James chapter 5, I want to begin
there. Then I want to also go to the
Book of First Kings. So if you want to get a placeholder
in the Book of First Kings while you're looking at James. I want
to bring a message today on the sacrifice and the prayer, or
the prayer and the sacrifice of Elijah. the prayer and the sacrifice
of Elijah. And so I want to begin here in
the book of James because James mentions Elijah and it's surprising
what is said there about him. It's not inconsistent, but it's
surprising when it's brought to our attention. In James chapter
five and in verse 13, it begins this way. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. What an instruction that is,
isn't it? I have spent a few days now with my children and
their children and their little children, all the way from six
months to a few years, six or seven years old. And the one
thing that you see, happen whenever parents are with young children
is they're constantly correcting them and instructing them. It's
just a never-ending stream of know this and do that and so
on. Here the Lord of all, our Father,
by his will of adoption and his grace in Jesus Christ, tells
his people, is there any among you who are afflicted, let him
pray. He's telling us what to say and how to ask, isn't he? What we're to do when we're troubled.
He then goes on, is any merry? Let him sing songs. I really
miss not being able to sing. I start singing. My mother sang
all the time when we were kids, and maybe I got that from her,
but I like to sing all the time. And I really miss every time
I start singing, oh, I got to stop singing or I won't be able
to talk soon. sing quietly, but then I said, that doesn't do
any good. But I like to sing, not because I sing well, but
I just like to sing. Let him sing psalms, and I know
that you do too. Is any sick among you? Let him
call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now that's something they
did back then to anoint with oil. There were people who had
a special gift who could heal and oil was one of those things
that God instructed them to anoint with. The gift of healing that
God gave to the early church is no longer present because
the scriptures have been fully given. The apostles and the gifts
of the apostles are no longer given by God in his wisdom and
in his decree, but he has given us something else, which is the
fulfillment of all of that. And what is that? Brad just read
it. It's the preaching of Christ
and him crucified. He goes on, though, let him call
for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. Now,
the elders of the church are those who are appointed according
to God's providence, to oversee, to watch for the church. These
are the men who are older who watch over the flock of God. And so their prayers and their
attention to the needs of the church have been developed over
time. And so we're to take advantage
of that grace that God has given them by going and asking them
for their prayers, especially when that sickness is a sickness
that may be unto death. And he says in the prayer, faith
shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he
have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Notice how God
always emphasizes the importance of the forgiveness of sins, our
salvation. This is what we, when people
ask me to pray for them, I know they have immediate needs and
obvious needs, but I'm more concerned that they receive grace from
God to look to Christ than anything. And we're gonna see how that
works out in the case of Elijah. So call for the people of the
church to pray for us. And if we have committed sins,
they will be forgiven. Confess your faults one to another
and pray one for another that you may be healed. If you've
committed a sin against your brother, tell them. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now, here's
where I want to focus. The effectual, that means something
that gets accomplished, something that really happens. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. A righteous
man. Now we normally think of a righteous,
there's only one righteous, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet,
here we see something reiterated that's true also. All of Christ's
people are righteous by his righteousness. so that every believer is righteous. And now he's talking about believers
praying for other believers. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. This is amazing that God would,
in his wisdom and in his grace, see fit that he would answer
prayer of his people for his people. They're counted righteous
in Christ, God hears them for Christ's sake, and God answers
their prayer. And then he gives the example.
Elijah, or Elias as it says here in the New Testament, Elijah
was a man subject to like passions as we are. We think, well, our
prayers can't be any value or heard because we're such sinful
people. Elijah also was a man subject
to like passions as we are. Now, he was subject to them.
That means that he opposed them and yet was afflicted by them.
He was constantly troubled with them. I wanted to be free from
them and burdened by them, and so this constant being subject
to them, wanting to be free from them, makes him like us, doesn't
it? Like the Apostle Paul, who said,
when I would do good, evil is present with me. And so this
was the case of Elijah, and now James, the Apostle James is saying,
consider Elijah, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. Let me take Elijah as an example. He was a man subject to like
passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. And it rained not on the earth
by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again,
and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
So there God answered. He heard the prayer of a man.
