Would you turn to 1 Kings chapter
18. Now I'm gonna look at this whole
passage with regard to Elijah and the false prophets on Mount
Carmel. We're gonna look at the whole story today and after that
we're gonna pick out four or five things and consider them. How in the world did my glasses
get like that? Let's begin reading in verse
17. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab
said unto him, art thou he the trouble of Israel? And he answered,
I've not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house,
and that you forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou has followed
Balaam. Now, therefore, send and gather
to me all Israel into Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal 450
and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table.
So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets
together into 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. Then said Elijah unto 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 in pieces, and lay it
on wood, and put no fire under it. And I will dress the other
bullock, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And call
ye upon the name of your gods, and I'll call on the name of
the Lord. And to God that answers by fire, let him be God. And a better way to translate
that is, he is God. We don't let him be God. He is
God. And all the people answered and
said, it's well spoken. And Elijah said unto 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. And they took the bullock which
was given them, and they dressed it, and 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, and it came to pass at noon that
Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, cry louder, for he's
a god. Either he's talking, meditating,
Or he's pursuing, he's stepped aside to go to the bathroom is
what that means. Or he's in a journey, he's on
vacation or per adventure he sleepeth and must be awake. What
scalding sarcasm he uses with regard to their God. And they
cried aloud and cut themselves after their manor with knives
and lances till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to
pass that when midday was passed, they prophesied unto the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was neither
voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah
said unto the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came
near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was
broken down. 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,
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. Evidently, they were close to
the ocean, and they were using ocean water for this. 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 filled the trench also with water, and it came
to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that
Elijah the prophet came near and said, now here's his prayer,
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've 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 the
God, the Lord, he is the God. And Elijah said unto them, take
the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they
took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Chisholm,
and he slew them there. And Elijah said unto Ahab, get
thee up, eat and drink, for is the sound of abundance of rain. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel. How we thank you that your God beside thee is none
else. And Lord, we pray for your help at this time, that you would
cause your gospel to be preached. Give us what we need. Open our
hearts according to your will. Enable us to worship thy son.
We confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing
for his sake. Give us grace to love you more
and love one another more and cause us to seek to be servants
one to another. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now, one of the things that impressed
me so much about this narrative is the courage Elijah demonstrates. Now, he's putting everything
on the line at this time. You know, if fire doesn't come
down, you know what's gonna happen to him? He's gonna be put to
death. That's the courage he's demonstrating. He knows if that
fire doesn't come down, one against 850, they will put him to death,
but he remains firm. Now, how is it that he demonstrated
this kind of courage? First, because he knew Baal was
non-existent. Second, he knew God is God. And third, God had told him to
do this. This is why he did this. God
had told him to do this. 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 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. Everything that's taken place,
I've done simply because you told me to do it. So he had some
confidence. His confidence was in what the Lord told him to
do. Now, one with God is a majority. And I want us to look at this
story There's so much in it. Like I said, we'll probably spend
four or five weeks here. But Israel had been taught the
exclusive worship of Jehovah. And what does Ahab do? Through the influence of Jezebel,
he brings in Baal worship. And it becomes in vogue. It becomes
what people do at this time. Now they've been raised up in
the exclusive worship of Jehovah, but there's such an appeal to
the flesh that Baal worship has. As a matter of fact, sexual sin
was involved in Baal worship, temple prostitutes and so on,
and it had a strong appeal to the flesh. And that's what is
true with regard to human religion. There's an appeal to the flesh.
And Israel was trying to do both. They were trying to worship Baal,
and they were trying to worship Jehovah. And that's when Elijah
asked this question in verse 21, and Elijah came unto all
the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? And his only appeal is truth.
That's his only appeal. Not you'll be better off if you
do this. His only appeal is truth. If Jehovah is God, serve him. If Baal is God, serve him. And when he made this statement,
the scripture says the people answered him not a word. They had no response. Verse 22, then said Elijah unto
the people, I even I only remain a prophet of the Lord. He didn't
know about the 7,000 the Lord had reserved to himself. You
can read about that in, I think it's chapter 19, where he said,
I'm the only one. And the Lord says to Elijah,
I've reserved myself 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee
to the image of Baal. Elijah didn't know about him.
He thought he was the only one left. And here are the 850 false
prophets. Then said Elijah unto the people,
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 the prophets of Baal. Let them
make the first choice. Let them choose one bullet for
themselves and cut it in pieces, lay it on wood, put no fire under
it. And I'll dress the other bullet and lay it on wood and
put no fire under it and call you upon the name of your gods.
And I'll call upon the name of the Lord and the God that answers
by fire. Let him be God. And all the people answered and
said, it's well spoken. We agree with that. Now, what
they were waiting for is fire to come down from heaven and
consume the sacrifice. That is what would determine
who is God. Unmistakable. Unmistakable. And you know, truly, I want to
spend some time on this concept, not today, but some other, you
know, in the next couple of weeks, the God that answers by fire.
You know, he answered by fire when Christ was on the cross,
didn't he? The God that answers by fire. Verse 25, and Elijah
said unto the prophets of Baal, the false prophets, choose you
one bullock for yourself. You know, error is always going
to begin with man's choice. It always begins with man's choice.
