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Good morning, everybody. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings 18. We'll read the bigger context of what we just got to sing there. I'm going to read verses 30-46 in 1 Kings 18. It's a large text. We'll see how much we can cover today. It says, Then Eli just said to all the people, "'Come near to me.' So all the people came near to 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, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "'Israel shall be your name.' Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two seers of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bullet in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, fill four water pots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said, do it a second time, and they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time, and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar, and he also filled the trench 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 Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape. So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and executed them there. Then Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And seven times he said, go again. Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea. So he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Let's pray one more time. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this instruction that you've given us from an ancient time. But we worship the same God that Elijah did at that time and all your people did at that time. And you are the same with us today. We are your children today. We pray that we will be able to Read and learn and gain some understanding about Your Word. We need Your Spirit and we ask that Your Holy Spirit would be here amongst us. You know us, Father. We ask that You would give us what we need this morning. We ask this in Jesus' awesome name. Amen. So the last time we looked at Mount Carmel, we saw how the false prophets had their first turn to go. And they had most of the day... Thank you, Daniel. They had most of the day to pray for to pray to their God to bring the fire upon the sacrifice. And we know what happened after their turn. The scriptures say that there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid any attention to them. Now it's Elijah's turn to go. It's his turn to pray for fire upon the sacrifice. And remember, Elijah didn't just want to deal with the false prophets there, he also wanted to deal with all of the people of Israel. He told the king to have the false prophets there, also to have all of the people of Israel. The first time Elijah addressed the people of Israel, what was their response? He told them, why are you faltering between two opinions? And it says, but the people answered him, not a word. So Elijah's going to show them that it's wrong to worship Baal. He's going to show them that they are to worship the Lord, Yahweh. So he begins by telling them in verse 30, he says, come near to me. Remember, he's teaching them now. He's telling them, come near to him. And Elijah knows that as a prophet to Israel, he's also the spiritual example, the spiritual leader to the people of Israel. Just as the Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 5, that pastors are to be examples to the flock. The Apostle Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 11, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. And here Elijah is wanting the people to look at him. He's not just going to ask the Lord to send a fire to prove that the prophets of Baal were wrong, but he also wants to teach the people of Israel through this event. So it says there that he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. There was an altar there to the Lord. This wasn't a pagan altar. This was an altar where the people worshiped Yahweh. But through neglect and through time they had stopped worshipping there. It had become abandoned and obviously there was no one worshipping there anymore. So what Elijah does it says that Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come saying Israel shall be your name. Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Israel had been divided for a long time. Ahab was the king at that time. He was the seventh king from a divided nation, Israel. Remember, in the glory days, we could say, under David and even under Solomon. Of course, Saul was the first king. Israel was a united nation. But now, Israel had been divided. The northern part of Israel was called Israel. The southern part of Israel was called Judah. Most of the tribes were there in the north, ten tribes, but they all were in rebellion against God. So God just divided the nation. God had planned to do this since David and Solomon's time, but it didn't happen until Solomon's son Rehoboam was king. And that was about 70 years before this event on Mount Carmel. And Solomon was king for 40 years, so they didn't know David being king at all. That wasn't but 110 years before this event. So those people there didn't know what it was to be in a united Israel under God. They had forgotten who they were. They forgot that they were the covenant people of God. They forgot that they were the 12 tribes of Jacob. Jacob's name had been turned to Israel, Israel meaning prince with God. So Elijah is here reminding them who they are and who their God is. And that's the way it is for us today. When Christians fall into sin, Christians need to remember two things. Who their God is and who they are in Christ. And not seek to try to fix themselves on their own willpower, on their own strength, but they need to remember who their God is and who they are as Christians. And that's what Elijah is doing with them. He built the altar with 12 stones, not one more stone, not one less. He built it with 12 stones, going back to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he's here repairing this altar. And this