1 Kings 18 (Part 2) Bible Study (The Prophets of Baal Defeated) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

First Kings Chapter 18 is the chapter of our focus tonight.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

We already started exploring this chapter, and I have to say

from the outset that this is a challenging chapter.

Not necessarily because of finding the interpretation of

such things or seeing how it harmonizes with the rest of the

Scriptures, but because there are so many gems and jewels in

it that I just found myself going back and forth and trying

to determine where to end the study tonight.

But also wrestling with the fact that there is a beauty that you

capture when you do cover a larger scale of a context of a

certain truth. And so we're just going to see

where we're going to land tonight based on time and where

we do meditate and stop on. But for now, let us read

beginning in verse 20, the first few verses of this section.

And as our brother prayed, no matter how you came in today and

no matter what the message is, because this is the word of God,

you will be strengthened. You will be strengthened.

Verse 20 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered

the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came near to all the people, and said, How long will

you go limping between two different opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.

And the people did not answer him a word.

Then Elijah said to the people, I even I only am left a prophet

of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are 450 men.

Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for

themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood,

and be and put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other

bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire to it.

And you call upon the name of your God, and I will call upon

the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire.

He is God, and all the people answered.

It is well spoken. Father, help us with this

passage. Help us with the rest of this

chapter enlightened our hearts and our minds.

Lord, draw us closer to You and an intimate level.

Help us be conformed to the image of Your Son.

May we glean with Your guidance all that You have intended to

say through this preserved holy account and redemptive history.

We look to You as our teacher and we trust in the promised

anointing. That resides in each of us.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

If you were here last week, you know that we closed on the

thought of a powerful confrontation between

righteousness and evil, between a remnant and apostasy.

But not just a confrontation. We closed at a challenge that

would prove to be one of the greatest contest that human

history has ever known. And the place and the parties

that are involved in this incredible event are laid out

for us in verse 19. Look at it very quickly with me,

it says in verse 19. Now, therefore, send and gather

all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Bale and

the 400 prophets of Ashra who eat at Jezebel's table.

So the stage of this contest will be Mount Carmel.

The audience will be the nation of Israel.

Elijah will stand singularly representing the true and living

God, and there will be 850 men representing Bale and Ashra.

And it's important to realize that Elijah calling for this

challenge is not something that he conjured up himself.

This is not him emotionally or even cleverly producing

something hoping that God is going to come through for His

servant. No, no, no, no, no.

We have to realize from the beginning that all of this is

God's idea. And that's proven near the end

of this chapter, which we should look at so that we can frame and

understand Elijah's words and actions appropriately.

Look at verse 36 of First Kings 18.

It says here 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.

Pay attention to this last part and that I have done all these

things at your word. So challenging Ahab, challenging

the prophets, the way he's going to organize this showdown is

coming from heaven. It's coming from the mind of

God. This is something that is not

given to us as a record, but Elijah indicates that the Lord

spoke to his servant says this is what I want you to do at this

point. Now why is that important to

understand for many reasons and for something that you and I

have already established in our study of this man, Elijah, this

man steadfastly submitted to the will of God, no matter what the

call was from God. Elijah joyfully, cheerfully,

completely complied. So if God told Elijah, I want

you to leave the boundaries of the promised land, and I want

you to minister to a widow and her son, they're going to take

care of you, but I'm going to also do something through you to

them, and you're going to reside in that house.

Elijah did it. And if God said Elijah, now I

want you to preach and to be the conduit through which I'm going

to manifest my power before royalty, before a false

religious system and an entire nation, Elijah is going to do

it. And what we have to understand

here again is the same theme in our study concerning this man at

this point. God is worthy of our obedience,

no matter the circumstance or the context that calls for

obedience. And so that's being reinforced

right here in the beginning. But there are so many more

observations in this text. Look at verse 20 once again.

So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the

prophets together at Mount Carmel.

Makes you wonder why Ahab would give in to this.

He's the king. Perhaps he feels as though this

is going to be to his advantage. I mean, numerically it makes

sense. You want hundreds of my

prophets, and there's only one of you.

All right, let's do this. But then we see here also that

Elijah came near to all the people.

So he doesn't confront the false prophets.

He didn't even confront Ahab. Immediately he deals with the

nation of Israel that are standing on that platform.

And this is what he says to them.

How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

And So what is he doing here? He's highlighting the poor

condition, the spiritual state of this nation and it's a class

pay attention to this that unfortunately many have

comfortably enrolled themselves in and how Elijah phrases is

this limping between two different opinions.

So here you have Elijah who's totally sold out for the Lord.

Then you have Ahab and his priests and prophets that are

anti Yahweh. And then you have something in

the middle. You have the Israelites who are

limping between two different opinions.

What does that mean to limp between two different opinions?

While the same word limp is used in the very same context and the

way it's used in the other place gives us an indication.

So look at verse 26. This is when the false prophets

of Bale are trying to convince Bale to answer their cry.