That's surprising to us, isn't it? that God in heaven, who needs
nothing from his creature, or all of creation, who is independent
of everything that he's created, it all came from him, and we
give him nothing that's not already his. He's Lord of heaven and
earth, and he's not worshiped with men's hands. He doesn't
need anything. That's what Paul told those at
Mars Hill in Athens in Acts 17. and yet he hears the prayers
of his people because he's pleased to stoop in condescending grace
to his children and hear them as his children. And so we see
this in our own interaction with our little babies and our children. When they cry, we hear them,
don't we? And how much more does God hear his own? He gives us
this assurance throughout in 1 Peter 5, he says, casting all of your cares upon him, for he
careth for you." The basis of our casting of our cares upon
him, he's able to bear them, and he cares for us. We leave
them. We cast them upon him. All of
our cares, whatever they may be, and how much care do you
have over your own lack of trusting, lack of prayer, lack of considering
the great things God has done for us in Christ. Those things
are troubling to us, aren't they? But I want to consider here Elijah's
prayer. He first prayed that God would
not send rain for three years and six months. That's a long
time to be without water. We've had a drought in California
in the past and it has caused a lot of problems. But to be
completely without rain, that's a serious drought, isn't it?
The crops don't grow, the animals die because of lack of food,
people die because of famine. You can't find anything to eat.
Elijah is the one who prayed that God would not send rain.
He was God's prophet. He would probably be right in
the center of the bullseye of the least favorite, most notorious
man in all of Israel. We're suffering because he prayed
to God against us. for three years and six months.
I don't see even how they could survive it. But look back at
the book of First Kings and we'll take a look at this account because
we're gonna learn a lot of things that we already know from the
Old Testament about God's grace here. Now, in this account, what
we have is we have a contest, if it were, set up by God First
of all, we have to understand that what God did here through
Elijah, it was of God. God moved him to do it. He acted
as God's servant in this. He didn't do this out of his
own idea, his own head, his own goodness, or anything of his
own will. God told him what to do. God
put it in his heart. God instructed him in this. God
moved him to do it. So he acted as God's servant. He says at one point in this
scripture that he stood in the presence of God. He was God's
servant. He was God's prophet. And as
a prophet, he took God's words given by God to him to give to
God's people. That was his job. If he deviated
from what God said, he was not a servant of God. If he spoke
what wasn't true, he was a false prophet. But he wasn't a false
prophet. He was a true servant of the
Lord. And so we read about him here in the book of First Kings.
In chapter 17, at the beginning of the chapter, in chapter 17,
it says, and Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of
Gilead, said to Ahab, This is Ahab now, he's the king of the
10 tribes of Israel. And a mere mention of Ahab's
name makes us recall to mind who this king was, what his character
was. First of all, he was about the
fourth or fifth king since Solomon had died, and there was a king
named Jeroboam who was perverse. more than any other king of Israel. And he set the standard, if you
will, for evil that he did, and he made Israel to sin. And so
Ahab descended from Jeroboam. And so we learned that Elijah
was sent by God in a time of terrible, terrible spiritual
condition. In fact, in chapter 16, if you
look back up, it says, that in verse 29, in the 30th and 8th
year of Asa, king of Judah, began Ahab, the son of Amorai, to reign
over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Amorai,
reigned over Israel in Samaria 20 and two years. And Ahab, the
son of Amorai, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that
were before him. So this tells you what Israel's
condition was. Notice he goes on. He says in
verse 31, and 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
Ahab took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of
the Sidonians, and went and served Baal. and worshiped 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." Okay, so here you
can see the nature of the king, a wicked man. And his wife was
more wicked than he was. That's surprising that God would
send his prophet at this time. You would think he would send
a prophet to his people when they were doing better. But no,
he chose the lowest point in their history to send Elijah. And that shows us the strength
that God gave to this man, Elijah. That he would have the temerity,
the boldness to speak God's word without compromise, in the time
when Israel and their king were in their worst spiritual condition. And so he starts chapter 17,
Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead,
said to Ahab, here he pronounces it, as the Lord God of Israel
liveth before whom I stand, I'm his servant. He sends me, he
calls me, he tells me, he sends me out. before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain, not even dew, these years, but
according to my word. Now, he just painted a target
on his chest, didn't he? The word of the Lord came to
him, saying to Elijah, after he told Ahab this, get thee hence,
and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Kirith,
that is before Jordan, and it shall be that thou shalt drink
of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For
he went and dwelt by the brook Kirith, that is, before Jordan.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and
bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. So
he ate and he drank by God's direct provision without any
intermediary, but the ravens brought him food, and he drank
out of this brook. Verse 7 of chapter 17, it came
to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there
was no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came
to him saying, arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth
to Zidon. Now Zidon, if you look back,
where was Jezebel from? The Zidonians. This was a Gentile
nation, a really bad, idolatrous Gentile nation. So he went to
Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and he dwelt there, and behold,
I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. Here's
God's prophet, the greatest prophet in all of the Old Testament history,
being sustained by birds and a widow woman. He's on God's mission. He doesn't
have a purse. He doesn't have money to buy.
