Well, please, congregation, open your Bibles. This morning, the 1 Kings chapter 16. We'll begin reading at verse 29 and read through chapter 17, verse 7. Here in chapter 16 and 17, we find the people of Israel in a downward spiral. Israel has been in this downward spiral ever since her rebellion against the throne of David. You may know from the life and history of Israel how when Jeroboam became king, he set up idols throughout the land of Israel so that Israel would no longer feel the need to go back to Jerusalem to the temple where God called his people to worship them, but they might make use of these idols in this new priesthood of Jeroboam. And after the reign of King Jeroboam, each king after him has walked in his wicked ways. That's what you'll discover if you read through chapters 15 and 16, that each king did evil in the sight of the Lord by walking in the way of Jeroboam and in the sin in which he made Israel to sin. But now at the reign of King Ahab, we come to a turning of the page to an even darker chapter in the life and history of the people of Israel. 1 Kings chapter 16, being at verse 29, this is God's holy word. In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel and Samaria 22 years. Now Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took his wife, Jezebel, the daughter of Athbaal, king of the Sidonians. And he went and served Baal and worshiped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Hyle of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiramus firstborn, and with his youngest son, Segub, he set up its gates according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through Joshua, the son of Nun. And Elijah the Tishbi to the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except by my word. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as I said just a few moments ago, our passage for this morning marks a turning of the page in the life and history of the people of Israel. For Israel has indeed been in this downward spiral as each king after Jeroboam has indeed continued to walk in all the wicked ways of Jeroboam. And so each king has died in his sin. And now even mighty King Omri has also died. Mighty King Omri of whom the spirit says in verse 25 was worse than all the kings who were before him, he too has died. And now he's been succeeded by one even more evil than he, by his son Ahab, who the Spirit of Christ tells us in verse 30, did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who were before him. And the Spirit tells us how this was so in verses 31 to 33. For it was during the reign of King Ahab that Israel nearly broke entirely with the Lord, the God of the covenant. For Ahab did more than merely walk in the sins of Jeroboam, but as if walking in the sins of Jeroboam had been a trivial thing, as if walking in the wickedness of Jeroboam had been no big deal at all, Ahab took for his wife Jezebel. the daughter of Athbaal, the king of the Sidonians. And Ahab worshiped Baal and began to serve Baal. And so Ahab pushes the name of the Lord to the side completely as he introduces into the life of Israel the worship of Baal, the god of the Sidonians. Verse 32, Ahab said, if an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and Ahab made a wooden image, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So once again in 1 Kings, the spirit of Christ, is showing us that he is not at all interested in Ahab's politics and his political accomplishments and political achievements or his economic successes. For what does any of that stuff matter if those things are not pursued to the glory of God? You see, congregation, when you study the life of these wicked kings of Israel, what you soon discover is that when the first two commandments are set aside to live for yourself and to live for your own glory, then nothing else counts. It doesn't matter what you build up here on the earth. It doesn't matter how successful you are in the eyes of the world. If you live life in rebellion against God and rebellion against the word of God, then all is vanity, a striving after the wind. And such is the life and reign of King Ahab. Ahab has rejected the Lord for the false gods of the world. And under the influence of his horribly wicked wife, Jezebel, he's made this rejection of the Lord the official policy in the land of Israel, and so he supersedes the wickedness of all the wicked kings who came before him. You say Ahab's wife Jezebel was not content to practice her pagan religion in private, but Israel's Baal worship became packaged with wicked Jezebel as Baal's pseudo evangelist. Jezebel practices what one pastor has called worldview Baalism. This worship of Baal is going to bleed into every aspect of Israel society. She brings with her a horde of her own prophets to proclaim the name of Baal in Israel. She begins to kill all the true prophets in Israel. She comes bent on squashing the Lord's people and bent on destroying any place that they might call upon the Lord's name. And so Ahab, the king of Israel, stand in open defiance against the Lord of hosts. But here we see that God is not mocked. For we know that whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. God has not turned a blind eye toward any of this, but just as he held the five wicked kings in the palm of his hand before Ahab, so too God holds wicked Ahab in the palm of his hand. And so here, too, in 1 Kings 16, we're reminded that our God, the God of the universe, is also the author of history, and he is yet working all things together according to his good purposes. And the coming chapters, God is going to bring this wicked king to his knees and we're going to, you'll see the principle of Psalm 146 play out in Ahab's life. Put no confidence in princes and mortal men who cannot save all their plans will come to nothing when they