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Our scripture reading today is
from 1 Kings chapter 18. We'll be reading verses 30 through
40. Today we pick up again with the
account of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Through
the influence of Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, idol worship
has overrun the northern kingdom of Israel. Despite God's warnings
through the prophet Elijah and others, Baal worship has become
the dominant religion in the land to the point where the lives
of the prophets of the Lord were endangered. As a result, by God's
doing, the land has been without rain now for three and a half
years. God has demonstrated with clarity
that he is the Lord, And that Baal is an impotent god who can
do nothing. He can neither give rain and
crops, nor can he withhold them. Last time we saw how Elijah demonstrated
that Baal is unresponsive to the pleas of his prophets. who passionately cry out to him
all day long, their bodies bleeding from cuts they made with swords
and lances, trying desperately to get Bell's attention. But
there was nothing, no reply. It's now Elijah's turn. Since
early in the day, the prophets of Baal petitioned their God,
and now it's early evening. Verse 29 tells us that it was
the normal time for the daily evening offering, an offering
that God had commanded in the day of Moses. So let's pick up
the story. This is verse 30, 1 Kings chapter
18, beginning at verse 30, and this is the word of God. Then Elijah said to all the people,
come near to me. And all the people came near
to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown
down. Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the
tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord
came, saying, Israel shall be your name. And with the stones,
he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench
about the altar as great as would contain two sieves of seed. And he put the wood in order
and cut the bowl in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said,
fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering
and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time.
And they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time.
And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the
altar and filled the trench also with water. And at the time of
the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near
and said, oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known
this day that you are God in Israel. and that I am your servant,
and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me,
O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord,
are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. Then the fire
of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood
and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was
in the trench. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, he is God, the
Lord, he is God. And Elijah said to them, seize
the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escapes. And they
seized them. And Elijah brought them down
to the brook, Kishon, and slaughtered them there. May God add his blessing
to this reading of his word. What does it take to change someone's
heart? The answer to that question is
difficult. It's elusive. Same things don't work for everyone. It's a question of what moves
us, what's important to us, and that can be very different for
different people. And it's a mystery why one thing
moves or attracts one person, but not another. We're complex
creatures. Often we have no idea. why we
do, why we're drawn to certain things and not others, or why
we tend to invest our time and resources into some things, but
we avoid others. Why is one person a believer
in God and another an atheist? Sometimes unbelief can arise
from a lack of knowledge or from a wrong way of looking at the
world. Sometimes it can arise from misplaced
priorities where we just desire something more than we desire
God. Sometimes our heads even tell
us that we should honor God as our creator and love him with
a whole heart. And we know that failure to do
that leads to death. But still, we don't follow through
on what we know. That's what the Apostle Paul
describes in Romans chapter 1 and also in chapter 7 of that same
letter. In chapter 7, he describes an
individual who knows God's commandments, aspires to do them, but ends
up doing what he doesn't want to do. Have you ever had an experience
like that? Well, what's the solution for
this? How does a heart committed to pursuing its own desires change
into a heart that desires God and the things of God? The Bible
tells us that there's only one solution and that it lies in
God himself. Our God is in the business of
changing hearts and minds. And that's what we see in this
passage that we just read. So I have two points this morning.
One is God's gracious intent, and the second is God's powerful
action. First, God's gracious intent.
We see this intent pictured and also stated in verses 30 to 37. We see it pictured in Elijah's
actions. He rebuilds an old altar that
had been used for the worship of the Lord, but had since been
torn down. Apparently in the interest of
the new vogue of Baal worship, all vestiges of the older order
not only had to be abandoned, but also removed. not exactly
our modern Western idea of religious liberty. God was not just ignored
here. He'd been driven out. His altars
were torn down and his prophets were in hiding for fear of their
lives. In the face of this, God would
have the right to reject Israel. as they had rejected him. But
surprisingly, he doesn't do that. Instead, what we see is his gracious
intent. Out of his grace, he sends his
prophet to bring these people back to him. Now, frankly, if
it had been up to me, I would have said, that's it. I've had
it. I'm out of here. But thankfully, God is is a lot
more gracious than I am. I'm grateful for that every day.
And so despite their obstinate and rebellious ways, God has
compassion on them. He loves them. He wants them.
