The title of our sermon is The God Who Sends Rain and Offers Grace, Scriptures 1 Kings 18, 41 through 46 series, The Eternal Kingdom. If you'd like to stand one more time, if you're able to, if you need to stay sitting down, that's fine, in reverence to God's word, please do so. I will read his holy word. And Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go again, seven times. At the seventh time, he said, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea. And he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. And in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garments and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Father, we thank you for your word, and we pray, O Lord, that you would apply it to our hearts. Give us spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit has to say. For the next 45 minutes or so, Lord, remove any preoccupation any other thought, and help us, O Lord, to be tuned in to your word. Remove this man, speak your truth, O God, the only truth that matters, in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen and amen. You may be seated, beloved. Beloved, our passage today reveals much about God. There's just a few verses here, but they're wonderful verses to contemplate. It calls us to marvel at the God who reigns over heaven and earth, who delights in mercy, and whose grace reaches even the most unworthy. We saw it last time we were here, the fire of God descending. Today, we will see and feel the rushing of rain. Our passage is simple. It starts off with us glorifying God as the God who sustains and loves his people. And it ends with glorifying God as the God of all grace. But in between, there is also a lesson on prayer that we're going to spend some time in. So if you look at verses 41 to the first part of verse 42, we're going to see our first point today, the sustaining God, the sustaining God. Then Elijah said to Ahab, go up and eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of right. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. As our passage opens, Elijah still stands as God's servant on Mount Carmel. There, if you remember, the Lord had revealed himself as the one true and living God through holy fire. But in this next scene, we see something more, something also equally as incredible. God not only shows that he is the real God on Mount Carmel through fire, but that he is a good God to the repentant. He is the giving God who sends life in form of rain, fulfilling the promises he has made. If you remember in 1 Kings 18, in our very first verse, the Bible says, and it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, go present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth. That was a promise God had made. If you remember in the chapter before, God had told Ahab, because you worship Baal, because this God of fertility, this Canaanite God, and you've turned your back on me, the one true living God, and your people have done the same, then go ahead and pray to Bill that he would give you rain, but there will be no rain for three years. And for three years, the land had languished. Drought conditions were severe. The animals were dying. There was mass starvation. It's hard for us to consider because we just go to the sink and turn on water, and it's pumped in from somewhere. It comes from someplace, right? But when it doesn't rain in a land and there's none of those modern conveniences, you can only imagine the devastation. Israel was devastated financially. Economically, there were wasteland. People were starving. There was discontent. All the time, Israel prayed to Baal, Baal, help us, Baal, help us. And nothing happened. And then God turned the people's hearts back to him in chapter 18, having a showdown with Baal, showing that he is the one and true living God. And now that the people have acknowledged their sin, repented of their sin, and turned back to God, now God says, then I will be the God who sustains you. I will send you rain. Do you see it, beloved, how gracious and merciful our God is? The people of Israel had turned away from him. They had become idolaters, enslaved to false gods, blinded by their own sin. Therefore, the drought they endured was a just consequence of their rebellion, a divine reminder that life Apart from God is empty and dry, yet even in judgment, mercy triumphs. Isn't he a good God? God did not leave his people to perish in their sin. In his love and holiness, he called them back to himself. He showed himself. He came down as fire. He turned their hearts to himself. And through the prophet Elijah, he revealed his power and gave the people new hearts. That's what we read, if you remember, in verse 37, the second part, where it says, Elijah prayed that this people may know God, that you are the Lord God, that you have turned their hearts back to you again. We affirm what scripture teaches in every page, that man will never, ever come to God on his own. Man hates God, is an enemy of God. Whether he knows it or not, man has something against God. Man wants to self-rule. Man wants to be his own captain. The master of his own destiny. Man hates someone telling them what to do. And so we affirm the truth here. Elijah said, it is you, God. You're turning their hearts back to you. You intend to save them. And he did. Praise God for his unconditional election. It was a beautiful moment, if you remember reconciliation. God accepted the sacrifice offered by his prophet. as a substitute for the people's sins. They