Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 1. I'm sorry, 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18, we're going to look at Elijah on Mount Carmel. I hope a familiar passage of Scripture, one I believe that is very instructive and one that is very encouraging to us to see the power of God Most High. We're just going to focus on this particular contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
The remaining portion of the narrative is quite instructive as well, but we do not have time to look at that this evening. But I do want to pick up reading in First Kings chapter 18 at verse 15. We're kind of jumping right into the middle of a particular section. Basically, what is going on is that Elijah asks Obadiah to go and tell Ahab, the king of Israel, that Elijah wanted to see him.
Ahab was the king at that particular time. He was a very wicked man. And so I'll just pick up reading in 1 Kings 18 at verse 15. Then Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today.
So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. Then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, Is that you, O troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals. Now, therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel. the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.
So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people and said, How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him.
The people answered him not a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Therefore, let them give us two bowls, and let them choose one bowl for themselves. Cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.
And I will prepare the other bowl and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. So all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many. And call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it. So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice.
No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar, which they had made. And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is meditating or he is busy or is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.
So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice. No one answered.
No one paid attention. Then Elijah 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 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. And he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two sieves of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull 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.
He also filled the trench with water.
Elijah's Prayer and the Fire Falls
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. 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 Tishon and executed them there. Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your holy scriptures. We thank You for Your power that is displayed from page to page. And God, we thank You for the rich history that we have. And we pray now that Your Spirit would be upon us and that You would guide us in our understanding of this passage, that You would help us, Lord God, to be committed fully and solely to You, our God.
And we would pray even now that You would forgive us for our sins. Forgive us, Lord God, that our attention at times is divided. We confess our sin. We confess our remaining corruption.
And we plead with You to wash us afresh in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray now that You would be glorified in our time together. And we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
I want to first introduce a couple of the people that are in this particular passage. You probably are familiar with them. This is a familiar portion of scripture. But as I said, King Ahab reigned in the 9th century B.C. from about 874 to 853.
As I mentioned, he was a godless man. A wicked man. You've heard of his wife, Jezebel. And here you see that she welcomed false prophets at her table.
This means that they were state supported. They were sanctioned by the government itself. They were receiving welfare. They were receiving food from the wife of the king.
Then we have Ahab and notice how he presents himself or how he mentions in verse 15, as I read, says, Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand. I don't think that's accidental. I think it is to highlight his divine or the divine sanction behind it. In fact, go back to chapter 17 at verse one.
This is where he is first introduced. And Elijah, the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand. The author has just recounted several kings and their godlessness and their wickedness. And as one man, Ralph Davis, has said, whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish.
For at the height of the triumph of evil, God will be there, ready with his men and his movement and his plans to ensure that his own cause will never fail. So even though there are ungodly kings, unrighteous men at the helm, God sends Elijah the Tishbite, this one before whom he stands. And then as we focus in on the particular narrative that we're looking at tonight, Baal was the storm god. He was the one that was entreated.
They wanted him to be fertile such that he would bless the land. They would do this, as we see in this passage, by cutting themselves. Other times the people, Baal's worshippers, would actually engage in sexual activity to try to coach Baal in to sexual activity so that he would then be fertile upon the land. Very wicked, very ungodly.
They did not have a let go, let bail theology in that particular day. They sought with all their might to make him perform so that they could receive the benefit of this storm God. Now, it existed previously to this particular account. In fact, you'll see it in the book of Judges.
But it was given official sanction here by King Ahab of Israel. And
Three Considerations Introduced
I want to look at specifically this contest under three considerations. First, the challenge of Elijah, verses 20-25. Secondly, the response of the prophets, verses 26-29. And then thirdly, the display of God's power in verses 30-40.
But notice first the challenge of Elijah.
The Challenge of Elijah
The people are summoned. Notice what he says here. Verse 20. Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel.
Remember, the prophets here are 850. There's 450 of Baal, but there are 400 of Asherah, who is the female counterpart to Baal, the ones that they would entreat to have relations so that this fertility would come upon the land. But also notice that the people are reproved here by Elijah. He knows the score.
