Once again, we're turning to the books of 1st and 2nd Kings. I would remind you, maybe you didn't know this, so I would instruct you that in the original, the 1st and 2nd Kings is actually just Kings, it's just one book. And all the information flows together. This morning, we find ourselves in what we know as 2nd Kings chapter one. 2nd Kings chapter one. And there's a lot I need to catch up to speed on, but I can't do that for sake of time. So let me just remind you that when we left off last week, Elijah, the victorious prophet, the one who was there on Mount Carmel when God sent down the fire from heaven and consumed the altar and the offering and the rocks and the water, That Elijah who gave the instruction to kill the prophets of Baal and Elijah who then fled when Jezebel made that declaration that she would kill or have killed Elijah. Elijah went all the way down to Mount Horeb in the south and Elijah there was kind of crying out in desperation. He was distraught. He was, we would even say depressed, despondent. He was ready for his life to just be done. And it seems like he went from the greatest victory that the Bible has to talk about, aside from the resurrection, to the greatest defeat, all in a matter of hours. But what I love is that the story doesn't end there. The story doesn't end in Elijah's defeatism. It doesn't end with Elijah crying in the dirt and saying, God, I just want my life to be over. God, as we looked at last week, God gently and tenderly came alongside his prophet, his messenger, He revived him, spirit and body, and gave him new direction and new marching orders and sent him back into the battle, back into the work, because God is a tender and loving and kind God. There's a verse that speaks of Jesus in his ministry that just really resonates in my heart. I repeat it to myself often. A smoldering wick he will not snuff out, and a bruised reed he will not break. Sometimes in the Christian life, you feel like a smoldering wick where there's just barely anything happening at all. And in your own heart, you feel like, God, just put me out. Be done with me. I don't know that I can go on. But God, in his own perfect way, comes alongside of us, gives us a meal and a nap. as he did with Elijah, gives us whatever it is, gives us his word, revives us, and sends us back into the work. And as you read through the rest of what we know as 1 Kings, you'll read that there's a lot of activity happening, a lot more players in the game than just Elijah. Remember his declaration was, I'm the only one left and they seek my life as well. And God said, I've reserved 7,000 in Israel who've not bowed the knee to Baal. God's perspective is what Elijah needed. That there's a lot more things going on in the kingdom, there's a lot more things going on from God's perspective than just what little Elijah sees. There's no-name prophets, at least they didn't have names recorded in scripture, that are doing wonderful things throughout the rest of 1 Kings. But as we open up what is 2 Kings to us, as the story continues, it reads this, after the death of Ahab, Ahab was that notorious, ruthless, infamous thug of a king who wanted to kill Elijah, who wanted to silence Elijah. It was he that was there on Mount Carmel to see the display of God's power. And it was he that foolishly ran home to his wife Jezebel and told her what happened and didn't stand up for the truth. He was a capable leader on some levels because the kingdom was somewhat strong under him, but he was a evil, wicked man. But the story, as the story progresses, Ahab is now dead and Elijah is still ministering. There's a message in that alone, church. Though the kingdoms of this world seem strong and mighty, and though it seems like they're winning, it seems like they're going to just keep on doing their thing, God and his messengers will prevail. The kingdoms of this world will come to an end. As 2 Kings opens, we find that Ahab is dead and that Moab has rebelled against Israel. meaning that the plight in Israel is going from bad to worse. The strength of Ahab's leadership kind of gave them some strength and some clout to where smaller vassal nations like Moab were kept in check and they were paying tribute to the nation of Israel, but now Ahab is gone and his strength is divided and now his son is ruling and his son is not as capable as he and now there's not only wickedness but now there's More weakness. Moab has rebelled. Verse two begins this story. Now Ahaz fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria. Ahaziah is the son of Ahab. For context, let me go back to what would be the previous verses, the very end of 1 Kings 22, which says, Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel and Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. And he reigned two years over Israel. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He served Baal and worshiped him and provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done. Sounds like a good guy, huh? And now in 2 Kings, as I've already read, he's there in the capital city of Samaria. He's in the upper part of his palace and he's apparently leaning against the lattice in the window or on the top of the roof and it fails and he falls and lands, you know, as you might land. And he's now laid up, he's infirmed. It says that he's sick, but clearly there's probably some brokenness to his body. And so he sends messengers telling them, go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there is no god in Israel that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub? the God of Ekron? Now therefore, thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. So Elijah went. Ahab's gone, he's dead, his son has taken over, he's no better, he's just a lesser of a man than his father, but he's just as evil, just as wicked, and he's incorporated the sin of his mother Baal worship. So the 450 prophets of Baal