And so he seeks them. The picture we see here is of
the shepherd in Jesus parable who goes out looking for his
lost sheep. The picture is of Jesus himself
who says that he comes to seek and to save the lost. At this
moment in their history, Israel is desperately lost and they're
headed for destruction. But out of his love, the Lord
sends his prophet to find them and to rescue them. And the first
thing Elijah does to demonstrate this is to rebuild this altar
that had been defaced. The altar was a symbol of their
former relationship with God, a place where God had been acknowledged
and sought and worshiped. It was also a place of sacrifice,
a place where animals died. This was a symbol that a right
relationship with a holy God is a costly thing for sinful
people to obtain. And they were a sinful people. All of us are sinful people. All of us have failed to love
God fully and to keep his commands. And the Bible says the wages
of sin, the penalty for this failure is death. By rebuilding
the altar, Elijah is rebuilding the avenue, the path, the way
back into loving fellowship with God. God would accept the death,
the sacrifice of a substitute to remove the barrier of sin
that stood between him and his people. Now what's still unclear
to the Israelites at this particular time is that it would be God
himself who would provide sacrifice to regain his people. He would
pay the price for sin himself by allowing his own son to die,
not on this altar made with stones, but on the altar of the cross.
That's how much God loves his people. That's how much he loves
us, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And the altar that Elijah builds
is a symbol of all of this. It's a symbol of a restored relationship
with God that would come about through the sacrifice of God's
own son. But we also see God's gracious
intent in the words of Elijah's prayer. That's in verses 36 and
37. In these words, we see God's
purpose clearly stated the end goal of all that's happening
here in verse 36. He prays, let it be known this
day that you, oh Lord, are God. that
you are God in Israel, that I'm your servant, and that I've done
these things according to your word. See, he's praying for a
change of heart. These people would see something
that they're not seeing at the moment. And then in verse 37,
he prays that this people may know that you, oh Lord, are God,
and that you have turned their hearts back There's the goal. That's the purpose of all of
this. Elijah doesn't pray that God's
judgment would rightly descend on a wicked people. That would
have been a temptation, I think. I'm guessing that after three
and a half years of no rain, that it was not only Jezebel
who wanted Elijah dead, A lot of people would have been with
her on that. But instead of condemning his
enemies, Elijah prays for them. That's what Jesus did on the
cross. And that's what Jesus instructs
us to do. To love our enemies, to pray
for those who persecute us. And why should we do that? Why should we pray for the good
of such people? Well, it's because we serve a
God who is filled with gracious intent. He's a God who saves
sinners, who, when we were still sinners, sends his son to make
us right with him. God wants us to show grace to
others. Because that's what he's done
for us. God wants his children to be like him. And so he wants
us to pray, Lord, be gracious to this enemy of mine. Change
his heart. Change her heart. Turn their
hearts to you. Because that's your plan. It's
your intent to rescue sinners. If you're someone living in unbelief
and rebellion against God, know that as God sent Elijah to the
Israelites, he sends Jesus to you and to me. Jesus who gave his life for sinners
like us. Who, like Elijah, prays for sinners
like us. That each one of us should turn
back to God. Don't let this opportunity pass
you by. Turn to God. Follow Jesus. Your
sins will be forgiven. You'll be accepted by God. because
God's intent is a gracious one. That brings us to the second
point, God's powerful action. What takes place next after Elijah's
prayer is one of the most impressive events in scripture. This is
not the first time that fire comes from the Lord to consume
a sacrifice. We see this in Leviticus, book
of Leviticus, chapter nine, at the start of the ministry of
Aaron and his sons as the priests of Israel. Fire comes from the
Lord, it consumes the offering, and we're told that the people,
when they saw it, They shouted and they fell on their faces.
We see this sort of thing again in 1 Chronicles 21 when King
David offers a sacrifice to God on the site where the new temple
would be built. And then again in 2 Chronicles
7 when King Solomon dedicates the new temple that had finally
been built, and now here with Elijah on Mount Carmel. But what
makes the Mount Carmel event especially impressive, I think,
is the backdrop of the contest going on here. Based on the rules
of the contest laid out by Elijah, the God who responded by fire,
he would be God. And from a human point of view,
the contest was lopsided in favor of Baal. In golf terms, these
prophets were given a huge handicap. There were 450 prophets of Baal
to one prophet of the Lord, 450 voices to one. Moreover, the prophets of Baal
would have all day to get a response from their god. And then, Elijah
kicks things up one more notch by ordering his sacrifice to
be doused with enough water that it filled a small trench dug
around the base of the altar. It was about four and a half
gallons of water that filled that trench. So things were good and wet.
