If you have a Bible this morning, please turn with me to the first book of Kings, 1 Kings chapter 18. We're going to be in 1 Kings this morning and this evening. And as we read together, 1 Kings chapter 18, verses 17 to verse 46. 1 Kings 18, and we're going to read verses 17 down to verse 46. And as we read it together, please be considering the title and meditating on the title, Proving God's Power in an Unbelieving World. Proving God's Power in an Unbelieving World. Let's read together from 1 Kings 18. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Balaam. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table.' So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt thee between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him. If Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him and said not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let them, therefore, give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it into pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.' And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose ye one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many. And call upon the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no answer, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth. and must be awakened. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manor with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass when midday was passed that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice nor any to answer nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto the people, come near unto me. and all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock into pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time, and they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time, and they did it the third time. And the water ran about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, He is the God! The Lord, He is the God! And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. and they took them and Elijah brought them down to the brick kitchen and slew them there." I want to finish there in verse 40 for now. And so this morning we're considering proving God's power in an unbelieving world. As we consider this subject together, we can begin by considering some of the spiritual atmosphere that was going on whenever the prophet Elijah was ministering there in the book of 1 Kings. At this point in Israel's history, the promised land was divided among itself. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom were living under the rule of King Jeroboam, whilst the two tribes of the southern kingdom had been living under the rule of King Rehoboam. Jeroboam, he had divided the people politically by setting up a new capital in Shechem and then spiritually by setting up golden calves in Dan and in Bethel that the people were to worship. And then during Jeroboam's reign was followed by a whole series of wicked kings and wicked regimes which displeased God and provoked his anger against the people. They went from bad to worse. The prophets warned the kings of their folly. He was pleading with them. The prophets pleaded with the people to come back to God, to return from their idolatry unto the Lord. But the Northern Kingdom continued on its downward spiral of idolatry, compromise, conspiracy, assassination, mass murder, war, and division. And so whenever we arrive in 1 Kings, starting in chapter 16 really, all the way through to 2 Kings chapter 17, we can witness the fall and decline of the northern kingdom of Israel. As the people were eventually carried off into exile by the Assyrian Empire. God could not allow his people to continue in sin. He said, a day of judgment is coming. And the people refused to listen. And so they were carried off into Assyria. Amongst the wicked kings of the northern kingdom who provoke God's wrath, one stands out in particular. And he's one that the writer of 1 Kings spends five chapters talking about. He's called King Ahab. From 1 Kings 16 until 1 Kings 22, we meet the most wicked king of Israel, who defied the Lord, who defiled his name, by committing all kinds of atrocities before the Lord. You can see it as you read down from 1 Kings 16 and forward. His abominations were so terrible that the sins of Jeroboam were considered a light thing in comparison to his own. And so you think that Jeroboam, he divided the people, he set up idols, he chose his own priests, He changed the festivals that God had set in place. He'd done all of these terrible things. He welcomed Baal worship into the kingdom of Israel. And despite that, what Ahab did was considered even worse, even worse than all of that. He introduced Baal worship. He introduced Asherah worship through his marriage to Jezebel. If you look in the dictionary today, you'll find that Jezebel is a synonym of wickedness. And so it's interesting that he married himself to a person whose very name was associated with everything that was contrary to the Word of God. Such was the reign of King Ahab. During his reign, an attempt was made to rebuild Jericho. If you remember in the book of Joshua, God had said that any man who would try to rebuild Jericho, his family, his sons, would perish. And so this is just to show you how far the people had got away from the things of the Lord. That even Jericho was being rebuilt. And so as the gates were set up, the sons of the builder were slain by the Lord. He stood by, he allowed his wife to ordain and to carry out the slaughter of all the prophets of the Lord. If you look in chapter 18, You'll see that Jezebel, she commanded that all the prophets of the Lord be slain except 101. 