Verse 26, it says here, and they took the bull that was giving

them, and they prayed and they prepared it rather, and called

upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, Oh

BA, I'll answer us. But there was no voice and no

one answered. And they limped around the altar

that they had made. It's the same word being used.

They limped. The concept of limping can apply

movement, simple movement from one place to another.

In fact, the original word there for this word limp in the Hebrew

is actually to Passover. So movement from one location to

the next, that's part of it. But when you look at limping

more carefully here, it can also signify instability.

So it's not just movement, it's a certain way of movement.

There's an unsteadiness when somebody limps, right when one

of their legs or both of their legs or their hips are bad, they

wobble. Their feet are not as planted.

And so when you see them limping around the altar, the imagery

that you have here is that they're doing some kind of

awkward motion. They're they're perhaps it's

some sacred in their minds, dance.

This is intentional. They're limping maybe out of

exhaustion, maybe, again, this might be by design, but they're

limping in a way in which it's showing limited movement, so to

speak. And that's precisely what

Elijah's trying to convey when he challenges Israel.

He's not concerned about their movement from geographical

location to geographical location.

He's concerned about their movement of spiritual devotion.

So how long are you going to pass over from one to the other

and revisit it? How long are you check this out

going to be content in your instability spiritually?

How long are you going to justify you planting yourself

somewhere that is not stable? You're unstable, actually.

And for him to ask it in this way, how long means that they've

been doing this for a while, and I only have been, they've been

doing this for a while. They've been doing it without

being disturbed by it. There's a level of

comfortability here to remain in that kind of a condition.

And so it is today. You have many, unfortunately,

today who are juggling worldliness while trying to

grasp onto godliness. And they can do so for

protracted, uninterrupted periods of time and never be

disturbed by it. And the fact that he says how

long? Also remind should remind the

people that you are willing to live like this.

One day for Bill, one day for the Lord, mixing it up here and

there. You're willing to do this and

you haven't registered yet that this abnormal 3 year plague that

you're enduring is a direct consequence to your limping.

And so you have people, unfortunately, who fit that

category. And the Bible here gives us a

clue to how this kind of class of carnal compromise,

Christianity must be dealt with. And it must be dealt with.

There are different ways, but through Elijah, a messenger who

lives the real thing and is willing to disturb with the

truth those who are comfortable in that place.

And how do we, how do we translate what Elijah is saying

to these people? If your devotion to God is not

wholehearted, it is worthless. Worthless.

Worthless, Yes, worthless. God is not in heaven desperate

for something from us. He either wants it all or he

doesn't want anything. That's how God operates.

That's how the economy of faith in God's Kingdom works.

And there are so many places in Scripture.

Whether that be. Didactically or by example or

illustration of that truth being something that God demands of

us? Wholehearted or nothing,

Complete or nothing. And I had my reading this week

in Second Chronicles and I came to one example that we can add

to our filing. About how God truly wants

wholehearted devotion more than anything else.

I want you to see it with your eyes.

And by the way, we're not going to be cross cross referencing a

lot in this chapter. There's just so much here

already. And time does not suffice for us

to do that, but we will do it. At this point.

Look at Second Chronicles 19. Here's what Jehu, a prophet,

says and testifies about Jehoshaphat.

This is another king. And I want you to see in verse

three of Second Chronicles 19 what this prophet says about the

spiritual condition of this king.

Verse three he says, nevertheless some good is found

in you, for you destroy the ashroth out of the land, and

have set your heart to seek God. Hold on, what?

Can be better than a leader with this people in their history who

has determined to clean the land of idolatry and not just do that

but set his heart to seek God. That's that's good.

That's more than good. That's ideal.

That standard is it not but notice he says nevertheless,

meaning he said something before he says something before for him

to qualify that there is though you have cleansed the land of

idolatry and though you've set your heart to see God, it's

still some good Lord. What are you after If this if

this is some good, what does it mean?

What are you looking for? Look at verse 2.

Here's the correction before the commendation.

But Jehu the son of Han and I the seer, went out to meet him

and said to King Jehoshaphat, should you help the wicked and

love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone

out against you from the Lord. Then he goes on to say,

nevertheless, some good is found in you.

When I read that in my morning devotion yesterday.

I stopped and I said, hold on, God, this you're showing.

You're showing me what you're after.

What's Jehoshaphat's deal? We'll read the larger context.

And you realize that though he did cleanse the land of certain

idolatry, and though he did set his heart to see God, he made a

marriage alliance with Ahab. So he's not talking about what

we know to be true for Christians, that you should love

those even though they don't love you or love your God.

He's not what he's talking about.

He's condemning the fact that he was willing to be unequally

yoked with an idolatrous king. Here's what this teaches me.

Jehoshaphat hated some evil. Not all evil.

Jehoshaphat hated. Some sins, not all sins, and you

and I have to be careful in thinking that we're pleasing God

because in our minds we've interpreted selective

righteousness as true righteousness.

Are there people like that? I've met them.