should die for having turned their back on God. God's wrath should fall upon them. But instead, God's wrath falls on a bull, an innocent substitute. Instead of destroying them, God received the offering and turned his wrath away. And here we find the gospel again. We find Jesus Christ, for that's exactly what Jesus is. He is the sacrifice that God provides. Jesus comes. He is perfect, sinless. He doesn't have your sins. He doesn't have my sins. We cannot fix ourselves. We're not good people. We're like Israels. We're idolaters. And we deserve the full wrath of God. But instead, what does God do? He pours out his wrath, his holy fire, not on us, but on the sacrifice on Jesus Christ. And he burns so that we don't. Because he burns under the wrath of God because God punishes him as if we were him. Then God also can dress us with the holiness of Christ as if we were him. There's this interchange, this great interchange. Our sins on his account, his holiness on ours, so that we can be forgiven of our sins. Here in the Old Testament, we find the gospel again, over and over again. It was a beautiful picture of the gospel. A substitute burning so that the people did not burn. A people being brought back to God because he intended to bring them. Because he turned their hearts to himself. The most beautiful picture of grace. And beloved, that same picture of grace is preached every Sunday through godly pulpits as we ask people to come to Christ. To see him as your sacrifice. to bend the knee, to say to God, I deserve wrath. I am a liar. I am a thief. I am a murderer at heart. I've hated people. I'm adulterer at heart, at least, if not actually in my life. I've broken all the commands of God, each and every one of them, over and over again. I am not a good person. I deserve the wrath of God. But oh, Lord, like you did with Elijah and the people, turn my heart towards you. Forgive me of my sins. I put my faith solely on Jesus Christ. the perfect substitute, the innocent substitute. Let his suffering be my sufferings and let his glory be my glory that I might be accepted. This is the gospel. And if you're here and you've never come to Christ, this is what you must do if you want to be saved. So that's what happened up to verse 40. If you remember now in verse 41, we see the forgiveness of God overflowing into the blessing of God to his people. We learn that the God who forgives sins also provides for his people. The same hand that withheld rain in judgment now opens his hands to pour out grace in abundance. He will send the rain not only to water the land but also to show his people that he is the source of all life and goodness. Could you imagine what that rain felt like after three years of drought? Right? Seeing your children go hungry, wasting away the land parched, caked, cracked. The animals dying. Desperation everywhere. Whatever little food was there was around was super highly inflated for there was very little to go around. And all of a sudden, the rain comes. And it's not just a rain, the Bible says, but it's a thunderous shower. The rain comes and just waters everything. And it's God telling his people, since I have brought you back, since I've forgiven your sins because I've turned your heart towards me, now I will be the God of provision for you. I will take care of you. He is a good God. Amen. And with that, our focus changes from God to what prayer should be. As we look at the second part of verse 42, and we learned that prayer requires humility. If you're taking notes, prayer requires humility. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he bowed down on the ground and he put his face between his knees. There's the prophet of the Lord on the dirt with his, face between his knees, his face in the dirt. Elijah's body language says it all. He is completely and wholeheartedly dependent upon God. He's on his knees with his face in the ground in a posture of intense, concentrated prayer, humble, begging God that he would provide for his people. The same prophet who stood boldly before King Ahab and his false prophet now bows low before the true king of kings in humble and quiet supplication. You see beloved we are tempted aren't we to see Elijah as a brash prophet. I want to be like Elijah kicking down doors and mocking the false teachers and standing toe to toe with the king. It seems like Elijah is a brash prophet. It seems like After all that he that he has this chip on his shoulder. He spoke with fiery conviction you remember in chapter 18. He exposed idolatry and called Israel to repentance. And we even remember Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal with holy sarcasm. Pray louder. Remember the prophets of Baal have been all day calling for fire, nothing. This was the great showdown. And he just says, why don't you pray loud? Perhaps he's on the bathroom and he's too busy to answer. Perhaps he's asleep and you got to wake him. Maybe he's on a long journey. Do you remember that? We kind of giggled at the thought, but he was mocking them, mocking their allegiance to a false and dead God. And we say, wow, Elijah was brash. He had a chip on his shoulder. But beloved, remember that Elijah said, everything I've done and everything I said has been at your word, O Lord. It wasn't Elijah mocking, it was God mocking Baal. It was God showing that he's a true God. As a matter of fact, if we trace Elijah's story through chapter 17 and 18, we find not a brash prophet, but really a humble servant of God. Elijah is