1 Kings chapter 18. The book
of 1 Kings chapter 18. Our subject is a meeting at Mount
Carmel. A meeting at Mount Carmel. 1 Kings chapter 18. This man,
Elijah, he made a sudden appearance before King Ahab and his message
to this king was very brief. He said that there wouldn't be
any moisture, no rain, nor dew until such is the time as he
asked God for the water to come back for the rain and the dew
to resume. His name means God is Jehovah. This is a man who, as we shall
see this evening, stands by himself even though there are other servants
of God. We know that The Lord will say
to him later, 7,000 haven't bowed the knee to Baal. But yet, on this occasion, he
stands by himself. And yet, he's not by himself. The Lord is his strength. God said to him in chapter 17,
In fact, I'll just show you this. Look at 17 verse 3. He said,
go hide thyself. 17 verse 3, go hide thyself. And he did. Once God takes his servant away,
there'd be no good news. There'd be no message from God.
There'd be no gospel, there'd be no declaration of salvation
by the right sacrifice. God just took His servant away.
God said, go hide yourself. Well, it starts off in chapter
18. God says, go show thyself. And they have. 18 verse 1, it
came to pass that after many days, about three and a half
years, It says that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in
the third year saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab. God said,
Go, hide yourself. And he did. And now God says,
Go, show yourself. Go, manifest yourself to Ahab. And he did. He did. The first 16 verses of chapter
18 basically have to do with King Ahab and the guy who was
kind of over the household, all the affairs of the king, a man
by the name of Obadiah. He's the governor of his house
and things are so bad in the kingdom, in the capital city
of Samaria. that King Ahab says to Obadiah
not to be confused with the prophet of God, Obadiah, who wrote the
book that bears his name. This is another Obadiah, but
this man fears God. Scripture says he fears God greatly.
He worshipped the Lord. He believed the seed of the woman
was coming. He believed in salvation by grace,
but he's over a King Ahab's household. Things got so bad that King Ahab
said to Obadiah, he said, and evidently he's the only one he
had any confidence in, he said to Obadiah, he said, now we're
going to go out and I'll go one way and you go the other way
in search of water. Things had gotten so bad, nearly
three and a half years of drought. And they desperately needed,
the people of the city desperately needed water. And so they go
out, they divide up. This is the kind of confidence
that the king had in this man Obadiah. And so they divided
and Obadiah, as he was walking, the scripture says in verse 7,
in the way, behold, Elijah met him. And it says that Obadiah knew
him. He recognized him. Best he could
tell it's the same fellow he saw back in 1701 when Elijah
came and told King Ahab there wouldn't be rain until he asked
God for it. He said, are you Elijah? And I'll tell you, Elijah's,
on this occasion, is a man of few words. Because he's basically
got the same message in verses 8, 11, and 14. He answered him, he said, I am.
Go, tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah's here. Well then, Obadiah said,
well, what have I done? You're going to bring death upon
me because everybody's looking for you,
prophet of God. And every messenger that King
Ahab sends out when they come back, they're questioned, did
you find the preacher? Did you find the prophet of God?
And so Obadiah is saying, what have I done? You're going to
bring death on me. Elijah in verse 11, he just repeats
the same message. And now thou sayest to this man,
repeats to Elijah, go tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. It shall come to pass as soon
as I'm gone from thee, the Spirit of God will carry you. I don't
know where you're going to go. The Spirit of God is going to
take you somewhere and I don't know where you're going to go.
And then I go tell Ahab, he can't find you, then he's going to
kill me. 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 He did do that. He fed one
hundred prophets of God. He hid them out when Jezebel
was going to kill them. She did kill a bunch of them
and He took one hundred. He hid them in two caves and
provided them with food and water. And now thou says, go tell thy
Lord. Behold, Elijah's here." Still
the same message. He said, he's going to kill me.
And Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I
stand, I will surely show myself unto him today. So Obadiah went
to meet Ahab and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.
And now we don't hear any more about Obadiah. And now the king and Elijah meet. Verse 17, it came to pass when
Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth
Israel? Why would he think that? Well,
because the rain had been held back for three and a half years. And Elijah said, I haven't troubled
Israel. You have. You have. You and your Father's house,
in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and
thou hast followed Balaam. Balaam is another word for several
gods that these people worshipped. They made images to the gods
of the sun, the moon, the stars, the hosts of heaven. Elijah said, it's not my fault.