is something that we need to see here in this story, that before Elijah asked the Lord to send fire upon the altar, he repaired it first. Now when it comes to unbelievers, to non-Christians, they are to come to Christ just as they are. No preparation needed, they don't need to fix up their lives, they don't need to take care of their bad habits, they don't need to let some time pass, they don't need a probationary period from their real bad sin before they come to the Lord. They are to come to Jesus just as they are, with their sin. And they need to have an attitude of, if God's going to cast me out, well then, he's going to cast me out, but I'm going to Christ. That's why they need to come to Christ. Not waiting for something to happen in their lives, not waiting for some kind of experience, some kind of spiritual goosebumps, we could say. Come to Christ just as you are. But for the Christian, notice that Elijah didn't pray for the Lord to send fire upon a broken-down altar. For the Christian, repentance and conversion must always be a part of the Christian's life. It must be an ongoing part. We don't do these things to get saved, but now that we are saved, if we're saved, there must be repentance and there must be conversion. There must be an ongoing dying to sin, dying to the flesh. When we sin, we confess our sins to the Lord. We sin to other people, we confess our sins to other people. We seek to make things right, to be reconciled to other people. But for the Christian, the Christian needs to see this. The prophet Elijah didn't pray for fire upon a broken-down altar. He repaired the altar before he asked the Lord to send the fire. So he repaired the altar, and then Elijah starts to prepare the sacrifice. It says that he put the wood down and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he told the people to fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. He said, do it a second time. They did it a second time. He said, do it a third time. They did it a third time. Then he put water all around the trench that was around the altar. So this altar and the sacrifice were entirely drenched. Why did he do that? Well, we know he did that because he wanted to show the people there that this wasn't some trick that he was doing. If a fire happened to start on the sacrifice, he didn't want the people to say, well, that was just some trick that Elijah did, that maybe there was already a fire there and he kind of just kindled it and caused it to happen. So if there was going to be a fire, it was going to be obvious that this was what the Lord did. So he had all this water being poured on the sacrifice. But they were in a three and a half year drought. Where did Elijah get all the water from? and a half years and there had been no rain. Well, if you look at a map of Mount Carmel, you'll see that it's right next to the Mediterranean Sea. He could have got it from there. And then in the same chapter, in verse 5, it shows that there were springs and brooks that still had water. So even though the Lord had caused the rain to stop coming down for three and a half years, It looks like the Lord didn't dry up the springs and the brooks that were there as a result of the springs. And even there we see God's mercy. Even though God, in his judgment, caused the water to stop raining upon Israel for three and a half years, the Lord didn't cause the springs to dry up. They were still there. And then each of these water pots didn't carry an enormous amount of water. A gallon of water weighs about eight and a half pounds, so that's why Elijah had four water pots poured there, and then he did it a second time, and then had them do it a third time. So there's all this water being poured upon this sacrifice. So now we have the altars repaired, the sacrifice is prepared, and now Elijah is going to pray to the Lord for the fire. Look at Elijah's prayer there. It's what we sang this morning, verses 36 and 37. It says, 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 Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again." So Elijah didn't have an all-day prayer meeting like the false prophets did. He didn't need to shout and scream and get all emotional like the false prophets did. He didn't need to have a large group around him praying with him like the false prophets did. What he needed was, he needed to have the Lord's ear. He needed to have God's attention. He needed the Lord to hear his prayer and to answer him. And that's what the Lord did. He asked the Lord to let it be known that he is God in Israel. This is a very clear prayer. He asked the Lord to let it be known that God is God in Israel and that Elijah is his servant and that all of these things were done at his will. As Elijah said, that I have done all these things at your word. So he wanted the people there to know that through God setting the fire upon the sacrifice, to know that God is God in Israel, that Elijah is truly God's servant unlike the false prophets of Baal, and that everything that Elijah had done, the whole event at Mount Carmel, wanting the false prophets there, that all of that was done. It wasn't Elijah's idea, it was God's idea. And then look what Elijah prays. What Elijah prays there in verse 37 is what every true servant of the Lord, what every true minister wants the Lord to do. Every minister, every missionary, every pastor, every evangelist has this same desire. Every mother and father, as they were reading the scriptures with their children at the table, this is their desire for their people. He prays there in verse 37, Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. Every true minister wants the people they are ministering to, to know who God is, to know that he's their Lord, and that he has turned their hearts back to him again. That's a happy minister. And that's what Elijah is praying for. as the Lord is going to send this fire. He's praying that the Lord would do this in the people's lives. So there