If you would open your Bibles
back to 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 18, 1 Kings chapter 18. Our brother read us this story
of Elijah and the two sacrifices with no fire. And this morning
I want to take a few minutes and I want to look at the difference
between these two sacrifices and what made one sacrifice accepted
and one not. In verse 21 of 1 Kings 18, It says, and Elijah came unto
all the people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions,
between two thoughts? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Let's set the scene with what's
happening here. Elijah has called all the people
together. It says all the people of Israel,
gather them all together. And they've all gathered into
this valley. And Elijah and the prophets of
Baal are in the bottom of the valley and all the people, the
thousands of people, it says all the people of Israel are
gathered around on the hills and the mountains sitting there
watching what's gonna happen. And Elijah, his purpose here
is to establish who is God. At this point, it seems, it says
these people have two opinions. They can't make up their mind.
They can't fully be devoted to one of these two things. They're
not sure who is God, which God, little g, is God, capital G. And so in his wisdom, the Lord
gives Elijah an experiment for them. Now all of you children
as you go into school, you'll start doing experiments in science
class. And the premise of an experiment
is you are trying to prove something or disprove something. So the
way you do that is you take two things or two situations and
you make them exactly the same. Everything about them are the
exact same and you have one thing that's different. So if the result
of the two things is different, you know why. You know the one
thing that was the difference. So in this example, Elijah says,
all the prophets of Baal come, and you will take a sacrifice,
and I'll take a sacrifice, and we'll do everything the same,
and we'll put them there, and you will ask your God, and I
will ask my God, and we'll see which of them answer by fire.
And that's who will be God. Now, the answer to this, all
the people at the end of verse 24, and all the people answered
and said, it is well spoken, or the word is good. What they're
saying here is they say, that sounds fair. That sounds like
a good way to figure this out. We'll see if anything is different. We'll see if the God of Baal
or Balaam is any different than the God of Israel. It's important
to see here who these people are. These are the people of
Israel. These are God's people that we've
read about for all the buildup. The 500 pages in the Bible, before
you get to this, is examples and illustrations of all the
things that the Lord has done for His people, His chosen people. delivering them out of Egypt,
and taking them across the Red Sea, and feeding them with manna
from heaven, and the rock that had water come out of it, and
taking them to the Promised Land, and conquering of Jericho, and
all these things that have happened over all these generations and
generations. This is those people. That's
who they are. They're called the people of
Israel. They're called that because of who their God is. Yet, they're
having a problem making up their minds. I want us all to use this
experiment that we see here, this illustration, this story,
to help us. Now, I look at these people and
I think, how in the world could they not know the difference
between these two gods? But the better question is, how
could these people not know who God is? But that's our question. The way we do things and the
way we act and behave and everything, it could easily be said about
us. And even outwardly, there are moments that you could catch
each of us, myself included, and think, you sure act like
you're not quite sure who God is, or you don't believe on Him.
So we need to see this experiment for ourselves. This is done so
that these people, and it's important that we know how this ends. Remember
what they said at the end of this. The people fell on their
faces and said, the Lord, He is the God. That's what I want
us to say after this, but we need to examine ourselves. We
need to realize this is why the Lord does this. He does this
for his sheep. We need to be shown this same
illustration, this same experiment to make us see the Lord is God. We've got to be brought back
to that place. So let's look first at verse 19 and 20. And something that I'll focus
on here is the difference or the thing that separates these
two sacrifices and what doesn't separate them. Verse 19 says,
Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel under Mount
Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the
groves 400. So Ahab sent unto all the children
of Israel and gathered the prophets together under Mount Carmel.
Everyone came together, all the people, all the ones who worship
that God, all the ones who worship this God, everybody came together.
The first thing we see here is everybody will know the truth. This is not being done in a small
room, in a small building. This is not being hidden. Everyone
at the end of this will know who God is. and maybe he'll reveal it to
us in this flesh, and maybe we see it in judgment, but every
single woman or man will one day see who God is. Look at verse 22. Then said Elijah
unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord,
but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Our numbers, the number of people,
has no bearing on the effect of the sacrifice. In this world,
there are millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people
who believe on false gods. The number of people that believe
has no bearing on the God. The power of God and who God
is, is irrelevant to the people who look at them and all of us.
We don't give God power. The number of people who worship
him has no effect. And I'm sure Elijah, the one
prophet of God, felt how happy he was that that was the case. 450 prophets of Baal, but the
numbers don't matter. Verse 25 says, And Elijah said
unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves,
dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your
gods, but put no fire under it. And they took the bullock which
was given them, they dressed it, called on the name of Baal
from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was
no voice, nor any that answered, and they leaped upon the altar
which was made." The actions have no bearing on
the sacrifice. These prophets of Baal were jumping
up and down, hooping and hollering, doing all kinds of stuff. It
had no bearing on the effect of the sacrifice. The sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not determined. The effectiveness
of it, anything about it has nothing to do with our actions.