There would be nothing to buy if he had money to buy. God is
directly supporting him. Verse 10, so he arose and went
to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, the widow woman was there, gathering of
sticks, and he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee,
a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going
to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee,
a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord thy
God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel
and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two
sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we
may eat it and die. That's how bad the famine was.
We just have one little bit left, and you're asking me to bring
you food. And Elijah said to her, fear
not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first, and bring it to me, and after make for thee and for
thy son. This is instruction for us, isn't
it? Always take care first of the gospel in your life, first. For thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the
cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sends rain
upon the earth. So her food would not run out
until God sent rain. And she went and did according
to the saying of Elijah. She believed God's word sent
by God's prophet. And she and he and her house
did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did
the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which
he spake by Elijah. And it came to pass after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell
sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath
left in him. So this widow woman's son died.
And she said to Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou
man of God? Art thou come to me to call my
sin to remembrance and to slay my son? This was a dark storm
from God, wasn't it? In the life of this widow woman,
she was tempted by her unbelief to accuse God of being merciless
and unjust and unfair. She was tempted by that. Trouble
can bring our sin to remembrance, can't it? But God's will is the best for
us in his infinite wisdom. He always does for his people
what is best. He always brings them to himself
no matter what the trouble. And notice this. And she said to Elijah, what
have I done with thee? O thou man of God, art thou come
to me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? Have you
come here to bring upon me what my sins deserve? And he said
to her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom,
and he carried him up into the loft where he abode. And he laid
him down on his own bed, and he cried to the Lord, and he
said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourn? by slaying her son. Notice how
this man, counted righteous in Christ, fervently prays to the
Lord for this widow's son. And he just pours out his heart,
have you sent the evil of killing this woman's son? And he stretched
himself upon the child three times. And he cried to the Lord,
and he said, O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's
soul come into him again. Notice his fervent and earnest
prayer. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. And the soul
of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took
the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house
and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, see, thy son
liveth. And the woman said to Elijah,
now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the
word of the Lord is in thy mouth in truth, and that is truth. Isn't it amazing? Such a obvious
evidence that Elijah spoke from God, that he raised this boy
from the dead. In chapter 18, now listen. And
it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came
to Elijah in the third year, saying, go show thyself to Ahab,
and I will send rain upon the earth. So God told Elijah, first
of all, that there would be no rain. Elijah prayed that there
would be no rain according to James chapter five. God himself,
notice, God himself composed the prayer that Elijah would
pray, like a hymn writer composes a hymn. God composed that prayer. And God, because he gave the
prayer, it was obviously his will to fulfill it, and he put
it in Elijah's heart to pray it, and gave him grace to pray
it fervently with an earnestness that he had to have it. And this
is the way God works in the lives of his people. He puts His will
in their hearts to pray to Him again. And I was, because of
our grandchildren being with us, I see this. Little children
have to be taught everything. They have to be told how to talk.
We had our eight month old with us yesterday. She couldn't utter
a word, but she was trying. And mom and dad and the grandparents
and everybody is, saying things like mama and papa and things
like that, trying to get them to articulate a word. And then
later, they would teach them to ask for things. A two-year-old
would demand something. No, you have to ask for it. So
that the children are teaching the children where their help
comes from and how to approach their parents and expect from
them because they are their children. And doesn't our father do this
for his babes? Of course he does. And so God
composes the prayers of his people, puts it in their heart to pray
his will by his wisdom, and then he moves his spirit to make intercession
for them according to his will. And the Lord Jesus Christ on
the right hand of God knows the mind of the spirit and he himself
makes intercession for them according to the will of God. This is God's
doing. All of this work of Elijah, the
message he sent, the word that he was given to speak, the prayers
he was given to pray, how he was to pray. You would think
that because he was the greatest prophet, he would just sort of
expect things to happen and not have to pray for them, and they
would just happen because it was God's will. But God works
through prayer, doesn't he? So we're going to see him praying
here over and over. He tells Ahab, it's not going
to rain except by my word. He himself prayed that according
to God's will. And now he prays for the widow
woman, he tells her what to do, he raises her son from death
by praying to God. And here he says to Ahab, he
says, God says, go show yourself to Ahab, I will send rain. And
Elijah went to show himself to Ahab, and there was a sore famine
in Samaria. Samaria is the capital of the
ten tribes that Ahab had created this city for himself to reign
in, in his wicked way. And so now, why would Elijah
pray to God to withhold rain and dew for three and a half
years? Why? Well, we're gonna find out why.
Because it took a long time of famine in order to set up the
stage then for what God would do in order to turn his people
to himself again. Look at this. In verse 3, after
God had told Elijah to go back to Ahab and tell him that he's
going to send rain, we find what Ahab is doing in verse 3, and
Ahab called Obadiah. Obadiah was the governor of Ahab's
house. Now, Obadiah feared the Lord
greatly. Ahab, the most wicked king, Of
all the kings before him, Obadiah, his governor, greatly feared
the Lord. He was a believer. Isn't that
a mercy? In the very household of the
worst king was a man chosen by God, given grace to believe Christ
and to follow him. Verse four, for it was so when
Jezebel, Ahab's wife, this wicked woman, cut off the prophets of
the Lord, meaning she killed them, that Obadiah took 100 prophets
and hid them by 50 in a cave and fed them with bread and water.
So the governor of this wicked king secretly hid 100 prophets
of the Lord in a cave, 50 in one, 50 in another. Verse 5,
and Ahab said to Obadiah, go into the land unto all fountains
of water and unto all brooks. Peradventure we may find grass
to save the horses and mules alive that we lose not all the
beasts. So they divided the land between
them to pass throughout it. And Ahab went one way by himself
and Obadiah went another way by himself. And as Obadiah was
in the way, behold, Elijah met him. And he knew him, and fell
on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? Obadiah
is looking for water and grass for the mules by the commandment
of the king, and he bumps into Elijah. Are you that my lord
Elijah? because the king had been looking
for him. Why? Why would the king be looking
for Elijah? He's the one who said it wouldn't rain and it
hadn't rained. It was all, he was the cause. Ahab thought he
was the cause of all this trouble. But it wasn't Elijah's fault.
It was Ahab's fault. So Obadiah finds Elijah and says
this to him, verse eight, and he answered him, Elijah answered
him, I am, and go tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And Obadiah
said, what have I sinned that thou wouldst deliver thy servant
into the hand of Ahab to slay me? As the Lord thy God liveth,
there's no nation or kingdom whither my Lord hath not sent
to seek thee. And when they said he is not
there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation that they
found thee not. So Ahab had been sending messengers
to all the nations around him looking for this number one criminal,
Elijah. The man who alone spoke God's
word was the king's worst enemy. And he had emptied the earth,
he thought, to find him. And he made them swear that they
did not know where he was. And now Obadiah is saying, you're
telling me to go tell Ahab I know where you are? You know what's
going to happen? He's going to kill me. Verse
11. And now thou sayest, Go tell thy Lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
It shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that
the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee, whither I know not.
And so when I come to tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall
slay me. But I, thy servant, fear the
Lord from my youth. Was it not told, my Lord, what
I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred
men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave and fed them
with bread and water? And now they'll say as, Go, tell
thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here, he shall slay me. And Elijah
said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand. Notice his
place. He wants everyone to know, I'm
doing what I'm doing because God sent me to do it and told
me to say it. I will surely show myself to
him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab
went to meet Elijah. And it came to pass when Ahab
saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, Art thou he that troubleth
Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled
Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that you have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. Now, Baal was an idol. Baal was not a true god. There is only one true god. What
is an idol? What is an idol? An idol is some
imagined God that men make. It's called the work of men's
hands in Psalm 115. And the psalmist in Psalm 115
says, they that make them, make these gods, these idols, are
like them. And so is everyone that trusteth
in them. So an idol is a man-imagined
God who is like what the man imagined, he does what the man
wants him to do, and he pleases men. He's a puppet. But men trust their idols to
give them things like rain and fruitful fields. So now we can
see why Elijah prayed that there would be no rain for three years
and six months. Because he would shut off what
the people were trusting their idols to provide so that he could
set up their idols as being no God and mock them and then destroy
those who taught that these idols were gods and cause the people
to trust in them. So Elijah's prayer to God to
withhold rain and dew was a prayer of mercy, wasn't it? because
he's going to wean the people from their idolatry. And this
is what the drama is building up to here. Ahab is accusing
Elijah of all the trouble because he only sees, he sees like a
natural man. A natural man can't truly assess
himself. He blames everyone for his problems,
especially the man of God. Ahab was so hardened, he followed
his great-great-grandfather Jeroboam, and Jeroboam made Israel to sin.
And the way he made them to sin, now get this, this is back in
1 Kings chapter 12. What he did was when God divided
the nation into ten tribes with Jeroboam, and held only one tribe
with Rehoboam, who was Solomon's son. Jeroboam thought, hmm, if
I allow the people to go up to Jerusalem to worship, then their
hearts will be turned back to the Lord. So what I'll do is
I'll tell them, you don't need to go to Jerusalem to worship
God. You can worship him here. And
I'll set up two idols, one in Bethel and one in another place.
And I'll choose priests from among the worst of the people
and the people will learn to serve these idols. And so the
sin of Jeroboam, which was called out by God over and over in the
kings of Israel was that he changed the place of worship. He told
the people, you don't have to go so far. It's too much trouble. The hardship of getting to where
the gospel is preached is not worth it. You don't need to be
there, you see. And so he turned the hearts of
the people to serve idols. And an idol is what? It's the
imagined gods of men and made by their hands. It's the work
of men's hands. And so this was Ahab. He dedicated himself to serve
Baal, Baalim as it's called here, which is the plural for Baal.
And it just means many gods, men trust that they've made and
they trust them because they respond to their wants according
to their own heart's desire. They're just like them, just
like men. Men cannot tolerate the true
and living God. In Romans 1, it says, we didn't
like to retain God in our knowledge naturally, and so we rejected
him. We suppress the knowledge of the truth he shows to us,
and we choose to serve our own imaginations that are vain. That's
called idols. And so we need to be weaned from
them. How is this going to happen? This is the account here. And
so it says, And so Ahab, verse 20, Ahab sent to all the children
of Israel, and he gathered, I'm sorry, I skipped over it. He
says in verse 18, no, you troubled Israel, thou and thy father's
house, and that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord,
and has followed Balaam. Verse 19, now therefore, Elijah
is telling Ahab what to do. Now therefore send and gather
to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, 450,
and the prophets of the groves, 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. You gather all of your prophets
together. And so Ahab sent unto all the
children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount
Carmel. And 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. People were so confused. It's like they had been bewitched
by these idol worshipers that when Elijah told them the truth,
they didn't know what to say. It's very simple. If Baal is
God, serve him. But if the Lord is God, serve
him. Now I just read an article by
a Catholic bishop who wrote the graduation address to a group
of men and women who graduated from a very conservative college
in the United States just this year. And he used this text of
scripture to bring his point home that you're either going,
this is a Catholic bishop now who doesn't know God. He didn't
say that, of course, but he doesn't because of the article I read
proved that he doesn't. Because he used this article
to address these graduates, and he exhorted them that they needed
to lay aside all attempts to corrupt the legal system. and
even endure hardship themselves in the name of following Christ.
That it was really the greatest decision they had to face in
life was whether they were going to serve the Lord or serve another
idol. And he used this text of Scripture.
But what he failed to mention was what is taught in this text
of Scripture, that these people were idol worshippers, and only
God could turn them from their idolatry. And he's going to tell
us how he does that. Notice, Elijah commands the king,
it's not gonna rain except by my word. So he sends the king
on this mission, you gather together all the false prophets in the
land, the prophets of Baal, those who eat at Jezebel's table and
bring them to Mount Carmel. He said, and then Elijah in verse
22, when the people didn't answer him a word, He says, if God is
God, if the Lord our God is God, then serve him otherwise. If
Baal is God, serve him. He said to the people, I, even
I only, remain a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are
450 men. Let them therefore give us two
bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and
cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under
it. And I will dress the other bullock,
and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it. And call ye on
the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord.
And the God that answers by fire, let him be God. And all the people
answered and said, it is well spoken. We agree. Good, this
is gonna be good. Verse 25, and Elijah said to
the prophets of Baal, choose you one bullet for yourselves
and dress it first, for you 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, and they dressed it, and 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. So what did they do? Well, since
they were their own making, idols of their own making, They had
to do everything for their God. They had feet, but they couldn't
walk. Hands, they had, but they couldn't
handle. They had eyes, they couldn't see. Mouths, but they couldn't
speak. Throats, but they couldn't do anything. So they had to carry
them and set them up. And when they didn't answer,
they were desperate. They had to do everything to
try to work up something out of their false religion. And
this is exactly what happens today. Nothing's happening. Let's make it happen. We can't
wait for God to do something. God's not doing anything. I don't
have a word from God, so let me give you one of my own. And
so no one answered. So what did they do? They got
desperate. They leaped upon the altar, which
was made. And it came to pass at noon that
Elijah mocked them This was the whole point here. He's going
to mock them, and he's going to destroy them. And he said,
cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is talking, can't hear
you, he's busy with someone else, or he is pursuing, he's got more
important business than yours, or he is in a journey, or perventure,
he's tired and took a nap, he's sleeping. And he has to be awakened. The God of Israel never sleeps
or slumbers. But the idol gods are always
asleep. They can't hear. And so they
cried aloud. They were mocked. They redoubled
their efforts. And this is what man does, doesn't
he? He'll never admit defeat. And so they cut themselves after
their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed
out upon them. They cut themselves all up. And
it came to pass when midday was passed, now it's long into the
afternoon, 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. And Elijah said to all the people,
basically, all right, they've had their time, come near to
me. He hadn't spoken at this point,
except mocking their idols. Notice here. Elijah is by himself. All he has is God's Word. And he's standing with 450 prophets
of Baal, the king and the queen, and all of her 400 people, men
who take from her table. If he fails here, what's going
to happen to him? He's going to be gobbled up,
isn't he? And they're going to destroy him and tear him to pieces,
won't they? But he boldly says this, come
here to me. And all the people came near
to him because he believed in his heart and he confessed with
his lips and he prayed according to the faith God had given him.
He repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. He
was God's man sent by God to God's people to do what? To turn
their hearts again. And what does God have him do?
He repairs the altar. He holds forth the place of sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
divine nature, is the altar on which He, in His human nature,
sacrificed Himself for the sins of His people. He holds forth
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, like Brad just read
from 1 Corinthians 1. He determined, the apostle said,
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so he said, you come near.
