1 KIngs 18 (2)

Thank you for coming tonight. It's good to see everyone. These are the die-hard believers here tonight, braving the difficult weather, and we pray the Lord will take us all home safely.

Let's read from 1 Kings again and chapter 18. 1 Kings 18, continuing where we left off last evening. 1 Kings 18, and we'll begin at verse 20.

We'll read through to the end of verse 40. So 1 Kings 18, starting in verse 20. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him, Not a word.

Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under.

And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.

And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even unto noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.

But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god, either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives, and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass when midday was passed, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me.

And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.

And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid them on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.

And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time.

And they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their back, their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God.

And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. And that's where we'll end our reading for this evening, and trust the Lord will help us to say a few things from these verses.

Now last time we looked at the first 19 verses of our chapter, which we referred to as this, really, the setup for the main event. And we examined those three face-offs that took place. Ahab and Obadiah had a meeting.

Obadiah and Elijah had a meeting. And then what the chapter was building toward, eventually Elijah and Ahab had a face-off. And each one of those meetings increased in intensity, and that has led us now into what is the main event of the chapter.

Now the burning question throughout this section that we've read together, the burning question is this. Who's the real God? Who's the real God? I want you to see it though. Verse 21, Elijah says, If the Lord is God, follow him.

If Baal is, he doesn't even say if Baal is God. He's just, if Baal, then follow him. The main question is, who is the real God? Look at verse 24.

He says, The God that answers by fire, he is God. Look down at verse 36. When Elijah prays, he says, Lord God of Israel, let it be known that thou art God in Israel.

Verse 37, he says again, that the people may know that thou art the Lord God. And then eventually, verse 39, the people say, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. So that's the big question in this section.

Who is the real God? And what ought to be our response to the one who is the real God? Now, the title for this section that I've put on my notes here is fence sitters, false gods, and firepower, if you like alliteration. Fence sitters, false gods, and firepower. Now, we want to look at these verses in seven sections.

Now, rather than pointing them all out now to you in advance, because that's a mouthful, we'll just note them as we go along. But first in verses 20 to 25, we have what is the Carmel contest. This is the contest at Carmel.

Verse 20, so Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. Now, it seems, I don't know 100% sure, it seems that only the prophets of Baal showed up, not the prophets of Asherah, the prophets of the groves, because verse 22 seems to indicate that, right? Elijah said unto the people, I, even I only remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. He doesn't say anything about the 400 prophets of Asherah.

So I don't know what happened to them. I don't know where they are, but either way, the 450 prophets of Baal are certainly being summoned to come to this location. And in verse 21, Elijah comes out to the people and he calls for their attention and says, what a burning question.

How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

So here we have our fence sitters. First part of the title that we've given to this section, we have our fence sitters. A whole group of people in Israel, and they kind of lean this way when times are going well, they lean the other way when times are not going so well.

They seem to be okay with saying that they follow Yahweh or Jehovah, the Lord, and in some occasions, and then on other occasions, they would like to be connected, be linked with Baal. And Elijah says, no, you can't have it that way. You have to make your choice.

You can't go sitting on the fence. Now, Baal might be okay with such an arrangement. And maybe the people wondered why Yahweh couldn't be that accommodating as well, but Elijah will have none of it.

And he says, no, no, no, no. If the Lord is God, if Jehovah is God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him.

Notice that he uses the word follow twice, follow, follow. Which will it be? The answer to our burning question, who is the real God, is not a detached issue. It's a demanding one, right? This is not a petty matter.

This is a pressing matter. It's not like after you get the answer to this, you can say, oh, wasn't that nice? Now we know who the real God is. That fire really was something.

Anyway, back to living my life the way that it was before. No, that's not the way. That's not the way it's going to be.

If the Lord is God, follow him. He has demands upon us. We are to love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, our strength.

And here we are sitting in this building tonight, 28 centuries or so later, and the challenge at the Carmel contest won't go away. If the Lord is God, follow him. If the Lord is God, follow him.

Fence sitting is still quite a popular activity for some of us, right? And we can substitute the word, the name Baal, for any other number of things that take us away from devotion to the one true God, right? My struggles might be different than your struggles, but this challenge from this many centuries ago won't go away anytime soon if the Lord is God, follow him. But there are more details here that we need to notice. Verse 23, Elijah says then, after they've all been summoned, he says, let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under.

And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And he says, and you call on the name of your gods, I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answers by fire, let him be God.

And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. Now, the people believed Baal to represent the sun god. Now, we noticed last evening that Baal also allegedly had the power to send rain, right? He and his female counterpart, Asherah, they would provide this fertility in the form of rain.

And so Baal was apparently capable of sending rain. But because they also believed him to represent the sun god, in their stories, they would have him riding on thunderclouds and being able to send lightning. So if he can send down lightning, then he ought to be able to send fire.

He should be able to send rain, and he should be able to send fire. Send a bolt down on this altar right here, the one that we're dancing around. It ought to be a very easy thing for Baal to do, if Baal is real.

Well, notice the response of the people at the end of verse 24. After Elijah tells them that this is the challenge, you take a bowl for yourselves, I'll take one. You have an altar, I'll have an altar.

You call on the name of Baal, your gods, whoever they are, I'll call on the name of the Lord. Hear what the people said? It is well spoken. They like this.

They like this idea. They were very quiet in verse 21 when he said, how long are you going to halt between two opinions? The text tells us, and no one answered a word. It was dead silence.

But when he says this, they all said, all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. They like this idea. They answered this challenge.

Now verse 25, Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, he says, choose one bullock for yourselves and dress it first for you are many and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire underneath. Now, he can't help but notice all of the advantages that Baal is given. We pointed out last night that this location was an advantage for Baal.

One of the Assyrian historians or kings wrote in his annals that Mount Carmel was the mountain of Baal. He referred to it as the mountain of Baal. So this is like home field advantage.

If you like sports, you know that home field advantage can be a very big advantage. He says, all right, let's go to Mount Carmel. This is where Baal is supposedly very familiar with this mountain.

And there's lots of activities and acts of devotion for happening on this mountain, but we're going to do this at Mount Carmel. And then another advantage is obviously the number of prophets on one side and the other. Elijah says, I'm the only prophet on this side.

He says that I'm the only one. I, even I only. He says that again in chapter 19, but he was wrong there.

He's right here. He's the only prophet that's present. And he's outnumbered at least 450 to one, maybe even 850 to one if those other prophets happen to be here, but at least 450 to one.

Now you don't have to know much about competition at all to know that that's a very large advantage. If you're playing football and you have, the team is brought out onto the field and they have their 11 players all lined up and it's just one of you. You're not going to win.

You're not going to win. You're not going to move the ball. But if those 11 players decided they're going to bring in another 439 in addition to the 11, and you're still going to just have one, it's over, right? It's lights out.

You're not moving the ball at all. You're going to be totally annihilated. Here's another advantage, 450 to one at least.

Another advantage, their altar is bone dry. Okay. Shouldn't be hard to light on fire what's there.

And what we're going to learn in a few minutes is that Elijah's was soaking wet. Okay. So that's another advantage.

This should be pretty easy. And they're given here in verse 25, the first choice of which bull to sacrifice. We'll have two bulls.

You, you, you go first. You take the first bull. You make the first choice.

Maybe they could determine which of the two bale would like the most. Oh, that looks like a good bale bullock. We'll take it and we'll let, he gives them the first, the first chance.

And then they get the first chance to call down fire. You go first. Now if bale does it, if bale is successful, you could argue that the Carmel contest is immediately over.

It's like sudden death overtime, right? Whoever scores first and it's done. But so look at all these advantages, all these advantages piling up. I mean, it looks like it's going to be a very predictable outcome.

Of course, if you know anything about the way biblical writers put things together, it's all intentional and it's meant to make the people see so clearly who is the real God. So we have the Carmel contest in verses 20 to 25. Now the next little section is in verse 26 to 29.

I'm just making these artificial, but I've called this in 26 to 29 dancing the day away because that's what they do. They end up dancing the day away. We're going to see that in their actions.

Verse 26, and they, the prophets of bale took the bullock which was given them and they dressed it and called on the name of bale from morning even unto noon saying, oh bale hear us. But there was no voice nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.

The word is danced and it's really danced around the altar. The, I think it's the ISV says they kept on dancing around the altar. So here they are.

