Now, we're looking at 1 Kings
chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18. I'm taking the title from the
words found in verse 36. Let it be known this day that
thou art God. 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, that I am thy
servant, and that I have done all these things according to
thy word. That should be and is the goal
of every gospel preacher. As Paul said, for as much as
in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let it be known this day when
the gospel is preached that thou art God in Israel alone. That should be the aim of every
message that we deliver. Let it be known that thou art
God alone to show forth the majesty of our God, the glory of our
great God. That is the desire, the heart
desire of every believer, is it not? To honor and to worship
our great God and to give him all the honor and all the glory
as the apostle said, God forbid I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, by way of introduction,
remember that Elijah had delivered the message unto Ahab, and it
was a message of judgment back in chapter 17, remember? And
Elijah the Tishbite, verse one, who was inhabitants of Gilead
said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom
I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain, these years but according
to my word and the word of the Lord came unto him saying get
thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself in the brook
Kirith that is before Jordan Elijah delivered the Lord's message
of judgment against Ahab for his persistent and practice in
Baal worship, idolatry. Wicked, base, idolatry. Three and a half years there
had been no rain, no dew. The crops were all dried up. The livestock was dying. Ahab and Obadiah are out searching
for pasture for their animals. Elijah delivered the message
of the Lord and then the Lord told him to go hide himself. go hide himself. And the Lord,
as we studied previous, the Lord provided for him in a most unusual
way. The ravens were sent to feed
him morning and evening. And then when the brook dried
up, the widow woman, therein Sarepta, provided for him. And the barrel of meal did not
waste, and the oil did not waste, and three years God's prophet
Elijah was taken care of. Now he's told in chapter 18,
verse one and two, and it came to pass after many days that
the word of the Lord came to Elijah the third year saying,
go, now it's time to show yourself. Don't hide any longer. Now show
thyself in Ahab and I will send the rain. Elijah went to show
himself to Ahab, and there was a sore famine in the land. As Ahab and Obadiah went to search
for grass, pasture for the livestock, Obadiah ran headlong into the
prophet of God, Elijah, verse 7. And as Obadiah was in the
way, behold, Elijah met him, and he knew him. fell on his
face and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered and said, You
go tell Ahab, behold Elijah is right here. Obadiah was one in
the house of Ahab that feared the Lord even from his youth.
And when Jezebel made great slaughter of the prophets of the Lord,
Obadiah put himself on the line, his life on the line, and he
went and hid a hundred of the prophets of the Lord in a cave
and fed them and took care of them. But the Lord did not use
Obadiah. to rebuke Ahab and Jezebel for
their Baal worship, for their idolatry, but rather God raised
up an unusual lone prophet named Elijah and sent him with this
message of judgment. Elijah tells Obadiah Go tell
Ahab that Elijah is here. Look at verse 8 one more time.
You go tell Ahab, thy Lord, behold, I'm right here. No longer do
you need to search. No longer do you need to go in
all the countries. Look at verse 11. And now thou
sayest, go tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. Again, down in
verse 16, Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went
to meet Elijah. what do you think that Ahab was
thinking in his mind as we read through this chapter Ahab had
been searching for Elijah for three years or longer searching
and digging and with zeal in his heart to find this man and
to do him with punishment and chastisement Because as we see
here, Ahab blamed Elijah for his own problem. Look at verse
17 and 18. And it came to pass, when Ahab
saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, art thou he that troubles
Israel? Elijah wasn't the trouble, was
he? Ahab was the problem. And he
said, I've not troubled Israel. But thou and I, father's house,
in that you forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed
Baal worship, like Jeroboam your father. Now it's interesting
here, Ahab blames Elijah for his trouble, for his problems. That is a way of our sinful flesh,
always blaming someone else. when the real problem is our
own wicked heart. I'm the problem. It's my sin.