continuously reduced to helpless prayer. He comes to God as we all must, as a beggar. You remember in chapter 17 when the widow's son died, Elijah prayed for life to return to the widow's son, three times, stretching, oh God, please, oh God, please, oh God, please. If you don't do anything, there is no life, oh God. And in chapter 18, he prayed for fire to fall down from heaven. He didn't call fire from heaven. We hear people say, Elijah called down fire from heaven. He couldn't. He prayed that God would send the fire, and God did. And now, in this chapter at the end, he prays for rain to descend upon the earth. Again, he doesn't call for rain. He asks God to send it, and he does it seven times. Seven times. He says, is there any rain yet? No. OK, let's go to God in prayer. How about now? No. OK, let's go to God in prayer. He kept getting the same answer six times. No, nothing's happening until the seventh time. In every one of these instances that we traced in 17 and 18, Elijah recognizes that he has no power to produce any miracle. Isn't that amazing? He's not brash. He cannot give life to the dead. He cannot send fire from heaven. He cannot make it rain. Beloved, he is no super prophet as some people imagine him to be with a big S on his chest. Instead, he is a humble man who wholly depends on God's sovereign hand. His strength was not in his ability, beloved, but in his humility in coming and running to God. And I'm praying that this will preach to you today. Because how many of us think we got it under control? I can fix anything, right? We should probably be on our hands and knees facing the ground and saying, oh, God, unless you do something, I'm completely lost. Beloved, true prayer always begins here. Prayer is humbling work, isn't it? By the fact that you're on your knees and your face on the ground, you're humbling yourself before the great and sovereign King. Prayer strips us of our self-reliance and brings us face to face with our need that we cannot fulfill and with the sovereign God who can do anything. Elijah bowed with his face between his knees because He knew that blessings come only from God's mercy. And so he's asking God, oh God, please send rain. So we learn that if we want to see God move in our lives, in our homes, in our families, in this church, in our community as we preach the gospel, if we want salvation to reign, if we want the mercy of God in our life, we must also learn to bow low in humility before God. Intercession is not about fancy words or many words. but about a humble heart that knows its dependence, that knows that the truth of Jesus' statement in John 15, without me, you can do nothing. Amen? It's hard for us because we are so full of ourselves. But prayer is really an emptying of ourselves and coming to God and saying, Lord, I need you. I need you. The Lord delights in answering the prayers of those who come to him humbly with empty hand, trusting only in his grace. Oh God, please give me today my daily bread. Beloved, the proud pray little because they believe they can manage life without God. But the humble pray much because they know they cannot. Amen. And so where are you today? I ask you this, how's your prayer life? How's your dependency upon God? Your prayer life says a lot about your faith in God, whether it's true or not, how genuine it is. So prayer requires humility, but prayer also requires faith in God's promises. Elijah is sure that the rain will come. Why? Because God declared it so in verse one. You remember, I will send rain on the earth. We read that, right? Elijah, go present yourself to Ahab. The three years are up. I've humbled them enough. I'm going to send rain on the earth. That was a foregone conclusion. God had made a decree. It's a sure thing. God will send rain because he said so. Yet in verse 42, we find him, Elijah, bowing in earnest prayer for the very thing God had already said he's going to do. And this raises an important theological question, doesn't it? Why does Elijah need to pray if God's will is certain? Or another way of putting it, why does Elijah need to pray, why, excuse me, if God is sovereign and his will surely will be accomplished in all his decrees, what role do the prayers of his people play? Have you ever asked that question? Why pray? I mean, God is God. What he's going to do is going to do. And this is frequently an attack that is brought against those of us who are doctrinally minded in doctrines of grace. Well you people always saying that God is absolutely 100 sovereign over everything including man and salvation. And you don't believe in prayer because you say well everything's going to happen is going to happen. So why pray. How wrong they are. Amen. How wrong we are. We understand the real purpose of prayer. Listen the real purpose of prayer is not to change God's mind. If we could change God's mind we would change it from the holy to the less holy. from the perfect to the imperfect. You don't want a God whose mind you can change. Because you can only move him away from perfection into your imperfection. You don't want God to do what you want him to do. You want to align yourself to God. Amen? Do you see the difference, beloved? And that's something that the modern church forgets this day. It's like, oh no, I know that I can get what I want if I just pray hard enough and I'll make God do it. You can't make God do anything. All you can do is align yourself to God. So what's the answer? Why pray? If God said, I'm going to send it, and