He knows what's going on in Israel. He doesn't come to tickle their ears. He doesn't come to prophesy falsely. He doesn't come to say, peace, peace, when there is no peace.
In an interesting twist of events, Ahab actually identifies Elijah as the troubler of Israel. Elijah says, I am not the troubler of Israel. I am the one who has come from the Lord to reprove the real troubler of Israel, the king who is leading the nation into defection, the king who is leading the nation into apostasy, the king who is leading a nation into turning their backs upon the living and the true God. And so he gets right to the point.
He says in verse 21, Elijah came to all the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If Jehovah is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him.
The Call for Undivided Loyalty
That's the question each and every one of us must ask ourselves. Are we truly servants of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we truly seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Are our loyalties divided?
Do we give a little entertainment to Jesus and then do we seek Baal for practical matters? Do we give a little nod to the Lord of glory and then worship our money? Do we give a nod to the Lord of glory and then worship our families or worship our stuff or worship ourselves? Elijah's question has relevance for the 21st century.
It has relevance for our particular ears. How long, he says, will you falter between two opinions? How long are you going to continue to be divided in your loyalty? How long are you going to entertain Jesus in the parlor and the devil in the basement?
How long are you going to spend your last on those things which do not satisfy? And then his conclusion is quite legit. He says, if the Lord is God, follow him. But if they'll follow him.
Don't be divided. Now remember, the nation is being indicted specifically for idolatry. They are giving themselves to the worship of the storm god Baal. They have become like the Canaanites around them.
They have participated in a godless form of worship, in a godless form of discipleship. In fact, Ralph Davis comments on this summary statement. He says, this is no mere academic question. It's not just trying to teach a theology class here at Mount Carmel.
He says Elijah's formulation assumes that theology leads to discipleship. Whoever you acknowledge to be God is the one whom you follow. When you acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, you need, as we heard this morning, to let your conduct be worthy of the gospel. That doesn't mean sinless.
It doesn't mean perfect, because on this side of glory, it will never be sinless or perfect. But it does mean undivided. It does mean give him all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Don't apportion up your resources.
Give a little bit to Jesus and a little bit to Baal. Don't divvy up your attention and your time to give a little bit to Jesus and a little bit to Mammon. No, you need to give all to the Lord God Most High. He goes on to say commitments have consequences.
We need to keep that in mind. Our professed commitment to the Lord Jesus has consequences. We are fooling no one when we live the life of an idolatrous hypocrite. We are fooling no one when something other than the Lord God Most High gets our attention, gets our affection, gets our money, gets our resources, gets whatever worship that we bring to it.
So the prophet's statement here is most relevant for us in our generation. How long will you falter between two opinions?
1 John 5 and the Danger of Idols
Turn for just a moment to 1 John, chapter 5. 1 John, chapter 5. Just to show you that this isn't confined to the Old Testament. 1 John, chapter 5. A letter that is written to encourage believers. A letter that is written with the expressed purpose spelled out in 1st John 5, 13.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Just as he ends his gospel with a thesis statement, a purpose statement, he does here with this first letter. He has written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. It's not writing to the pagan.
He's not writing to the heathen. When he writes, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. He's writing to believers. He's writing to those who have been bought with a price, those who have been redeemed by the Lamb of God.
He speaks of truth and of righteousness and of love throughout this epistle. Now, notice the last verse, how he signs off in this letter. Little children, again, Christians, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
It's an amazing statement. John, don't you know we're blood bought? John, don't you know we're believing on the son of God? John, don't you know that we pass from death to life?
Don't you know that? Because we love God and we love brethren. He says, little children, keep yourselves, guard yourselves, watch over yourselves from idols. What's the implication?
We are prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love. for any of us to say, well, that'll never happen to me. We haven't reckoned seriously with the Scripture. We haven't reckoned seriously with our own depravity. We haven't taken into account remaining corruption and its power.
If we feed it, if we give in to it, we will be idolaters. We will be bowing down before Baal. We'll be lancing ourselves. We'll be dancing in a frenzy around an altar.
Or we'll be engaged in sexual immorality so that our false God will answer us. How long? Will you falter between two opinions? If Jehovah is God, serve him.