in verse 38, it says, And the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. This was an amazing miracle that happened. The fire fell upon the sacrifice. But at the same time, Elijah wasn't hurt. Elijah wasn't hurt by the fire. He called the people around him. Remember he said, come near? So they actually got closer to the sacrifice. And we can imagine what it looked like. It says that when the people saw it, they fell on their faces. So this was an amazing miracle. What did this look like? This fire had to be very pointed because it didn't hurt Elijah. It didn't hurt the people around him. We're going to have our campfire tonight. right with the church and there's going to be a fire there. And the closer you get to the fire, the hotter it gets. So this fire, this was not a small fire. This fire was to such a temperature that it says that the sacrifice was consumed. Not just the sacrifice, but the wood and the stones were all consumed, obliterated. That's how hot this fire was. Yet Elijah wasn't hurt, the people there weren't hurt, whether this was an instant fire that came and just heated the sacrifice, or this was like some kind of like a tornado fire that came and was just pointed directly upon the altar. It was to such an extent to where all the people, it says, the people who saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. A very different response than what the people gave him at the beginning. What was the response that they had at first? When he said, how long do you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. They answered him not a word. Now Elijah's not even asking them for a response. Because what they see, because they see the fire coming upon the sacrifice, they're just shocked. They're utterly shocked. And they're terrified. They're acknowledging, they're proclaiming that the Lord is God. They're realizing that the fire of judgment didn't fall upon their heads. Instead, the fire of the Lord fell upon the sacrifice. The fire that should have fell upon them, not just the false prophets, but the people of Israel, as Elijah confronted them and dealt with their conscience, they were all just quiet. They didn't say anything. And disobedience to the Lord and defiance to the Lord's prophet All they responded was silence. They knew they weren't right before the Lord. They may have questioned whether the Lord was truly God. They were confused, no doubt. But they were disobedient. And as much as their conscience was active in them, they knew that they were not right before the Lord. And when they saw the fire come, they knew it should have come upon their own heads. But instead, it came upon the altar. And it is the same for us today. God's wrath should come upon every one of our own heads. Christian, non-Christian, God's wrath should be upon us. We're all guilty. We're all deserving of judgment. None of us are righteous. No, not one. But instead of God's wrath coming upon our own heads, it has come upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So they're proclaiming that the Lord is God. They are realizing that the sacrifice was lit on fire in an awesome and amazing way. As amazing as it was for the Lord to send fire upon that sacrifice, dealing with fire is not a difficult thing for the Lord. The Lord has used fire throughout the scriptures. Remember God showed his holiness to Moses by having the burning bush that was consumed or that was burning, but it says it was not consumed. There's an event in the book of Exodus where it says that the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai in fire, and it says there was smoke all around the mount. God calls himself what? A consuming fire. Jesus, when he baptizes his people, and not just when he baptizes certain people, when he baptizes every single one of his people in salvation, he baptizes them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. showing the cleansing of his people, not their own cleansing again, but his cleansing of his people. Even when we see God bringing judgment upon people, Nadab and Abihu were consumed with fire. Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brimstone rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah until it was utterly destroyed. Even in hell and eternity, we read about everlasting fire fire for all eternally. We read about those in hell being cast into the lake of fire. So it's not difficult for the Lord to deal with something like fire as difficult as it is for us to deal with fire. And even when God's servants were mistreated because evil men were using a fiery furnace to burn them, what happened there? Well, people saw a fourth man in the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ was with them, preserving his people from the fire. Their clothes weren't burnt. They survived. They didn't perish. They were brought out of the fiery furnace. And even we read in that text that, I guess it was a couple of the soldiers were burned and they died because of the fire. So God shows his power through the fire, his holiness through the fire, his cleansing power of his people. and his judgment of the wicked with fire. As we keep reading our text, it says, Elijah said, seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape. So they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and executed them there. That's in verse 40. It says in Deuteronomy 13, in God's law, that the Israelites were to execute those who would entice them to worship false gods. That's in God's law. And Elijah as a prophet on this day at Mount Carmel is going to execute the false prophets of Baal. But this wasn't the first day that they worshiped Baal. It's not like they dabbled in it and then here comes the execution. This is something that they did for days, weeks, months, years. This is something that the false prophets did repeatedly on and on and on and on again. Yet God's hand of mercy was upon them. There was time that they could have repented. There was time