It's your fault. And it's your father's fault.
You brought idolatry in. You have forsaken the commandments
of God. What did God say? Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. God said no graven images. Now look around. Look around
all the the kingdom of Israel. Look around throughout all the
palace of the king. Look throughout the city of Samaria. All these idols. All these statues. And look at all the people bringing
sacrifices to them. Offering to these idols, to these
dung-heeled gods. Offering sacrifices to them and
they can't save You've forsaken the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. You've forsaken the God who reigns
on high, the one God, the one God who rules, the God who's
sovereign, the God who's over all, the God who made all things. You've forsaken the God of our
fathers and this is what you're worshipping now, all these gods?
No, it's not my fault these things are happening, King. It's your
fault. And it's your father's fault.
You have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. You followed Balaam. You followed these false gods. Now, therefore, the Lord says
in verse 19, you sinned and gathered to me all of Israel unto Mount
Carmel. I want to see everybody. That
which is going to happen here is going to be done in public. And I want you to bring all the
prophets of Baal, 450, and the prophets of the groves, 400,
which eat at Jezebel's table. They're like the, I told you
those groves, they were like way sides, rest stops, kind of
like we think of them. People who traveled, they could
stop and rest underneath the trees and worship their gods,
worship their idols. And Jezebel had assigned various
chaplains. These are Jezebel's chaplains. And they're assigned to these
various waysides or these rest areas, as it were. They eat at
her table. She provides for them. They're
her hired servants. They're her hired preachers. They do what she tells them to
do. They've got her message. They do her bidding. They go
where she says go and they say what she says to say. They're
Jezebel's preachers. The Lord's servant said, now
get them all together. I want to see everybody. I want
to see all of Israel and I want to see all these preachers. One
man. One man. So Ahab sent unto all
the children of Israel and he gathered the prophets together
unto Mount Carmel. Elijah came unto all the people
and said, now he addresses the people. He says to these people, how
long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. Worship him. But if Baal be God,
follow him. And the people didn't answer
him a word. This man spoke with such authority.
He's fearless. And then Elijah said unto the
people, I, even I only remain a prophet of the Lord. Now there
are other prophets. Obadiah has already said he hid
the prophets of God by fifties. But what he's saying is, I'm
here by myself. I'm here by myself. I only remain
a prophet of the Lord. But Bales profits of 450 men. Let them therefore give us two
bullocks." He said, we're going to have a contest. Let them choose one bullock for
themselves, cut it in pieces, lay it on wood and Don't put
any fire under it and I'll dress the other bullock and lay it
on wood and put no fire under it. And you call upon the name
of your God and I'll call upon the name of the Lord, Jehovah,
the God who saves, the everlasting God, the I Am. And the God that
answers, watch it now, not by water, not by rain, Everybody who went there that
day, you know what they want? They want rain. The land is so
parched. Everybody is thirsty. Everybody
needs water. The gardens have dried up. The
streams have dried up. The people want water, send water. Maybe we'll see a miracle today
and God will send water or Baal will send water. Everybody gathers
together. Elijah says, the God who answers
by fire. And here's something you can
just put this away in your memory. There will be no rain until there's
fire. Until there's fire. Until the
justice of God is satisfied. Until God gets death. Our God is a consuming fire. And that fire must be satisfied
in the destruction of, in the death of, in the consuming of
a suitable sacrifice. So Elijah says, the God that
answers by fire, that's who you're going to worship. It's no use
to worship any other God except the God of fire. Our God is a
consuming fire. That's what the Scripture says.
He is a consuming fire. By fire, that's His judgment. That's His wrath. That's His
justice. That's His righteousness. God
must be just in whatever He does. He's the God of fire. Oh, the
rain will fall upon a parched earth. Salvation will come upon
a parched heart of a sinner who needs the Lord. But not until
fire falls. There's got to be the fire. That's
what this is all about. This is a picture of the satisfaction
of God's justice. He says, get these things together,
but no fire. He said, the God that answers
by fire, that's the one you'll own as
God, that's the one you'll acknowledge as God, that's the one you'll
worship as God. The only God to be worshipped
is a God who does all things in strict accordance with His
justice. That's the only God to worship. And so, the people answered and said,
that's well spoken. That's well spoken. And Elijah
said unto the prophets of Baal, so it's been Elijah's talk with
Obadiah, Elijah's talk with King Ahab. Elijah's talk with the
people of Israel. And now it's Elijah and the false
preachers. Here are the servants of Satan.