Remember, Adam did the same thing. When the Lord was seeking Adam,
when he went to hide himself in the trees and make aprons
of fig leaf to cover his nakedness, and God said, Adam, where are
you? God knew where he was. And then finally, Adam blamed
God for his own fall and sin. It's the woman you gave me that
caused this problem. That is the way of our sinful
flesh. Men left to themselves, and this
is true, sinful men left to themselves always justify themselves before
men and God to make themselves look innocent or at least not
guilty. The scriptures plainly say, all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Look over here
at Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Our Lord said
to the Pharisees, Luke 16, 15. Luke 16, 15. You are they which justify yourselves
before men, But God knows your heart. Now that's what sinners
always do. They justify themselves before
men and God. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is nothing but an abomination in the sight of God. The way
of self-righteousness, the way of the ungodly is always to justify
themselves to excuse their own sin and to blame someone else. If we ever do own what we are
before God and who we are before God, sinners, you know what that
is? It's a miracle of grace. That's
only known by a miracle of God's grace. The old songwriter said,
A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. You'll never own what you are
before God unless God teaches you that you're a sinner, sinner
before God. You see, only a sinner will cry
out unto the Lord, God be merciful to me, thee, sinner. Job said,
I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth
thee. Wherefore, I hate myself. I repent
in dust and ashes. Isaiah, when he saw the glory
of the Lord, said, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of sinful
lips. I live among a people of uncleanness. When David's sin was exposed
to him, remember, Nathan the prophet came to him in the matter
of Uriah the Hittite and Bathsheba. And Nathan the prophet came to
David and said, you are the man, you're the problem. David didn't
go and justify himself. David owned his sin before God. And he said, I've sinned before
the Lord. And then he said, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
And Lord, if you send me to hell, that's exactly what I deserve.
We read that in Psalm 51, but he cries out, Lord, forgive me
according to your loving kindness, according to thy tender mercies,
blot out my transgression, blot out my sin. Now in verse 19,
down through verse 22, Elijah calls for a great meeting upon
Mount Carmel with all the prophets of Baal. Look at verse 19. 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. So Ahab agreed this had to be
the working of God's providence so Abraham, Ahab rather sent
unto all the children of Israel gathered the prophets together
on the Mount Carmel and Elijah came to the people and said how
long halt you between two opinions if the Lord be God follow him
But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered, not
a word. When they assembled together
this great meeting, I don't know how many people were assembled
there, but it had to be thousands. All of Israel assembled and all
these false prophets. When they assembled together,
Elijah delivers God's rebuke for their sin against God. And he says in verse 21, why
do you halt, or hop, or skip, or jump, or why are you divided
in your heart between these two thoughts, two opinions? If God
be God, if the Lord be God, Jehovah be God, then you ought to follow
Him. You ought to worship Him. But
now if Baal, if you think Baal is God, then you should follow
him. And the people answered not a
word. Now there's a reference there
if you wanna mark it in your Bible. See that Joshua 24, 15? See that Joshua 24, 15? Let's
turn over there to read that. A similar thing that Joshua says
unto the people. And this is misunderstood and
often it's quoted to prove that sinners choose or reject God. But that's not what this says
here. Joshua 24, look at verse 14. Joshua 24, verse 14. Now therefore fear the Lord and
serve him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and
serve you the Lord. If it seem evil unto you to serve
the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. Now notice
this carefully. Whether the gods which your father
served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods
of the Amorites, you choose among the gods whom you're going to
serve. As for me and my house, We're gonna serve the Lord. It
doesn't say, you know, you choose the Lord or choose your, no,
you choose among those other gods. As for me in my house,
we're commanded to serve the Lord, our God. Why do you halt,
jump, hop, skip around who God is? He is God, worship him and
follow him. And notice this is interesting,
the last part of verse 21, the people answered, not a word. Not a word. The prophets, 450
prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of the grove, 850 men, God shut
their mouth. God shut their mouth. You remember
the scripture over in Romans three? Let every mouth be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. That's what's going
on here. God stopped their mouth. There's
only one true and living God The God of the Bible is God alone,
and thank God He is God the Lord, our Savior. The absolute God,
the sovereign of the universe, the absolute God and sovereign
of all things. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. And eternal life is to know the
only true God. Anything else is mere idolatry. Eternal life is to know the only
true God. Now, the scripture that we use
is John 17, verse three, when the Lord said all, verse two
and three, all power is given to me in heaven and earth, and
I should give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given
to me, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the
only true God, Jesus Christ whom thou has sent that is eternal
life Just not to know about God, but to know God This is eternal
life, and this is salvation now Elijah proposes this great challenge
in verse 22 down through verse 24 the great challenge of God's
prophet. And he says, the God that answers
by fire, you take your bullock and you take your bullock and
butcher the bullock and lay it out on the altar and put it on
the wood and put no fire under it. And the God who answered
by fire, and I'll do the same, and the God that answers by fire,
he is God. And the people agreed, as it
said down there, verse 24, and all the people answered and said,
It's well spoken. It is good. They had forgotten
their own history. They knew that Baal was not going
to answer by fire. They thought it was going to
be a draw. They didn't think Elijah's God would answer by
fire either and they said it's going to be a standoff. Nobody
is going to win here. But they forgot their own history.