that were slaughtered in the Jezreel Valley didn't put an end to Baal worship in Israel. It revived. As staunch and as faithful as Elijah was in his worship of Yahweh, so too was Jezebel in her worship of Baal. and she brought more prophets, or she raised up more prophets, and by the time now their son is on the throne, he also is worshiping Baal, and the excitement at Mount Carmel has waned, and the people are now caught in between two decisions. Just like they were before, nothing had changed. The amazing victory at Mount Carmel brought about zero fruit. The people are just as much lost between two ideas as they ever were. But God who is faithful, God who has raised up prophets, is the one who will continue to serve and continue to send these prophets to witness against these wicked kings, and that's Elijah's job. It didn't win him any friends. It didn't make him a national treasure, at least not in his own generation. It didn't make him the favorite dinner party guest. But Elijah had a job, and his job was to listen to the voice of the Lord and to repeat it to those whom needed to hear it, and the message communicates something about God. You remember, this is not Elijah saying, I'm gonna make up a religion here. The prophet is not the person who makes stuff up in his own mind and by his own authority to go and to tell other people what he thinks about life. The prophet's job is that he has died to himself and he is now a conduit to speak forth God's message and what God thinks. And so all throughout this chapter, as we study this chapter, as we study this account, we learn some things about God, about Yahweh. We learn some things about what he's like. And the first thing I have written down there is that the intolerance of God. Even as I wrote that, I thought, is that right? Because there's something about intolerance that we have been taught is Sinful. It's wrong to be intolerant. It is evil and it is wicked to be intolerant in our culture. And I wrestled with it. I'm like, am I saying the right thing here? You could use the word exclusivity. Maybe that's less abrasive than the word intolerant. But the concept is the same. The God who made all things in Genesis 1, the God who called Abram to himself, the God who separated Israel out by giving them his law is the God who in this passage is communicating through Elijah that he will have no other gods before him. Nothing has changed. Just a reminder, Exodus chapter 20 verses three to five, you shall have no other gods before me, Yahweh says. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Is that okay? for Yahweh to say no to Buddha? For Yahweh to say no to Muhammad? For Yahweh to say no to any other so-called religious leader or God that sets itself up in the place of God? Is it okay for Yahweh to say no Baalism? more to the point, is it okay for Yahweh to say through his servant Elijah, Ahaziah is going to die because he went and inquired of the god of Ekron? We already learned at Mount Carmel that this God is no God at all. No one answered. No one came to their rescue. Do you remember those phrases? Nothing happened. They prayed and prayed and prayed. They cut themselves. They did all kinds of things to provoke their God to answer and nothing happened. And the text just leaves you with that silence to remind you that there is no other God but Yahweh. And now Ahaziah has fallen off his lavish palace, busted up body, laying in bed. He knows his life is ebbing away. He sends messengers to go inquire from some so-called god, the god of Ekron, Beelzebub, whether or not he will live, and God will have none of it. Yahweh says to Elijah, go tell him. This is what those words say that God told him to say. Go meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub? Is there no God in Israel? What was the refrain of the people at Mount Carmel? The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. That was their refrain when they saw the fire fall from heaven, when they saw the altar consumed by fire, when they felt the heat of it and they fell to their faces, they instinctively said, the Lord, Yahweh, is God. And now, in his moment of desperation, as he's laying there sick and dying, he knows his life is going to end. And it was the same back then as it is today, when you're touched by that, that whatever it is, that you know your life is about to end, you have short time left, and you get desperate. You want to know what's coming next. And in his desperation, Ahaziah calls on a false god. What a fool. He was old enough to know what happened at Carmel. He might have been there, we don't know for sure. And now he's calling on the god who doesn't answer. So we see not only his folly, his own stupidity, the blindness that comes from sin and hard-heartedness, but we also see the intolerance of God. God says I'm done. I'm done with him. Is it because there's no God in Israel that you go to the God of Ekron? Ekron, I think that should resonate in your mind because in the past, in Israel's history, Ekron has always been a Philistine stronghold in the southern part of the kingdom, and it was there in Ekron, you remember when there was those battles back and forth in the early days of Israel in the land, and they conquered, they defeated the Israelites, and they took the Ark of the Covenant captive, and they took it back to Ekron, and they set it up in their temple to Dagon. Remember that story? And God knocked over their God. I think it's hilarious. And they went in and had to set him back up. And this whole encounter happens over and over and over and finally they're like, get Yahweh out of here. He's making us look foolish. And now the king of Israel is calling on that God. God continues, now therefore thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. Your life is over, Ahaziah. It's just a matter of time. a few more hours, a few more days, and you will be gone. And so Elijah