perish in the grave. You see, Ahab's covenant and political alliance with Ethbaal through the marriage to his daughter Jezebel will avail him no help at all. But Ahab's life, like every life, lived on its own terms and for its own glory, will end in failure and destruction. And God is going to prove to all Israel the utter foolishness and futility of her ways and turning away from the covenant Lord to the tyrannical God of the Sidonians. And so the Spirit of Christ is showing us something rather profound in our passage this morning because we discover here is what happens when God goes to war. Here we see what happens when God goes to war with the false gods of the world, when God goes to war with the false values and false ideologies of the world. Here we see that when God goes to war, He curses foolish builders who try His word. He curses those who would put His word to the test. And when God goes to war, He contends with wicked kings who trample His word. We also see that when God goes to war, He also cares for His faithful servants who trust in His word. When God goes to war, He does not forget to be faithful to His own, but even as He contends with the wicked, he cares for the righteous. In verse 34, the spirit of Christ attaches to the list of the sins committed by Ahab, the story of the rebuilding of Jericho. For in addition to his marriage to Jezebel and to the worship of Baal, this especially reveals to us something of the total contempt that Ahab had for the word of God and also to the depth of misery into which the covenant people have now begun to plunge themselves. In Ahab's days, Hael of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with, or better translate, he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiramus' firstborn son. And he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Segob, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by Joshua, the son of Nun. If you want to turn back in your Bible to Joshua 6, verse 26, we read that after the walls of Jericho had fallen down, after Israel had devoted that city to destruction, Joshua solemnly warned the people of Israel. He said, cursed before the Lord be the man who raises up and rebuilds this city. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation. At the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. And so ever since the days of Joshua, no one had ever dared to defy the Lord's curse against Jericho. No one had ever dared to try him, to put his word to the test. That is until finally the days of King Ahab and Hael the Builder. And so to quote S.G. de Graaf, Israel's resistance to the Lord and to the grace of his covenant is now being carried out to the limit. When Joshua pronounced a curse over whoever would rebuild the walls of Jericho was to show that Canaan was a safe place for Israel, not because of the walls that fortify a city, but because of the protection of God's favor. And so Joshua had solemnly warned the people of Israel, whoever undertook to refortify the city would fall under the curse of God, the cost being life itself. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. But Ahab and Hile have no concern whatsoever for God's word. They seek to silence that word, to suppress that word. And so they have no problem putting that word to the test. Perhaps you boys and girls have heard mom or dad say, don't try me. When do mom and dad say that? Mom and dad might say, don't try me, when you're about to do something bad, when you're about to disobey, they might say, don't try me, don't put me to the test. And that's what God was saying through his servant Joshua through this curse that had been pronounced by Joshua. God was saying to all Israel as they surveyed the ruins of those walls of Jericho, don't try me, don't put my word to the test. For doing so will come at a heavy cost. Well, this is the word which Hile, under the direction of King Ahab, has openly defied. He has put the word of the Lord to the test. Under Ahab's direction, Hile has built up Jericho in order to re-fortify that city, and it has come at the cost of his two sons. For the word of the Lord cannot be broken. Heil is struck by the divine curse of God, an enduring testimony to the truth and living power of the word of God. This congregation is what always happens when the word of God is tried and defied. Resistance to God's word always brings death. John says it did in the garden. If you eat of the tree, you will surely die. The reason for why rebuilding the city of Jericho was so serious was not only because to do so was to sin against the law of God, but also to sin against the grace of God. To leave the city of Jericho unfortified was to say to the world, as for me and for my kingdom, we will trust in the Lord. He will protect us from our enemies. But to rebuild the walls was to say, as for me and my kingdom, we will rely on our own strength and we will protect ourselves. This is why rebuilding and re-fortifying the city of Jericho was so serious. Boys and girls, what was the message that Jericho's fallen walls proclaimed the people of Israel? that as Israel walked around those walls for seven days, on the seventh day, the walls came tumbling down. What was God saying? What was the song that those ruins would sing for centuries? The message the fallen walls of Jericho proclaimed was that the way into God's kingdom is by grace through faith. The fallen city of Jericho testified to the wonder of God's grace in saving his people and giving them victory over all their enemies, not on account of their own strength, but on account of his strength. When the walls of Jericho had come tumbling down, the message of the gospel was proclaimed to the world. The judgment of God against all sin and unrighteous on the one hand, but also the grace of God towards those who trust him on