God's will cannot be changed, why do we find Elijah pray? Not once, twice, three times, but seven times he prays. Why pray? Well, the answer, beloved, is found in verse 36, if you will look. There, Elijah says, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel. I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Do you see it? He's praying to God and saying, I've done everything that you have already said you're going to do. So I am praying now according to your what? Promises. And that's the answer, beloved. Beloved, Elijah's confidence is not in his own prayer, but in God's word, God's promises. God had willed to send the rain. He had made that abundantly clear. But he also has will that his purposes would be accomplished through Elijah's intercession. So listen to this. The same sovereign God who ordains the ends also ordains the means by which those ends will be achieved. And it's through prayer. Isn't that wonderful to know? That's why the book of Corinthians says we don't even know what to pray. But the Holy Spirit who knows the mind of God teaches us what we ought to pray. And so we pray the promises of God. So this is one of the great mysteries and privileges of prayer. God does not need us to fulfill his purposes. Again, God does not need us to fulfill his purposes. If he needed us, he wouldn't be much of a God. But he graciously chooses to use us in his purposes. And that is a grace. He delights in bringing about his will in response to the prayer of the saints. Prayer, therefore, is not an attempt, again, to change God's mind. It is the appointed channel through which God's decrees are carried out. And we align ourselves to his will by praying. Isn't that why Jesus prayed, Lord, if it's possible, pass this cup from me? But not my will be done, but what? Your will be done. Even our Lord teaches us this thing. We see the same truth then echoed, if you will, at the close of scripture. In Revelations 22, 20, the Lord Jesus declares, Surely I am coming quickly. Is that not a promise. Amen. Is it certain. Has he decreed it. Is there any stopping it. Yet. Immediately John responds in prayer. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. Do you see him pray. God says, I am coming. John doesn't say, well, God promised that there's no point. But what does he immediately do? Amen. Come Lord Jesus, fulfill that promise. We want to see your day. Shouldn't that be our prayer as well? Do you see it? Do you see the beauty of this beloved? Because God has promised his people pray. He reveals his will and then moves the hearts of his children to seek his will through prayer. This is divine intercession. The will of God is announced. The Holy Spirit awakens the prayers of God's people according to that will, and then God's purposes are accomplished all to the glory of his name. So yes, beloved, true biblical understanding of prayer gives great dignity to prayer. Prayer is an act of obedience, an expression of faith in the promises of God, a joining of our hearts to the sovereign will of our gracious Father as we pray that his promises be fulfilled in his time. and as we align ourselves to his purposes. So prayer requires humility, as we have seen. Prayer requires faith in the promises. And in verse 43 and 44, we see that prayer requires patience. Prayer oftentimes requires patience. Have you ever lost patience with God for something you're praying about? Have you ever felt like God was taking a sweet time? And you're like, come on, Lord, I need this like yesterday, right? Look at verse 43 and 44. And he said to his servant, Go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, There's nothing. And he said, Go up again seven times. And the seventh time he said, Behold, a little cloud, like a man's hand, is rising from the sea. And he said, Go up and say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. It's an interesting portion of scripture. He's on his hands and his knees, right, facing the ground, praying for we don't know how long. Ahab's already eating and drinking. He had promised, rain's coming, go ahead and eat and drink. And so he is, this wicked king is eating and drinking. And he asked his servants, do you see any rain? He says, I don't see nothing. So then he prays again. How about now? He goes up there, he goes, still nothing. And that's the answer he gets six times. It's easy to become discouraged sometimes, isn't it? It's easy to become discouraged. But he kept praying because he knew it was God's will that rain would be sent. You see, he knew the promise. So he just kept praying. He says, God, this is your promise. I'm not leaving this place until that promise is fulfilled. You said it would happen today. You told me this. I know this for a fact, so I'll just keep praying. Seventh, always in scripture, number of completion. He completely put his trust in God. So at first glance, opposing the Baal's prophets seemed easier than interceding with a living God for rain. Why? Because when he prayed the first time, Up in Mount Carmel, the fire fell immediately. It needed to. God needed to distinguish himself from Baal, this unbelieving people. But here God is molding Elijah. Here is Elijah on his knees praying repeatedly, hearing the same discouraging report. There is nothing at all. Elijah, like you and me, must learn persistence in intercessory prayer. Persistence. Faithful prayer often involves patience. perseverance, trust, even when it seems like nothing at all is happening. We just pray and we keep