And Elijah says to the prophets of Baal, you choose one bullet
for yourselves and dress it first. For you are many, he says, and
call on the name of your gods but don't put any fire underneath
it now." So they took the bullock which was given them and they
dressed it. They called on the name of Baal.
Baal is the sun god. Baal is the god of warmth. Baal
is the god of fire. They called on the name of Baal
from morning until noon. saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any of that answered, and
they leaped upon the altar which was made. The scripture says over in the
margin, it says that they leaped up and down at the altar. They're
kind of in a religious frenzy. It's a religious frenzy. It came
to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them. He mocked them. Well, you shouldn't say anything
detrimental against other religions, against other gods. Elijah mocked
them and he mocked their god and said, cry aloud. You need
to raise your voices. Maybe your god's getting old
and he's hard of hearing. Or He is a God, maybe He's occupied
with other things. Maybe He's talking. Maybe somebody's
talking to your God. He doesn't have time to deal
with you right now. Or He's out pursuing an enemy. Or He's on
a journey. He's gone on vacation. Or per
adventure, He's so weary, He's sleeping and He's got to be awakened. They cry aloud and then you're
talking about sincerity. It says, they cut themselves
after the manor with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed
out upon them. There is the blood of the bullock,
and now the blood of the preachers is mingled with the blood of
the bullock. Surely, Baal will answer now
when he sees how sincere we are, how serious we are about this. It came to pass when midday was
passed, They prophesied unto the time of the offering of the
evening sacrifice, three o'clock in the afternoon. There was no
voice, no answer, nothing regarded. It's just like it is in here
right now with the exception of my voice, absolute silence. Does your God answer prayer?
Does your God say, you worship some kind of God? I know you
do. Everybody is a worshiper. Everybody is religious. The question
is, does your God have all authority, all power? Does your God save? Like in Daniel, the king said,
oh Daniel, are you okay? Daniel, can thy God that you
worship, can He rescue you? Can He save you? And I'm asking
you, can your God save those of you who are watching on the
internet? Can your God save? Can your God do anything? The
God of the Bible can do anything He pleases, whenever He pleases,
and deal with whoever He wants to at any time. That's the God
of the Bible. These men, they're calling on
a God that can't save. Isn't that the situation of religion
all around us today? People are calling on a God that
can't save. And you know what? People get
in a religious frenzy. They work up a religious fervor. They're excited. You watch them
on TV sometimes. They're so They just beside themselves
sometimes. And I know that they mean business. Some of them do. I know there
are a lot of phonies out there, and I think they know they're
phonies. But there are some even preachers who they're completely
dedicated to what they're doing, and what they're doing is altogether
wrong. That's the way these men are.
Who's going to cut themselves and bleed all over a sacrifice? Oh, that's somebody who means
business. That's somebody who's dead serious about what they're
doing. But all that they're doing is useless. It's to no avail. It counts for nothing. Listen,
all of these preachers, before the day is over, they'll all
be in hell. God's going to pour out His judgment
upon them. They're as good as dead already.
They're the servants of Satan. They've been lying to people.
They've been cheating people. They've been deceiving people.
They've been keeping back the truth. They're saying, worship
the sun. Worship the moon. Worship the
stars. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, He's not the God for you. These be thy gods, O Israel. And God's going to put them all
in hell. He's going to shut their mouths. And I tell you, the day
is coming when God's going to shut the lying mouths of all
these false prophets around us today. That's for certain. He's
going to shut their mouths. And I say, bless the day. May
it come soon. Preachers telling people lies,
preaching a false gospel, taking the eyes of men and women, off
of the Lord Jesus directing them to something else, to anything
else, to doing good, to living right, to being generous people,
to being kind people, teaching their children to live by the
golden rule in Sunday school. They are doing all these things,
but they are not telling them how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Hey, Elijah said this, go back
over to chapter 19. Elijah says this, and this is
what these people have missed in verse 10, 19, 10. And he said,
I've been very jealous for the Lord of hosts, for the children
of Israel have forsaken thy covenant. Where is the covenant in today's
preaching? That's what I want to know. Last
night I was watching some kind of silly program on television
and a preacher came on with a Kind of a spot announcement, I guess
it was. Just a couple of minutes or so.