They're very outspoken about certain things that the Bible

condemns. But when it comes to other

things that the Bible condemns, they're not as outspoken.

They're not consistent in their conviction.

They don't hate all evil, just some evil.

God is not interested in that. God is not interested in that.

This is a man who has been warranted now has been issued

divine discipline, how he set his heart to seek God and he

removed idols from the land. Yeah, but he still also had

another place in his heart devoted to something else that

God hated. So what is God after?

This is a point that I'm trying to drive completeness.

Completeness. And as long as your heart is in

the place where you say whatever God loves, I will love and

whatever God hates, I will hate. You can be sure that you are

walking and wholehearted devotion to him.

And Elijah here is exactly delivering that truth.

And so he asked them, how long are you going to be limping

between two different opinions? And let's go back to our main

text. How did the people respond at

the end of verse 21? And the people did not answer

him a word. Why?

Were they just silenced due to conviction?

Were they unable to justify their sin, though they weren't

really broken about it? Or is this like sheer

indifference? They're just kind of like

staring at Elijah, trying to figure out how he appeared after

three years. The Bible doesn't tell us, but I

can tell you with great confidence that their lack of

response is not something. Good.

And I looked at this and I and I sat back and I thought to

myself, what an encouragement this is for you and I.

What do I mean by that? This is a helpful example for

those who preach the truth, counsel with the truth, disciple

people with the truth, with a desire to win them over to

complete devotion to the. Lord, but all you're getting is

nothing. There's blank stares.

I think that's more that resonates more with preachers

than anything else. If that does happen to you,

whether from a pulpit or in a living room setting, realize

that even the greatest men of God experienced no response when

what they preached or what they taught or what they counsel with

demanded response. You do you and be faithful with

the truth that God has revealed to you and ask you to convey to

another and let God deal with the rest.

There's no answer here. It demanded an answer.

It demanded some kind of explanation.

Nothing. They stayed in the same place.

The way they walked into that Sunday service is the same way

that they walked out. If you're a messenger of the

truth in any context, leave them to the Lord.

They will be held accountable for how they respond to the

truth. You just give it.

Now we come to verse 22. Then Elijah said to the people,

I even I only am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets

are 450 men. Is that completely true?

Was Elijah the only prophet? Why don't we just learn last

week that Obadiah told him, hey, I'm hiding 100 of them and I

have this whole feeding program set up.

So we understand that there is 100 prophets, true prophets to

be exact. But where are they now?

Where are they? So though numerically, literally

that's not the case, functionally, Elijah's right.

He's standing alone. Where are all the other ones?

They're not there. And additionally, what else do

you notice about verse 22? I even I only am left the

prophet of the Lord. But Baal's profits are 450 men.

There is an omission here. What's missing?

Go back to verse 19. You'll see what's missing.

And when you see it, you can let us know about it.

There's 450 prophets of Baal, but who else is supposed to be

there? 400 prophets of Ashra.

They didn't show up, and it could be that they were

suspicious of this invitation or Jezebel was very strategic and

she also was concerned about Elijah's little plan here.

So she had them stay back at least close to half of them.

And we're going to touch on that next week, most likely.

But do they ever reappear again? I think they do.

Look at chapter 22 of the same book and verse 6.

This is when Ahab and Jehoshaphat came together to to

go to war. And Jehoshaphat asked Ahab if

they've inquired of the Lord and if they could, and he does.

So look what we see here in first Kings 22 verse six.

And the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about 400

men, and said to them, shall I go to battle against Rameth

Gilead, or shall I refrain? And they said go up for the Lord

will give it into the hand of the king.

So I mean, I'm going to, I'm not going to touch on this too much,

but here's Ahab and Jezebel thinking that they can outsmart

God and hiding 400 of the prophets just in case something

happens. Do the prophecies of these 400.

Men end up giving good counsel to Ahab.

No, you can't fool God. You can't sidestep him.

But let's come back to the main point here.

The main point is that Elijah is outnumbered and he's

highlighting that. 450 to one, 450 of them and one of me.

And we see here that if popularity was a metric for

something being true, then Elijah would have extremely slim

chances of convincing people of the truth.

Truth is not authorized by the verdict of the majority.

It isn't. And you have learned from

biblical history, and I hope that you have learned from

recent history that just because something is mainstream doesn't

mean it's right, doesn't mean it's reliable. 450 on this side,

one on this side, which one is going to seem more persuasive?

And if you are persuaded towards something, my brother, my

sister, just because it is popular, I say this in love.

You are ripe for deception. You are ripe for deception and I

say that with a little bit more oomph in my voice because I've

seen too much in the past three years.

We're Just because something shows up on TikTok a lot doesn't

mean it should be convincing to you.

That's unfortunately the case for so many.

Instead, let it lie. Just testimony encourage you to

remember that God's word is true whether many or few accepted.

Now Elijah could have started right?

He gives them the first round. You guys do it.

And we could have saved a lot of time in our study and we could

have saved a lot of time in the real estate of the Bible.

Because if Elijah had just gone up first and fire would have

come down from heaven, it would have been a done deal and people

would have been impressed. But what does Elijah want to do?

He wants them to go first to show that Bill not only is

inferior to the true God, he's no God.

So you guys do your thing. Take as much time as you want.

And let's show the world that you guys believe in something

false. And it's in this where we learn

another lesson that I think couples with the.

Truth that we just heard. Let's look at what they do in

verse 25. We even read this yet Then

Elijah said to the prophets of Bill, choose for yourselves 1

bull and prepare it first, for you are many and call upon the

name of your God. But put no fire to it.

Let's not cheat here, all right? No sparks, no little gimmicks.

Let's make this real. No fire to it, put no fire to

it. And they took the bull that was

given them, and they prepared it, and called upon the name of

Baal from morning until noon, saying, Oh, Baal, answer us.

But there was no voice, and no one answered.

And they limped around the altar that they had made.

Look at verse 28. And they cried aloud, and cut

themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until

the blood gushed out upon them. Verse 29.

And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the

offering of the oblation. But there is no voice.

No one answered. No one paid attention.

Do you want to know another pitfall that people miss when it

comes to determining worldview? Misguided earnestness and

passion for those who uphold a faulty view.

Are these guys sincere? Are these false prophets

sincere? Very sincere.

Are they devoted? Very devoted.

Are they passionate? Sure.

Are they emotional? I think all their.

Emotional stock is invested in this moment.

These are guys that apparently really believe in what they

believe. They really, really believe that

Bill will actually answer them. And you and I have to remember

also not just the popularity idea, but zeal and the different

nation and sincerity are not the markers of a belief being

legitimate. And you can be sincere, right,

but you can be sincerely wrong at the same time.

So don't allow your emotions, that's one thing.

But don't allow the strong sentiments of others in the

expression of their loyalty to error ever persuade you to

believe something that's not true.

You know why that's important? Because we're living in a time

now that all it takes is for you to strong to feel strongly about

something, for it to be valid. And this generation is eating it

up. If you just cry about it, if

your voice is loud enough, if you go to all the protests, then

it must be sincere, it must be real, it must be true.

Who says? What did Paul say in Romans 10

to? He says they have a zeal for

God, but not according to knowledge.

And speaking about the Jews, they have zeal.

It's legitimate zeal. It's tangible, real, observable,

feelable zeal. But it's not lined up with

knowledge, and zeal without knowledge is dangerous.

Zeal as a result and fruit of knowledge is is wonderful.

That's a gift that's warranted. But just because you feel

strongly about it and everybody else feels strongly about it,

then certainly there must be some ability to it.

You are ripe for deception. Ripe.

No, you, you put aside the feelings and you put aside what

the majority has to say, and you come to an objective standard

has been provided to mankind. And you determine truth, your

world, or your convictions based on that.

And even if your feelings may not agree with it at first, you

submit to it and trust that God will give you what you need to

uphold it, live it, and love it. So you see this really pathetic

display. It's really heartbreaking

actually, and we should be heartbroken.

But Elijah has a different approach.

Look at verse 27. And at noon, Elijah mocked them.

Saying cry aloud for he is the God.

Either he is musing or he is relieving himself.

Can you imagine that? I think your God is on the

toilet, so give him some time for he is relieving himself or

he is on a journey. Imagine that your God's on

vacation. I think you guys missed the

memo. Or perhaps he is asleep, maybe,

maybe Bill's taking a nap. So do what he must be awakened.

Is there any space or allowance for mockery for the Christian?

Because many would come to this text as a proof text to give

them authority to speak in such a way to those who believe.

Differently than you and I, That's a dangerous thing to do,

to come to a text like this. That one is not prescriptive.

It's descriptive, and to use it to try to legitimize a certain

attitude or way of speaking is not really what this text is

intended to convey. Do you realize that Elijah here,

unlike so many who in their proclamation of the truth or in

their apologetics or debate, he's not here looking to wound

these? People.

He's not here looking to blow off steam.

He's not here looking to amuse himself by using sarcasm in a

suppose it's sanctified way. Yes.

Don't get me wrong, there may be times, depending on context and

conversation, where there is liberty and how you explain

something or showcase something or highlight something.

Sure, sure, sure. But as a general rule, even when

you understand Elijah's motive behind this, it makes this a

weaker thing to rely on to justify fleshly behavior.

Why is Elijah doing this? We'll look at the surrounding

context. You read here in verse 26 that

they were crying out. Old Bill answer us And so Elijah

now wants to stir them up even a little bit more.

He wants to turn up the heat. So he uses this language so that

they can do what they can cry out louder.

They can be more intense in their display of intercession

and devotion for one simple reason, so that Israel can

notice and take note that no. Matter how loud you cry, no

matter what you do and what you do to yourself, this God will

not answer you. There's a redemptive goal behind

this. There, there is.

There is an aim here. This is not aimless.

This is not Elijah just shooting off his mouth.

This is Elijah wanting things to get more intense so that he can

prove to a watching, limping crowd.

No matter. What you do, this God Bill will

not hear because he's no God at all.

And that point we'll get across. This is a strategy.

This is not flesh. This is a man who knows what he

is doing and the way that he got into that place is by using the

words that he did. So let's see what happens.

It says here that no one answered, no one paid attention

before that there was no voice. There's something else in these

verses, right? The Holy Spirit is highlighting

something. If you go back to verse 26, it

says it there initially, but there was no voice in the middle

of the verse and no one answer. So this point is being.

Reinforce and emphasize over and over in such a small space of

time. And the reason for that is

because this is what precisely billions of people are doing

today with their idols, whether it be false gods or pursuits or

people that they've elevated to the point of worship.

There are people like these prophets of Bill who are looking

for answers in all the wrong places, who are looking for

something to satisfy and only Christ can satisfy.

And so they are running headlong into this Ave. and that arena

and this activity hoping to get answer.

And you can rightly take this text as a filter and remind

others and hopefully not, but if so, yourself.

That you will not get answers, you will not get a voice, you

will not get something that your soul alone can find in the

gospel, in the truth of God, in relationship with Him.

And what do people do? What do people do when they try

to numb the pain with drugs, when they put themselves in

situations or in environments that are sinful, When they make

their job, their goal, when they, whatever it is, fill in

the blank? What do people do?

Often times, unfortunately, the same things that these prophets

do. When they get no answers, they

think to themselves, well, maybe I have to do more.

Maybe I got to up it up again. Maybe I have to put more money

into it. Maybe I have to put more time

into it. Maybe I got to sacrifice more.

And what's the result of that? Well, you see verse 29, there

was no voice. No one answered, no one paid

attention. And, and what people often do is

they interpret the dizziness of the frantic.

And frivolous pursuits, enough to keep them occupied, not

realizing that there's hollowness in the soul.

I I. Can remember that.

I can remember that being in college, that the worst times

that I had to deal with the emptiness of my soul was when

all the noise died down and I laid my confused head on my

pillow every night in that basement apartment.

And how, how can I quiet my conscience?

Well, I just need more noise, more flesh, more sin, more

adrenaline, whatever it is. But when it came down to being

all quiet and you are on your own with your soul, that's when

it's the loudest. But unfortunately, these men are

demonstrating what so many are doing even on this Friday night.

By the way, Yeah, you're in the House of God.

You think this is normal? You think people spend their

Friday nights coming to the House of God to read and study

the Bible? No, they're countless people

right now doing what these false prophets are doing, looking for

answers in all the wrong places, looking for joy, satisfaction,

peace, and they're screaming their heads off, figuratively

speaking, and nothing's coming through.

May God open their eyes verse 30.

Then Elijah said to all the people, Come, 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 seas of seed.

So remember. The.

Competition. You do your thing, you cut up

the bull and whatever you have to do to try to get Bill to

answer you by fire. If that happens, he's the real

God. I'm going to do the same.

But before he does anything, the first thing that Elijah does is

he builds an altar or he rebuilds an altar.

He repaired the altar, and we're told here that the altar had

been thrown down. Any idea who threw it down?

Who threw down this altar If you want the answers in the next

chapter, chapter 19 verse 10. This is Elijah speaking

elsewhere. He says he said I have been very

jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel

have. Forsaken your covenant, thrown

down your altars. This is Israel's doing.

They're the ones who threw down this altar.

And before Elijah does anything, he rebuilds it.

What does the altar? Represent.

It represents God's standard of worship.

That's what it means. God had prescribed that these

stones that were not hewn, not touched by human hands would be

collected, that you find that law and exodus and that that

would be used as the platform for sacrifice to be made and for

communion with God to be experienced.

And so Elijah here is going back to the ancient paths.

And this is so important. Please pay attention to this.

I'm speaking to those who are passionate about God, doing

things in their lives, doing things in their local church.

Before God sends fire from heaven, before Elijah even prays

for the fire to come down from heaven, he rebuilds the altar.

You and I should not expect God to do anything from heaven on

our behalf for this ministry or your ministry unless you are

first willing to reestablish the foundation that is obedience to

God's Word. Prayer, as we're going to learn

in a moment here, does not replace obedience.

And So what does Elijah do? He he makes the first thing, the

first thing. We must go back to what God

instructed us to do before we expect anything from Him.

So you can pray all you want, fast all you want, serve all you

want. If you are not setting up your

interaction, your intercession, your supplication to the Lord on

the foundation of what He asks of you, then you're wasting

time. And so he goes back to what God

asks of them from the the simplest way.

He wants an altar. We're going to give him an

altar. This is how God wants to be

worshipped. This is he wants it from my

life. I'm going to give it to him.

And then now I can expect for him to do more.

So the second thing to notice here besides that is Elijah not

just building an altar, but he took a certain amount of stones.

How many stones? Did he pick up 12 and for what

reason? What did it represent?

Everybody's yeah, answering wonderful.

Love it. Why is that important?

KK Here's the what's that God's name?

Yes. But here's the thing.

Here's the thing. Bible study tip.

Whenever you come to text like this or any text really, make it

a habit to zoom out. Make it a habit to zoom out.

Make it a habit to climb the helicopter ladder and have the

aerial view of the context that you're studying.

He took 12 Stones, put them together to represent the tribes

of Jacob. Why is that significant at this

point in redemptive history, Ryan Because we're in a time

where the Kingdom is divided. So you have 10 tribes

representing the north. You have two representing the

southern Kingdom. And what is Elijah doing?

He is, by way of demonstration, reminding the people of how God

designed them to. Be.

You're called to be unified, you're called to be 12 tribes

called Israel, not Israel representing the northern

Kingdom and Judah representing the southern Kingdom.

And so even in this, there is correction, even in this, he's

saying, I'm here to show you not just what God demands of you in

terms of your vertical relationship with him, but what

God demands of you for one another.

And do you notice even in the symbol of worship, right, this

altar, you have the vertical reality and the horizontal

reality, and they're inseparable, in this case, is

inseparable. And it's true as a truth

throughout the Bible that if you think that you're rightly

related to God while at the same time not being rightly related

to one another, you're not really worshipping God.

So yeah, we're going to build this author.

We're going to make a sacrifice. But let me also remind you what

God really wants. He doesn't want you guys to be

divided. He wants you guys to be exactly

how he intended you to be in that's one and that's one.

And so he does this in a very powerful way and by sending this

message, unfortunately, the people didn't get it, but we

did. So he puts these 12 Stones

together, reminding them of their unified design.

And let's read what happens next in verse 33.

And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid

it on the wood. I mean, that's.

So specific, just put it in order, put the bull in pieces,

laid it out on there. He's just a little nugget,

right? If this altar represents

worship, God is a God of order. He wants orderly worship.

He doesn't want half hearted, confused, spontaneous.

And what I mean by that is unthoughtful spontaneity.

Uncalculated, unfiltered. No, no, you see here that this

is a man who is very careful and how he's about to approach God

even in this setting. So he puts.

Everything in order and notice what happens here and he said

fill 4 jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on

the wood. Elijah, things are already

difficult for you. It's 450 to one and you have an

entire nation surrounding you that in one moment can turn on

you. So you're going to make this

more difficult. Is Elijah doing this to test the

Lord? And I'll go back to the first

point. Where is he getting his orders

from Heaven. God.

So fill 4 jars with water and pour it out on the burnt

offering. And on the wood, not just the

burnt offering on the wood this wet would work well with being

ignited. No?

And he said do it a second time, OK, one time is enough.

No, do it a second time. And they did it a second time.

And he said do it 1/3. Time Elijah.

It's not Elijah, it's God. And they did it a third time.

And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also

with water. You got a little pool going on

here. Now remember you, you can't.

Look at this separated from the wider context.

This is marching orders from God.

So it's not Elijah trying to make a point.

This is God making a point. And what's the point that he's

trying to make? He is intentionally making this

more difficult so that when the fire did come and lick up all

the elements and ignite that burnt offering, it would be more

convincing that this is of God. There would be no question.

There'd be no room for a doubt. Yeah, sure.

Without it, there would still be a strong case to make, but God

wants to make this very strong point so that there would be no

hesitation to realize this is from God.

This is from God. Do you have any doubt that what

God did in this case is any different in how He operates in

your life and mine? You shouldn't have any doubt

that if Providence leads you in a place or circumstance that is

extremely difficult. Listen, if you're walking with

the Lord, he's ordered your steps, He's walking with you.

He's leading you perfectly. And that includes things that

it's a difficult thing just to begin with.

The introduction of this trial is enough.

And then as time goes on, it just becomes more problematic.

There are more layers of obstacles, and it seems as

though this is not going to go anywhere.

This is why we're studying what we're studying, right?

This is the mind of God. He's the same yesterday, today

and forever. And So what he did here and set

up for His glory, he will not do any different for you and me.

So don't be intimidated or fearful by the growing

impossibility of something and seeing, OK Lord, I don't know

how you're going to come through.

Well, perhaps He's doing it so that when it does happen,

everybody around you say it has to be God, has to be God.

So the Lord in His wisdom, depending on what it is, will

set up your life and mine in the same way.

And we should be in those moments, just as confident as

Elijah was. All right, Lord, let's see how

you're going to do this. You can't lose in the Christian

life. You can if you don't know who

God is. But if you know who God is,

there is no losing in the Christian life.

So this man says do it. They did it.

They drenched everything. Now look at this verse 36 and at

the time of the offering of the oblation.

Oblation simply means presenting something to God, right?

So all of the transitions would say at the time of the evening

sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, Oh Lord God

of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that

you are the God, that you are God in Israel and that I am your

servant, that I've done all these things at your word.

I I can't pass that first insight at verse 36, at the time

of the oblation or at the time of the evening sacrifice.

So there were set times in the temple of Jerusalem where

sacrifices were made. Is Elijah in Jerusalem?

No, he's in the northern part and he's on Mount Carmel, but

he's aware of the time of the sacrifice that would have taken

place in the Temple at this point of the day.

Elijah here wanted to offer his sacrifice at the same time when

the regular evening sacrifice was to be given.

That says something about this man's worship.

He's not near the temple. He's not even close to the

temple. But what makes us so precious is

that Elijah is a prophet working in a different place with

different people, and yet he is physically separated, yes, but

totally in tune with the will and heart of God.

I'm going to wait to give the sacrifice when God desires for

it to be given. And despite the distance, this

man wanted to be in accordance with the will of God as much as

possible. That's a true worshipper.

Unfortunately for some believers, that's not the same

because all it takes is for some believers is for changes in life

or even limitations in life to encourage them not to make

worship a priority. So what you have is a new

business venture. You have an enrollment to a

school out of state, maybe marriage, and those become

reasons to ignore what God demands of us when it comes to

devotion to him. But God honors worshippers like

Elijah. So if God desires sacrifices at

this time, then I will give my sacrifice at this time.

How? How can we translate that?

Very simply And, and in many ways, if God in his word has

shown us that he wants to be worshipped with his people on

the Lord's Day, then I'm going to worship the Lord with his

people on the Lord's Day, right? This is going to be a priority

in my life. Elijah showing the priority of

worship in his life, even in this moment, he is mindful of

the sacrifices that take place in the House of God.

And I'm going to line myself up as much as possible with it.

Do Christians think like that today?

I know many who do praise God. Many do in this place, but I've

I've seen enough throughout my journey with the Lord where

that's not the case. But Elijah is a different breed,

but he's also a man with a nature like ours, so we can

imitate him. So at the time of the offering

of the oblation, Elijah, now he prays, Oh, we can make a whole

Bible study just on how he. Prayed, but let's make rapid

fire observations. OK, you know what?

I'll ask, and if you could be quick enough, that'll be very

helpful. So let's read this together one

more time and whatever stands out to just be like, I noticed

this about that prayer. I noticed this about that

prayer. Shall we do that?

Let's read it. Oh Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Israel, let me know this day that you are God in Israel, that

I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at

your word. Answer me, oh Lord, answer me

that this people may know that you, oh Lord our God, and that

you have turned their hearts back.

Anything. So many things.

Join me on the quest of revelation.

What stands out to you? Yes, brother, Full submission.

Full submission to God, Right. And even what he says about

himself, he doesn't call himself a mighty prophet.

A man, a guy goes, I'm your servant, I'm your servant.

I'm your servant. I'm still your servant.

Yes. Anything else he uses?

The covenant name, yes. Yes.

Of the covenant, absolutely. So he doesn't say the God of

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which is the common reference to God

in terms of his covenant keeping character.

Elijah's intentional saying Israel, Israel, God.

Remember Israel. Don't remember so much Jacob,

but remember Israel, what you turned Jacob to and into.

Yes, God, please, Yes. Yes, the personal.

Name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah? Yes, absolutely.

These are wonderful. Anything else?

What's that? So he's interceding on behalf of

the people. Yes, absolutely.

Well, let's look at a few things, right, Let's look at the

first thing, and that is the grounds of his request.

The grounds of his request are what?

God's character, His covenant keeping character.

So he appeals to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

Why is that important? Because he is praying for a

people who have not kept the covenant.

So, God, I'm appealing to your faithfulness, not their

faithfulness. I'm appealing to your goodness,

not their goodness, Lord, I'm appealing to your heart and your

promise. And we're asking you now, Lord,

I'm asking you specifically on the grounds of your character to

answer this. So if you don't know who God is,

or if you're limited in your view of God, your prayers are

going to be limited. The scope of what you can ask

God for are going to be hindered.

But the more you know about the character of God, the more you

can freely and boldly and courageously come before the

Lord and ask him for things that the person who doesn't know God.

Won't be able to. That's the grounds.

Look at secondly how he obeys before he prays.

What did he mention here? He says here at the end of verse

36 that I have done all these things at your word.

So he he shows God by way of his confession.

I am doing this according to what you've told me and up to

this point I've obeyed you. Now I'm asking you to do your

part. So let me say it again.

Prayer does not replace obedience.

And what does that look like in a day-to-day?

I mean, there's so many practical examples, but here you

are able bodied in a land of great opportunity and you're in

financial need, but you don't want to work, but you want God

to drop off money through the mouth of Ravens at your front

step every other week. No, no, no, no, Don't expect God

to work for you. He's called you to work.

He's called you to look for a job.

He's called you to make calls. He's called you to sit through

interviews. And through that you can pray

and ask God for the right thing, the right place, the right will.