praying. We know whom we're praying. We're going to get an answer one way. It's going to be yes or what? No or wait, but we're going to get an answer. Those are the three answers of God. Absolutely, right now, or no, or wait. Kind of like a maybe. Notice how differently God responds in different times of prayer. On Mount Carmel, fire came immediately in response to Elijah's prayer, decisively vindicating the Lord's name. But here the answer is slow in coming, even painful to wait for. So we're reminded that God answers prayers, but not always immediately and not predictably. Why, oh Lord, when Pastor Ishmael prays, it seems like it happens right away. But when I pray, don't do that. Amen. God is doing his work at his way. So what do we learn? A delay from God is not a sign of his absence or a sign of his weakness. There is no weakness with God. Instead, it is a sovereign part of his plan. God uses delay to shape Elijah's faith, to shape Elijah's patience, to shape Elijah's dependence. The Lord often teaches us to wait and watch and trust him, even when we see nothing at all. makes us more dependent on God, hungrier for him. It's a wonderful thing. So we learn a couple of things. Every Christian must persist in prayer even when they see nothing at all. That's number one. Number two, every Christian must trust God's sovereignty even when there is a delay. Number three, every Christian must pray with faith and not by sight. We're not instant gratification kind of people, amen? And number four, we must embrace God's refining process. Often to prayer, he makes us more in the image of Christ. So we have seen that prayer requires humility, faith, patience. And in verse 45, this first part, we're gonna see that it is through prayer that God sustains his people. Bible says, in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain. The seventh time that he prayed, the young man says, look, I see a little hand, like a little hand in the distance. That's all I see. And he says, that's enough. Isn't that incredible? He didn't wait, he didn't keep praying until the whole sky was full of black clouds. He says, that's God answering. He did not despise the answer to prayer, even though it seemed far and small in the distance, it was an answer. It was a cloud rising. There hadn't been clouds for what, three years? He said, this is God answering, that's enough. Then the rain comes and rain brings life as you know. It waters the field, provides food for people, nourishes animals, helps crops grow, parses the thirst of the land and of the people. Here we see that God is not only the God of the dramatic fire falling from heaven, but also the God who provides for our daily needs. And he does this through prayer. Yeah, it hadn't rained in three years, so it's a miracle it's happening, but doesn't God always water the earth with rain? Isn't that common for us to receive rain? Maybe not here in Victorville, but you know what I'm saying. We do live in the desert for a reason, right? But every time it rains, we're not like shocked that it's raining. We're like, well, it's raining. It happens. Even if it happens rarely, it happens. We expect rain to fall. snow and water cycles to happen. And we don't stop and think that it is a provision of God, do we? We don't stop and say, well, praise God for what he's given. We don't see it as the blessing of God. We just take it for granted. It's what happens. Everybody's impressed when fire comes down from heaven because that's not something that happens every day. It breaks the laws of physics for fire to fall down from heaven and consume anything. That would shock our sensibilities, wouldn't it? That would be, the Lord is God, the Lord is God. But rain, we're like, well, you know, rain, you know. We've had it before. We'll have it again. But the same God that rain fires, the same God that rains water. And we need to understand that. And we should be thankful for the dramatic moments in our lives, our conversion, our salvation, the conversion of our children, the salvation of our children. We should be thankful to God for these things. But we should be thankful every day for his daily sustaining graces. I guess that's where we're at here. He is the God that does all of these things and he does it through prayer. Because of Israel's sin and divided hearts, they had lost the blessings of God's daily provision. God said, if you want to follow after Baal, let Baal provide for you. See how that'll go. And after three years of hunger and drought, they're like, oh, we need God. And God says, now I will provide. Now you will accept these things as if they came from me. If God had continued to reign during those three years, the people would have continued giving praise and glory to Baal, a false god. But now they know their daily provisions comes from whom? From God. One commentator writes and says, Israel is to learn again this day that the God who sends fire to convert their hearts will also send rain to refresh and feed their bodies. Praise God for that. Amen. So beloved we learn that it is God who sustains life. We saw that in our public reading of scripture in verse 9 of chapter 65 says God you visit the earth and water it you greatly enrich it the river of God is full of water you provide their grain for so you have prepared it through the rain he provides grain right. The river of God God you have all the water you you're the one that makes it water on the earth. So when we stop seeing our daily provisions as gifts from God, we begin to worship the gift instead of the giver. That is modern Baalism. That is modern idolatry. Beloved, even the ordinary things, rain, food, daily provision, the clothes you wear, everything are precious gifts of grace that reveal God's faithfulness and care and goodness for you. But you might say, but I'm the one that goes to work and earn the paycheck. Yeah, but who gave you the health and the ability to do what you do? And how quickly can your health turn and you lose your job and you'd be destitute? Amen? So everything you have, ladies down to the nail polish on your nails, gentlemen, if you have it, your beard care, everything, everything belongs and it's been given to you by whom? By God. Everything are his gracious answers to the prayer of dependence that Jesus Christ taught his people to pray in Matthew 611. Give us this day our daily bread. Do you notice Jesus didn't ask us to pray for the dramatic or the incredible? Amen? Although we do pray for those things, conversion of souls, the gospel would go forth. But in the Lord's prayer, what are we to pray for? Our daily provisions. Give us today my daily provision. And tomorrow I will pray for what? my daily provision. Notice he doesn't say give us this month's daily provision, but give us this day, today. Every single day I'm dependent upon Christ for my breakfast, my lunch, my dinner, my snacks. Amen? And all that God does. Praise God for him, for his grace, and how he blesses us through prayer. To close, we're going to go to verse 45, the second part, all the way to 46. Our shift now moves away from prayer back to this amazing God. And I have entitled this portion, The God of Incredible Grace. And I hope it ministers to you as it's ministered to me in preparing it. Ahab rode, says verse 45, Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, verse 46, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he gathered up his garments and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Elijah rises from prayer and begins to run. His feet strike the ground with divine strength, outpacing Ahab's chariot as the rain pours down. Do you see the picture in your head? The prophet with his tunic all hemmed up. It's not just a light rain. This is a torrential rain like it hasn't rained in three years. The roads are all muddy and caked, right? And here's the prophet, Elijah's, Ahab is riding on his chariot, he has a head start, and all of a sudden he sees the prophet running from behind, catching him, and then going ahead of him. And no matter how hard Ahab pushes his horses, Elijah is ahead of him. It's an incredible picture, isn't it? It's like, what's going on here? Is Elijah Superman? No, he's not. You know? Would he win every gold medal? Well, he would here. But that's not the point, is it? Elijah rises, he runs. This was no mere human effort, no burst of natural speed. Elijah was not an Olympic athlete. He couldn't outrace a car and he couldn't outrace horses. It's impossible, no human can. How does he do this? Well, we read in that same verse, the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah. What an incredible thought, amen? So this is miraculous running. God, who had just answered by fire and now by rain, now empowers his servant to run in the strength of his spirit. And so we see him running in front of the king. You see the king's jaw just drop. How is this happening again? He had just been shocked in Carmel when the fire came down. He's probably wondering. He's looking at the water and going, Elijah was praying. This is amazing. And now Elijah's in front of him, not tired, not sweating, running. Full speed, faster than a chariot can run, being pulled by horses. It's a beautiful picture. It blesses our hearts, but we have to ask, what does it mean that Elijah ran, caught up to, and even ran ahead of Ahab's chariot? Why is God doing this? What is he teaching us through this? Amen? There has to be a lesson, and there is. God is communicating something very profound here. Number one. Elijah running before Ahab signified that Elijah could be Ahab's forerunner, his herald. You see, the prophets were originally called to serve the king, to help the king in bringing God's word to the king so the king can reign rightly. The prophet was never called to be an enemy of the king, to oppose the king, only if the king turned from God in wickedness. Do you remember Ahab's reaction when he saw Elijah for the first time in three years? There you are, O my enemy, you who trouble Israel. He saw the prophet of God, the word of God, as his enemy. And here's Elijah running before him as a herald, announcing the king's entrance into the city of Jezreel. This image portrays the possibility of harmony between the throne and the word of God. A vision of what could be if Ahab's heart turns in repentance. If Ahab humbles himself before the Lord, Elijah will not stand as his adversary, but as a faithful companion, helping the king, leading Israel back to true worship and covenant faithfulness. This was God extending grace to the king. As God's showing him the gospel one more time. You could have the prophet before you, leading the way, preaching the word of God. if you were just to repent of your sins. One more opportunity for this wicked king. Number two, Ahab's following behind Elijah symbolizes the restoration of proper order in the covenant nation. The king must follow the prophet because the prophet represents the word of God. In other words, God's word, not human power