If Baal is God, serve him. And then the prophet sets forth this contest, this contest to demonstrate who it is that is God alone. Notice in verse 21, the people answered him not a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left the prophet of the Lord.
But Baal's prophets are 450 men. He basically says, get two bowls. You cut up your bull, set it on the altar, call upon Baal, and let's see if he delivers. Let's see if he's in.
Let's see if he'll answer. Let's see if he'll call down or bring down fire to consume that sacrifice. Conversely, Elijah says, I will cut up a bull, I will lay it on the altar, and I will call on Jehovah to see if he answers. So the challenge is to follow God.
The contest is stated. And it's very important for us to understand that Elijah is unique here in redemptive history. You're not supposed to go gather all the false prophets in Chilliwack and invite them into our church and establish such a contest. You're not supposed to kill a bullock and lay it on the fire or lay it on the altar and pray to God that he'll consume it.
This is a unique event in redemptive history. We are not to repeat this. We are not to engage in this. Though certainly we learn principles from Elijah's contest that we ought to implement in attacking the unbelief of our particular day.
The Response of the Prophets
Now notice the response of the prophets. Verse 26. So they took the bowl which was given them, and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. This is conspicuous now, but there was no voice.
No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. It's amazing. They are so committed to this.
They actually walk by faith. These false prophets took Elijah's challenge. They cut the bullock, they lay it down on the altar, and then they call on Baal. They are, in a sense, at least putting their money where their mouth is.
They've engaged in this particular contest. But there was no voice, no answer.
Idolatry Exposed as Futility
Remember the description of idolatry in Psalm 115. Sometimes I think we should sing that psalm. It's in the Psalter, but it's quite long. But it says that they have eyes and they don't see.
They have mouths and they don't talk. They have ears, but they don't hear. And then what's the psalmist say in 115 verse 8? Those who worship them will be like them.
Remember God's indictment upon the children of Israel. Having eyes you will not see. Having ears, you will not hear. You've become like that dumb idol, spiritually insensitive, spiritually dead to the very voice of the living and true God himself.
This idol cannot answer because he's not the real deal. And so what happens at this particular time?
Elijah's Mockery of False Religion
Elijah mocks them. This is what I think we can learn from the prophet. I don't think we should be ungodly or uncharitable or unrighteous when it comes to this disposition. The unbeliever must be challenged.
We often let them assume an offensive position and attack Christianity and try to show us up to be the idiot. Oh, you worship God who created the world when science has proven otherwise. We immediately take the defensive posture and then we kind of, I don't know what to say. What's Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1?
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the wise?
Look at what the prophet does here. Verse 27. And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud. Now, I have this picture in my mind.
Maybe it's inaccurate, but when I read this and I think subsequent generations of Israel was to read this, they were to sort of envision the prophet here. Cracking up. Laughing. Where is he?
Cry aloud. He's not hearing you. You haven't reached his ear yet. See, it depends on the frenzy.
It depends on your activity. It depends on your response. Baal's not going to operate until you activate him. So you need to cry aloud.
He says, for he is a god. Either he is meditating... He's cracking up. This is crazy.
Later, at the fall of Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel, later on in 1 Kings, I'm sorry, 2 Kings 17, the record is there of the fall of the northern tribes. And then it tells us that there was great idolatry in the land. See, what Assyria would do would sow other peoples, would put other peoples in the land to keep the people off kilter and to take away any power or unity that they might have. And there's a long description there of people making gods. and worshiping these gods that they have made.
Isn't that just futile? Giving your religious worship to something that you create? Idolatry is madness to the core. Idolatry is the most horrific thing that a man, a woman, a boy or a girl can engage in.
And Elijah is pointing out the folly of it. Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is meditating or he is busy. I think sometimes we as Christians view our God that way.
Well, I'm not going to pray to him because he's got so many people to listen to. He's kind of like the old telephone operators taking out things and putting it here. And hang on just a second. Let me put you on hold.
I'll get to you when I have time. That's not the God of the Bible. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent.
He is omnipresent. He is always available, always accessible. We can bring our petitions to Him 24-7. The gods of the heathen are not that way.
And Elijah challenges them here. Or he is busy. Or he's on a journey. Maybe he took off to the Bahamas for a time.