that they could have relented from their sin and turned away from that false worship and come to the Lord. But God had purposed throughout all those days that they were worshiping Baal that on that day at Mount Carmel, the Lord was going to execute the false prophets there, the day of judgment for them. No more mercy. God was going to have them killed. And Elijah killed 450 false prophets that day. That was in the old covenant. But in the new covenant, of course, Jesus has changed this. It says in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 30, Jesus said, Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." So it's not this way anymore. Men and women do not execute false prophets like they did in those days. Now, in the end, at Judgment Day, the angels come and divide the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, the good from the bad. So now that Elijah has dealt with the false prophets, he has taught the people of Israel, and we see something of repentance among them. They're proclaiming the Lord is God, the Lord he is God. Now we don't know how true their repentance was. We don't see any kind of actual revival in Israel after this, but at that time they weren't faking it. They weren't putting on a show. They were really utterly shocked. They were really proclaiming that the Lord is God. They were really terrified. So there was something of repentance. And sometimes we really get whatever we can from people. If people show something of repentance, well then we take that for granted and we work on them there. But we don't see any kind of lasting repentance. Did Baal worship cease from Israel even after Elijah is gone and in glory? Was there still Baal worship in Israel? There was. There was. So Baal worship continued even though 450 false prophets were killed. Does that mean that the event at Mount Carmel was meaningless? Does it mean, you know, why did Elijah go through all the trouble when it continued on? Well, that's why there's a lot of application we have about The Christian, dealing with his own personal sin in this life, in the New Covenant, we get a lot of application from the Lord dealing with evildoers in the Old Covenant. Because even though evildoers were dealt with, even though the false prophets were dealt with, Israel continued in its Baal worship. The Christian, even though he is to continue to resist sin, resist temptation, it was our topic we had at our monthly prayer meeting last week. dealing with sexual sin, pornography. Even though we'll never completely have victory over sin in this life, we are still to realize these small victories that we have to where we surrender to the Lord, to where we obey the Lord and resist the flesh. So that's why there is so much application we can take, as Mount Carmel was not meaningless. Well, when the Christian has victories in his personal life, or personal life over sin, that is not meaningless either. So now that the false prophets are defeated, it's time for Elijah to pray again. And what is it that Elijah prays for? What does he pray for this time? First time he prayed for fire, What does he pray for now? Well, it's at the beginning of this chapter. They're in chapter 18. At the beginning, first verse, the Lord tells Elijah, go present yourself to Ahab and I'll send rain upon the earth. So it's time for Elijah to pray for rain. Look there at verse 41. It says, and Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed down to the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And seven times he said, go again. So Elijah went to the top of the mount to pray. Look at the posture of this prophet as he is in prayer. This is a man who stood before hundreds and he opposed them, those false prophets. This is a man who walked into the throne room of Ahab in the previous chapter and rebuked the king with his soldiers there, with all his royalty there. And he stood before the king and rebuked him. He could have been executed that day. This was a man who was not scared. He would not shy from a fight. This was Elijah, strong Elijah. And we can think, when he was there praying for the Lord to send a fire upon the sacrifice before the false prophets, before King Ahab, before the confused Israelites, He probably was standing there with his hands up raised, praying to the Lord. But how is Elijah praying now that he's all by himself, now that it's just him and the Lord? His servant is there, but it's just him and the Lord up on the top of the mount in prayer. What do we see Elijah doing? It says he's bowed down to the ground with his face between his knees. Elijah knows that before the Lord, he is to be with the dirt. That's where he belongs. Not side by side with the Lord. He's not the Lord's partner. He belongs in the dirt before the Lord. He's humble before God. People like to paint great men. They've painted Napoleon there with his hand in his shirt looking all stately. They've painted Alexander the Great on a horse with his armor on. Probably another time with a weapon in hand. And they paint these men like this. So how would we paint Elijah? Maybe with his hands up in the air before the false prophets, praying there with the altar next to him. Maybe. But how about painting him like this? All by himself. Maybe a servant there up to the side. All by himself on the top of the mount, with his bow down to the ground, with his face between his knees, praying to the Lord. Now that would be a good role model for our young men today, right? Elijah, the man of God, bowed down to the ground with his face between his knees, praying to his God, and his God would be there hearing his servant. So this is how he prayed. And Elijah knew how to pray. He prayed seven times. He prayed seven times for the rain to come. And so the first time he prayed, and then he told his servant, go and check if the rain's coming, because the rain's going to come. He's thinking he needs to get prepared. Once that rain comes, he needs to have Ahab go back to Jezreel so he doesn't get stuck in the mud. After the first time the servant comes back, sorry, master, there's no rain. Oh, that's okay. He goes and prays again. Second time. He comes back. Sorry, Master, there's still no rain. That's okay. He prays again. Elijah knew how to pray. And after the seventh time, the Lord brought the rain. He persisted in prayer. He kept knocking until the Lord answered. He knew how to continually pray to the Lord. He didn't lose heart. He knew that it was the Lord's will for him to send the rain, so he continued to pray. He knew how to pray. So, this is the second time we see Elijah praying in our text that we're looking at today, right? How many times did the Lord answer him, or how many times did it take for the Lord to answer him in praying for the rain? Seven. How many times did it take for him to pray for the fire for the Lord to answer him? One time. He prayed one time, a very clear, succinct prayer. I kind of mentioned the little details in there, like five specific things we could say that he prayed for. For the fire, he prayed one time, a short prayer, and the Lord answered him. Why did the Lord take seven times for Elijah to pray to send the rain? We can think, well, maybe the Lord answers some times some people, but he doesn't answer other times other people. because of who the person is. But this is the same man who's praying for the fire and for the rain. Why does the Lord sometimes seem like he takes a long time to answer our prayers and other times it seems like he gives us confidence that he's heard us and we can go from there and we have a good day because we feel like the Lord heard us? To test our sincerity? Yeah, yeah, it could be like a test. As we have a relationship with God, right? To keep us humble? What? To grow us? Yeah. Yeah. So here we have this man praying. I mean, it's just amazing in the same context, in the same event. Someone can say, well, God answers some people right away and not other people because of the character of the person, because of the person's righteousness. And that's true, right? And James 5, the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. God says that some people pray, but it's an abomination to him. But with Elijah here, he has the same level of righteousness that he had when he prayed for the fire as when he prayed for the rain. Same man, same righteousness. Why does God answer some people, but he doesn't answer other people? We also know maybe God doesn't answer sometimes because people pray amiss. They ask for the wrong things. They don't pray according to God's will. That tends to be a difficulty for Christians many times. I don't know if this is God's will. If you're unsure, continue to pray. Persist in prayer. God doesn't always reveal those things to us that are exactly His will or not. That's why we must persist in prayer. But with Elijah again, it was the Lord's will to send the fire, and it was the Lord's will to send the rain. It's an amazing thing to me right here, that the Lord answered Elijah after the first time he prayed. These are both dramatic miracles. These are both things that the Lord had to do an awesome thing from our perspective to have these prayers answered. For the first one, he answered after one time. The second time, the Lord answered after seven times. And I think the answer isn't that it was in the person. The reason why the Lord waited the second time, it had to do with the Lord. Kind of like what your brothers mentioned. The Lord is growing him, the Lord is testing him, the Lord is maturing him. It's the Lord. The Lord wanted to answer the first time when the false prophets were there, the doubting Israelites were there, the carnal King Ahab was there. The Lord answered quickly. The Lord showed that yes, God is God in Israel. Yes, Elijah is his servant. There was a fire and there was a semblance of repentance among the Israelites. But now that Elijah is all by himself, it's just him and his God. There's no more doubters around. And he's alone in the prayer closet, we could say, praying to his God. The Lord didn't answer him the first or second or third time. That way Elijah could just get out of there. Prayer isn't always to get what we want answered. Prayer is also to spend time with the Lord in prayer. keep us from having confidence that he has answered us in order to tease us. Maybe he does that to keep us with him in prayer. Maybe that's because he wants his people with him. He wants his people praying and repeatedly praying. So we don't go to God just because we have a need. We go to God because we want to be with him. And because he wants us to be with him. And that's what, I think that's what it was, why Elijah had to pray seven times on that mount before the Lord. The Lord wanted his servant to be with him in prayer. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 8 says, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. There's the wicked person praying. But then what does it say after that? But the prayer of the upright is his delight. It's the Lord's delight. It's the Lord's delight. Just spending time with the Lord in prayer, that's the Lord's delight. Maybe I'm lingering here because I need this. Spending time with the Lord in prayer is His delight. Charles? We also have the example of we all pray in the good, in the good. Persistently, right? That's true. So the seventh time the Lord answered and sent the rain, the servant said, there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea there in verse 44. It was just a little bit of rain, but it was rain. And Elijah knew it was the first fruits of what was going to come. Then it says in the next verse, the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. It poured rain after three and a half years of drought. How many miracles do we see in Elijah's life so far in this chapter and the previous chapter? How many miracles have we seen? What were those miracles? Well, the first one, it actually began before we even see Elijah come on the scene. It began there, and I'll read it in James 5, verse 17. It says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. So when God caused it, and then of course we know in chapter 17, he went into Ahab's throne room and said, there won't be any rain until I come back and tell you my word. But the Lord had put it into Elijah's heart to pray that the rain would stop. Israel had become compromised. They gave lip service to worshiping Yahweh, but they really worshiped Baal also. And they prayed to Baal. They trusted in Baal for the crops, for the fertility of the crops, for the livestock, for Baal's blessing to be on them. They prayed to Baal for the rain to come. So Elijah, with a godly zeal, with a righteous anger, prayed, Lord, please stop the rain. They're praying to Baal for the rain, cause the rain to stop and not come back. until something drastic happened, something of repentance or something of God's judgment, it was Mount Carmel. So the first miracle was the rain stopped. What else was there? What is the second miracle that happened in Elijah's life or in Elijah's ministry in the previous chapter? What do y'all say? It's a question for you guys. We're almost done. Yeah, Elijah was fed by the ravens. I forgot about that one. That one too. So, okay, Elijah was fed by the ravens. What's that? He raises the widow's son. That's what the third. A fourth one, even before he raised the widow's son with the widow. Remember, they're going to have their last meal. And Elijah calls, he prayed, and the Lord caused the flour to not run out and the oil in the jar to not run out. So they continue to have food. And then we have here the fire upon the altar. And then we have the rain returned. What is that? That's six. So there's a seventh miracle that happens before Elijah gets off of this mount, off of Mount Carmel. What is this? What is the seventh one? In verse 46, it says, and the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. So how is this a miracle? Because Ahab had a head start to Jezreel, and Ahab was on a chariot, and chariot wheels go faster than Elijah's legs do. That's how that was a miracle. It says Elijah ran ahead of Ahab to Jezreel. Now we know that Elijah wasn't teleported. We read in Acts chapter 8 about Philip being teleported. He was in one place and then he's at a different location and that was a miracle of the Lord. This was different. It says Elijah girded up his loins. So Elijah would have been wearing some kind of like a robe garment, and he would have picked up the bottom of it and tied it up somewhere around his waist. He would have been wearing an undergarment as well. So he tied the outer garment somewhere around his waist, and he just ran like the wind. And he beat Ahab to Jezreel. We know this was a miracle also because it says the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah to do this. So we can think, Well, maybe there are shortcuts that Elijah was able to take that Ahab didn't have on the chariot. But where they were at Mount Carmel was about 15 miles away from Jezreel. This was a 15-mile run. I like to wonder why. Like, why do people in the Scriptures do what they do? Why does God in the Scriptures do what He does? And we're told why sometimes. I think, Brother Stewart, you mentioned last week, if we're not clearly told in the Scriptures, well, we shouldn't speculate too much, I guess. But we're not told why this happened, but we know that it happened. And we're told that Elijah ran ahead of Ahab. So maybe, as Ahab was riding on the chariot, hoping not to get stuck in the mud, shocked at everything that just transpired on Mount Carmel, going to Jezreel, going to go cry to his wife. He sees, on his right, Elijah running. And he's there on the chariot, and he looks to the right, and he sees a man, and he sees it's Elijah, and he's running faster than he's on the chariot. Elijah, the man of God, was always going to be a thorn in the side to the carnal king Ahab. And I say carnal king because when it's time for Elijah to pray, what does he tell Ahab? I'm going to pray. Do you want to join me? He doesn't say that. He says, go and eat your food. Go and drink your drink. Get ready because the rain is coming. He sends the king away. Because it's time for the man of God to spend time with the Lord in prayer. And his servant was there. Imagine how blessed it was to have been, even Elijah's servant at the time, seeing your master praying to his Heavenly Father. So Ahab always had to deal with Elijah. And that's the way it is in the world in this life. While there's still Christians with non-Christians, there is a real sense where evil men and women, they don't want to have to deal with their consciences being pricked. They don't want to have to deal with believers around them reminding them of their sin. They want to either get rid of the Christians or they want to just get the Christians involved in sin. So it's kind of like, yeah, look, you are just the way we all are. We're just all in sin. Yes, we all believe in God. But Elijah was always going to be there, pricking Ahab's conscience. And then also could be a reminder to Elijah that even though Elijah didn't have everything that Ahab had, he didn't have the chariot, he didn't have all the riches that the king had, he didn't have all the power that the king had, all he had was all he needed. The Lord gave him what he needed. And at that time, he had his legs. And with the Lord's blessing, that is all the prophet needed. And that's the way it is for the Christian today. We don't have everything that the world has, but all we have is what the Lord has already given to us. And with God's blessing, that's all that we need. Let's pray.
Elijah at Mount Carmel, Part 2
Sermon ID | 22252320514455 |
Duration | 43:50 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | 1 Kings 18:30-46 |
Language | English |
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