This, listen, this was not your ordinary run of the mill deity dance. This was a wild dance of devotion around the altar to bale. And the text tells us they did it from morning till noon.

You talk about a long worship service, morning till noon. I didn't see that on the sign out front. I was glad not to see it.

Sunday service, morning till noon, activity, fervent dancing. That was not on the sign. I was glad for that.

But you talk about a long worship service and, and a totally useless one. They danced the day away with, with this constant prayer on their lips, right? Oh bale, hear us, hear us. And they're running around the altar and as if to say, this is the spot right here in the middle of where we are.

This is where the fire needs to come. Bale, hear us. You can have all the fervor in the world.

You can pray 20 times a day. You can face any direction that you want. You can have hats and robes and candles and incense and the works.

If you're not praying to the God of Elijah, if you're not praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if you're not praying to the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it's all just spiritual futility, isn't it? They danced and they danced and they danced some more, but Bale, where was he? He was a no show and thus he's a no God. Bale and Asherah proved to be false gods, fence sitters, false gods, and no fire fell from the skies. No fire came.

The only burning happening at their altar was the burning of calories, right? Just dancing and dancing around. So Elijah decides, well, he's going to have a little fun with it. And this is usually where we tend to focus some time here on verse 27, especially when we're telling this story to kids in Sunday school.

But verse 27, what happens? And it came to pass at noon. So this has already gone on for quite a few hours. It came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud.

Say it louder for he's a God. Either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey or peradventure he sleepeth. And must be awaked.

And the King James is a little more, well, there's some other translations that might be even more accurate and uncouth in what some of the things he might've said here were. But when a God is made in the image of man, these are all quite natural possibilities, right? Perhaps he's doing this. Perhaps he's doing that.

Bale might be hard of hearing. You have to yell louder. He might be too deep in thought.

He could be listening to other Bale fanatics and he's focusing on them right now. He might be on a journey to help someone or harass someone who knows he could just be plain exhausted and he's in need of a nap and you have to yell louder to wake him up from it. And you, or, or maybe he's in, maybe he's doing this or that or the other thing.

Bale's followers are not about to give up so easily though as Elijah continues to mock them. Look at verse 28. And they cried louder.

They cried aloud and cut themselves after the manor with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass when midday was passed and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice nor any to answer nor any that regarded. So Elijah mocks them.

They step it up a notch. Wasn't enough for cries to come from their throats. Now blood must come from their bodies.

And if we do all of this, surely Bale will hear us. You know you have the wrong God if a requirement to satisfy him or her is the shedding of your own blood. The true God shed his own blood for us to satisfy himself in relation to our sin.

Praise his name. He sent his son to shed his blood for us. They cut themselves.

They're showing Bale how, how devoted they are to him. And it goes on and on. And now until the time of the evening sacrifice, they had to update the sign on the church outside the Bale church.

Extended service. It's still going. We're going a few more hours, right? And then they think if we keep at it and keep at it, he will answer.

No answer. Let me just insert a little bit of a warning here for us too, because we might have our own versions of Baleism. We might call it evangelical Baleism.

If we do enough, if we show God how sincere we are, how devoted we are, how busy we are for him, how passionate we are, maybe he will be more likely to bless us. That can be a mentality, a trap that we fall into. So we'll go to that conference too.

And we'll go to the seed sowers also. And then we'll go to the men's. We've got to make sure we go to the men's retreat.

And then there's guys night on Thursday and prayer breakfast on Saturday and mother's morning out on Monday and youth Bible study on Tuesday. Of course, there's the regular meetings. We have to go on Wednesday and we have to go on Sunday and there's kids outreach on this.

And we have to go to this and that. And listen, all of these things are fine. But sometimes, sometimes, even though we might be having legitimate activities, we might have an illegitimate mindset.

I remember back home, I don't know how many activities you have scheduled here, but back home, we had a visitor with us, Malcolm Radcliffe. I don't know if he's ever made his way over here, but he's one of the Lord's servants in the UK. And he, I think he listened to our schedule of meetings that was read at the end of the breaking of bread.

And he came up to me later. He says, David, he says, you know, I just want to say, don't have more meetings and activities than you have time to pray for them. I thought, whoa, that's pretty wise advice.

And sometimes we can have so many things running us this way and that way. Are we doing them for the right reasons? Are we attempting to impress God, to stir him up, to manipulate him so that he might give us his blessings? Meanwhile, we struggle to even spend any time to get alone with God ourselves, right? And our devotion, devotional time with the Lord suffers. We're not reading, we're not praying, we're not spending time with the Lord, telling him that we love him.

Because we're running here, there, and everywhere. No, none of us are prophets of Baal, thankfully, but it's certainly possible to think like one. Anyway, back to our story, we need to get to point three.

And this, I've just sectioned off here, verses 30 to 35, which I've entitled reparations and preparations, reparations and preparation. So look at verse 30. And Elijah said unto all the people, come near to me.

He wants them to see this. He wants them to hear this. And all the people came near unto him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.

So reparations were needed for the altar. It used to be that God's people worshiped the Lord there, not anymore. I don't know that they even should have been worshiping him there.

But there was an altar set up there. Maybe it had been destroyed during the Jezebel purge. But Elijah calls the people to come near to him and watch as he repairs the altar and sets it up.

Now, verse 31. And Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. He repairs the altar and he uses 12 stones.

Elijah is a prophet within the northern kingdom, 10 tribes. He doesn't use 10 stones. He uses 12.

These 12 stones stand as an implicit condemnation of the division within the nation. Israel is 12 tribes, not 10. And he seeks to unite the people in the worship of the one true God.

Well, interestingly, look at verse 32 then. With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood and said, fill fill four barrels with water and pour it on the sacrifice and on the wood.

And then he says, do it a second time. They do it. Do it a third time.

And they do it. And you got to be wondering what's going through their minds as they're obeying these orders. But verse 35, and the water ran around about the altar and he filled the trench also with water.

Now, Elijah had given the prophets of Baal some major advantages. Here, he gives himself a disadvantage, a really big one, soaking the altar with water. And some have wondered, you know, where did he get all the water? There's this famine because of the lack of water and the lack of rain.

I'm not sure what the answer is. We do have the brook in verse 40 mentioned, which was nearby the brook Kishon. May not have been drinkable water, but it may have been usable water.

And we do have a sea mentioned in verses 43 to 44. And I happen to think that it's the Mediterranean sea and that's not too far away. It would have had to, it would have to be a really big famine to dry up the Mediterranean sea.

Right? That's right. So anyway, he gets, they get the water, they drench the altar. There's no possibility of just spontaneous combustion here.

If this thing lights up, it seems that only someone who is truly divine could accomplish that. Reparations and preparations now have been made. Now, number four, verse, let's look at verses 36 and 37.

And I've called this short and sweet supplication, short and sweet supplication. So 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, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou has turned their heart back again.

That's short and sweet. Notice who Elijah addresses. This is why he calls them near to him.

He wants them to hear this name. He calls out to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel or Jacob. No possibility then of mistaking the source of the fire.

So Elijah has already demonstrated that Baal was dead, but now he will need to show them all that God is alive. We can't fail to notice how short this supplication is. I think it took probably less than 30 seconds to read his prayer, right? Didn't take long at all.

How long were those prophets of Baal at it? Hours and hours and hours and to no avail. And all Elijah needs is just a few seconds. That's all he needs to do is call out to the Lord and he will hear and he will answer.

The prophets of Baal ranted and raved for hours. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus warned us about doing? In the Sermon on the Mount, he was telling us about how to pray and how not to pray. And he says, don't pray like the heathen who think that they will be heard for their many words.

And that's what was going on with the prophets of Baal. They thought they would be heard for their many words and their many deeds, dancing and cutting themselves. But they went on and on and they kept at it and kept at it.

We don't need to pray like that. Our Father, to whom we pray, knows what we need before we even ask him. And we just need to say a few words.

Prayer isn't about length and it's not about volume. It is we can be short and sweet and just a practical word to all of us who pray publicly. And that is nice, right? To pray short and sweet, to pray something worth praying.

There's a few brothers back home and they certainly put me to shame. They get up to participate in our prayer meeting. They always have so many things to pray about, to pray for, and people to pray for that none of the rest of us have even thought of.