Maybe he's resting in Barbados. Maybe he's enjoying a bit of R&R at one of the latest timeshares. Again, he's mocking them. He's showing them their futility.
It be akin to me saying to an idolater today, you worship that money. Can it save you? Pray to it. See if it answers you.
You worship that that person. Sometimes we get into a relationship with other people and instead of a healthy, godly, Christ exalting relationship, we become idolaters. Is that person going to save you? Can that person cleanse you from your sins?
Can that person secure for you everlasting life? Elijah is mocking to show the futility, the emptiness, the ungodliness and the absolute folly of idolatry. Notice what he goes on to say. He is on a journey or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.
His alarm clock hasn't gone off yet. Maybe he reached over and hit the snooze button. You guys need to step it up a bit. This is what he's doing.
You need to get real about this. So what do they do? They go from a simple crying aloud and a leaping about the altar, they take it up a notch now. Look at how they respond.
It's pathetic. It's wretched. It's heartbreaking to see men this committed to their emptiness, this committed to their futility. So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them.
It's a wretched scene, isn't it? They go from crying aloud, to leaping about the altar, to cutting themselves and gushing blood all over their bodies, so that their Storm God will hear them, so that their Storm God will send fire, so that their Storm God will consume their bullet, and they can prove that they indeed are following the true and the living God. Look at the extent idolaters go to to worship their God. As our brother said this morning, we can get so worked up about the Beatles.
We can get so worked up about the Canucks. We can get so worked up about any old thing whatsoever. Idolaters like this can go from morning until evening punctuating their religious fervor with the gashing of themselves. And when it comes time for church, It's hard for us to keep our eyes open for an hour.
Shame on us. We have the true and the living God. We ought to be throbbing. We ought to be delighted.
We ought to be entering into His presence with gladness and joy and thanksgiving. If idolaters do this for that which is not God, can't we keep our eyes open? Can't we get excited to consider the great truths of the Incarnation? Can't we get excited that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God?
And that that Word tabernacled amongst us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth? I mean, these poor wretches are calling upon nothing. They are bleeding. They are cutting.
They are spending an entire day in frenzy And we, we don't even get up to read our Bibles at times. We have a book with the record of the most glorious truths ever, the truths of redemption. We don't know systematic theology. We don't know any theology.
We couldn't find a verse to prove the deity of Christ if our lives depended upon it. And by we, I don't mean us specifically, though I don't think I'm out to lunch on this, but we generically, evangelical and Reformed churches, Man, we ought to get fired up, not like the heathen, cutting ourselves. God doesn't call us to do that, but certainly calls us to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Certainly calls us to use our minds and focus upon those great redemptive truths and let them affect us in such a way that we will let our conduct be worthy of the gospel.
These poor wretches engaged in this sort of an activity for their God, which was no God. For them, unfortunately, theology mattered. They actually cared. They are a reproach in some ways to reform evangelical Christianity in our own day.
We don't do this much for our God. And he saved us. And again, don't go from here saying, Pastor Butler said I should cut myself and bleed all over me. That's not the point.
Pastor Butler said you should read your Bible and pray and think about these great truths and glorify God most high. If the heathen will do this, what are Christ's people doing for the very truth of the gospel? And then notice verse 28, sorry, verse 29. And when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
Here it is again, but there was no voice. No one answered. Now no one paid attention. Why?
Because there was no one. Baal is the figment of man's imagination. Baal is a god of human devising. Baal is a god to whom they would give honor and praise so that they could get stuff.
So that they could have crops. So that they could have fertility in the land. So that they could get. It was all a practical arrangement.
A.W. Pink said, the altar stood cold and smokeless. The bullet was unconsumed. The powerlessness of Baal and the folly of his worshippers were made fully apparent.
The vanity and absurdity of idolatry stood completely exposed." It's a great lesson that day. You left this contest saying, Baal ain't the real deal. They called. They cried.
Elijah mocked. They got more fervent. They cut themselves. They bled on themselves.
And this wasn't like a five minute deal. This wasn't an hour and a half on a Sunday morning and an hour 15 on a Sunday night. This was from morning till night. But there was no one.