or political authority, must lead the nation, must lead the Christian, and every Christian home must lead the church. The Lord is placing a clear demand upon Ahab. The king must not act independently of God, but must submit to the divine word. And here is a word for you as a Christian today. As a father, as a businessman, man, as leaders of your home, you lead not by your own authority, you lead under God's word. Follow God's word. Do it God's way. Don't do it yourself. I'm in charge. Realize that it is God's word that should prevail. Follow God's word and see if your family's not blessed, if your children don't grow up to love the Lord, if your church is not blessed. Moms, don't just say because I said so, but because God says so in his word. Do you see the difference there? Rely on the authority of the word of God to be the parent to your children and see if your children do not grow up and call you blessed. Amen. Oh, beloved, what a nation we would have Our president and our Congress and our governments all around the world said, we will go under the authority of God's word first, not what we think, but what he thinks. Can't even imagine such a thing. It'd be wonderful to see. So Ahab is reminded that God's word must rule, not his capricious nature. Up to this point, Ahab has done whatever the heck he wants to do, when he wants it, how he wants to do it. But God is reminding them, no, you are to follow the prophet. No matter how hard you try, you can't surpass the prophet. The prophet will always be in front of you. My word must be in front of you. It is God being merciful. So what does this all mean? But it leaves Ahab with a choice to make, isn't it? It is his moment of decision. Israel had had their moment on Mount Carmel. He had witnessed what God had done. He had seen his nation turn away from his false God to the living God. He has seen his false prophet killed all in one day. He has seen water being brought when no water had been there for three years. And now he sees the prophet in front of him. It is his Mount Carmel moment, if you will. You remember what Elijah had said to the people, if the Lord, if Baal be God, then serve him and go to hell. But if the Lord be God, then serve him and him alone. Choose this day whom you're going to serve. That was the thought. And this is the choice that Ahab has before him. Will he continue following Baal to his own destruction? Or will he humble himself and confess like Israel did, the Lord, he is God. And I'm surprised, aren't you, that God would give another opportunity to this king? Aren't you? If you know anything about the Old Testament, you know that Ahab is considered the most wicked king in northern Israel's history. No one will ever be as wicked as him. And up to this point, he has done abominably. It is under his ministry or his rulership that the people of God have been brought low and the prophets have been killed. The true prophets of God. And here's God extending grace one more time. And it shocks us, doesn't it? I am continuing law of God's incredible grace. He offers the richest of grace to the most vilest of sinners. I want you to consider Ahab, will you? It was Ahab who permitted Baal worship to come in. It was Ahab who approved the construction of Baal's temple. It was Ahab who approved the construction of Baal's altar. It was him who joined in the idolatry himself. He stood by while his wicked wife slaughtered God's prophet and tore down God's altar. He gave them permission to do it. He spoke of Elijah with hatred, calling him an enemy. He withstood God. He destroyed the nation with his wickedness. And yet despite all that, God here extends the offer of grace to this unrepentant sinner. Giving him a gospel opportunity, showing him the road to repentance. If you were just to repent, Elijah could be a friend. The word of God could be your friend. If you were just to repent, you could be led by the word of God. Things can be different for you. God offering him Elijah as a helper instead of an adversary. He's too good, isn't he? He's too merciful. You see this offends our natural sense of justice. We say things like this. How could God forgive such a man? Surely there are some people too far gone, too stained by sin to be forgiven. We think of Hitler and we're like there's no way God can even save him, right? What if Hitler had repented? You see people can't even fathom that thought, right? Could God have forgiven even him? Yes, he could have. You see, when we say that, oh, that person is too far gone, what we're really saying is this, I'm better than that person. God shouldn't forgive him, but he should forgive me. I'm better. And we don't see the truth, do we? We cannot object because we are all sinners by nature. None of us deserves grace. The reason you haven't gone as far as Ahab is because you haven't had the opportunity and the power that Ahab had. But if you're outside of Christ, you will descend and you will do the most ungodly things. You will do things you know are wrong. You've done things you know are wrong. You've done it on purpose and you've tried to justify them. The greatest disease in America, It's this good person-itis thing that everybody has. I'm a good person. We're not good people. We're sinners. And we need a savior. We cannot help ourselves. God's not going to look at your good and say, you know, you were more good than bad, and you get into heaven. There's no grading on a bell curve or anything like that. God requires absolute holiness, and