He doesn't know anything about the covenant of grace. These
preachers around here don't know anything about the covenant of
grace. God choosing the people. Blessed is the man that thou
choosest and calls us to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy house forever. They don't know anything about
that. They don't know anything about covenant grace. They don't
know anything about redeeming blood. They don't know anything
about effectual redemption, the call of the Spirit of grace.
He said, they've forsaken thy covenant, they've thrown down
thine altars. You see that? They threw down
thine altars. The worship of God means nothing
to them. What are all these stones piled
up here for? Well, that's where we used to
worship God. knock them all down. Let's build
something beautiful. Let's make it very, very religious
looking. Elijah said they've forsaken
the covenant, they've thrown down the altars, and they've
killed your preachers, Lord, with a sword. They've put your
preachers out of business. They brag on the dead preachers
and then they kill the preachers that are preaching the same thing
today that the old ones did. They say they're not killing
preachers, they kill them with their tongues. Their tongues, the poison of
asps is in their tongues. They lie on God's preachers. They start rumors against God's
preachers. They say God's preachers are
preaching heresy. They'll say all manner of evil
about God's preachers. Elijah said they've forsaken
the coven, torn down the altars. They're killing your preachers,
Lord. That's sincerity. But there's no truth there. Nothing
but error. And so, go back to chapter 18, verse 30, and Elijah said unto
all the people, come near unto me. This is not hocus pocus. He's got nothing up his sleeve. He's not an illusionist. He says, everybody come in a
little closer. Come in a little closer. Everybody
able to hear me? Can you see? I can just see this
old preacher now. He don't look anything like these
false prophets. They're all decked out in their
religious garb. He's just plain dressed, ordinary. In fact, they say he's an oddball
looking kind of fella. He said, come near to me. And
all the people came near to Him. And I'll tell you what He did.
He repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. I
tell you, it's time to do some repairing. Let's do some repair
work. Let's do some repair work. Let's
get back to the basics. Let's get back to the old gospel. That altar that you've knocked
down and tore down and scattered the stones around, let's get
them all back together now. These five stones that form the
altar, the stone of total depravity and unconditional election, there's
another stone. And limited atonement, there's
another stone. And irresistible grace, there's
another stone. Perseverance of the saints, there's
another stone. Let's build it back up! Let's
go back to the old past. Go back to the old gospel. That gospel of substitution and
satisfaction. And then 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. Remember, twelve is the number
of God's elect. God's elected purpose. With the
stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made
a trench around the altar as great as would contain two measures
of seed. He put the wood in order. He
cut the bullock in pieces. He laid him on the wood. He laid
him on the wood. picture of Christ Jesus and He
said, fill four barrels of water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice
and on the wood. He said, do it a second time,
that makes eight. He said, do it the third time,
there's a dozen. There's twelve again. Twelve
barrels, the number of God's elect, number of God's election
of grace. And the water ran about the altar
and He filled the trenches with water. It came to pass at the
offering of the evening sacrifice. Oh, that's when Christ Jesus
died. The evening sacrifice at three
o'clock in the afternoon. Elijah the prophet came near
and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and 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, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God,
and that thou hast turned their heart back again." Who can do
that? Only God can turn somebody's
heart back again. You know, back when Elijah was
talking with King Ahab, You think about this, it's been nearly
three and a half years since it rained. You'd think a man
like King Ahab would come before Elijah and fall down before him
and say, oh, would you pray to the Lord? Pray to the Lord, tell
the Lord we're sorry, we repent. Look back at verse 17 and 18. came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah,
that Ahab said unto him, Art he that troubleth Israel? He
answered, I have not troubled Israel." Has the king's attitude
changed any? No. Has the three and a half
years of drought softened him any? No. All it did was harden
him. It's going to take more than
drought. It's going to take more than physical catastrophes to
break a man's heart. It takes the grace of God. It
takes the grace of God. All the physical judgments in
the world, if God sent them upon a man, won't change his mind,
not going to change his heart. Won't do it. If there to be changed, as it
says in verse 37, the Lord's got to do it. The Lord's got
to turn the heart back again. Oh Jim, is there any hope for
my son, my daughter, is there any hope for my husband, my wife? My brother and sister, the Lord's
got to turn their hearts. That's just the way it is. The
Lord's got to turn them. And that's why we say, Lord,
do something for them. We're not begging sinners to
do anything for God. They can't do anything for God.