does what Elijah does, which is to obey the word of the Lord, and he goes and he intersects these messengers as they're on their way to inquire of a no God, and he repeats the message as he should, as he does. He does so faithfully, and he tells them, turn around, Go tell your king, this is what God says. And here's the fascinating thing. The messengers turn around. They obey the voice of Elijah, maybe not even realizing that they're risking their own lives. Their king, who has ultimate authority in the land, has just sent them to go inquire of this God, and now they've been interrupted and they go back with a different message. If Ahaziah was having a bad day and he decided to, he could have said, you didn't obey me, you're done. But this is what happens. They go back with the message. And they repeat it. And the text repeats it, I think for our benefit, because God continues to say the same thing. Is it because there is no God in Israel that you were sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Like just to remind the readers, do you know that your idol worship is declaring to the God of heaven, we don't believe that you're real? This God who faithfully brought them out of Egypt, who rescued them with a strong and mighty hand that they're now declaring through their idolatry that we don't believe you are real, and we don't believe you are powerful, and we don't believe you can do anything about our current situation. They wouldn't have flat out denied Yahweh, they just would have lived as though he was impotent. It means without power. Some little girl just whispered to her dad, what does impotent mean? There you go. You just gotta ask. Not everyone at once though. So they go back, the messengers turn around, they go back, they talk to Ahaziah, they say this is what the message says, someone interrupted us, someone caught us on our way and while we were, We're talking with him, he told us this, and so they're repeating the message to the king. He says, why have you returned? And they said to him, there came a man to meet us and said to us, go back to the king who sent you and say to him, thus says the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. Ahaziah said to them, what kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things? They answered him, he wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather about his waist. And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. I just think of this as like an old western playing out in my mind. I don't, it's probably wrong. But he's saying like, it's Eliza the Tishbite. He was known not only by how he ministered, but how he dressed. By the way, so was John the Baptist. This is what they said of John the Baptist. He dresses funny and he eats funny. And he preaches hellfire and he preaches judgment and he tells the people to repent. He's just like Elijah. A faithful man of God. But Ahaziah doesn't see him as a faithful man of God. Ahaziah sees him as his nemesis. As a problem. As his father did, a troubler of Israel. It's Elijah the Tishbite. I thought we were done with him. Verse nine, the scene changes a bit from the exclusive message of God who declares to Ahaziah and to all of us that he alone will be worshiped. Now the story continues. Verse nine, then the king, sent to him, that is to Elijah, a captain of 50 men with his 50. So 51 soldiers, one of them's a captain, and they go out to meet Elijah. Lots of messages and messengers in this story. He went up to Elijah who was sitting on the top of a hill and said to him, oh man of God, the king says come down. But Elijah answered the captain of 50, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. And I will confess to you, as we read this story, some of you have a really difficult time with this. There's a part of me that does as well. What is happening here? I mean, this poor captain and his 50 men who were just showing up for work that day, they didn't know what was gonna be told them, they didn't know what their job assignment was gonna be, and they showed up and they learned, okay, we have to go over to the hill and we have to talk to this Elijah the Tishbite guy and we have to tell him what the king says. Okay, here we go. and they show up and the captain speaks and then they're all dead. Like does this strike you as a little bit difficult to consume? Is Elijah just like troubled? Is he having a really bad day? I think there's more to the story than what we are immediately confronted with, because here's the thing. Elijah says, if I am a man of God, let fire fall. He doesn't even say, God, please consume them with fire. He says, if I am a man of God, let fire fall, and what? Fire fell. We might be tempted to be annoyed or to be bothered by Elijah here and his capriciousness But it was God who consumed the 51 men. Elijah didn't get a blowtorch out and do it himself. God, Yahweh, the one who has just declared to the king that there's no other God beside him, has now consumed these men in their uniforms. Why? Well, here's why we have trouble with this. We think that these men were innocent. Just like we think our neighbors are innocent. Just like we think we are innocent. We live and we breathe and we exist in this mindset of thinking that we are mostly innocent before God and that when he is judging us or doing anything harsh or against our plans that somehow he has wronged us. But the Bible communicates the exact opposite of that. Paul says plainly in Romans chapter three, there is no one righteous, no one who does good, no one who is right before God. The fact that these men woke up that morning was a gift from God. The fact that you woke up this morning is a gift from God. The fact that I haven't fallen over now dead is a gift from God. What do we deserve? Besides judgment, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have rebelled against our maker. We have shaken our fist in his face