You see, our God is a consuming fire. Turn over to Leviticus
9. Leviticus chapter 9. Leviticus
chapter 9. Our God is a consuming fire and
they had forgotten the history of the God of Israel. In Leviticus
chapter 9 verse 23. This is Aaron. when he first brings these sacrifices
that God designated for them to bring, Leviticus 9, 22. And
Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them. and came down from offering of
the sin offering and the burnt offerings and the peace offering
and Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation
and came out and blessed the people and the glory of the Lord
appeared unto the people and there came fire out from before
the Lord and consumed the altar, the burnt offering and the fat
which when all the people saw They shouted and they fell on
their faces. You see, God had answered by
fire before. When David purchased the threshing
floor, it's recorded in 1 Chronicles 21 6, and when he built an altar
and made a sacrifice there on the threshing floor to stay the
plague for David's sin in numbering Israel. And when he made an offering
unto the Lord, a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord, again, the fire
from God fell and consumed the offering. If you wanna find 1
Chronicles 21, six, let's see if we can read that. 1 Chronicles
21. 26. David built there an altar unto
the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called
upon the Lord. And he answered from heaven by
fire upon the altar of the burnt offering. You see, the Lord God
had answered by fire before, and the people had forgotten.
They knew that Baal wasn't going to answer by fire, and they didn't
think Elijah's God would answer by fire, and they thought it
would be a stalemate. And Elijah would run and they
would continue in their idolatry. Now this is most interesting,
verse 25 down through verse 29. The prophets of Baal accept the
challenge. They prepare their sacrifice
first. They fillet the bullock. They
sacrifice the bullock, verse 26. They took the bullock which
was given them. They dressed it and they 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 up and down on
the altar which was made. And it came to pass about noon
that Elijah, he's standing there the whole morning watching what's
going on. They leaped up and down on the
altar. And it came to pass that Elijah
mocked them. Said, well, won't you cry a little
bit louder? For he is God. Either he's talking,
or he's pursuing, or he's on. He's just busy. Just cry a little
bit louder, a little bit longer. Maybe he's busy. Maybe he's on
a journey. Maybe he's on a trip. Or maybe he's sleeping, and you
need to wake him up. And they cried aloud. And they
cut themselves after the manor with knives and lances till the
blood gushed out. and it came to pass when midday
was passed and they prophesied unto the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice and there was neither voice nor any
answer nor any of that regarded and there was no fire. Useless idols have no fire No
light, no life, no truth, and no salvation. Reminded me of
this scripture here. You know Elijah, he mocked them,
he made fun of them. Turn to Psalm 115. You remember
what David said here? Psalm 115 verse one. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he has pleaded. Their idols are silver
and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they don't
speak. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses have they, but they don't
smell. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they
through their throat. That is, these idols are dead
and useless. They that make them are likened
to them. So is everyone that trusteth
them. Oh, Israel, trust thou in the
Lord. He is their help and he is their
shield. They made a lot of noise, didn't
they? I mean they jumped up and down from morning till evening.