We're begging God to do something for poor sinners. Lord, do something
for them like You did for me. Like You did for me. Verse 38, then. Then, the fire of the Lord fell,
consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust,
licked up the water that was in the trench, and when all the
people saw, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord! He is the God! The Lord! He is the God! Up until this
point. Jehovah and the gods of the heathen,
to them they could just coexist together. But not now. Not now. They've seen the futility
of the false prophets in getting their god to answer them. Their
gods are dead. Their gods can't speak. Their
god can't answer. There's only one God who is the
Lord indeed and that's the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Elijah said unto them, take
the prophets of Baal, don't let one of them escape. They took them, and Elijah brought
them down to the brook Kishon. He slew them. That is, at his
order, they all died. And Elijah said unto Ahab, get
thee up, eat, and drink. It's an unusual request. Well,
it's been going on all day. This whole thing's been going
on all day, and he's saying to the king, you need to be refreshed. You're going to need your strength,
because you've got to start traveling. Because there's a sound of abundance
of rain. What would the sound be? You
heard the wind begin to stir a bit. Oh, if the Spirit of God,
the wind, the heavenly wind. Oh, if he would begin to stir
a bit. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the
Spirit of God would stir a bit in our congregations? Then the
water of life is going to come. Oh, Spirit of God, we need You
to abide with us, to work in our hearts, to show us Christ
Jesus the Lord, to convince us of sin and righteousness and
judgment, to show us Christ the Savior. Oh, Spirit, be with us! Oh, blessed wind! That's what
Ezekiel talked about that in Ezekiel 37. Lord, cause the wind
to blow. Cause the wind to blow. And here
Elijah says, there's a sound of abundance of rain. Rain's
coming. Look at there. See them leaves
rustling in the wind a little bit? It's a storm as a brewing. But it's not a storm of judgment.
It's a storm of grace. God's going to send a rain of
grace. A refreshing rain, the rain of
salvation, the rain of mercy, the rain of grace is about to
fall because the Spirit of God who moves like the wind, He is
beginning to stir. Wouldn't it be something if God
began to stir by His Spirit in this congregation, in your congregation
over there? Oh, mighty wind! I tell you,
we can sing, we can preach, we can meet week in and week out,
but if the wind doesn't stir, if the wind doesn't blow, it's
all to no avail. But I'll tell you where the wind
will blow, where the truth is preached. And where there is
no truth, there's not going to be any wind. There's not going
to be any Holy Spirit. They can call it Holy Ghost revival,
Holy Ghost power, Holy Ghost this and Holy Ghost that, but
if the message is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified, if the message
is not the sacrifice of the Son of God for sin that satisfied
God's justice, if there's no message about the fire of God,
the anger of God, the wrath of God being poured out upon His
Son, and the result being the refreshing rain of grace that
comes to all those that Christ redeemed. If that's not the message,
then no wind is going to be blowing. No wind is going to blow. That's
why the one message we stick to is the message of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's the only message that
God will use to then cause the wind to blow. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. Went up, I guess, in his chariot.
And Elijah, he went up to the top of Carmel. Cast himself down on the earth. He put his face between his knees.
And he prayed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, availeth
much? Elijah prayed, James 5 says he
prayed and the heavens shut up. No more rain. And he prayed again
and the clouds opened up. Well, then he said to his servant,
go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up and he looked
and he said, there's nothing. And he said, go up again. Let's
make it absolutely complete. Seven times. Let's go seven times. And he did, it came to pass at
the seventh time. He came down and said, behold,
there's a little, just a little cloud, about the size of a man's
hand out there, over the sea. And Elijah said, go up and say
to Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain
stop thee not. It came to pass in the meanwhile
that the heaven was black with clouds and the wind and there
was a great rain. It's a storm of grace. A storm
of grace. I know they deserve the storm
of judgment, just like we do. A storm of judgment. The thunder
and the lightning that just scares to death. As black platforming,
it's not a storm of judgment. It's a storm of refreshing rain. The heavens opened up and refreshed
His people, refreshed the earth. Oh God, open up the heavens and
send us refreshing showers of mercy, showers of blessing, showers
to refresh the hearts of Your people, a shower of grace upon
those who know You not. Oh Lord, do that for your glory. Show people that you're God.
That's what Elijah said, Lord, show people you're God. You're
God. That's a tremendous passage and
I just, I love that passage of scripture. Nobody can do justice
to it and I know I haven't this evening, but I sure have enjoyed
giving it a try. Let's sing 509, the San