and said, we will not obey your commandments. Were these men as wicked as Ahaziah or Ahab or Jezebel? I don't know. But rest assured, they were wicked men. Even our good deeds are as filthy rags before a holy God. So that's the first thing. The reason you have a difficulty, the reason I have a difficulty accepting this text at face value and not wanting to cast blame on Elijah or even blame on God is because we think too highly of ourselves. Also, This text is latent with mercy. It goes on, after the first 50, verse 11, again, the king sent to him another captain of 50 men with his 50. And he answered and said to him, O man of God, this is the king's order, come down quickly. But Elijah answered them, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50. And then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. Let me just remind you, the king, who's laying dead, or almost dead, and can't get up from his own bed, is irritated that Elijah the Tishbite has reared his head again, is now, in his mind, troubling Israel by giving God's word. He did not send a captain with his 50 men to go and honor Elijah. He sent the captain with the 50 men to bring Elijah in by force if necessary. This was not just a welcoming party. Hey, it's Elijah the Tishbite. Where have you been, bud? These men have bad intentions. They're going to at least attempt to carry out the wishes of the king who wants Elijah in front of him. You can see it in the commands. The first captain says, oh man of God, the king says, come down. Come down here, come to me. And the second captain adds emphasis. He says, oh man of God, this is the king's order. Come down quickly. This wicked king does not have good motives for Elijah's life, and Elijah knows that, and Elijah, who has been spared by other ruthless kings in the past, is also being protected here by God. These 50 men could easily overpower Elijah, but they can't overpower fire from heaven. So God does what God does. He protects his servant so that he could continue to be useful. But something else happens, verse 13. Again, the king sent the captain of a third 50 with his 50. The king is not learning the lesson here. That's the point. The king is a hard-hearted, arrogant man who does not fear God, nor does he want to walk in his ways. God is graciously giving him time and time again to repent, but Ahaziah is hard-hearted and difficult. The third captain of 50 went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him. He begged him, O man of God, Please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of 50 with their 50s, but now let my life be precious in your sight. What does he do? He learns a valuable lesson, the lesson that Ahaziah doesn't learn. He comes now to Elijah, he has to do what the king says or the king will kill him. Now this man is stuck in a predicament. He showed up for work, he saw the other 250s go out, he heard the report of what happened and now he's next in line and he's told the same thing and he has to decide what am I gonna do? And he falls on his knees before Elijah and begs him. This is a man who fears Yahweh. I don't know if this is a newborn fear that just came up in the last 20 minutes, or if this is a man who loves the Lord and just ended up in a career where he's now a servant to the king and has to obey his orders. I venture to say that he heard the reports of the charred soldiers who went before him. And now he knows it's his turn and he falls on his knees, a sign of great humility, and he begs Elijah, please consider my life as precious and the lives of these 50 men. We are your servants. And here's the beautiful thing. Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him, do not be afraid of him. Notice the phrase, do not be afraid of him. The other two captains with their 50s obviously had bad intentions and Elijah was fearful to go with them because he knew that they were going to kill him or at least try to. And this third one, he doesn't know what to expect, he doesn't know what to, what to consider about this guy. And the angel of Yahweh has to say to him, don't be afraid of him. And so there is mercy demonstrated. No fire from heaven. This man and his 50 men went home to their wives that night. They kissed their children. They probably appreciated the fact that they could tuck him in one more time. Their lives were spared, why? Because this man demonstrated humility. And in this middle part of the text, we learn an important thing that the New Testament says clearly, that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The Old Testament says it as well. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We see that literally demonstrated in this text. Two groups, these captains with their 50, big shots. And they come at the order of the king. They come with the king's authority. And now they think they're more important than Elijah, and they think that the authority that they bear is greater than the authority that Elijah bears. And in their pride, they are cut down. They're burned to a crisp. But the third man recognizes, I am no contest to Elijah and his God. And the only hope I have is for me to fall on my knees and to beg for my life. And if that is not a picture of salvation, I don't know what it is. Why aren't most people saved? Why will they burn in the end? Because they will not bow the knee to Christ and beg for mercy. Because they're proud. Because they don't think they need to. Because they think that God should accommodate their lifestyle and their way of living. It's only those who fear the Lord. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. It's repeated multiple times in the Bible. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom leads to salvation. Why won't people be saved? Because they don't believe God is real or they believe He's real and they think He's impotent. That means without power. or they think he is not good and therefore they don't want to serve him. But this man recognized his life was hanging in the balance and he wisely fell to his knees and begged the Lord, begged Elijah to spare his life and God did it. That's mercy. That is a clear picture of biblical mercy, that you deserve death, that you deserve judgment, that you deserve punishment, and that you beg for mercy and God grants it. He doesn't give you what you deserve. So there's a clear demonstration of mercy in their text, but there's an underlying demonstration of mercy in the text. Because here's the beautiful thing, that God, the sovereign one, the powerful one, the all-wise God, saw fit to make sure that this was recorded in Scripture and that for 3,000 years it would be preserved in Scripture so that I could declare to you this morning this text so that you could know that if you are proud before God, you will be opposed and judged, but if you humble yourself before God, you will receive mercy. You see that, that God is being merciful to you this morning. Maybe that's why you're here today. To hear of the beautiful mercy of God that you don't have to be judged in your sin, but you could be released, you could be set free. Your sins could be forgiven, all you need to do is bow your knee to Christ and beg for mercy. But if you're sitting there in your seat and thinking, don't tell me what to do, be sure of this. God opposes you. And God will judge you. Make no mistake about it. There's a greater picture, I think, that this text points to. And it is the very gospel itself. Because in the New Testament, God sent forth another messenger. Not just one of his prophets, but his own son. And as you read the life of Jesus, and as you read the things that are recorded, you know that in the final moments of his life, in the final hours, that he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, knowing that his life was going to be snuffed out, knowing that he was gonna give himself over for the sake of sinners, that he was going to become a lamb that goes to the slaughter. And while he's there in the middle of the night praying, one of his friends comes, Judas Iscariot, with a band of ruthless men, thugs with sticks and clubs and swords and torches. And like These captains with their 50 men, they come to Jesus in the garden and they want to arrest him and take him to the king. They want to take Jesus, the messenger of God, before the sitting authority of the land. And Peter recognizes this isn't right, why is this happening? And Peter, in his haste, pulls out a sword and he goes to strike one of the servants in the face, in the ear, or in the head, and he gets his ear. Jesus says to him, put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. And then he says, do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? Jesus knew, Jesus had read about Elijah. Jesus knew his father would come to his aid if he called upon him. But Jesus also knew the scriptures that were written that he must go like a lamb to the slaughter and he must give his life over as an atonement for sin so that sinners could be set free. He knew the plan of God and therefore he willingly went before the authorities. Jesus, the Lamb of God, who went like a lamb to the slaughter, but the difference between a lamb that goes to the slaughter is lambs don't know what's happening. Jesus knew what was happening. He knew what was about to happen. He knew the hearts and the minds of everyone before him. He knew the lives in the hidden secrets of all the men who were hurling insults at him. He knew the pain of that he was going to face and he knew the most painful situation of being separated from his father that he was about to endure and he went like a lamb to the slaughter. Why? Because of love. Because he knew that's what needed to be done. Because his father asked him to. Jesus, who could have opposed all of these, went before them on our account. This is mercy, beloved. The story continues. Elijah arose and went with the third captain at the command of Yahweh. He went down before the king and he said to the king, thus says the Lord, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no god in Israel to inquire of his word? He confronts the king on his deathbed. He's not afraid because Yahweh told him not to be afraid. But he confronts him and says, you're going outside of the borders of Israel? You're going to a false god who's already been mocked and humiliated by Yahweh in the past? Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. Not very nice, is it? It's not the prophet's job to be nice. And I would say, this is actually quite kind. God has already told him once and twice and three times, you're not gonna come down. You're gonna die. And he's given him opportunities time and time again to realize that Yahweh is the true God, that the fire that fell at Mount Carmel is still falling, and it will consume you too if you don't do something about it. God who has spoken a word of judgment over this man has now graciously like slowed things down as his impending death is coming and he's slowed things down and given him multiple opportunities to repent and the man doesn't repent. Finally, Elijah is there at his bedside and says, you were the one who went to Beelzebub and therefore God is going to take your life. Verse 17 says, so he died according to the word of Yahweh that Elijah had spoken, which is exactly what you would expect it to say. If you believe the word of Yahweh, you would expect that Yahweh's word comes to pass. He's shown us that in the text already multiple times from Genesis all the way through 1 Kings. That God, when he speaks, God means what he says, and God brings to pass all that he promises. And here, the promise is in the form of a threat. You are going to die. And now it happens. He's gone. Beloved, I know that death is not something we like to talk about. In fact, in our society, in our culture, I