. They are, as the Bible says,
justified. And that means that they have
now a right standing with God. It means that legally, it's a
legal term to be justified, that legally the debt is paid, the
price is removed, the sin is taken away, and they stand right
and just before the Lord. They are declared clean and forgiven. But we do not feel clean and
forgiven always, do we? And the Holy Spirit works on
in our lives and in our hearts to continue to cleanse us. Paul refers to this as the crucifying
of the flesh. A removing of all the sinful
things and ideas and temptations and things we fall into. a weaning
from the world and its ways. Now we never reach perfection
and I believe as we go on we feel our sin more and more and
more as the Lord shows us more of what we are. But we do grow
and we do go on and we do crucify and we do remove those sins which
are shown to us, and we continue to desire to move on in obedience
and in holiness. That is surely the path of God's
people. Not to say, well, the Lord has
forgiven me so I can live how I want. I'm justified so I can
enjoy any sin that I want because it's forgiven. If we are forgiven
and justified, then our desire must be to walk in holiness. That involves crucifying of the
flesh and obedience. And that is the help we receive
from the Holy Spirit, the help to do that, to go on. So, not only has the Holy Spirit
led us to Christ, but are we going on? Have we entered a battle? I say, well, that's not a very
interesting or not a very enjoyable element of Christianity. That's
not very attractive. I want to go into a battle, but
let me be honest with you this morning, a Christian life is
a battle. The question is, are we in it? Because if you're finding
your Christian life a battle, and you feel like giving up because
you think it's too hard, or you feel like giving up because you
think surely this isn't the way that a believer would walk, let
me tell you that because you're walking in a battle, you have
an evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in you. You have a
clear evidence, because he has brought you to desire to fight
against sin. If you find sin in the world
and temptation hard, then that is an evidence, surely, that
you've been turned to desire to fight against it. So do we
desire to live a holy life? Desire, as it were, that the
work of the Spirit would consume the wood and the stones and the
dust and all the rubbish around us and within us, that we may
hate sin, more and more love the Saviour. The Holy Spirit
works to make His people more like Christ, not to be as Christ,
We will never be equal with him. And in this world, we will never
be sinless like him, but more and more like him in the way
we live, in our attitudes, and in our desire for the Lord. So then secondly, the fire burnt
everything else up. Thirdly, the fire brought the
people to acknowledge that the Lord is God. As I said earlier,
it was a clear evidence that the power of God had fallen and
that the God who Elijah prayed to and followed was the true
God. It was clear to them that God
was God, not Baal, but God, the Lord. It was clear to them that God
had appeared. Do we have something Look at
our life, look at our hearts and souls this morning before
the Lord. Do we have something that must have come from God? Like this fire could have come
from no other and it certainly didn't come from Baal. Do we
have something that must have come from God? That is something
we could never have done for ourselves. We know where we were and we
know the way we were walking, we know the things that did interest
us and our priorities in our life and something's changed,
something's happened that we couldn't have done. Can you think
of an occasion when you had an answer to your prayer? Maybe
it was a big thing, maybe it was a small and a simple thing,
but there was an answer. You received a response. to your prayer. Maybe I could
think of occasions when we pray and if we're really honest we
don't hardly believe that God will answer. We don't really
believe that God is there and that God will answer. And then
at times we have a great shock and surprise because there's
an answer. There it is. And it cannot have
come any other way. You know there is an absolutely
direct link between the prayer you prayed and the outcome, the
answer. It must have been God. But more
than just an outward thing perhaps in our lives, do you have something
in your heart, something in your soul that must have been God's
work? Has He opened your eyes to see
things you never saw before? Has He changed and softened your
hearts to direct you to things that you never found at all appealing
or interesting before? Has He turned you so that things
you once loved, now you see their emptiness and sinfulness in them?
Has the Word of God become alive and living to you when once it
was a dead, uninteresting and boring book? the people of God
become attractive, as those who have a similar way of thinking
and similar priorities in their life, that you have now, that
once you had no interest in, has something changed that you
never did, and in fact perhaps you never even desired? That's
the work of the Holy Spirit, to bring them to say, the Lord,
He is the God, He has brought the fire down, He has done it. Do we have that evidence, a change
in us? Fourthly, the evidence or the
response to this fire was that the people turned away from their
idol. Now, I don't think this was necessarily
in the history a long-term settlement. But at least for this moment
in time we can say that they confess that the Lord is God.
And Elijah took the prophets of Baal to the brook Kishon and
slew them there. They were done away with. Those
who preached and propagated this false way were done away with. The idols were seen to be nothing
but idols. So let us look at our lives and
see. Have we now come to a point that we desire to be rid of idols? We'll always find we have idols.