100 that Obadiah hid in a cave and then Elijah who stood out and was hiding down in the brook Cherith. And so this was just an awful time, a time of spiritual compromise. And so God, he sent a drought as a judgment upon the people. Elijah came and said to Ahab, there will no longer be rain in the land except at my command. And of course, he was operating under God, so it was really God's command. And so this was God's judgment. It was God's judgment on the people, on their sin. And with all of this in mind, we can conclude that the spiritual atmosphere of the era was one of great backsliding, compromise, idolatry, and immorality. Perhaps as you hear those words, you think of people, the land that you're living in. I can tell you coming from France that these words pretty well describe the kind of place that we're ministering into. Compromise, backsiding, idolatry, immorality. And unfortunately that is also becoming the case in many countries where the Word of God was freely taught and so boldly proclaimed over many years. And so as we come to think of God's power, but proving God's power in an unbelieving world, perhaps this unbelieving world is our own and somewhere where God wants to use us to preach and to proclaim His coming judgment. The judgment came about And Elijah bursts onto the page of Holy Scripture in 1 Kings 17, and he delivers God's message to the northern kingdom. There will no longer be rain except at his word. And then, over three years, the famine was upon the land. Elijah was protected by God and miraculously sustained by him down in the brook Cherith. and then in the widow's house. And then at the beginning of chapter 17, the Lord calls his prophet out of hiding and he comes and tells Ahab that he wants all of the children of Israel, all of the prophets of Baal, all of the prophets of Asherah to come together to Mount Carmel to settle this whole thing once and for all. They were getting back to that age-old decision that God was putting before His people. Either to trust Him, to walk with Him, to be faithful to Him, to repent of their sin, or to keep on going and experience the coming judgment that God was going to send. We've got echoes here of Joshua 24 verse 15. Whether the gods which your father served, the gods of the Amorites in the land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And so as we think of proving God's power in an unbelieving world, we're also thinking about who we're going to serve in our own homes, in our own families, in our own hearts. And so Elijah calls him, he proposes a challenge which demanded real divine intervention. He says that we're going to go up to Mount Carmel, we're going to set up altars, we're going to take some wood, we're going to take some bullocks, one each, and we're going to cut up the bullocks, we're going to put them on the altar there, and the God that answers by fire, he will be proven to be the one true God. And you would do well to believe in him. And so this decision, this challenge is put before the people. They were to go up to Mount Carmel to do it. And these were the terms that were heard and accepted by all those who were present. And so as we get into the meat of the message, we're going to consider four things together, four ways in which Elijah proved God's power in an unbelieving world. Let's go back down to verses 25 to 29. Verses 25-29, we're going to see that he proved God's power by exposing the folly of their false religion. He proved God's power by exposing the folly of their false religion. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose ye one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first. For ye are many, and call upon the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us! But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure, he sleepeth and must be awakened. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, and there was neither voice nor any to answer, nor that regarded." And so the first means by which Elijah proved God's power was by exposing the folly of the Baal worshippers' false religion. Having agreed upon the terms of the challenge, Elijah allows the prophets of Baal to go first. He's going to give them all of the advantages possible so that Baal might answer. In so doing, he offered them to take the first pick of the bullock, the first pick of the stones, the first pick of the wood, and the location in which they would build the altar. He also gave them all the time from the morning until noon and even until the time of the evening sacrifice to try and get Baal to answer by sending the fire from heaven. And so Baal, I mean, he was traditionally known at the time as being the sun god, the sun god who was also in control of the thunder and the lightning. And so, of course, he could send down a lightning bolt and light up that sacrifice and answer. He was giving them