They jumped up and down on the altar, they called upon Baal
all day long, they prophesied, they preached, they shed their
own blood to show how sincere they were. Sounds a whole lot
like a religious Pentecostal meeting that goes on in this
day, doesn't it? Jumping the pews and going on
and carrying on, making a lot of loud ruckus, and Elijah watched
them and then in a most mocking way he made fun of them. Now you can preach, you can preach
like these men did all day long, a false god and a Christless
religion all day long, every day, but there's no power in
it to save, no power in it to save. It cannot save the flea,
let alone raise a dead sinner from the grave. Some have said
that we should not criticize false religion. Really? The Lord Jesus Christ did. The
harshest rebukes he gave were to those lost Jews who worshiped
themselves and their tradition. Matter of fact, he said in John
chapter 8, he said, you are of your father the devil. And then the Lord said in Matthew
23, you can read it. He said, you're like a whited
sepulcher. You look all pretty on the outside,
but within you're full of dead men's bones. And then he called
them, you generation of snakes and vipers. Wow, really? The apostle Paul. and the other
apostles criticized false religion. Though we or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel than that which we have preached,
let him be damned. Be sure you get this. A false
gospel will never produce anything but false professors. That's
just so. Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. Now, back to our story. Elijah
prepares his sacrifice, verse 30, down to verse 35. Elijah
said, and the people, you come near unto me, and all the people
came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was
neglected, forsaken, broken down. And 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, a prince with God, 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, God the God of order, cut the bullock
in pieces, laid it on the wood, and said, fill four barrels with
water three times, and pour it everywhere, on the wood, on the
altar, on the sacrifice. And they did so. And the water
ran about the altar and it filled the trench also with water. Now
where did he get all this water? There had been a three-year drought.
I wondered about that as I read this. Well, come to find out
in studying, Mount Carmel was pretty close to the Mediterranean
Sea. And they just went down to the
sea and dipped out all these barrels of water and just kept
pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring. And then Elijah
prayed unto God. He repaired the altar of the
Lord. gathered up twelve stones according to the number of the
twelve sons of Jacob, made a blood offering unto the Lord for Israel."
Again, picturing the particular redemption and death and atonement
that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Took these 12 barrels of water,
notice 12 stones and 12 barrels of water, all this picturing
the Lord Jesus Christ bearing the sin of his people. Poured
it upon the altar, the wood, the sacrifice, the ground, filled
the trench. There was no doubt that Elijah
took every precaution to make sure these people knew that there
was no gimmick and no trickery. He wasn't trying to deceive anybody. And Elijah prayed, verse 36,
and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening
sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and he prayed this
63 word prayer. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel,
that I am thy servant, that I've done all these things according
to thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, that thou has
turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell,
consumed the burnt sacrifice, consumed the wood, the stone,
the dust, all the water was consumed, and when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, he is the God,
the Lord, he is the God. Elijah called upon his God and
our God And our God answered by fire. Notice the fire sent
from God consumed not only the sacrifice, but the wood, the
altar, the stone, the dust. It was a complete consuming of
all things involved. And all of that is a great picture
of the effectual sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sins
were laid upon Him like those barrels of water were poured
out upon the altar. Whenever you read in scripture
of an altar and a sacrifice, immediately think of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is our altar and He is our
sacrifice and He is the God to whom this sacrifice is made.
And all this pouring of this water upon This offering is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ taking our sins unto himself
and bearing the wrath of God for our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
took all of the sins of God's people unto himself. He took
the fire of God's wrath into his soul, into his bosom, and
the Lord Jesus Christ consumed the fire of God's wrath. The fire of God's wrath didn't
consume him, he consumed the fire of God's wrath. You see,
it pleased the Lord to bruise him in our room and in our stead,
and with the sacrifice and the offering of his soul, the Lord
our God is satisfied. Now in Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ in him crucified, We have no sin. Our sin has been consumed
and put away. There is therefore in the Lord
Jesus Christ now no condemnation and He delivered us from the
wrath to come. There's no wrath because the Lord Jesus Christ
has consumed the wrath. Think about that. He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with them also freely give us all things? The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ put away all our sin. He was manifested
to take away our sin, and in him is no sin. This fire consumed
everything. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
taken our sin and put it away completely. Now in closing, two
more thoughts in verse 39 and verse 40. 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, you take the prophets of Baal, let not one
of them escape. And they took them and Elijah
brought them down to the brook, Kishon, killed them. Killed everyone of them, 450
men. Now notice two things happen. The people could not deny that
the Lord, He is God. He answered by fire, didn't He?