We'll always find that there are things that get in the way
of our worship of God. There are things that our flesh
goes after and enjoys. We will always have our idols,
but do we desire to be rid of them? And when we see them, though
it may be painful, do we labour and work and pray that we might
be rid of them? Do we see certain things as obstacles? Perhaps once we enjoyed them,
once we indulged them, once we stayed worshipping, as it were,
these things, but do we now see them actually as obstacles to
living a healthy spiritual life? Because that's what comes first
to us. It's become an idol. We often fail in taking our idols
down, but would we? If we could, would we put Jesus
first? Would we, as it were, take the
prophets of Baal and slay them at the brook and say the Lord
is God? Is that what we would do if only
we had more determination and strength to do it? That surely
is the work of the Holy Spirit to give us those desires and
concerns. The fire has fallen. Is that the evidences that we
have? Christ has become precious. All of the rubbish and things
around us we desire to be burnt up. We acknowledge that it's
God's work, for only He could have done it. and we desire to
tear down those idols which bring us away and hinder a healthy
spiritual life. The clear thing is in this account
that all that happened was entirely and utterly God's work, wasn't
it? It was in response to Elijah's prayer, but it was all God's
work. And it was all an act of grace. He didn't have to do it.
He didn't have to respond at all. But in His grace and mercy
to Israel, He did. And it was His almighty work
that did it. And let us remember this. The
work of the Holy Spirit is entirely an act of wonderful grace. It's undeserved. It's unearned. Yes, we can pray for it. Yes,
we can plead for it. But the blessing of the Spirit
in our souls and in the souls of others is entirely an act
of sovereign, irresistible grace. Praise God for that. Praise God
that when we first knew His work, He didn't let go of us. He didn't
leave us. But His grace had fixed upon
us and would continue that work. It was irresistible. And He would
and He must save us. By grace you are saved, we're
told, through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of
God. He held on to us and He would
not. Many of you will know the children's
story of Ferdinand. We were listening to him at home
this morning. And in the story, for those of you who don't know,
it's about a train. It's a picture, it's an allegory
of the things of God, of salvation. And there's this character, Ferdinand
the train, a picture of us as mankind. And he does wrong, he
falls off a cliff, he's tempted to fall down and he disobeys
the person who made him. And he goes off the cliff, a
picture of course of sin. And there's a chapter where he
sees a hook coming down. And the hook comes down and fastens
upon him. Now he's at the bottom of the
cliff. A train cannot go anywhere on the beach. It needs rails.
And he's stuck there. He can't do anything because
of what he did. And this hook comes down from
a greater engine on the cliff top. And it hooks onto him. And it says that he could do
nothing. He just was pulled up by the
hook that never let go. that held on to him and hauled
him to the top. And when he got to the top, he
realized he couldn't move anywhere. He realized he couldn't move
because his coal and his water had fallen out while he was being
hauled up. He couldn't move. He had no energy. He had no life
in one sense. But he was moving. And he was
moving because the hook was still attached to him and pulling him
along. God's grace didn't let go. It hauled us up, hauled us up,
and then held onto us as we went on. The work of the Spirit is
that sovereign, irresistible, glorious grace. Finally, Let me just note one
more thing. And that is that the work of
the Holy Spirit is a tested work. It's a tried work. Because when
we come to the end of this chapter, or rather the beginning of the
next chapter, Elijah is challenged by Jezebel and told that she
will kill him like he killed the prophets. And within days
of the events on Mount Carmel he is fleeing for his life and
he is fleeing into the wilderness to the Mount Horeb. That work, that evidence, that
blessing on Mount Carmel was tested. Where was it now? Where is your God now? Where
is the evidence of his fire now? Where is the turning to the Lord
now, Elijah? You are only left, or so you
feel to be. Is it as if Carmel never happened?
And you see, we might at times think, I know, I knew the Lord
blessing once, and I know that he worked in me once, but it
seems to have all gone. Now I feel threatened. Now I
feel alone. Now I feel weak. Now I wonder
where God is. It's being tested. But Elijah comes to Mount Horeb.
And the Lord appears to him. And we're told that he saw the
wind, the fire, the earthquake. And the Lord wasn't in any of
these things, but then there was a still, small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard
it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood
in the entering in of the cave. The Lord was in the still, small
voice. The point I'm trying to make
is this. The Holy Spirit was working in the fire on Mount
Carmel as well as in the still, small voice on Mount Horeb. And at times we may forget or
feel distant from the blessings we've once received, and it may
feel tested and tried, but believe me, the Holy Spirit does not
leave His people, and He does return, and He does refresh. It may not be in the same dramatic
way as Mount Carmel, and it may not be in the same powerful way
as perhaps we knew when we were first converted, but there may
be another way, a still small voice that, as it were, prompts
us and melts us again under the wonderful truth of the blessing
of the presence of God. He prompts us, and we melt in
remembrance of what he's done for us, so that it will be tested,
but it will not be abandoned. Well then, this is of course
a blessing that we must and we should desire, and we should
pray for, and we should take and encourage us to take this
prayer, to pray for ourselves and to pray for others, and believe
that the Lord does answer, and he does respond, like he did
for Elijah. And he goes on to respond today.
Pray with Isaiah, O that thou wouldest rend the heavens and
come down. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and
of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel.
That I am thy servant, 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. that thou hast turned their hearts
back again.