These people, whatever they did, it did not make the fire come
down. It did not make the sacrifice effectual. Look in verse 27. Our faith or our devotion has
no effect on the sacrifice. It sure seems that these men
believed. It sure seemed like they thought
that Baal was going to have fire come on that sacrifice. They
thought that was going to happen. Their devotion becomes really
obvious. It says they cut themselves.
They were stabbing themselves with knives and lances. Someone
doesn't do that unless they really want everyone to see how devoted
they are. Now, I don't know how true their faith was, I don't
know their mindset in this, but it doesn't matter because our
faith, our devotion, our actions, our numbers, none of that has
any effect on the sacrifice. We aren't the ones who determine
the outcome of the sacrifice. It says here, the last phrase
there, till the blood gushed out upon them. Our blood has no effect on the
sacrifice. We read in the scriptures all
the time about the blood of the sacrifice and how we need to
be covered in the blood. Our blood, their blood, has no
effect on the sacrifice. It's very specific, it's the
blood of Christ. It's not our blood, okay? It
didn't matter how much these men harmed themselves. It didn't
matter if they killed themselves. That had no bearing. Their blood,
our blood, does not help the sacrifice. It has no role to
play. Our blood can't save ourselves.
If we could save ourselves, we wouldn't need any of this, but
we can't. We need a blood sacrifice, but it's not our blood. Look
at verse 29, and it came to pass when midday was passed and they
prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice
that there was neither voice nor any to answer nor any that
regarded. The amount of time, how long
didn't seem to have an effect on the sacrifice. From the morning
until evening, these men yelled and prayed and hollered and jumped
and danced, hurt themselves, did all of this stuff all day
long, and it had no effect on the sacrifice. They couldn't
do anything. They, I promise you, they were
thinking in their heads by the end of the day, what else can
we do to have fire on this sacrifice? And I think they would have done
anything, anything. And when it comes to our salvation,
so many people in this world think to themselves, what in
the world can I do to save myself? And as we see here, it doesn't
matter what we say, it doesn't matter what we do, it doesn't
matter how long we do it, it doesn't matter how strong we
do it, how devoted we are to it, how much faith we have in
it, nothing that we do has any effect on the sacrifice. Nothing whatsoever. Our pastor
on Wednesday night used the illustration And I was going to use it this
morning, but I'll say it anyway, just in case anyone doesn't know
it. In Mexico, there was this family that worshiped all these
little idols. And they had them on their mantle,
these little figurines, whatever they were made of. And a boy
in the family had heard the gospel. And he tried to tell his family
that that's not God. That's not who it is. The God
of the Bible is a true and living God. And one day while they were
all gone, the boy took a little hammer and smashed all the idols
but one of them. And he put the hammer by that
last one and his dad came in and saw the idols up there and
was just furious and just said, who did this? And the boy pointed
up there and said, that one did it. And the dad turned to him
and said, you and I both know that idol can't do anything. And the boy said, that's what
I've been trying to tell you. These two sacrifices are separated
because one of them is a sacrifice of a holy God, and the other
is a sacrifice of something else. And it doesn't matter if we give
a figure to that something else, if we make something and can
see it, if it's something in our mind, if it's something that
we just can't see at all. It doesn't matter. All of the
sacrifice is worthless if it's not a sacrifice from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look in verse 30. Now, before I read this, I want
us to think for a moment what the scene is like again. So I
told you before that in this valley, these two groups of people,
well, one Elijah by himself and 450 people on the other side.
And there are just thousands of people watching this. Now,
if I think of this just from a human standpoint of an observer,
someone in the crowd sitting on a hill watching this, I don't
know if it was eight hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, but they were
just sitting watching these 450 people do whatever they could
and nothing happened. I'm sure there were people in
the crowd who were watching and waiting. There were some who
would have been exhausted. I have children, and without
a doubt, they'd all been asleep at this point. I would have probably
dozed off. Everything would have just, it's
not going to work, guys. And maybe they were thinking,
this is all worthless. We've seen, no, if this doesn't
work, nothing works. And I don't even, I'm tired of
this. But at the beginning of verse 30, Elijah said unto all
the people, come near unto me. He says, everybody give me your
attention. Watch this. He says, All the
people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the
Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took 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, and he made a trench about the altar, as great as
would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in
order, and 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 the second
time, and they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the
third time, and they did it the third time. And the water ran
round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water.
All the people are watching what Elijah is getting ready to do.
He says, come near, watch this. And they're watching. They've
spent all day watching nothing happen. And now Elijah says,
watch this. And they're ready for fire to
come. The whole thing, the reason they're there is to see if fire
will take over the sacrifice and burn it. So what does Elijah
do? He has them go take huge barrels
of water and start pouring it all over the sacrifice. He did
this because some people, maybe they weren't paying enough attention.
and he poured the water on, and then he poured a second round
of water on it. So all those people who would
have said, you know, this is not gonna happen, this is ridiculous,
maybe they would have paid more attention. And maybe he did it
so at the end of this, when the fire does come, they couldn't
say, well, that was a trick, that was something different.