No one heard. No one answered. No one paid attention. He goes on to say, no false religion is able to send down fire upon a vicarious sacrifice.
No false religion can put away sin, bestow the Holy Spirit, or grant supernatural answers to prayer. Tested at these three vital points, they one and all fail, as Baal's worship did that memorable day on Carmel. Try as men might to deny the living and true God and seek out other gods, they will never, ever prevail.
The Display of God's Power
And that leads us thirdly and finally to the display of God's power.
Elijah Prepares the Altar
Elijah prepares the altar, verse 30. He prepares the sacrifice and he douses it with water three times. Let's sweeten the deal a bit. Let's make this more difficult.
Let's make this more interesting. Not that he's a betting man, but let's make this a little bit more interesting. Get some water and douse the sacrifice. Make it wet.
Make it saturated. In fact, dig a trench around it and fill that up with water. Because when this goes down, as Elijah knew it would, he didn't want anybody to say, hey, Elijah's a good magician. Elijah knows how to manipulate the crowd.
Elijah knows how to play with smoke and mirrors. Elijah knows how to engage. No, he orders these things to be done. And then notice verse 36.
And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said. He didn't come near and dance. He didn't come near and leap. He didn't come near and lance.
He didn't come in a frenzy. He didn't come in chaos. He came in subdued, holy submission. He came in prayer.
It wasn't a long prayer. It wasn't a 20-minute prayer. It wasn't a 30-minute prayer. People weren't nodding off while he was praying.
It was short. It was sweet. It was to the point. As Spurgeon says, let us go through the gates of heaven and boldly present our petitions and come on back.
That's what he does. Notice. Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. This is a mighty gun in the armory of prayer.
A rehearsal of the covenant keeping activity of our God. When God hears that he is the covenant keeper of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he blesses. Not every time, obviously. I'm not getting into a whole theology of prayer here.
But this is what the prophet does. He prays, no leaping, no crying, no cutting himself. He prays to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He says, 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. There it is. God doesn't call us to go to Mount Shem and challenge the prophets of whoever. He is working in accordance with the word of the living and true God, the God before whom I stand sent me on this errand.
He sent me on this task. He says, 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. Fire comes down. God answers.
He's not Baal. He is the true and the living God. He sends fire down upon the altar. And notice it consumes the burnt sacrifice, verse 38, and the wood and the stones and the dust.
And it licked up the water that was in the trench. Every bit that was put there, the fire licks it all up. What is God showing and demonstrating? But His power, His majesty, His excellence, His solitariness.
He is not one of among many gods, but He is the one true and living God. He is independent. He is untouched. He is the one who has sovereign power at His disposal.
Verse 39, 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. You couldn't come away from that event and think otherwise. You couldn't come away from that event and say Baal is God.
No, it was a very clear depiction of the futility of idols and of the power of the living God of Israel. And then notice his instruction there in verse 40. Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal. Seize the prophets of Baal.
Do not let one of them escape. So they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the Brook Tishon and executed them there. You see, this is a unique time in redemptive history.
We're not to execute the false prophets. In fact, I'll read a quote from Ralph Davis on this. He says, this Kishon slaughter was not an act of personal revenge, but of capital punishment. You need to keep this in mind as you read this particular account.
This was not an act of personal revenge. Elijah's mad at these prophets. I'm going to take you out. No, it was a capital offense in line with the law.
Elijah was carrying out the sanctions of Deuteronomy 13. You can read that later and see that it's very clear. Seduction to apostasy was a capital offense. Those who will Israel to worship another God, whether a successfully wonder-working prophet, a member of one's own intimate circle, or the citizens of a whole town.
Those people forfeit their lives. Remember, Israel was a theocracy. What we call church and state functioned as one. And here Elijah simply carries out Israel's constitution, the provisions of Jehovah's covenant law relating to solicitation to apostasy.
The problem is not God's lack of refinement, but our lack of sanctification. We read this and we go, oh, the horror of it all. And we start to call into question the goodness and the graciousness of God. Well, Davis is spot on.
The problem is not God's lack of refinement, but our lack of sanctification. If our thinking were holy, we would understand such texts. The nasty episode of the Kishon or at the Kishon testifies that we have little horror of sin and calls evangelical Christians in particular to repentance. Seduction to apostasy was met with the sword.
And that is precisely what Elijah orders in this particular instance.
Application
So we learn from this passage a few lessons and then we close. The first is simply this. The truth is not democratic. The truth is not democratic.
In other words, if there's 450 prophets of Baal, there's 400 prophets of Asherah, the temptation is to side with them because there's only one Elijah. And it can't be the case that so many people are wrong. Well, it most certainly can be the case that so many people are wrong. The bigness, the largeness of an institution, be it a cult, be it a philosophical system, any sort of a so-called truth system, is not measured by its size.
It's about the truth. There may be times when we are called to stand alone. We may have to dare to be a Daniel. We do not side with the multitudes when God's truth is at stake.
Now, we don't go kill people, we don't execute false prophets, but we need to be willing to take a stand for the truth. When certain doctrines come into attack, what is the church to do? Retreat? Say, we don't want controversy?
We don't want problems? No. We contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. We fight error.
We fight heresy with the truth of God's Holy Word. That doesn't mean with preferences. Some of us differ on some peripheral things. Let's not always fight about those things.
But when we threaten or doctrines are threatened that affect the Christian religion, when the doctrine of justification as it is repeatedly coming under attack, we don't say, but they're such a big church. They must be doing something right. Not if they're compromising biblical exegesis. Not if they're compromising the truth.
Truth is not democratic. If 450 people believe something and one believes another thing, the truth is not dependent on the majority. If the king and court and a host of others believe a lie, that does not make it true. And I realize sometimes this is powerful.
You talk to somebody, but how can it be that so many people are wrong? Well, it's unfortunate, but there's precedent right here in 1 Kings 18. There's precedent throughout the Scripture. Truth is not voted upon.
Truth is not shapeable. Truth is not moldable. Truth is not something we deal with. Truth is something that God has given.
It is a revelation of His mind, and our response is to take it, to believe in it, and fight for it. Secondly, we need to understand something here about the utter depravity of man. You say, where do we see that? Well, you see it in the prophets of Baal, for sure.
Do you see it in the children of Israel? Do you think Baal worship stopped? You would hope so, right? I mean, you would think it would.
If you saw that display on that day, you would think that's it. They may worship other gods. They may bow down to Mammon. They may make poles, or they may construct rocks, or they may whatever it may be.
But they're certainly not going to let Baal back in Israel. They didn't. It was a perennial problem. Prophets had to keep denouncing it.
The prophets had to keep telling them to repent from Baal worship. There was a revival shortly after this, and Baalism prospered again until it was crushed by Jehu. Jehu, you remember him, the second king. He brought the heat down upon Baalism.
It was then revived again under Adaliah, 2 Chronicles 17. Josiah crushed a temple of Baal in his reign, and Jeremiah even pronounces judgment against it. This is several hundred years later. Man's heart is wicked.
The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it? We need to realize that the people that we see in our world are given over. They are prone to wander, prone to leave God, prone to follow the idols.
We need to preach the way Isaiah the prophet did. Isaiah 55, he said, oh, everyone who thirsts, come. He challenges his contemporaries. He says, why do you spend your wages for that which does not satisfy?
You may know an idolater, may not be worshipping Baal, but he may be worshipping himself. Come alongside of him sometime and say, why do you spend your wages on that which does not satisfy? God made us for himself. God made us so that we'll commune with him.
And you are cheating yourself. You are worshipping, you are bowing down to an idol. Do not do this. Come to the living and true God.
I might issue that challenge to some of you people here today. Why? Why are you spending your wages on that which does not satisfy? Why are you throwing it away?
Why are you investing in something that is futile? Why are you investing in the bank of Baal when when you call upon him? No one hears. No one answers.
No one pays attention. When Jesus Christ has said, come to me and I will in no wise cast you out. Come to me and I will give you everlasting life. Jesus describes himself as the bread of life.
You eat of me and you'll never hunger. He describes himself as the vine. He describes himself as the door. He defines himself as the way, the truth and the life.