none of us are holy. That's why we need to be dressed with Christ, who was absolutely holy. Amen? What makes grace is incredible is that he offers it to sinners like you and like me and like Ahab. It is God's free undeserved gift to those who could never earn it. And he offers it here to Ahab just like he's offering it to you if you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ. Sadly, Ahab was offered a gospel opportunity but refused. He refused to bend as we're going to see. As we will read, Ahab chose his idols, and therefore he chose eternal separation from God and hell. Eventually, the prophet says, you're dead men. You and your whole lineage will be gone, for you have refused the grace of God. And God kills him and his wife, that wicked woman. But here he had an opportunity. I just want you to see that. It didn't have to be that way. Today, you too are offered forgiveness in Christ. And the answer and the question is, will you bend the knee? Will you turn to him while mercy still calls out? Or will you choose to continue in your Baalism, your idolatry, the worship of self? That road leads to hell, and you'll have no one else to blame but yourself. I guess this is why Christians are called narrow-minded, right? Because we say stuff like that that offends people. But the gospel is naturally offensive. I tell you all that I'm telling you in love, but perhaps it's offensive, right? It is. You're not a good person. You're a sinner. You deserve hell. Only Christ can save you. I don't know how to say that in a nice way where your feelings and your sensibilities aren't shocked and hurt. Just to say that I take no delight in it, just letting you know the truth. Ahab had an opportunity and he squandered it away. Don't you do the same. Today, right where you're at, if you've never asked Christ to forgive your sins, submit and say, look, man, I'm just, I'm a wicked sinner. And I need you, God. And this pastor guy just taught us from scripture. Scripture teaches that Christ suffered for me. He substituted himself for me. I avail myself of that substitute. Here are my sins. Would you dress me in Christ? Make me yours. I don't know what that all means, but make me yours. And God will transform your life. If you can pray that prayer, if you can swallow your pride, because we're the most prideful beings ever to have lived. If you can swallow your pride and pray that prayer, it's because God is turning your heart towards him. He's doing the work. Amen? Like he did with Israel. I pray that you would. And for those of you who are in Christ, I pray that today God has called you to a deeper walk with him through intercessory prayer, humble prayer, faithful prayer, dependent, patient prayer. Amen? and that you would glory in the God who offers grace to the worst of sinners. I close with this thought. One of the most wicked men in the Bible to ever be saved was the Apostle Paul, who ends up writing 48% of the New Testament. Isn't God amazing? He was the persecutor of the church. He hated Christianity. He was a Jew, and he hated the idea of Christianity and Christ as Messiah. He killed Christians, arrested Christians, broke up family, left children orphans. The Bible equates him to Satan. He was breathing fire, the Bible says. In other words, the idea that he hated Christ. And on the road to Damascus, Jesus appears to him and saves him dramatically and totally. Changes his name from Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul. And he spends the rest of his life preaching the gospel that he killed others for preaching. He spends the rest of his day begging people to come to Christ, suffering how he made other people suffer so they would come to Christ. And it is the Apostle Paul that says, of all the sinners of the world, I am chief, but God had mercy on me. It's the same mercy he offers Ahab, the same mercy he offers you. I don't care what you've done, come to Christ before it's too late. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. What a beautiful and right word it is. And we pray that you would apply it to our hearts, minds, and lives. We thank you for it, Lord. And we pray two things, that the saints, those who are in Christ, have been blessed, that they would know Christ better, love him more, that they would see the gospel in the Old Testament, that we'd be concerned, oh, Father God, with prayer, that they would apply the lessons in prayer to their own lives, that they would see the God of heaven as the God that sustains them, the God that gives them their daily provisions, that they would understand, oh Father God, that you are a God of grace and that we would be a people of grace, offering Christ to a world that desperately needs him. And if there's any unbeliever here or any false comforter or anyone who thinks he's just a Christian because he has some nebulous belief but who has never bowed the knee, has never swallowed their pride, I pray, pride, oh Lord, I pray that today they would see that they need Christ before it's too late, that Christ must go before them, that your word must go before them, that the gospel and those who proclaim the gospel are not their enemies but could be their friends, could teach them how to live life that honors you by your grace and your transformation. We pray, oh Lord, that you would save any unbeliever. We thank you for our worship service, Lord. We thank you for the hymns we have sung. the spirit of love and unity that's in this place. In Christ's name and for his sake, amen.