The Lord, He is the God. But notice they did not say,
the Lord, He is our God. Look at Psalm 48, 14. Psalm 48,
14. Psalm 48, and you can read this
all through the psalm. Psalm 48, 14. For this God is
our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. One other psalm, you'll find
Psalm 135. Psalm 135, verse 5 and 6. For
I know that the Lord is great, That our Lord is above all gods. Our Lord. He's our Lord. He's
our Savior. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and earth see in all deep places. I've
heard people say, I don't want anything to do with an absolute
sovereign God. Boy, they're stupid. They're
foolish. I want everything to do with Him. He's our God. We worship Him. You remember
Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2.2. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside Thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. He's the only rock. He's the
rock of ages. He's the foundation upon which
we rest. And then in 2 Samuel 22, David
said, for who is God save the Lord, and who is a rock save
our God? He's our God. He's our God and
our Savior. Verse 40, in closing, the second
thing that happened, Elijah rounded up the 450 prophets of Baal and
did to them what the law of God required. Now, if you look at
the marginal reference there, I believe it's there, yes, the
marginal reference there, Deuteronomy 13, one through five, you see
that? And then Deuteronomy 18, verse 20. I've got that written
down here, Deuteronomy 13. But remember this, what Elijah
did was not out of, I'm gonna get even with you. What he did
was not out of hatred and malice or vengeance, because he knew
vengeance belongs to me, saith the Lord. What he did, he did
according to, thus saith the Lord. Now here's that scripture,
Deuteronomy 13, and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall
be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from
the Lord your God. Talking about false prophets
or a dreamer that dreams. If he prophesied something and
it doesn't come to pass, it says in Deuteronomy 18, if he prophesied
something and it doesn't come to pass, he's to be put to death. That's what the law of God requires.
I remember when I came here, some of you may remember this,
I don't know, but in 1994, it may have been later part of 93,
there's a woman, a local woman here in town, that prophesied and said that
the end of the world was near. And some foolish people sold
their houses, gave their money away, some people even tried
to leave Pike County, and well, we're still here. It didn't come
to pass, did it? Well, according to the law, she'd
be executed. Now some liberal thinking person
might say, well, Elijah sure acted with malice
and judgment. I don't think he did. I think
he acted with holy zeal to glorify God. Beside that, these men got
exactly what they deserve, exactly what we deserve by nature. For the wages of sin still is
death, so that sinners might surely die. All those who have
no atonement for sin, all those who have no Savior, No blood
sacrifice offered unto the Lord. Those who have no salvation will
experience the same just end, eternal condemnation. The Lord said, turn to 2 Thessalonians,
couple of references, 2 Thessalonians chapter one. Our Lord said, if
you believe not that I am, if you believe not that I am, You'll
die in your sins. 2 Thessalonians says over here,
when the Lord comes again, when thou shalt come with shout of
acclamation, then my soul will cry, how great thou art. Some
folks are gonna cry for the rocks and the mountains to hide them
from the wrath of the Lamb. Read about in the Revelation. 2 Thessalonians. chapter one
verse seven and to you who are troubled rest with us when the
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels
in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and the glory of his power Now, if you want to turn to this,
you can. If not, I'll just read it to
you. 2 Peter 3. We had this recently in our Bible
study. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, he that believeth not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him. 2 Peter 3 verse 10. The day of the Lord will come
at the thief in the night. in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with a fervent
heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be burned
up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto
the coming of the day of our God, when the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
a fervent heat, Nevertheless, we, according to His promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."
Thank God for His mercy. Someone called me earlier in
the week and he said, I'm so thankful God
delights to show mercy. I said, I am too. I'm so thankful
He delights to show mercy. None of us deserve it. None of
us can merit it. He shows mercy upon whom he will,
and whom he will, he'll harden. Thank God he delivered us from
Baal worship and from Christless religion.