all of the advantages possible. the morning sun, the start of the afternoon sun, it was very likely that people might have thought that Baal was going to answer. So they take their bullock, they chop it up, they prepare a nice sacrifice for their god, and they place it on the altar. And then they incline their voices towards Baal. They start to cry out. Now, I'm not going to get you to repeat it with me, but they start to cry out after their custom, oh, Baal, hear us. And you can imagine this chanting all the time from the morning until noon. They were chanting over and over and over again. Oh, Baal, hear us. And then in the verses that follow, we see the true folly of their false religion, which is exposed as the people progress from chanting and descend into this almost animalistic insanity and departure from reason and self-control as they try desperately to have Baal answer their call. So they start reciting as we've already seen, O Baal, hear us. And then they go down there in verse 26, and it descends into more madness as they begin to dance and to leap around the altar like animals. Now I did it for our teens at camp this year, I'm not going to do it on a Sunday morning, but you can imagine them there dancing around the altar, 450 of them. It was a big number around the altar, chanting and dancing and shouting, Baal, hear us. And it wasn't working. There was no answer from heaven. When they realized that the repetitive droning prayer wasn't working, they switched it up with some crying and pleading. which descended even further into the cutting themselves after their own manner. We don't understand exactly what their tradition was at the time, but it seems that they were cutting themselves, gushing themselves, trying to pour out their blood so that Baal might hear them. These were people that were used to sacrificing their children. And so it wasn't a hard thing for them to cut themselves with these lancets and these swords. And still Baal could not be heard. No fire came from heaven. And then as they continued, we read in verse 29 that they began prophesying. Now it's interesting here, the word that is used in the original language in the Hebrew, it's a word, hitnabi. which is associated with the ranting and raving of a crazy person. I don't know if you've ever come across a crazy person, you know sometimes we see them here and there and they're kind of half-dressed and disheveled with their hair and it's all over the place and they're kind of crying out all kinds of weird and wonderful things. And this is exactly what was going on here. The prophets of Baal around the altar were just descending into utter madness. And still there was not a single response. Not even the smallest faint of a lightning bolt was sent from heaven. And so as Elijah and the people of Israel were observing all of this, You've got to really think about what was going on here. There was an altar, 450 prophets around it doing all of these crazy things. And around that, then, was all of the people of Israel. And Elijah watching on as Baal was utterly powerless to answer. And so Elijah, well, he decides to profit from this. He's like, well, as I'm observing all of this, I'm really going to show the people of Israel just how stupid it is what they're expecting Baal to do. And so he begins to muse a little bit, to taunt them a little bit, to make a bit of the irony evident of what they were doing. Perhaps he's busy talking to some other folk, and he just doesn't have time to listen to you right now. Whenever you phone, say, I'm not available right now. Please call again later. Maybe Bale's too busy talking to other people, and he's going to get back to them in another few hours. Leave your message after the beep, beep. Perhaps he's pursuing. It's interesting here the word in Hebrew that's used for pursuing. It is a word that is associated with someone not being available because he is in the lavatory, using the toilet. And so the idea is, perhaps Baal will come and answer you once he's finished his business in the men's room, you know? He'll come and send that fire from heaven. Just let me finish up here and I'll be right with you. Perhaps he's gone on a journey, you know, pastor just got back, maybe he, Bill was off on holiday somewhere, you know, with his family or whatever, I don't know. But he's off, I'm not, I'm out on business today, why don't you try to phone again in the office tomorrow or next week, you know. And Elijah's shouting all of this at them, making fun of them. Perhaps he sleepeth. Perhaps he sleepeth. You know, in France, one of my most favorite cultural things in France is that after we eat, very often we go for a little nap, you know, get half an hour just to close our eyes and get some rest before getting back to work. Well, maybe Baal had just eaten, and he'd gone off for his little French afternoon nap, and he was going to answer them later on, you know. Maybe if you cry a little louder, he'll manage to wake him up. Bill! Bill! You're waking up! Waking up! But there was still nothing happening. It was just utter folly. And this is exactly the sole goal of why Elijah was doing it. It wasn't to provoke them to wrath. It was to show the people the true extent of the folly of this false religion that they were following. It made no sense. worshipping things that were made, shrines that had been built by human hands. We'll not take the time to read it this morning, but if you go into Isaiah 44, you'll see the folly of this false religion. The same man who's going to go out and cut a tree, he's going to bring home his tree, with part of it he's going to heat himself on the fire and bake his bread, and with the other part he's going to make a god and set it up in his house and bow down to it and pray to it. And it makes no sense whatsoever because they're worshipping the created thing rather than the creator. Isn't that so synonymous with how people live today in our society, worshiping the created things rather than the creator? Perhaps what they worship today, the false religion and the idolatry that they're following, isn't called Baal anymore. It isn't called Asherah anymore, not called Moloch anymore. But maybe it's called popularity, individualism, the pursuit of riches, the pursuit of security in getting a better job and having more things. in being appreciated by the people around us. Every kind of belief that is not rooted in the all-sufficient atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a folly this morning. Something that is not worth our following. Something that is not worth our time. And so today, just as in these times, in 1 Kings, people are following after a false religion. And part of the work of a Christian in sharing the gospel with people is showing them that the temporal things of this earth, they can not satisfy and they can especially not save us and make us be in a right relationship with God for all of eternity. And so as we speak to people, may God help us. May God help us to expose the folly of false religion, whatever form it may take today. A second thing that Elijah did to prove God's power in an unbelieving world was by exercising total faith in God. Let's read again in verses 30 to 35. And Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me.' And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time, and they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time, and they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. And so Elijah here, he's going to prove God's power by exercising total faith in God. Knowing that it was around the time of the evening sacrifice that would have place in Jerusalem at the same time, he took up his attempt with the complete assurance that God had kept him safe, the same God who had kept him safe and who had nourished him, who had provided to his needs in the brook Cherith for those three years, was the same God who would keep him and remain faithful to him and manifest his glory now in front of all the people. And what a wonderful thing it is, what a wonderful thing it is to be able to stand strong in the Lord on the foundation of all that He's done for us in the past, according to His Word in our lives. It's one of the most powerful weapons that we have against the enemy today when he comes to tempt us, when he comes to discourage us, when he comes to lead us away from the Lord, to be able to look back at all the Lord has done for us and say, it's not worth following you because God has done all this for me and I can trust Him and keep trusting Him today. little illustration, one of the last things that the elders of my original ascending church back in Northern Ireland, oh way back in 2017, just before I headed off to Bible college, one of the best pieces of advice that was ever given to me was to write down all that God had done for me in my life. Keep a little journal of it, each leading, each verse that put an end to one chapter of my life and into a new chapter of calling or service, to write it down, to keep a note of it so that in the day of trial and in the day of discouragement we might read and see exactly from where God has brought us and what God is doing now. Just a little piece of advice if that can be helpful to you. And so Elijah was holding on to the Lord because of all of these things that he had done for him. And he called the people to come and see what God would do. He exercised total faith in God in several remarkable ways in these verses. First of all, he called the people to come near to him. Isn't it interesting? Come near to me. He had nothing to hide. He was not fearful that God would not answer. He wasn't going to need to rely on some trickery, you know, build the altar, put the wood on there, put the meat on there, and then kind of, you know, look over there, there's a bird, and throw a match onto it, you know. He was going to prove that God was truly God, and so he could call the people onto him, come near, see exactly what God is going to do, see exactly how he's going to answer. I've got no doubt whatsoever that God is going to do it. That's the kind of testimony that Elijah had here and the kind of preaching that he was going forward with. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord. He rebuilds that altar to honor God, to show who he was trusting in, and to remind the people as well. Isn't it interesting that he builds up the 12 stones that represented the 12 tribes of Israel, reminding the people as well that it wasn't Elijah that was going to make the fire fall, but it was going to be God that would make the fire fall. The God who brought them out of Egypt, the God who promised to send the Savior through them, the God that had given them the promised land, and who had made them successful in taking the promised land. It was going to be that God and that God alone who would answer. It's interesting then that he loads the dice against himself. That's the way that one commentator puts it. He loads the dice against himself. Not only did he give the prophets of Baal the first pick of the bullock, the first pick of the stones, the wood and the time, but now he goes even further by digging a trench all around that altar that he built. You can imagine how weird it was. Get some shovels and start digging, boys. And he digs that trench around the altar. And he says to them, let's get 12 barrels of water. We're going to fill them up. We're going to drench everything. We're going to drench the meat. We're going to drench the wood. We're going to drench the stones. The trench that's all around is all going to be covered and entirely soaked through with water. What was the point of that? Not only to load the dice against himself, but also, once again, to reinforce this idea that there would be no trickery. No special effects, no CGI. If someone was going to answer and light up and send down fire from heaven on a drenched offering, it could only be the Lord. It could only be the Lord. And so he was relying entirely on God to do a miracle. And then a third thing, a fourth thing really, in which way in which he shows total faith in God. It's a nice little detail there. If you look back down in verse 33, he put the wood in order, he cut the bullock in pieces and laid it on the wood and said, fill up four barrels of water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice. Did you notice? I noticed this as I was rereading it recently. I was like, he calls it a burnt offering even before the fire falls from heaven. He's not looking at this bullock thinking this is just some raw meat that's going on the altar that maybe God's going to burn up. No, he's got the wood on the altar and he's already calling it a burnt sacrifice because he knows what God's going to do and how he's going to answer. Isn't that such a wonderful way to exercise faith in God? I know what you're going to do because your word says that you'll do it. When I go out preaching, when I go out knocking doors, I know that you're going to save souls. Don't know how, don't know when, but I trust you. And so I will go and be faithful as you call me to do it. He had total dependence and trust in the Lord to act. And so with unwavering faith in the God who's always proved himself to be faithful in the past, Elijah prepares the altar boldly, fully trusting that God will demonstrate his power. Now, when we're confronted with problems, difficulties, opposition, persecution in our lives, just a few questions based on that point that we could consider together. Do we cling to God based on the evidence of his faithfulness in the past, in our lives? When difficulties and trials come, do we kind of get caught like a deer in the headlights and go, or? Have we got into the habit of looking back, thinking back, meditating on what God has already done, the promises that he's already brought to come in our lives, the transforming work in our lives that he's already operated? and look to him and trust in him. A little testimony based on that. Whenever I ended up going off to Bible college, my parents aren't believers, and they didn't believe that God could provide for Bible college. So whenever I got my acceptance letter on the 25th of June, 2017, it had at the bottom of the acceptance letter the bill for the first year of studies. Now, this won't sound like much, perhaps, I think. Studies cost more in America, but for me it was $5,582. For the first year, that was room, board, and studies. But I grew up in a pretty poor family, so my total bank account balance at that time was about enough to buy some dinner in McDonald's, and probably from the kids' meal, okay? I didn't have much money. And so my parents, whenever they saw that, they don't believe in the Lord, they don't believe in Christ for salvation in any case, and they don't trust in Him for His provision necessarily. And so they were like, this is impossible. How are you going to do it? There's no way in which you can possibly, between the 25th of September and your leaving date on the 13th of September, find what you need to go there and pay your studies. And so they were thinking of selling a car, they were thinking of taking a loan, they were thinking of asking family to help. I said, Mom and Dad, listen, God has always provided for me in the past, and I will prove to you over the coming three months that God will provide for me now. And I said that to them. I went to my room and I said, Lord, I just put you to the challenge. Please provide, man. Please provide, Lord. And so over those three months, I can tell you, and all glory be to Christ, that God provided every penny for my first year of studies. There was a man came to the house one night. He knocked on the door, gave me an envelope. He didn't even allow me to say hello. He just closed the door and headed off in his car, 1,000 bucks and a check. And time and time again like that, the first year of Bible college, most of the second year of Bible college, he provided for me to have a car that I could use to get around to go to meetings that I was being invited to and share the gospel here and there. And it was just wonderful. But why do I share that story with you? Because God proves his power and when he proves his power through our lives, it causes people to sit up and listen. One night, just a few weeks before I headed off to Bible college, my unbelieving dad, who was hard to the gospel at that time, came to me and he said, Andrew, you've proved to your mother and I that God can provide. And for me, listen, the provision was wonderful, praise God, but the most beautiful part of that testimony was to have my dad's heart be softened. Now he hasn't trusted Christ yet, you can be praying for him, but he has asked a lot more questions and been to a lot more meetings since the Lord provided in that way. So, third point. He proved God's power by exposing their false religion, by having total faith in God. Third thing that Elijah does is that he proves God's power by praying expectantly. He proves God's power by praying expectantly. Having finished his preparations and being sure that no one could call in to reproach the divine response that would follow, Elijah took up his most habitual posture. Now if you look through the story of Elijah, you will find a man who was often in the place of prayer. Before everything that he did, he was talking to the Lord. And so he did it again. If you were able to look back over his ministry, you would see that each time he prayed, he trusted God, he communed with the Almighty. And every time he had something to accomplish for the Lord, he began by invoking the Lord's name. And so here we can observe several things about the prayers that he prayed upon Mount Carmel. First of all, in verse 36, we see that he prayed God would prove his faithfulness by calling out to the one who had kept his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. Isn't that interesting? He prays to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So he was remembering all that God had done, all of the faithfulness that he'd had towards him in the past, and that is the name in who he was praying for this fire to come down from heaven. He also prays that God would send revival. If you look there in verse... Verse 37, "'Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.'" He prays for revival. It would have been so easy just to pray that God would send down the fire. That was only the means by which he was going to have the people come back to the Lord. That wasn't the main event. The main event was the repentance that would follow. This was just the proof of God's faithfulness. And so he prays for revival. He wanted to make a laughing stock of Baal, yes, but most of all what he wanted to see was the hearts of his fellow Israelites turned back to the Lord for salvation. What's interesting again is to notice that he prays for revival in the past tense. Look again in verse 37. that people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned back their hearts again. He prays in the past tense as if the Lord has already done it. It's because he's trusting in God and he's praying expectantly. He's expecting that God's going to do something. He's expecting that God's going to send revival. It's as if he's praying, Lord, I trust you, I know that you're going to do this, and so I'm relying fully on you to stay true to your promises. I wonder if we pray like that whenever we pray for unsaved souls today. Do we pray as if we're trusting and believing really and truly in our most profound interior parts that God can and will save this person if they turn to him in faith? What a wonderful prayer for revival. Another thing that we can see is that Elijah's prayer, we see that God answers Elijah's prayer by sending the fire from heaven. It descends upon the altar. It descends upon the altar and it eats up, it consumes the whole thing. The meat, the wood, the stones, the water, everything was gone. I was talking to a young man in our sending church there recently. He worked as a volunteer firefighter for a while. And he was telling me that for fire to burn up stone, that requires a fire that's whoo. I can't even remember the figures that he told me, but it was a lot of heat, OK? And that is the kind of intense burning fire that God sent from heaven. It was entirely free from trickery, entirely free from cheating. It wasn't Elijah who had done this. It was God and God alone who had sent the fire from heaven. One commentator remarked that another reason for which God may have consumed the stones was also to ensure that the people wouldn't be able to use this place as a stumbling block to set up again as an altar and worship the altar rather than the creator further down the line. Very interesting, isn't it? And then we see that the visible outworking of God's power culminated in the worship of the one true God. Down in verse 39, whenever the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is the God, the Lord, He is the God. And so, this challenge? where God proved himself to be faithful had its desired effect. It wasn't the glory of Elijah. It's never the glory of the preacher. It's the salvation of lost souls who come to put their trust and faith in Christ. When we're proving God's power in an unbelieving world, it is never for our own glory. It is never anything to do with us. It's all for him and for his praise and his honor. Before moving on to the last point, look down to verse 42. It's interesting again. Elijah, I'm going to read it. So, Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. Isn't it interesting and so important that after having proved God's faithfulness, having taken care of the prophets that needed to be slain in the brook Kishon. We're going to talk about that in the last point. Elijah gets right back into his usual posture, to go and to pray, to thank God for what had been done, to lift his voice to the heavens. and to pray that God would send the rain again and that this people, I'm sure he prayed, would remain faithful to him. And so we see that this prophet was one who was faithful. He prayed fervently. And we know that the fervent prayer of a faithful servant of God availeth much. And so let us pray. Final point. Elijah proves God's power by obeying God's Word. Elijah proves God's power by obeying His Word. The last thing that we see in this passage, verse 40, is a verse that some people find difficult. And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. And so what some people find difficult about this verse is that they say, well, that's not very merciful, is it? That they would take all of these prophets. You know, the people had repented. They turned back to God. Isn't all good that ends well? You know, why did they have to take them down there and slay them? And in our 21st century minds and thinking, it may seem difficult, but it was actually extremely important what Elijah did in Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses two to five. If you look there real quick, Deuteronomy 17. Verses 2 to 5, if there be found any among you within any of the gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman that hath brought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, whether the sun or the moon, or any of the hosts of heaven which have not commanded. And it be told you, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true. And the thing certain, such abomination is wrought in Israel. And so forth, that man or woman which have committed the wicked thing unto thy gates, and even that man or woman shall stone them with stones till they die. And so the command of God in his law was so that the people wouldn't have this stumbling block. and wouldn't be tempted to turn back to the idolatry. The idea was that those who had committed and caused the people to fall into the idolatry would be taken and slain. And that actually shows us how Elijah obeyed God's word. He was doing exactly what God had commanded. God had said, take from you those who cause you to stumble, and take them out and slay them. And so he did that down in the Brook Kishon. And so there's two things that we can see in that. First of all, when we trust Christ as Saviour, anything in our lives which can be a stumbling block to us are things that God is calling us to give up and to get rid of. They may be things that are not sinful in and of themselves, but things that can be a distraction, things which can cause us not to give God the rightful place and time that He deserves in our hearts and in our lives. And if you read there in Romans chapter 12, 1 and 2, you'll know these very well-known verses. He's calling us to come and put our lives on the altar as a living sacrifice, not being conformed to the things of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds. And so as Elijah dealt with these prophets, so God calls us to deal with the things that are not honoring and pleasing to him in our lives, to get rid of them, to cut them off from ourselves. And then there's another thing. That is that in the new covenant, God no longer demands the death of false teachers. That would be pretty harsh. But he is calling us and he is warning the church to be vigilant and to expose false teachings and teachers And those who would seek to divide and lead astray the flock of God from the truth of God's word. You'll find it there, for example, in Ephesians 5, verse 11. Ephesians 5, verse 11. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. And then in Romans as well, at the end of Romans, Romans 16. I want to turn there real quick before we finish. Romans 16, 19 and 20, some of the last exhortations that Paul gave to the church in Rome. For your obedience it has come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil." And so Paul was putting the church in Rome on guard. Be careful, be careful. There will be people that will come into the church who will try to lead you astray from God's Word and from God's truth. be careful and cast them off those who would seek to divide the flock. And so God calls us. He calls us to be lights and living testimonies to those who are caught in the snare of darkness. We can go to them, we can preach to them, we can seek to win them back to Christ. But there comes a moment when one who is trying to divide the flock of God should be put aside and not lead the flock of God away from God by their religion and false idolatry and false religion. Right, let's wrap things up here. In the conclusion, let us consider how we can apply these precious truths to our own walks. Perhaps there are those here who find themselves this morning And you don't know the way, you don't have this personal and beautifully intimate relationship with the Lord that Elijah had. Whenever we read the story of Elijah, and if you continue on, what you'll find is a man who had such a beautiful and intimate relationship with the Lord. Perhaps it's not the case for you as you're here this morning. Perhaps you don't know God's power at work in your life. Perhaps you haven't experienced the help of God and the strength that was given, like it was given unto Elijah. Whilst God has proved his power here by sending fire from heaven, you should know that his ultimate show of strength happened when he sent his only beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross of Calvary to take the punishment for the sins of all humanity, for your sins and for mine. And today he is still offering this wonderful pardon from sin. Just as the children of God here in this story were turned and turned back to the Lord, so he is calling you this morning to repent. To repent of your sin, to place your trust and your faith entirely in the finished work of Christ on the cross. And so we ask you, the call goes out again today. You've heard it in the missionary songs, you've heard it in the prayers, and now in the preaching of the word. Will you come? Will you come and put your trust in Christ for salvation? Will you come and ask Him to be your personal Savior? It's a story that I share often when we make a call at camp, but when I was a young camper, I was about 14, 15 years old, and one of my camp counselors shared this awfully sad story of a young man who he had the opportunity and the privilege of sharing the gospel with. He shared his need of Christ with him, showed him from scripture that he was a sinner, that he was on a broad road leading to hell, that he needed to trust in Christ before it would be too late. The young man said to him, listen preacher, I believe what you're saying, I understand exactly what you're saying to me, and I recognize the urgency of it, but I'm still young, I want to enjoy my life, I want to go out and experience the pleasures of the world, but I'll tell you this, ten minutes before I die, I will put my faith and trust in Christ. Well, just a few months later, that young man, he was in a car driven by a drunk driver, and as they were heading down the road, the little narrow country lanes in Ireland, he went across a junction into a brick wall, or stone wall rather, and everybody in the car died instantly. And the only thing that my camp counselor could say to me was, God didn't tell him when his five or 10 minutes had started. And so this morning, if you're in here, under the sound of the word, know that Christ wants to save you. And tomorrow might be too late. Our life is like a vapor. So don't put it off. Don't be like the procrastinator who puts off today what he can do. Put off to tomorrow what you can do today. That's not how we respond to the gospel. Come today. Come believing. Come trusting in him for salvation. Perhaps you're here today. And you know Christ as your personal Savior, you have a testimony, but like the people of Israel who were cold and who were far away from the Lord that they once loved, you've let your own love for the Lord grow cold. Or maybe you've let the things of the world, as the people of Israel had let the things of the world creep in and take up their time and their thinking, you've let the things of the world take the place of Christ on the throne of your heart. Maybe you didn't mean to, maybe life got hard, maybe distractions came in that you weren't really expecting, Let me tell you that God still loves you. God, He wants you to come back and to give your life completely over to Him again. His forgiveness is always available, just as it was back in this time with Elijah. It is available today for this backslider who would be in the meeting or watching online. Every day spent backsliding, this was a thought I had recently, every day spent backsliding is a day that you're missing out on the blessing, the strengthening, and the joy of the Lord in your heart and in your life. And so don't wait. Every backslider that I've met who's come back to the Lord consistently says, I wasted so much of my life. Don't waste your life today. Come back to him. Trust him. even where you are this morning. And so for finally, those of you who are here tonight, maybe you love the Lord, you're actively seeking to live for His glory and live for His honor, let me ask you just one question based on the title of this message. Is your life Is my life one which proves and testifies to God's power? As people observe our attitudes and our reactions, my way of living from day to day, my priorities, my family life, my interactions with those around me, is it one which proves God's power and the enabling of God's Spirit in my life? Let us strive to live together for the glory of God so that our lives may be living testimonies of the power of God for all to see. Let's pray together to close.