He says that all those who come to the Father by me will have life. Why do you spend your wages on that which does not satisfy? Thirdly, we need to see the necessity of allegiance toward God. Allegiance, not just partial allegiance.
The Puritans, the Reformers, I think it was probably Calvin, referred to Coram Deo, living in the presence of God. Be like Elijah. Elijah here defines his existence in this way. Before whom I stand.
His wasn't a Sunday, Sabbath-only Christianity. He stood before the Lord. He walked before the Lord. His life was lived in reference to the Lord.
He was God-centered and God-oriented in everything, such that he could describe himself as the one who stands before the Lord. Do you and I do that? Can we do that? Does Coram Deo define you?
Are you always living in the presence of God? Are you always conscious of God? Again, note what I'm not saying. Are you sinless?
Are you perfect? That's not the issue. The issue is when you sin, when you engage in ungodliness, you flee back to that Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry said it is a very bad thing. to halt between God and Baal.
He who is not with Christ is against Him. There's no third place. Jesus said that very clearly in Matthew 12 and verse 30. He who is not with Me is against Me.
There's no third position. Sometimes I think young people get it in their heads. Yeah, I'll become a Christian later on. Sometimes older people, they've heard the message all their lives.
I'll be a Christian later on. I'll try to live in this third place. I'll have a foot in heaven and a foot in hell. No, that's not the way it is.
If you are not with Christ, you are against him. He goes on to say we cannot serve Baal and God, Mammon and God, ourselves and God. God alone is worthy of our total allegiance. He goes on to say the service of God and the service of sin, the dominion of Christ and the dominion of our lusts.
These are the two thoughts which it is dangerous halting between. Those between them that are unresolved under their convictions, unstable and unsteady in their purposes, promise fair but do not perform, begin well but do not hold on, that are inconsistent with themselves or indifferent and lukewarm in that which is good. Their heart is divided, whereas God will have, notice this, all or he will have none. God's claims on us is total.
What's Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 6 when the Corinthians are engaged in harlotry, engaging with harlots? What's his argument? You were bought with a price. Glorify God with your body and your soul.
He didn't just purchase part of you, just didn't purchase the inner man. He purchased your organs as well. You need to restrain them. You need to govern them.
You need to watch over them. You are not to halt between two opinions. You are not to engage in such ungodliness. Christ will have all or he'll have none.
We cannot engage in this sort of Christianity. And then the last lesson I believe this passage displays is the power in our Christianity comes from God. It doesn't come from our moral persuasion. It doesn't come from our great arguments.
It doesn't even come because we mock the false prophets. Those are means. God uses them. But we need to see when the fire came down, it was from the sovereign God of Israel.
When we go out from this place, when we live in light of the Christian gospel, when we witness, when we testify, when we talk to people, when we try to persuade idolaters to come to the true and the living God, we need to realize our dependence is upon God Most High. We need to realize that it is impossible with us to change the heart, but with God, all things are possible. And if you don't know Christ tonight, again, the message is very particularly directed to you. How long?
How long will you falter between two opinions? If God is God, follow him. If God is God and we have seen in the scripture that he is, follow him. Believe the gospel.
Believe in the doing and the dying and the rising of Jesus. Believe on Him alone who can save you from your sins. The Scripture is clear. You have sinned against a holy God.
You have not done what He's called you to. You have broken His law. And this isn't you, you, you. It's all of us.
We're all in this boat. We've all strayed. We've all gone a-whoring from the true and living God. The Scripture says that we have offended in many ways.
We have broken every law. We have broken every commandment. You may think yourself a pretty good person. The Scripture tells us otherwise.
The only remedy is to believe on the Lord Jesus, who lived and who died and who rose again so that sinners could have everlasting life. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this account in 1 Kings 18. We thank you for this marvelous display of the power of God. And I pray that we would take these things to heart, that we'd examine our own selves, Lord God, under the light of Holy Scripture, that we would seek to root out any bad things, any idols in our own lives, any lack of commitment to You, Father, I pray that You would just search us out, try us, cause us to repent, cause us to flee again to the Lord Jesus, to find mercy and forgiveness, and to go in the fear of God and to serve You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I pray that You would go with each one of us now in this coming week, and I ask in Jesus' name, Amen.