the other. The toppled walls of Jericho proclaimed the message of the cross of Christ. To quote one pastor, no Israelite could pass by Jericho without reading the inscription that God had written over the ruins of old Jericho. This city was received as a gift of grace through faith. That's what Hebrews 11.30 tells us, isn't it? By faith. The walls of Jericho fell down after Israel had marched around them for seven days. As I said before, the reign of King Ahab signals a turning of the page in the life and history of Israel. Ahab dares to do what no king before him had dared to do. And because of the hardening effect of unbelief, writes one pastor, Ahab, had become deaf to the powerful language spoken by the ruins. He did not want to hear the message, and so he could not hear the message. The foolish builders Ahab and Hile did not want to live by the grace of God's power. But rather they sought to erase that inscription and to write a new inscription over the kingdom of Israel, only through Ahab's power, only through Hael's expertise, so we'd be kept safe and secure. They refused to live by the grace of God. And all this should sound fairly familiar because our world is no different, is it? We too live in a world of this kind of reckless rebellion against the Word of God. We too live in a world where foolish builders seek to build up their lives on their own strength. And like Hyle, they do so at the cost of their families and their children, even at the cost of their own personal well-being. And we too live in a day when many spiritual and secular leaders alike place their trust in their own schemes rather than in the clear instructions of God's word for the health of a nation and the growth of the church. We too live in a day and age when people bow down before the idols of money and power and the idols of beauty and sex and salve. And we too, like the people of Israel so long ago, are tempted to bow down to these very same idols. and defiance against the word of the Lord. We too are tempted to build our lives on the idolatrous values and ideologies of the world. And so we need to take heed to the warning of God's word this morning. God goes to war with the gods of the world. God goes to war with all these false values and false ideologies of the world. And God, as with his own finger, writes a curse over that way of life that says, I'm going to do it in my own strength. And he writes a curse over the way of life that says, I don't really need God. I don't need his grace. I'm doing perfectly fine without it. God writes a curse over that way of life. I trust that none of us here actually say these sorts of things, at least not out loud, but we're fooling ourselves if we don't recognize how easily our own mentality can begin to shift in a high-altar, builder-like direction. For some of us, it happens already in the daily rhythm of our Monday-to-Saturday living when we fail to set aside that needed time for personal communion with God and word and prayer. What does that say about our mentality? What that says is that perhaps we're beginning to functionally think we're doing all right. Perhaps we don't really need Christ as much today as we needed Him yesterday. I'll get to it later, I'm good for now, I've got it. Of course, setting aside that time for communion with God doesn't earn God's grace. It's not a means to God's grace. But communion with the Lord through word and prayer are means of grace. And God has given us those means in order that we might grow in grace, in order that we might be reminded again and again and again that we need him now, that we need him today as much as we ever have. But how quickly we begin to forget that, how easily that high-altitude builder mentality starts to find a real foothold in our lives so that we sing, not what my hands have done on Sunday, but all about what our hands have done Monday through Saturday. How easily we too can begin to build our lives upon the thinking and values and ideologies of the world. But God is warning us, he is graciously warning us. As a father warns his children and love that living your life in this way comes at a price. Living your life in this way comes at a heavy cost. Perhaps it won't come at the cost of your two sons that did for Hyle, but it will cost you. Living your life in this way, in your own strength, in your own might, living your life in this way will come at the cost of your sense of peace and joy and security. It will come at the cost of feeling as though the Lord is far from you. Without true repentance and faith, living for today and in your own strength will come at the cost of your own soul. For what shall it profit a man, said Jesus, if he should gain the whole world? What should it profit him if he should gain the whole world, wealth and riches and power and clout and everything in between? What shall it profit if he should gain all these things that the world values and esteems so highly, only to lose his own soul? And so today, congregation, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts in rebellion. But let us strive to enter that Hebrews 4 rest, which comes in one way, in one way only, by grace through faith. This is what God is saying to us here at the end of 1 Kings 16, that, to quote Hebrews 3, verses 12 and 15, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold fast to our original confidence, firm to the end. For God curses foolish builders who try his word. That's what we see in the first place this morning. God writes a curse over that way of life that says I don't need him. I'm doing just fine without him. Secondly, how he contends with such people. He contends with wicked kings who trample his word. King Ahab will not go uncontested. But we discover here in verse 1 of chapter 17 is that just as God did in the days of Pharaoh in Egypt with the 10 plagues, God is once again here going to war with the gods of the world. Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe and Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither dune nor rain these years except by my word. Notice congregation, the suddenness of Elijah's appearance. from verses 29 to 34 of chapter 16, and from chapters 15 and 16, it would seem as though everything and everyone is capitulating to Baal until finally this prophet stands before the king, the prophet Elijah, whose name literally means my God is Yahweh, in itself a testimony to the reality that his God is the one true God, that every other God is no God at all, finally, Elijah stands before this wicked king, and he bursts onto the scene as God's word bear to contest this wicked king. He enters onto the scene of redemptive history, pronounced the curses of the covenant upon Israel for having forsaken the Lord for Baal. For Moses had warned the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 11 that if they went and served other gods, then the Lord would shut up the heavens so that there would be no rain and so that the ground would yield no fruit. And so by saying that there will be neither dune nor rain, God isn't just a chastise in the people of Israel. That's certainly part of it. God is going to cause Israel to see the error in her way and her need to return to the Lord by taking away the rain and taking away the water from the land. That's not all God is doing. God is doing much more than that here. Because here we see the start of this great contest between the one true God of heaven and Baal, the false God of rain. We have to understand that that's what's happening here. By the end of this great contest, the end of this great war, everybody is going to know which God is the one true God and which God is really no God at all. And boys and girls, who do you think is going to win this contest? Who's going to win this war? God's going to win the war. Evil may have its day, but God is going to have the final say. For there will be no dew or rain in all Israel except by the prophetic word of the Lord. So to quote one pastor, Baal's deity is going to shrink and shrivel as the cracks in Israel's fields grow wider. And from this says another writer, we see that the king and the land are placed in Elijah's hands as the bearer of the word of God. Here God's word and Elijah are one. When Elijah is silent, God's word is silent. For the Lord has put his word in Elijah's mouth and has given him authority over all things, even over the king and the kingdom. And so there Elijah stood before the king in Samaria, and there he swore by the living God that there would be neither dune nor rain until he said so. And this Elijah does in order to make perfectly clear to King Ahab and to wicked Jezebel and to all Israel that blessing, that the blessing of rain and the blessing upon the fields comes from one place and one place alone. And that's from the Lord, the one true God of the universe. God is going to bring all those who trample on his word to their knees. When God goes to war, he contends with such people. He contests whoever tramples his word. They do not go unnoticed or uncontested. We sometimes feel that way, don't we? that the wicked in the world are going unchallenged and uncontested. We sometimes feel as though the righteous are losing the war, the war in our culture and our world. But God is showing us here that wicked kings do not go uncontested. He contends with wicked kings who trample His word. All the while caring for His faithful servants who trust His word. Even here as Elijah bursts forth onto the scene and declares this word of judgment, even here God is yet holding out his arms to a wicked and rebellious people as the prophet Jeremiah describes, calling them to repent, calling them to return to him with all their heart. The Spirit of Christ doesn't really give us Elijah's backstory. He only notes that he hails from Tishbe and Gilead, but God is going to work mightily through this prophet's ministry. And seeing Elijah come onto the scene in this way that is so suddenly and so seemingly out of the blue reminds us as one pastor that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth. For we can be sure that God in unexpected places has already secretly prepared His counter-movement. God always has His ways of working underground to undermine the stability of evil. God can raise men for His service from nowhere. Therefore, the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes, it always has a superficial flourish. For at the height of the triumph of evil, God will be there, ready with his men and his movement and his plans to ensure that his own cause will never fail. Here in 1 Kings 16 and 17, Satan's throne has been installed in Samaria. In the life and reign of King Ahab and wicked Jezebel we see a foreshadowing of Antichrist. Satan's throne is installed here in Samaria. But the height of all this evil, God is there, ready with his man, ready with his plan. Not only does he bring his faithful servant onto the scene, but he also takes care of him. For God always takes care of his office bearers. And after appearing before King Ahab, Elijah is told to go and hide himself by the brook Cherith. And there Elijah is going to experience the wonder of God's grace and the wonder of God's word as all his needs will be provided for. God is not going to turn a blind eye away from his faithful servant. But according to the word of the Lord, he's going to drink water from the brook. And according to the word of the Lord, the ravens themselves are going to bring his servant food to eat every morning and every evening. And doesn't this show the power of God's grace? Even the unclean raven's nature. If even the raven, who is bent on taking everything for itself and