think it's something we don't talk about very much. We like to keep ourselves inoculated from the thoughts of death by distractions and fun things, activities. But it's appointed unto man to die, to every man to die, and then to face judgment. The fact that God gave this man two years on the throne was mercy. The fact that he gave him however many years of life that he gave him was mercy. The fact that he didn't die when he was a baby is mercy. If you think that God owes you a long life all the way into your 90s, you are wrong. And if you think that God has somehow done us wrong when He takes a life early, you are wrong. It is His prerogative. He gives life and He takes it away. But He commands us in the in-between to be ready. And every day that you wake up is another act of mercy. whereby you can hear the word of God and be reminded that his judgment will surely come to all those who oppose him, who set themselves up in their pride and their arrogance and say, I don't want to obey you, God. He has said very plainly, there's no other way. We think in our culture that the exclusive claims of Christianity are intolerant and therefore evil, that they somehow make Christianity bad. That's what we're made to believe. But have you just stopped to consider one reality? Just for the sake of playing out the scenario, just assume for a second that your God, careful, and assume for a second that you made a universe and that you made mankind and that you formed each human in your own image and you fashioned them and you placed them on the earth and then all of them rebelled against your authority. Don't you have the right as God to tell them what to do? You made them. The only example I can think of that even makes sense is that if you're playing with Legos and you create a little platform in a kingdom and you put some people in it and all of a sudden they came to life, if you were able to do that. You can't, I've tried. And then you tell them what to do. And they say no. You have the right. to take it all apart. God is the one true living God. He sits in the highest heavens. He rules sovereignly over all that he has made and he has declared to us clearly in his word via his messengers his expectations for us. And though all of us have gone astray, though all of us have broken his commandments, he doesn't just strike us down in the moment like he could. But rather this God who is merciful and kind gives us time and time and time again and opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to hear his word and repent. But more than that, beloved, he gave us the gift of his son. The Lord Jesus Christ who came and took on human flesh, who submitted himself and humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross, so that he could take our sins upon himself, so that he in his death could remove the stain of sin from all that would believe in him. And still, people say to his resurrected form, no. All I can say to those people is look at verse 17. So he died according to the word of Yahweh that Elijah had spoken. God will not be mocked. What he has said, what he has declared will come to pass. All those people around the world who mock at the return of Christ, who scoff at the claims of the Bible that God is gonna come back from heaven, their time will come. They will meet their maker and they will give an account for every careless word that has come out of their mouth. But you and I have an opportunity even today to humble ourselves before this mighty God, to receive the gift of His kindness and mercy, to have our sins removed so that we can come into the family of God forevermore. And I beg of you to take it. The God in the Old Testament who spoke to Elijah is the same God in the New Testament in the form of Jesus. Jesus also made exclusive claims. He said in John 14 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. In Acts 4.12, the apostles declare there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Either the Bible is true or it is all false. But if it is true, there is no other means of salvation but by the name and the person of Jesus Christ. If you think that you can be a good Muslim and go to heaven, you're wrong. If you think that you can be a faithful Mormon and go to heaven, you're wrong. Not because I say so, because the Bible says so. And by the way, there will be many so-called Christians who will also not go to heaven. There is no other way by which people can be saved but by the mercy of Jesus. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 28 and 29 says this, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. and let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. In the New Testament, the Testament that is supposedly marked by mercy and grace and no longer judgment, the New Testament written to believers says that our God is a consuming fire. If you read 2 Kings 1 and you're a little bit offended, a little bit bristly at God's judgment of fire, let me warn you that it's repeated in the New Testament. And it's given as a warning that we should worship God with reverence and awe. God will not be mocked. Let's pray. Father, these pictures of judgment are startling, but I think they're supposed to be. I think that's why you recorded them for us. It's why you preserved your word for all these years. That's why we can read it today and understand it so that we could know and learn to fear your name. You are a holy God. You are a God of mercy and immense kindness, but you are a holy God. And in your holiness, you will consume with fire all sin. We thank you for a way of escape through the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your gift of salvation that you bought by your precious blood. And I pray this morning that we would apply it by faith, that we'd lay hold of your precious promises and find mercy and escape from judgment. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.