It was removing all doubt that if fire consumed this sacrifice,
it was from God. It wasn't a trick, it wasn't
something Elijah did. And when we see this, Elijah's
establishing a very important point. We can do nothing to prevent
the sacrifice of God. If you had to pick one thing
to do to that sacrifice to stop it from burning, he did it. And
he did it three times. how thankful we are, there's
nothing we can do to mess up the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the things I spoke earlier,
our actions, our faith, our devotion, all those things, It's great
that they don't affect our sacrifice, but even more importantly than
that, our lack of those things doesn't affect the sacrifice.
Our lack of faith, our lack of devotion, our unbelief, our actions
that go contrary to the gospel, none of those have any effect
on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 36. 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.'" Elijah prayed to God. And when I read this, and I've
always thought of these prophets of Baal, the moment it started
that they were going crazy, cutting themselves and doing all this.
But when we read what they did, It says that they took the bullock
they were given, they dressed it, and they called on the name
of Baal. The prophets of Baal did the
same thing that Elijah did here. They prayed to their God. The
difference is our God hears and answers our prayers. We don't have to do all the things
that the prophets of Baal did because we just have to pray
to our God. It's not that we don't do those
things because we're better, we don't do those things because
we know better. We don't have to do those things because that's
not necessary. Our God hears the prayer of his
sheep. Elijah prayed to him and he answered
it. Once Elijah prayed, and it's
important to see that this prayer is one of Elijah simply asks,
Lord, hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord
God. And that's all the child of God
wants. That's all any man who stands
up and preaches the gospel wants. Lord, I just want you to show
everyone who you are. Don't see me, don't hear my words,
just hear the words from this book of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord answered in verse 38. He said, then the fire of
the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice. Only one of
the two sacrifices was effectual. There is only one sacrifice that
does anything. One sacrifice, the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, is the only sacrifice
necessary, it's the only sacrifice needed, and it is the only effective
sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ, and where
it says here, the fire of the Lord fell. The only place that
an acceptable sacrifice can come from is from above. The Lord
Jesus Christ had to come down to be our sacrifice. We couldn't
do it. This earth is completely full
of sin, as we all are. There had to be someone from
glory. Our God had to come down, be
made a man, and do what we couldn't do. That's why we needed a sacrifice,
and he's the only one who could do it. And just for all the people
watching, it said the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the
burnt sacrifice and the wood and it consumed the stones and
it consumed the dust and licked up the water that was in the
trench. I can't imagine the visual that
happened for these people who had been there all day and saw
nothing. And then Elijah prayed to his
God and said, show them that you're God. And like that, fire
came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. But it also consumed
everything. Fire has no effect on rocks and
things like that. Fire doesn't even exist around
water, yet everything was completely consumed. just as though our
sins, 100%, all of it, all of the sins of His people were consumed
in that one moment when the sacrifice was successful. The Lord Jesus
Christ bore all the sins of His people and took the blame and
the brunt, the fire from heaven, the judgment of God, the wrath
of God on sin was all consumed in a moment in the sacrifice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I imagine the people who saw
this probably were a little scared too. Fire coming from above. I bet there were people who were
close enough that were thinking, I hope this fire doesn't touch
me. I hope this fire doesn't go anywhere. The wrath of God
for His people is consumed all in Him. The child of God does
not have to be afraid of the wrath of God because they're
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are safe, complete, and whole
and perfect in Him. We have His righteousness. And
now look at verse 39. And this is the answer. This
is what the people, this example, this illustration, this experiment,
what it did to them. And this is what it should do
to us when we see this. And when all the people, verse
39, saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord,
He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. I imagine those people kept saying
that phrase. I bet they just kept saying it,
and they kept saying it, and they kept saying it. For a child
of God, when they are shown how foolish they've been, and when
the Lord shows his glory again, it is so humbling, and it's humiliating
in ways, because how in the world could I have ever not kept believing
this? And what we see from this verse
God will always get the glory. No matter what happens, God will
get the glory. These people could think of nothing
to say other than the Lord, He is the God. And one day, everyone,
as that's the first point I made, that everyone will see who He
is. One day, everyone will have the same thought. That's what everyone will see. And look in verse 40. And Elijah
said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them
escape. Finally, we see this. No one
outside of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ will escape.
The wrath of God is holy and it's pure and it will consume
all of those that are not in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we see stories like
this, when we see these examples for us, they are so great to
remind us that we are in the exact same position as these
people. when we leave here and knowing that we're gonna come
back in six hours. And yet in that little timeframe,
we'll find ourselves just like these people. We'll find something
to focus on, something to do, something to put our mind on
and dwell on. And the Lord has to constantly
show us who he is. And we must see that our hope
and everything we have is we must be found in the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ.