You may be seated. As we prepare to open God's word, let's pray for God to open our eyes to see his truth. Lord, we are about to hear from you as we read your word and hear it preached. Give us humble hearts. Open the eyes of our heart that we may see wonderful things from your law. May we know you May we see Christ and the power of His resurrection and be changed by Your Holy Spirit. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning the sermon is going to be coming from 1 Kings 18, verses 20-40. That's 1 Kings 18, verses 20-40. I will be reading from the ESV. So follow along with me. This is Elijah on the top of Mount Carmel confronting the prophets of Balaam confronting the people of Israel with their sin. Listen to God's word now. So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let two bowls be given to us and let them choose one bowl for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bowl and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your God and I will call upon the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. And all the people answered, it is well spoken. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many and call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it. And they took the bull that was given them and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. But there was no voice and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a god! Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep, and he must be awakened. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on till the time of the offering of the oblation. But there was no voice, no one answered, no one. paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. And all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be your 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 sieves of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, fill four jars of water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. He said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also. with water. And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the Baruch Kishon and slaughtered them there. This is quite a passage. This is one of those ones, I think, that sticks out in our mind if we've read the Bible or been to Sunday school. This is a passage that we keep coming to. If I'm reminded of when I was a child, I can remember Sunday school classes on this very passage. The prophets and the sacrifice and the fire from heaven. This passage sticks out to us. But before looking at the actual passage, I want to just set the scene. Where are we in the life of Elijah? What's he been doing up to this point? And how's that going to help us understand what this passage means? So let's rewind a little bit and look at the chapters that have gone right before this. In 1 Kings 16, we get to a new king, King Ahab. And the narrator tells us this is one of the worst times in Israel's history. We see Israel and the king turning away from God and His word. Ahab brings in the bales, and the people turn away from God and His word. This is a dark time in Israel's history. Then in 1 Kings 17, God sends Ahab his prophet. And he is a prophet who comes with a message of judgment. Those are the first words out of his mouth. is that God is judging his people now. That's how his ministry begins. If we look at the rest of 1 Kings 17, we actually see that he spends almost three years away from the people of God. And as he does that, he shows that God's blessings are still there, but for the moment, they're being withheld from his people. Think as he goes to the widow of Zarephath, as he blesses her, And that brings us then to 1 Kings 18. Elijah returns from exile to face Ahab and the nation of Israel. If you look at the beginning of 1 Kings 18, verse 1, God promises that this judgment, this three-year drought is coming to an end. There's blessing right on the corner for Israel. But we have to get to Mount Carmel first before we're going to see that blessing. That brings us to our passage now. the end of 1 Kings 18. Maybe another way to summarize it, just as we're looking at the whole scope and where we're fitting in here. We see sin, 1 Kings 16. We see judgment in 1 Kings 17. Now we're at this critical juncture of repentance. And finally, at the end of this chapter, we would also be able to see God's blessing. So sin, judgment, and now repentance and forgiveness. And at the very end, blessing. So that's our focus this morning is really on repentance and forgiveness. And the critical question that this chapter and this particular set of verses is challenging us is, how will Israel repent? We know the blessing is coming. God promised that. But first, he needs to forgive his people and bring them to repentance. How in the world is he going to bring his sinful people to their knees to serve him again? And as we see, it's the work of God to do that. Because in this passage, the main idea is that the true God graciously and He powerfully reveals Himself to His people to bring them back to Himself. So He's the true God and He is graciously and powerfully revealing Himself to His people to bring them back to Himself. And what God does here, this is what He does for you. This is what He does for me. both in bringing us to salvation and also as we live the Christian life. This pattern that we're going to see here is something that you can take home today. It's true in your life. So as we look at this point as God, the true God, revealing himself and pulling his people back, we're going to see that in four basic points. Just follow through the passage. First, God confronts his people, verses 20 to 24. Then God exposes his people's false God in 25 to 29. Then finally God reveals himself to his people in 30 to 38. And finally God's people respond in faith and action in verses 39 to 40. So God begins by confronting his sinful people. Verses 20 to 24. This passage opens dramatically. All the prophets of Baal, the people of Israel, are gathered on the top of Mount Carmel. And on the one side stands Elijah. He is the only prophet of the Lord. And on the other side stand those 450 false prophets serving the idol Baal. And around them stand the people of Israel. And everybody knows this is it. Today, there's going to be a showdown. This is a decisive moment in Israel's history. But as we read this passage, we often, as I remember in Sunday school, focusing on Elijah. Elijah, the prophet of God. But did you notice in those four points I gave you? I didn't mention Elijah. Okay, that was on purpose. The main character here is God. God confronts, God exposes, God reveals. Now Elijah is God's prophet and he's doing all these things at God's command. But the real person working here is God. Elijah actually reflects on that at the very end in verse 36 as he prays to God. He actually prays that the people would see that I am just your servant. I'm your prophet and I'm doing these things at your word. So as we see Elijah confronting Israel here, and he's opening verses, see that this is actually God confronting his people through Elijah. So what does Elijah say? He begins in verse 21. And the people's response? The people did not answer him a word. These verses really drive home the sobering reality of what's happening in Israel, their spiritual state. Look at what they're doing. What does Elijah say? Elijah's words show that Israel, they've been trying to serve God and Baal at the very same time. Maybe a sacrifice to God today and a sacrifice to Baal tomorrow. And that may work if you want to serve Baal. You know, just here's Baal, why don't we just add in another God? Let's add in the God of Israel. But if you want to serve the Lord, that does not work. What does God say time and time again? I demand exclusive worship. We read from the first commandment today, you shall have no other gods before me. That's clear, right? You can look also in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6, 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. There is no room for Israel or for us to be worshiping God and something else. It's easy though to be real hard on the Israelites here. And in some ways we need to be. They knew the truth and they're walking away from it. But we are often tempted to go down similar paths as Israel. We're actually not much better. Look at your own life. I want you to fill in this blank here. It's God plus what? Where are you spending your time? What are you thinking about? What are you worshiping? So often We're worshiping God and something else. So even as we look at how God is dealing with his people here, put yourself in their shoes. Sometimes we're not that far off from what Israel is actually doing here. But it's not just what Israel does that shows how bad their spiritual state is. It's actually also what they say, maybe what they don't say. You notice, how do they respond to Elijah? No word, dead silence. And what a difference in Israel we see here compared to what we just read from Joshua 24. It's actually a similar situation that in Joshua, Joshua is standing before the people and says, you have a choice today. Which God will you serve? How do people respond then? Well, they respond boldly. We shall serve the Lord. But now in first Kings, things have changed. And Israel's silence speaks volumes. There is a spiritual deadness and an apathy all the way through Israel. They're in a bad, bad state. But God has a plan to bring these spiritually dead, apathetic people back to himself. And we see it as Elijah continues on in this confrontation because he proposes this contest now. It's a contest to settle once and for all who's the Lord. Is it going to be God or is it Baal? The details of the contest, they're very straightforward, right? It says we're going to have a sacrifice. One bull, you get wood, you can build an altar, there's only one catch, no fire. You get everything else but no fire. And the prophets, Baal and Elijah, they have to call on their God and the one who answers in fire, he will be the true God. That's how He's going to show that He is the true God. Alright, many of us have probably read this passage before. Have you ever wondered why God picks this particular kind of challenge? Remember, this is God's contest with God's rules, right? And surely God could have showed His existence and His power in any number of ways. He could have shown that He was true God and not Baal, maybe sending lightning from heaven or Now, speaking from heaven even, there are ways that God could have shown that He is the true God. So why this way? Well, notice that God chooses to make this contest about worship. Did you see the details? They're offering a sacrifice. They're praying to God and God will respond. This is worship. This contest is about worship. And why worship? Well, Worship is really at the core of our relationship with God. This is what we are made for. We're created to worship God, and we meet with God in a very special way as we meet as God's people in worship. It's not just true now, it's true in the Old Testament as well. But actually this context is even more specific than just worship. Notice what's at the core? It's sacrifice. That should jump off the page at you. We are seeing a sacrifice at stake here. And a sacrifice is really at the center of the relationship with God. So worship, and at the center of that is sacrifice, because we are a sinful people. In order to be able to relate to a holy God, we need a sacrifice. Again, that's shown over and over again in the sacrifices of the Old Testament. So this arena of worship, this contest focused on sacrifice, God is driving His people back to the basics, back to the core of their faith through these details. But there's one more thing we haven't talked about. Why fire? Why fire? It's more than just showing God's power. Again, he could have sent lightning, he could have done tons of things to show his power. He chooses one way to show his power in his existence. I think one thing we can say just right at this point, is that God is teaching them through fire. He's teaching them about their relationship with Him. Without fire, a sacrifice is worthless. Think about the Old Testament. The sacrifice must be burned up. And if there's no sacrifice, there's no relationship with God. There's no forgiveness for your sins. So unless God acts, unless God Himself sends fire now, there is no hope. for his people. Keep that in mind as we go forward. But even before we look at how this contest goes down, one more thing to point out. Just think about how gracious God is to even have this kind of contest with his people. I mean, he could have just said, you know what? You should have looked at Exodus. You should have looked at Deuteronomy. I've written those things in my word. You are sinful. I'm done with you. You're gone. But God doesn't do that. See, what's amazing is that God actually comes down and he meets their level. This is really an act of grace. His people should know better, but God chooses to graciously confront them and their sin. It's not like this contest, though, is ever in doubt, right? Not like Elijah says, well, there's the Lord or Baal and I don't know which one it's going to be. No, we know it's the Lord. This is God's contest. Right? God is not submitting himself to his people's judgment. He's not saying, well, you get to choose now, and we'll see who wins. No. That would make him less than God, right? And that would actually make the people more important than him. They get to choose. But see here that God is coming down to their level. He's condescending. That's kind of that dollar, you know, $5 word, right? Condescending. He's coming down to their level. And he does that so often with us. Not just Israel, He does that with us, right? He comes down to us as creatures. We're so far below Him. And yet He wants to have a relationship with us. That's amazing. But even more than that, He comes down to us as sinners. If there's God in us as creatures, there's God in us as sinners. And God comes down to our level to save us. See, what we're seeing here in this passage is really just One example of what God does with His people all the time, what God does with you and with I. See, we see that every time that God speaks to us, that's actually Him condescending to us. And the greatest act of revelation is actually the sending of Jesus Christ, not just a word now, but one who took on our flesh, who lived in our sinful world to die for us. And God still does that in your life. He's coming down to you to show you your sin, to show you in the Word His grace, to save you and also to lead you through the Christian life. So what we see here is just one example of what God is doing right now, right here with you as you're His people. So we see that God confronts His people. That's how He starts. But then now God exposes his people's false god and we see that in verses 25 to 29. So the contest gets underway and the whole purpose of the contest from God's perspective is to show Baal is a false god. Every aspect of this contest as it unfolds is demonstrating time and time again Baal is no hope for you. Picture the scene on Mount Carmel. This passage really lends itself to your imagination. Use your imagination as you're thinking about this. They're gathering on Mount Carmel. Prophets of Baal get to go first. There are 450 men praying to Baal, dancing around his altar for hours on end. What would that have been like? Can you imagine what that would have been like? That would have been very, very impressive. But what's the result? There was no voice and no one answered. Silence. Because Baal is not there. And as the hours go by, the day gets longer, the prophets get more desperate. They start cutting themselves in an attempt to get Baal to pay attention and answer. Again, imagine the scene. Now it's the shouts, the dances and the blood flowing from these 450 men. And the result? There was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. Nothing that these men could do had any effect because there was no one to hear them. God is making this painfully obvious to his people. Baal is shown to be a false god. He cannot do anything because he doesn't exist. And Elijah, as this thing goes forward, he pours salt on their wounds. He's mocking them. Notice what he says in verse 27. Elijah's mocking is doing more to expose the foolishness of their idolatry. If Baal is a god, boy, he sounds a lot like a person, doesn't he? Baal can get distracted. He has to go to the bathroom. Maybe Baal is asleep. Do you really want a God like that? Do you really want a God who's just a bigger version of yourself? Same problems, same limitations, maybe just a little stronger? That's the God that they were hoping for. But as we look at this scene, as the layers of Baal