All error does. As a matter of fact, did you
know the word heresy means a choosing? A choosing. You know, if you
are choosing between two things, you don't know which one's right.
You only believe, now listen real carefully, you only believe
when you have no other options. When you have no choice. This
is, this is all there is to believe. Now, he says, choose you one
bullock for yourselves and dress it first for your many and call
on the name of your gods, but no fire under it. Remember, they're
waiting for the God that answers by fire. And they took the bullock which
was given them and they dressed it and called on the name of
Baal from morning until noon saying, oh Baal, hear us. But there was no voice. nor any
that answered. Why? Because he does not exist. That's why he doesn't answer.
He does not exist. And they leaped upon the altar
which was made. They leaped in pagan ritual.
Now this reminds me of a charismatic service. Leaping, making gyrations,
trying to do something to catch his attention. This is your charismatic
Pentecostal service, leaping in pagan ritual. And then Elijah
does some biting, scalding sarcasm at this time. And this lets me
know that this is not a bad thing. Elijah did it. I mean, it can
be a bad thing if it's done in the wrong spirit. But at this
time, you're not gonna find greater sarcasm anywhere in the Bible
than right here when he derided their God. He said, it says in
verse 27 that Elijah mocked them. Here they are sincerely in their
religion and Elijah mocked them. He made fun of them. He derided
their God. How so? Cry louder. You're not crying loud enough.
If you'd cry louder, maybe he could hear you. And then he makes
these four sarcastic statements. Perhaps he's talking and the
word is meditating. Perhaps he's meditating. Or perhaps
he's pursuing. And that is literally, he stepped
out to go to the bathroom. And that's why he can't hear
you. Or perhaps he's on vacation. He's taking a journey. Or maybe
he's just asleep and he needs to be woke up. Now that is sarcasm,
isn't it? And this false god deserved this
deriding and this whatever it is. Now the God of present day
Christianity, the God of free will, the God of legalistic reformed
religion is a false God that deserves to be derided. Do you believe that? I remember hearing Scott Richardson
preach one time and this statement Shocked me, but I thought about
it a lot since. I remember it. He said, the God
of works religion isn't worth a warm pitcher of spit. That's
true. That's true. Isn't that strong? Not as strong as what Elijah
said when he said maybe a God's using the bathroom. And that's
what he said. Somebody says, well, that's crude. Well, this
is inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. And this is what was
said at this time. He was mocking their God. I love that passage of scripture
in Isaiah chapter 45 verse 20 when Isaiah says they have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray
into a God that cannot save. Now a God that can't save unless
I do something, he's a false God. He's an idol. He can't do
anything for you. Verse 28, and they cried aloud
and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets
till the blood gushed out. I guess they thought that through
their personal sacrifice, cutting themselves and hurting themselves,
maybe he would be more likely to respond. And that's what they
did. Verse 29, and it came to pass
when, and it came to pass. I love that term in scripture,
you know, that's there, I don't know how many times, maybe a
thousand, hundreds, I know, it came to pass. God purposed it,
it came to pass. And you can say that about every
event. God purposed it, and it came
to pass. And it came to pass when midday
was passed that they prophesied and at the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor
any to answer, nor any that regarded. They were praying to a non-existent
God. Verse 30, and Elijah said unto
all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came near
unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken
down. You know, when you don't use
something, what happens? It falls into disrepair, doesn't
it? And the altar of the Lord, the place of sacrifice, had broken
down through disuse. You see, when the truth is preached,
what is everything? Christ crucified. That's everything. But when any error comes in,
when a false god comes in, what's the first thing to leave? The
glory of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, I love
what Spurgeon said. If all we preached was the cross,
it would be a widening rather than a narrowing of our ministry.
If we didn't talk about anything but the cross, well, it had fallen
into disuse. And he brings them, come near
to me, and he repairs the altar of the Lord, the place of sacrifice. In verse 31, 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. Now when
he builds his altar, What is it that's pointed out? The particularity
of the sacrifice. The 12 stones. This is for Israel. Now understand this, when we
talk about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we must always maintain, this is for
the elect. This is for Israel, the true
Israel. And why do we make an issue of
that? And it is an issue. Why do we
make an issue of that? Because Christ's salvation for
his elect was successful. And if I would ever present the
death of Christ in such a way as it could be unsuccessful,
he could die for you and you might end up being damned anyway,
I've denied the very meaning of the cross. This is so important.
for Israel. Now, this is not just being argumentative. Somebody says, well, I believe
Christ died for everybody. Well, I'm not just being argumentative.
I'm saying you have no understanding of the death of Christ. You have
no understanding of the gospel. Christ's death is successful.
It's for the elect. It's for the true Israel. Remember,
Israel's not that real estate in the Middle East. The true
Israel is all of God's people. Every single one of them is God's
Jacob, God's heritage. And he repairs this altar for
sacrifice, and he digs a trench around it. He's gonna make sure
there's no trickery going on. He's gonna fill that thing up
with water so people can know this is God's work. I did this
at his word and this is his work and there's no magic going on. I don't have any kind of way
to ignite this and cause a tap and he's gonna make sure everybody
knows this is God. Now verse 33, and he put the
wood in order according to the Levitical law and I love that. God is a God of order. God is
a God of order. And this same word is used in
David's dying words, although my house be not so with God,
yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. What's the next word?
Ordered. Ordered in all things and sure,
and this is all my salvation and all my desire, though he
make it not to grow. Now he puts the wood in order. He cuts the bullock in pieces
and laid him on the wood and said, fill four barrels with
water and poured 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. This sacrifice was doused. It was wet. The wood was wet. There was a trench of water around
it. and the water round about the
altar, and he filled the trench with water, and then we read
his prayer. And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice, this is when he prayed. There's the morning sacrifice,
there's the evening sacrifice. This is a reminder to them, to
us, that there's one reason prayer's answered. The sacrifice. Now you and I have a reason to
pray. and expect it to be heard. Not because of us, but because
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now at the time
of the evening offering, the prophet came near and said, hear
his words, Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, The self-existent, independent
one. I love thinking about the Lord
not having needs, don't you? That's so glorious, me and you
are so needy. And I'm fine being that way, that's who we are,
but he has no needs. He has no needs. He does everything
simply because he wants to do it. He's altogether glorious,
he's altogether holy, he's altogether majestic, he's altogether righteous. I just love how he's the Lord
God and that's how he addresses him. Jehovah, Elohim, the Savior,
the self-existent one, the independent one. And he also mentions him
as the covenant God Lord God, Jehovah Elohim of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day, here's what I
want known, that thou art God in Israel, not Baal. Thou art
God, the God, the only God. I want them to know that thou
art God. That was his desire. And look
what else he said, and this is important. Let it be known this
day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and
that I've done all these things at thy word. Now, when I prayed
that it might not rain and it didn't rain for three and a half
years, it's because the Lord told me to. When I set this up,
the God that answers by fire, let him be God, the Lord told
me to. And I want these people to know
that I am thy servant. Now, it's important for you to know,
if you're gonna listen to me, that I'm the Lord's servant.
Now, I don't like it when people, preachers, make a clergy lady
thing. I just don't like that. I'm a
sinful man, just like you are. But if God has called me to preach,
I'm his servant. And you hear me as such. And
you know when you become, and listen, if you wanna become critical
of me, Easy. Easy. You can find all kinds
of things that you can expose, that you can criticize, and they'd
all be true. But Rich Bird and I were talking
before service and we were talking about this thing of criticism
and it's, I'm so guilty of it, but he gave this, he heard a
man say this and I thought this was so interesting. How long
does it take to build up a building? It takes months, it takes years,
it takes a lifetime, but you can tear it down just by one
bomb explosion and it's all gone down. And you can tear down so
quickly by looking at the man who's preaching in a critical
light. If you want to criticize me, you can find plenty of reasons
to do it, and I can find plenty of reasons to criticize you,
but that's not what love does, is it? Love is not like that. Love covers a transgression. Love seeks, and this is what
he was saying. He was saying, I want them to
know that I'm thy servant, that I'm not doing this simply at
my word and my whim, but that I'm your servant, and I've done
this at your word. Verse 37, hear me, O Lord, hear
me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God. Isn't that what salvation is,
knowing who he is? That's salvation, knowing who He is. If you know who He is, you're
going to believe the gospel. Your doctrine is going to be
right. And you know, we don't wanna
just be right. Like I said last Wednesday night, people can make
an idol out of correct doctrine. I'm right, I'm right, and I'm
better than these ignorant people who don't believe the way I believe.
That's idolatry, it's self-righteousness in another form. It's not just
wanting to be right in your doctrine, it's knowing Him. And if you
know who He is, if you know Him, the doctrine will be obvious.
It'll be obvious. I mean, you begin with the right
knowledge of Him, and this is what He wanted. 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, now you
picture this in your mind. These people experienced this.
They saw that fire fall from heaven. 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 drench. Now imagine this, they saw the
stones and the water and the dust all gone. The fire came
down and consumed everything. And this is what turned the hearts
of the people back, seeing the accepted sacrifice. And that's
the point. God accepted the sacrifice. His fire came down and consumed
it. And listen, we're accepted in
the beloved because of his sacrifice. No other reasons needed. The
sacrifice was accepted. And when I think of this, what
I love to think about is where the fire came down upon the sacrifice. You know, he said, I've come
to have a baptism of fire in Luke chapter 12. The fire of
God's wrath fell down upon him. But unlike Elijah and the sacrifice
being consumed, this time the sacrifice consumed the fire. And now God says, there's no
fury in me. Oh, the accepted sacrifice of
Christ. Verse 39, and when all the people
saw it, they fell on their faces. And they said, the Lord, he is
the God, Jehovah, he is the God. There's only one God, Jehovah.
And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not
one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah
brought them down to the brook of Chisholm, and he slew them
there. He put them to death. Elijah said to Ahab, get thee
up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. The rain is coming. We read of
four falls. The fire falling. We read of the people falling on their faces. We read of the false prophets
falling. And when the gospel is preached,
that which is contrary to it will fall down. And we read of
the rain falling, all through this glorious gospel message.