And when they're done, we go, why haven't I prayed for them? But we can at least say amen with them because we want that as well. And it is a wonderful thing to be able to pray short and sweet. And it's not like God only hears us after we've crossed a certain number of minutes.

The more we say, the more likely God will be to hear us. Well, God might be still listening, but the likelihood is nobody else is. But short and sweet supplication.

That was here. He just didn't take long for him to say it. And then the fire of the Lord fell.

We also need to remember that amid the humorous sarcasm of Elijah, that our God is always reachable without any antics whatsoever. We don't have to do things. We don't have to do things for God to listen to us and to hear us.

He's mocking the prophets of Baal and telling them that Baal might be sleeping. Our God never sleeps. We always have our heavenly father's ear.

And that is the most precious thing. The prophets of Baal are shedding their own blood in an attempt to get into Baal's presence and cause him to respond. We don't have to shed blood.

Christ's blood was shed already for us and has been taken into the presence of God, has been taken into the holy place, granting us access into God's presence. What a great privilege we have at any time we enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. So you can be there in your home and you're dealing with the kids and it can be very frustrating.

And just in one quick second, you can be in the presence of God by the blood of Jesus. Lord, I need help. I need mercy and grace to help me in time of need.

You can be in the middle of traffic and it's a little bit stressful. And just like that, you can be in the presence of God in prayer, that is. Make sure you're driving safely so that you don't end up immediately in the presence of God in soul and spirit.

But what a great privilege we have. Any moment we can be sitting in a meeting like this and just right now we can say, Lord, thank you for saving us, for the blood of your son who was shed for us. At any moment we can enter into the presence of God because of the blood of Jesus.

But we shouldn't miss what Elijah prayed for. Not only that God would prove himself. Yes, this is the God contest and that he would vindicate his servant.

He does pray for that. But did you notice what he says in the end of verse 37? That they might know that you're the Lord God and that you have turned their heart back again. He's praying.

He's praying for the recovery of his people. He's praying for the restoration of his people in this short and sweet supplication. Now, then the answer came.

We've got to hurry up here. The answer comes in verse 38. And I put in my notes, our God is a consuming fire.

He certainly demonstrates that here in verse 38. Our God is a consuming fire. Verse 38.

Then the fire of the Lord fell. There was no waiting. There was no wondering.

There was no more activity. It was just a simple prayer to the right God, to the only God. And the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.

So everything is completely consumed. Offering, okay, fire would do that. Wood, fire would do that.

Stones. You ever had a fire where you burned up the stones? Probably not. The dust is gone.

The water in the trench is gone. Everything's gone. That's fire power.

There's our other F in the title. Fence sitters, false gods, fire power. Hebrews 12 and 29 tells us that our God is a consuming fire and even the stones of the altar are consumed.

There might be more than one reason for that. Not going to have a new shrine to visit. That was the temptation for the people, wasn't it? God does something amazing and then they turn that into an idol and the Lord removes that temptation.

He wants the people to come to worship him in the temple, in Jerusalem, not at the base of Baal's bluff. That's where he wants them to be, at the temple. Now what happened in verse 38 is similar to what happened on two other important occasions in Israel's history.

I'm sure you already remember them. When Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests at the first tabernacle service, the tabernacle was finished, Leviticus 9 says that there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat which when all the people saw they shouted and fell on their faces. Fire from the Lord comes out, consumes the sacrifice, the people fall on their faces and acknowledge him in worship, the tabernacle.

There was another one. When Solomon prayed at the temple dedication, when the temple was completed, 2 Chronicles 7 says when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and they worshiped. Same thing, the tabernacle and the temple.

And here we have it again. This is one of the big moments in the history of the nation. And I think the Lord is saying to Israel, there's a way back.

There's a way back. As far away as you have gotten, there's still a way back. I've accepted this sacrifice.

I will receive you. And we love to be able to preach that, right? Dear brother, dear sister, there's always a way back to the Lord because a sacrifice has been made. We have come in, those of us who are Christians, those of us who are saved, we've not only come into great blessing by the death of Christ, by the sacrifice of Christ, we still are.

We still are. Because if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, even now, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so it's great to always be able to preach that there's a way back because a sacrifice has been made.

So yes, the showdown at Carmel proves that God is the real God. But the showdown at Carmel proves that God is the reconciling God. And we can praise him for this.

Now notice the response that's in the text. Verse 39, I put a little label here, intentional face plants. I've made a few unintentional face plants.

Maybe you have as well. I'm always worried, you know, when I walk up here that I'm going to miss the step and then I'm going to be face down. But this was intentional.

Verse 39, and when all the people saw it, they see the fire coming down, they see it consume everything. When they saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord. They're using the covenant name Yahweh or Jehovah.

They're saying he is God. When God's fire fell, so did the people. They fell to the ground and they worship.

Now there's nobody sitting on the fence at this point. No one on the fence. God has responded in mighty power.

By the way, does it ever strike you as strange that this contest is the kind of contest that it is? Why isn't the contest about who can send rain? That's the need. The contest is about who can send fire. That's strange.

Well, after the fire fell, the people would have an opportunity to demonstrate faith in the Lord, confidence in the Lord, whom they are now acknowledging that if he can give the fire, we will have to trust him to bring the rain. He gives his people opportunity to trust him, to put their confidence in him, and they're going to have to trust him for that rain. He wants their worship before he gives his blessings, not just afterward.

That's what the Lord wants. Of course, the bullock consumed by the fire would remind the people that the way back to God was by means of a sacrifice. That will always be true for God's people, whether you live under the old covenant or the new.

Now we hurry to the last thing here in verse 40. Radical national surgery. Radical national surgery.

Look at verse 40. Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and slew them there.

Oh, we were doing so good up to this point, Elijah. Now he goes and spoils the whole thing by calling for the massacre of 450 simply misguided individuals. Why couldn't Elijah have just simply said, Just don't do that again.

Go and sin no more. Wrong. No, he did exactly what was right.

Aren't you glad you don't live under the old covenant? They did. And this was the penalty. Elijah, a prophet with integrity that we spoke of last night, carried out the word of God clearly spoken for people under the old covenant.

In Deuteronomy chapter 13, God gives the order to execute false prophets and any who would turn the people of Israel to the worship of other gods. So radical national surgery was needed. Listen, if you have an enormous cancerous tumor, I've had them on my face before three times, and you're probably going to be told that it calls for more than the ingestion of brussels sprouts and kale salad, right? You're probably going to be advised that radical surgery is needed to get rid of it.

And it was needed here on this day at the bottom of Mount Carmel. Now, obviously we're not under the old covenant. Good thing.

And the church today is not a theocracy. Okay. Church is not a theocracy.

We're not to put idolaters to death. We're to put idolatry to death. That's what the new Testament tells us, right? Romans eight, Paul says, put to death the deeds of the body so that you might indeed live.

Colossians three says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And then he names it sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Put it to death, kill the idolatry, not the idolater.

And there might be some of us here sometimes in our lives more than others where we need some radical surgery in our lives. Now, let me just close with this. What should be our reaction to this section of 1 Kings 18? Well, we know who the real God is that's been shown to us, but we ought to respond like the people here did when we examine another showdown on a different hillside, not Carmel now, but Calvary, because it was there that the Lord Jesus Christ silenced and crushed his enemies, our enemies, Satan and sin and death.

And you remember that wasn't literal fire, but the prophet spoke about fire in a metaphoric way. Fire from above was sent into his bones and prevailed against him. Fire fell from heaven and Christ bore that fire as judgment for our sins.

We've been spared from the fire that we deserve. And when we look at Christ on the cross, and when we see that nearby empty tomb, we know from even more reasons than they did, we know who the real God is. And we look at the cross, we look at the empty tomb, and we see the ascended savior at the right hand of the father.

And we say, the Lord, he is God. We say the Lord Jesus, he is God, the Lord Jesus, he is God. And then, and then we do what the people did here.

There was a moment in our lives when we did that. We worshiped him. We fell down.

And for the first time, we worshiped him. We acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father. And then what? And then we are to get up and obey the words at the beginning of the challenge.

If he's God, follow him. If the Lord is God, if the Lord Jesus is God, and he is, then follow him. And may God give us all help to do just that until the day that he calls us home.

Let's pray.