only looking out for itself, even the raven's nature can be reshaped and repurposed in this way to carry food in its mouth and to lay it at the feet of Elijah, then perhaps the fallen nature of Israel can be bent back into shape as well. Perhaps the word of the Lord might just break through their fallen, wicked nature too. Perhaps there's still hope for God's Israel after all. Here in the life of Elijah, God is waging war against the cruel and tyrannical gods of the world. And God is showing that they're nothing. By concealing his word, bear and cherish, God is going to intend to make Israel see their total dependence upon the word of the Lord and that without him they can do nothing. Simultaneously bringing to Israel's mind the words of Psalm 81. Hear my people, let me warn you, if you would but listen now. No strange God shall be among you. To a false God do not bow. And he's also bring at the same time to their remembrance. The words of Psalm 91, who with God most high finds shelter, lives in God Almighty's shade. That's the prophet Elijah finding shelter in God most high, living in God Almighty's shade. For God always looks after the needs. He always cares for his office bearers. He preserves them that they might serve Him in the service of His church. Not only His office bearers, but God looks after all those who trust in Him. God is going to preserve a remnant for Himself in Israel. Elijah will cry out, Lord, there's no one left but me. After these three years of drought and rain. And God will say, no, no, there's still 7,000 whom I've been preserving and keeping safe. And we'll see, if you read in chapter 18, Jezebel, she sought to kill off all the prophets in Israel. There was a faithful servant, even in Ahab's house, Obadiah, whose name means servant of the Lord, who was hiding 100 prophets in caves and bringing them food every day. God cares for those who trust in Him. He looks after their needs. And hasn't this been our own experience that God has taken care of us even as he took care of Elijah so long ago? Elijah is going to endure the great agricultural calamity of his day, living through a fame that's going to last for three and a half years. Elijah's going to stage the great religious showdown of his time, facing off with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and calling down fire from heaven. He's going to speak hard and daring words to wicked kings and queens. He's going to run 17 miles ahead of horses and chariots. He's going to give food to the hungry and raise a dead boy back to life. And at the end of it all, he is not even going to die. but he's going to be taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. And so you might ask the question, who is this man? What kind of man is he? Well, James 5 says that he was a man just like us. Like us, he was a man who lived an evil day in an increasingly darkening world. But just like us, he was also a man whose God was Yahweh, the living God. He was a man just like us because his help also came from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Elijah's a man just like us because Elijah's God is our God. Our God is still the living God. He's still the God who goes to war with the false gods and false ideologies of the world. That's what he's doing even now in the preaching of the gospel. That's what he's doing throughout all the world this day as the message of the cross goes forth. God goes to war to break down these false values and false ideologies and to preserve for himself that remnant, to return to him in repentance and faith. He still goes to war with the gods of the world. And so how can we not seek to serve him as Elijah served him? How can we not trust in his word which Elijah trusted in? For if God kept his word to Elijah, sending him ravens from the sky to bring him bread and meat, do you really think he won't keep his word also to you? Not only to forgive you of all your sins, but also to glorify you in the presence of the Savior. This congregation is what happens when God goes to war with the gods of the world. All his enemies will surely perish, Psalm 132. He will cover them with shame. But Christ's crown shall ever flourish. Blessed be His holy name. Amen, let us pray. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, again, we draw near to your throne of grace this morning, confessing how easily our own mentality can shift in a higher, the builder-like direction. So quickly, Father, we forget the antithesis that we are to be in this world and not of this world. So easily, we begin to imbibe the values and ideologies of the world. We begin to live for ourselves and our own strength and for our own glory. Father, we thank you that in your grace, you wage war against that mentality using the sword of the Spirit, which is your word. And that you remind your covenant people again and again and again that you indeed write a curse over the way of life that says, I can do it on my own, I can do it in my own strength. And that as you remind us of that, you also point us to your strength. And you put that picture in our minds of the walls of Jericho toppled over. As a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ, it was foolish to the world for Israel to march around those walls. But through that perceived folly, you gave victory. And so Father, we thank that you gave victory also to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank that you are the living God, that as we cast down every idol, You remind us that you are very much alive, and that you are near in your grace and your mercy, and that you take care of us as we trust in your word. So grant us, Lord, a strong trust, a fervent trust in your word to live according to every word that has proceeded from your mouth, even as our Savior did. This we pray in his name and for his sake, amen.