There was no possibility that some human trickery could be
pulled here in getting a fire going. And unlike the prophets
of Baal who made a loud nuisance of themselves all day long, Elijah
prays a short and simple prayer asking that God would make himself
known and that the hearts of the people would be changed. Now we'll talk more about prayer
next time. But what immediately comes to
mind here is the reminder that Jesus gives in the Sermon on
the Mount about the fact that we have a Heavenly Father who
already knows what we need before we ask and is willing to give
it. And so we don't have to pack
our prayers with a lot of empty filler thinking that this will
get God's attention and somehow answer us, somehow move him to
answer us. Elijah prays simply, prays directly,
and what we see in response is nothing short of a dramatic demonstration
of the power of God. Fire from the Lord immediately
falls on this water-soaked sacrifice, and not only consumes the sacrifice,
But everything else, including the wood and the stones that
Elijah used to construct the altar, the way verse 38 describes
it here, there was nothing left. You know how there are ashes
left after you burn something? Well, verse 38 says that even
the dust was consumed. There weren't even any ashes
there. It's like the altar and everything
on it was vaporized. And oh yes, the water in the
trench was gone too. I get this picture of everyone
standing at this spot, looking at this spot, where an altar
once stood. And now there's this charred
piece of ground surrounded by a trench. And verse 39 says that when all
the people saw it, they fell on their faces. He said, the
Lord, he is God. I mean, what else could you say? God's statement could not have
been any more clear or any more decisive. And so what we see
in this passage is not only God's gracious intent to turn his people
back to him and save him, but we also see that he puts his
power behind that intent and does what he sets out to do. God doesn't just hope to save
his people. He does it. This is the power
of God to save. The Apostle Paul speaks of this
saving power of God in chapter one of his letter to the Romans.
He says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes. And what is this gospel? It's
the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If fire from
heaven was a dramatic demonstration of God's power aimed at saving
these Israelites, then the death and resurrection of Jesus is
an even greater display of God's power, not just in the power
of the event itself, but in what it powerfully brings about. When
Peter and the other apostles preached the message of Christ's
death and resurrection in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, 3,000
people had a change of heart that day and believed and turned
back to God. And since that day, millions
upon millions of people have done the same thing when the
gospel has been preached. We don't have fire. raining down
from heaven, or people rising from the dead every day. Neither did the Israelites, by
the way. These were not your ordinary,
normal day experiences. They were special, one-time events
designed to powerfully turn the hearts of a people who had become
hopelessly enslaved in their idolatry, in their sin, And when
we and others have the benefit of having these powerful works
of God recorded for us and then proclaimed to us, we get a taste ourselves of this
great power of God. And God continues to use these
things to turn hearts, to turn people to himself. It's not always
clear how that happens. It's a mystery here, but it does. And you know, you and I are part
of that process. God calls us to be fellow laborers
with him in this work of changing hearts. And we, of course, have
no power in ourselves to change a sinful heart, but in God's
hands, we can be instruments of that change. I recently reread
an article about a survey done that had to do with people, how
people come to Christ. And it talked especially about
those who did not grow up in Christian homes and how for these,
coming to Christ is often a lengthy process and tends to need more
than one exposure to the gospel. When the survey showed something
else that was very interesting, kind of humbling if you're a
pastor, but the survey showed that the people most likely to
lead unchurched people to Christ are not pastors or youth leaders,
but personal friends. And so we may not personally
see the dramatic results that took place on Mount Carmel or
on the day of Pentecost. But that doesn't mean that God
is not powerfully at work today in the world. He is. One report
estimates that there are between 100 to 200,000 new believers being added every
day throughout the world. If you're a believer, then you and I should be encouraged
today. We may not be seeing this in
our backyard, but it's happening throughout the world. We see in this passage a God
whose gracious intent is to save sinners and who acts
powerfully to do that. He takes no pleasure, the Bible
says, in the death of the wicked. He doesn't want for us and for
others the fate that awaited these prophets of Baal. It's
a very somber note to end that scripture reading on this morning. But that's not what God wants.
That's not his desire. And so he has sent his son. He
sent his son to rescue us from destruction. So again, if you're
a believer in Christ, continue to put your trust in Jesus and
be encouraged to share the good news of Christ with others, to
be a fellow worker with God in his saving work to the lost. And to those who are not yet
believers in Christ, I again encourage you, consider these
things. Consider this God of enormous
grace and also enormous power. Turn to Jesus Christ. Receive
his forgiveness. And if you do that, the promise
of resurrection and eternal life are yours. Let's pray together. Our God in heaven, we thank you
for your amazing grace. Thank you for your love, your
compassion, your willingness to pursue us when we would have
nothing to do with you. Thank you for sending your son
while we were still your enemies. Thank you for the hope that is
ours because of what Jesus has done on the cross. Lord, we pray
that this good news would indeed spread to the very ends of the
earth and that by your grace, by your powerful work, you would
change hearts, bringing people back to you and Lord, As we hear about these things
and see your great power, give us boldness. First, give us hearts of compassion
as you have compassion for the lost. But give us boldness because
we go not in our own strength, but in yours. So we look to you,
Lord. We pray these things in Jesus
name. Amen.
A God Who Changes Everything
Series Elijah and Isaiah
| Sermon ID | 42521141222528 |
| Duration | 30:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Kings 18:30-40 |
| Language | English |
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