worship are kind of peeled back one by one, especially as we look at Elijah's mockery, I don't know about you, but I've always found what Elijah says here to be a little uncomfortable. I don't like the idea of making fun of somebody else's religion. Maybe that's what I was taught as a kid, you know, you need to respect others. And that's true. I don't have a great answer, but I found it really interesting thinking recently about how often God himself actually does something like this. in the Bible. How he looks at idolatry and he calls it what it is. It's foolishness. Think of Isaiah 44. Great example. Prophecy of Isaiah. God confronts his people and he's trying to show them the foolishness of what they're doing and bowing down to this God. He says, you go out and you cut down a tree. You take half of that and you make this great idol and you bow down and you serve it and you ask it to help you. And the other half you go burn to eat your food. How does that make sense? That cannot save you. Again, I don't have a good answer at the moment, but I think this is something that we need to think about for further reflection. Sometimes we need to call idolatry, what's happening around us, sometimes we need to call it what it is and to show people this is foolish. This will not save you. God here is exposing his people's false God. Again, he lets the prophets themselves demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Baal is not real. And this whole setup is God's grace. It's uncomfortable grace for the people. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. This would be uncomfortable. You are standing there and you have been worshiping Baal. It's not just the prophets, it's the people now. You've been worshiping Baal and boy, I think a bunch of them would be saying, come on Baal, hurry up. This is not good. But that's exactly what they need. God is actually being gracious to them to expose hour by hour Your hope is worthless. Your God won't come. So often, we need something like that as well, that we actually need to see that what we are worshiping in our lives, and how we're worshiping, we need to see that those are worthless. We need to see that those are foolish, and we need to see that before we can really appreciate, and appreciate again, the holiness and the beauty of God. We need to see the worthlessness before we can actually see the glory and worth of God. This process for us can also be uncomfortable, but that's actually an act of God's grace in our lives as well. But one of the amazing things in this passage is God doesn't just leave them there with no hope. That would actually be cruel. It would be cruel of God to say there's no bail And actually, there's nothing else. No, no, no. See, notice what God does is He shows them their sin. He shows them the worthlessness. And He immediately steps in to show Himself. And what's really striking as we move forward is how different God is and how different His worship is than that empty worship of Baal. So we're now getting to point number three. God is revealing Himself to His people in verses 30 to 38. So the prophets of Baal are beaten. Baal is shown to be a false god, and now it's Elijah's turn. Now, as we start in verse 30, you see that Elijah starts speaking and acting in verse 30, but that critical moment, the fire from the Lord, actually comes in verse 38. That's a long time. Why are there so many verses dedicated to what Elijah says and does even before he gets to the sacrifice? I think part of it is that what Elijah is doing, his preparations and his prayers, God is actually using this to remind the people of who he is and of who they are. God is actually getting the people ready to meet him through what Elijah does and says. And as we look at these verses, it's almost like Elijah is taking that covenant promise, I will be your God and you will be my people, and he's walking the people through it bit by bit. This is who God is, this is who you are, and this is what you should be doing. Now, there are many details in these verses, and I'm not going to be exhausted, but I want to show you that this is actually true of what's happening. Look at what Elijah does. In verses 30 to 35, he prepares. Okay, what does he do first? He calls the people, and he repairs the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Okay, what is he first doing? He is actually reminding the people in this very simple act He's reminding the people of their duty and their privilege to worship God. Notice another thing. As he's rebuilding this altar, he goes out of his way to remind the people of who they are. Notice he chooses 12 stones, not just by accident. He chooses 12 stones to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Elijah is reminding the people, you are God's people. He has chosen you and he has made you Israel. He's reminding them of who they are. Notice also he just absolutely soaks the sacrifice in water. It's probably one of the things you remember, right? The 12 jars of water, one after another poured on the wood. Everything is soaking wet. Elijah is doing this to remove any doubt of who's going to actually be able to light this fire. I mean, I've tried to light damp wood. I like to go camping. And you know what? Damp wood is a real pain to get going. But have you ever tried to light soaking wet wood? I mean, you've got no shot, right? There is no chance that anyone besides God is going to be able to do this. And God is setting the stage through Elijah to show who he is to his people. Maybe one other thing to point out is just the time. Small detail, but it has a lot of significance. Verse 36, at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah steps forward. Okay. Oblation is just another word for sacrifice. And the time of the sacrifice, well, that's actually when the sacrifice would be offered every afternoon in Jerusalem. Even now, and it's just really simple detail of when Elijah acts. He's actually calling the people back. He's saying, you need to be worshiping God as He's commanded you. You need to be part of the body. So Elijah prepares and he also prays. Look at verses 36 and 37 now. He's again, notice how he prays. He says, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is reminding the people through that prayer of the faithfulness of God, generation after generation after generation, and now on Mount Carmel. As Elijah prays, his requests are very simple in some ways, but they're very profound. He wants God to show Israel that he is God. He wants God to vindicate Elijah as God's servant. And he wants God to show that he is the one who has turned his people's heart back to himself. Now, we might expect those first two requests that God is going to show that he's God, and he's going to show that Elijah is his servant. But I really want to focus just briefly on that third request. I think this last request really gets at that critical question that this passage is posing. How are God's people going to repent and return to God? And here's the request of Elijah. God would show that he is the one who has turned his people's hearts back to himself. See, Elijah is not just praying that the people would actually repent. return to God. No, no. He's praying that the people would know that God is the one who is working that repentance in them and bringing them back. Do you see the difference there between those two things? He wants them to see God at work in their lives. But one of the things that teaches us is that that miracle of fire from heaven that we see in verse 38, that alone is not enough to to bring people to true repentance and faith. Think of the life of Jesus. How many people saw Jesus's miracles and never actually believed in Him? Same is true today. How many people do you know? They know lots about God, but they never truly know God. That is a frightening thought. That is something that we need to be aware of in our own lives, but also in the lives of the people around us. is we look at Elijah's prayer too. Another thing that comes out is Elijah's praying that when the people see the miracle, when they see that fire from heaven, they wouldn't just look at the fire and be impressed by the fire, but they would see that the same power that God uses to send that fire, that's the exact same power that He's going to use in their hearts to bring them to repentance. Let me give you an example maybe from the New Testament to illustrate what I mean here. Do you remember the story of the paralytic? Another one of these famous stories, right? His friends dig the hole in the roof and they lower him down into the presence of Jesus. All right, Jesus forgives his sins and then he heals him. And Jesus heals him. He does that order to show that Jesus can do the spiritual work as well. So he does the physical work first, that physical miracle, to show that that's the same power with which he can change the human heart. What we see with the paralytic is what we see here as well. God works in that miracle to show that he is actually in charge of this bigger miracle of changing their hearts. As we just reflect on this prayer request, I think this is instructive. Elijah is very aware that without God's work, people will not respond rightly to God. They can see the fire, they can say the right words, and they may not be saved. But we need that same kind of assurance. We need that same kind of focus. We can and we should be preaching the gospel. But as we preach, as we speak, we need to be praying earnestly that God would do the work, that He would convert sinners and that they would trust in Him. All right, so the scene is set. Elijah is prepared. Elijah has prayed for God to answer and finally we're there at the climax in verse 38. God answers with fire. Everything that was there is now gone, consumed by fire from heaven. God is showing his power here. He's showing his power by sending the fire, but notice that he goes above and beyond the requirement. Not just the bull that he gets. It's the bull and the wood and the stone and the water. Everything, even the dust. I love that detail. Even the dust. God is going above and beyond the requirements to show the people his power and the power that he can use for them. How do the people respond? They see this miracle and what do they do? Well, let's look at verses 39 to 40. Israel's response here is immediate and it's dramatic. Everyone fell on their face and they acknowledge God. They say, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. This is the right reaction. If you could have seen this, you would have been flat on your face as well to see the power and majesty of God. Notice, though, that they say the right things. They have an orthodox confession, but God immediately tests that faith. He wants them to obey. Think of James 2, right? In James 2, true faith is seen by obedience. That's actually what God is doing here. He's putting them to the test. And what God is asking them to do here feels like an extreme test of their obedience. Elijah commands the people, capture all the prophets of Baal so that they can be put to death. If God is the true God, then Baal is a false God. And if Baal is a false God, then his prophets are false prophets and are leading the people away from God. Look at the law, Deuteronomy 13. People like this need to be put to death. God is very clear. But do you hit a verse like this and feel a little sick? 450 men killed, not even just killed, slaughtered. Think about that word. Why is this okay? I wonder sometimes if we respond in this way because we don't understand the holiness of God. We don't know our God. God plays for keeps. He is not doing this because he's mean. He's doing this because he's holy. We need to be holy like that as well. And you know what? It's true. We don't execute false teachers today, okay? But we're still called to that same kind of holiness. These false prophets, think about what they're doing. They're in the business of destroying souls. Do you care about the holiness of God and the souls of people around you enough to reject this kind of false teaching? That's what we're called to be doing. God takes sin and he takes his worship very seriously. It's one of the takeaways from this passage. But as we close, though, think about this. Have the people done anything in this passage? Look at these verses. Have they done anything to actually have God be gracious to them and respond with fire? I mean, they've been walking away from Him for years and years and years, and when they get this final chance here to respond and say, yeah, we want to serve God, nothing. They have done absolutely nothing to deserve God's grace here, and yet God chooses to act gracefully for a sinful people. What God's people experience here is really at the heart of the gospel. As sinners, we don't deserve God's grace and mercy. None of us do. But in Christ, in his life and death, his obedience, his resurrection, God is graciously showing himself to us. And he's using that power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the book of Ephesians, is now at work in you. to bring you to repentance, to bring you into his kingdom. But that's not just true at our conversion. We often think about the power of God at our conversion. No, this is the basic pattern of the Christian life. God's gracious work for his people, for us. We see that. Maybe I can make this a little more pointed here, looking at the passage. In this passage, we see God sending fire from his very presence, from heaven, On a sacrifice in the presence of sinful people. Okay. Think about God and fire in the Bible. Actually, I had the opening verse in the bulletin. God is described as a consuming fire in the book of Hebrews. Why? Because He is holy. You need to worship God as a consuming fire. It's not just that God is fire. Think about those times in the Bible where God sends fire. Sometimes he sends fire in judgment, right? Fire comes out from his presence and consumes sinners. You can think about maybe the sons of Aaron who are offering strange fire. God burns them up in judgment. But it's not always judgment. God also sends fire in grace. You can think about when the tabernacle, the first worship service at the tabernacle, and again at the temple, God sends fire to burn up the sacrifice. He's showing that he's accepting his people's worship. So let's think about Mount Carmel. Which fire do they experience there? Do they get the fire of judgment or the fire of grace? It's obvious, they get grace, right? But put yourself in that front row of Israelites as the fire falls from heaven. You would feel that heat on your face. You would see it burning up everything in front of your eyes. But that's it. It never Touches you even though you deserve it you deserve the fire of God's Judgment as you stand there as a sinful person But God is accepting you Not because you're so great. He's accepting you in Christ. He accepts the worship of Elijah there But not even just Elijah. He accepts the worship of Christ This passage is all about Jesus. I hope you can see this clearly. I This is about Christ's worship for you, Christ's obedience for you, and Christ's sacrifice for you. That's why God can send fire of grace on you, because He sent the fire of His judgment on Christ at the cross. Do you think about that altar on Mount Carmel? Think about Christ as the sacrifice, who doesn't just stand next to it like Elijah the prophet. No, he is the sacrifice. He climbs up on that altar to offer himself for you and for me. This is the amazing grace of God that he offers us here. This passage is all about repentance and forgiveness and grace worked by God. As we close, see God's grace again. He's driving us to repentance. He's offering us forgiveness. We need to believe and to obey, not just today, tomorrow, the next day and the next day. Our God is a gracious God calling us to serve him. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, you are a consuming fire. And even as we sit here now, we are reminded that We too deserve the fire of judgment. We are unworthy, and yet you give us grace. You give us that same power that we see here in 1 Kings, that power that changes our hearts, that brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We can attest to that in our own lives. And it's that same power that continues to work in us Now and in the days to come, we pray, Lord, that we would seek repentance, that we would seek the repentance that you alone can give because we know your power and because we see Jesus Christ crucified for us. And not just crucified, but raised, seated at your right hand. He is there for us. He is giving us his power as the resurrected Son. Lord, soften our hearts. Make us to see our sins and to see our Savior, and change us as we have already prayed. In Jesus' name, amen.