And he repaired the altar that was broken down. And then Elijah
took 12 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. What is he doing here? The altar
is built up. for sacrifice to God, for who? For Israel. This is a definite,
a particular atonement. This is an atonement that actually
accomplished an eternal redemption, pictured in the stone set up
by Elijah and the altar that he made there. The Lord Jesus
Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. He sacrificed himself
to God and put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself.
So Elijah, the prophet of God, he takes these 12 stones according
to the number of God's people, Israel, and he builds the altar.
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 he laid him on the wood, and
he said, fill four barrels with water and pour it on the burnt
sacrifice and on the wood. He took his time, he did everything
according to God's word, and then he said, let's make sure
that there's no hypocrisy here. No one can fudge this. God himself
required, God himself provided, God himself is going to bring
the judgment, and God himself is going to receive the sacrifice. And he said, do it the second
time. So they poured these four barrels of water on the second
time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it the
third time. 12 barrels filling the trench. They did it the third
time. And the water ran about the altar. And he filled the trench also
with water. There's water everywhere here.
How can that even burn? And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
came near and he said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
the God of the covenant, the God of the promise, all promises
are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel, the sovereign God in the nation of his people. 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. 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. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. You see
this? What happened when God would
turn the hearts of his people? He sent a man. He gave the man
a message. He told the man what to do to
offer the sacrifice. And he told him to tell the people,
do not halt between two opinions. This man would not flinch. He had no compromise. He held
forth God's word. He preached Christ and him crucified. And this is the evidence that
God sent a man. He preaches Christ and him crucified. This is the evidence that he
sent him to his people. He sent him to them to preach
Christ. And this is the evidence that
they are his people, that they would be turned to him again.
God has to turn our hearts. This is not the greatest decision
of your life that you can make. We are idolaters by nature. God
has to turn us. Psalm 80 says over and over,
turn us again, Lord God of hosts. And how does he do that? How
does he remove from us this halting between two opinions? Because
we're prone to do that. This is God's word. This is the
Bible. This is what God said. There's
no error in it. The entire book is the only word
of God we have. This is the truth of God. God
created the world by Jesus Christ. It did not create itself, and
he created it for his purpose, for his glory. He himself came
into the world and saved his people from their sins. God did
this. If God didn't speak these words,
then these are just the words of men. If God didn't create
the world by Jesus Christ, then something else happened. It can't
be two ways. There's not a mixture of truth
and error. The word of God is pure. Christ
either saved his people or he didn't save them. Salvation is
either by our will or it's by God's will. We're saved because
God wants to save us or we're saved because we do it. It's
either by grace alone or it's by works all together. There's
no compromise with the gospel. Christ either gets all the glory
and we get none or we get it all and he gets none. He either
died and saved us or he died for nothing. So these things
are essential. The gospel is either all-important
or it has no importance. And we need to be brought back
to the essentials of Christ and Him crucified daily, weekly,
all of our life, because we so easily forget. We lose the sense
of our need. God had to send a famine of water
and bread. And he did that by his servant,
and that grace of God turned their hearts to him, and he did
this, and he fulfilled this for us, his people. And I could go
on and on about this, but I have to stop now because we're beyond
our time. Thank God for his mercy that
he sent a man who prayed, God heard him, he heard him for his
people, He held up the sacrifice so the people's hearts would
be turned to Him again. May God give us this grace in
our lives, in each one of us here, that God would hold forth
Christ to us in the gospel so that we would not be turned from
Him. He would continually bring us back to Himself in our heart. We would be brought on our faces
before Him. And this would be by his grace. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your goodness to us. Thank you that you do turn us
who are sinners in ourselves and have no strength to turn
ourselves. And you do so by the preaching of Christ. Help us,
Lord, to be humbled. Help us to see our great need.
Help us to realize you've met our need in your son. Help us
to know that had you not spoken to us, we would remain in our
sins. Help us to know that if you do
not continue to speak, but withhold your word as in a drought, we
cannot live. We will starve in famine. We
pray as that woman was fed by you, that you would feed us.
that you would send your message to us of Christ and him crucified,
our heavenly prophet, our high priest, and our king. And help
us to hear him in our heart, Lord. Turn us again. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.