And he'll do that. So prayer does not replace

obedience. And so he says I've obeyed I'm,

I'm obeying you now, Thirdly. Did you not notice how God

centered this prayer was? It's so God centered.

He says here what in the first, the first part of verse 36, Oh

Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day

that you are God. I want people to know that

you're God. I want him to know that you're a

God in Israel. And then he says it after here

at verse 37. Answer me, your Lord, answer me

that this people may know that you, oh Lord our God, that's the

heartbeat of this man's desire. He's I want this prayer to be

answered that people can say God is true, God is real, he is the

living one. So when your requests are

motivated by that pursuit, then you can know for certain that

you are praying successfully and so.

Why you are asking for what you're asking makes all the

difference in determining whether or not God will answer

that prayer. If you're concerned with the

glory of God, you can be sure that God will be quick to hear

and to move on that request. Lastly, though there are many

other things in light of the larger context, you notice

something else about Elijah's prayer.

He says here at the end of it, another priority in his praying.

Lord, answer this prayer. Why that you have turned their

hearts back. I want this prayer to move in

the hearts of these people and for them to know that in the

manifestation of this, their hearts can come to you.

Their hearts will come to you. You know what I appreciate about

this request? Remember the larger context.

What's, what's a really important need at this time for

Israel? What was a pressing need?

Rain. This is a crippling famine that

they are enduring. And now it's, it's reached the

point where it's life threatening.

And you would think that a priority at this point is Lord,

send some rain, right? But Elijah as a man of God

understands something even more important than resources that

would help the survival of this people.

And that was their hearts being turned back to God.

God, their hearts being right with you is better than them

knowing a more robust economy, even healing for your body.

Elijah understood, just like Jesus understood when that man

came through that crashed roof, those four friends who love that

man. And what did Jesus do before he

healed him? He.

Forgave him of his sins. That's more important than you

walking. You walking with me in eternity

is more important than you walking in this life without

eternal life. So I'm going to forgive you of

your sins. And here's Elijah understanding

God turned their hearts. What good is rain if their

hearts are still hard and then calloused?

No, Lord, rain upon their hearts.

And let their hearts soften. Let their hearts tenderize.

This man just is praying with late laser sharpness here.

He's so precise and understanding the mind of God.

And what else does this show if he's asking?

That they would know that you have turned their hearts back.

You know what that shows Elijah believe that by praying,

people's hearts can be changed. Do you believe that about

prayer? Do you believe that about

intercession? I get it.

Persevering in prayer, it's exhausting.

It can be very tiring and I know what it's like even.

I'm sure you do too, where you feel the strength and the

motivation leaving you. It's like I've prayed and I've

tried. But listen, This is why we do

this. We come under the Word of God

again to add more fuel in that place where we feel weak.

Let me remind you that prayer can move hearts and God can

answer your prayer because you're so concerned for his

glory and wanting other people to witness and enjoy that glory

that he can move on behalf of those who are not even thinking

about praying for themselves and that God can show himself so

strong where you can have a people who fall under knee to

say the Lord he is God, don't lose hope.

OK, what do we see here? They answer to that prayer verse

38. There's no way we're finishing

this chapter, but that's OK. We have another Friday, Lord

willing. 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.

Like not one thing was untouched.

God consumed it all, and when all the people saw it, they fell

on their faces and said, the Lord he is God, the Lord he is

God. Is this a miracle?

It is. It's a wonderful miracle.

What's so miraculous about it? You would say because fire came

down from heaven, because one man prayed.

Can I tell you why it's even a greater miracle than that?

Not because the fire fell down from heaven, because the fire

fell down and not on the people. That's why it's a miracle.

Fire falling down is a powerful thing.

But what makes this so incredible is that when the fire

fell, it didn't consume the people.

It consumed everything else. You know what you have here in

light of last Sunday's message? You have a foreshadowing.

You have a picture, You have a hint of the Gospel.

This fire symbolizes judgment. And who deserved judgment here?

The people who were limping between two opinions, the people

who torn down that altar, and instead of the judgment coming

and evaporating them, it fell upon a burnt offering.

And that burnt offering satisfied that fire, that

judgment. So here's something more

miraculous. Yeah, God sent down fire.

It didn't fall on the people. It fell on this animal and it

changed their hearts. And they said the Lord he is

God. So check this out.

God doesn't send fire down to God sends his Son.

And the Lord Jesus Christ gets up on a hill and he becomes a

sacrifice, absorbing the wrath of God, not just for one people

group during a certain period of history, but for all people

groups, for all the sins committed in history.

And in that moment he satisfied the wrath of God.

And how do we benefit from it? We witness it, we hear it, and

hopefully you and I respond to it in the same way that these

people did. And realizing Jesus Christ is

Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

And I have to say this, whether you do acknowledge that now or

not, you will one day, because here you have a people who are

bending their knee and declaring this in unison.

But there's a time coming where every knee and every tongue will

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Everyone will, whether they want to or not.

I just choose to. And I hope you made that choice

as well to do it on this side of that glorious event, to enjoy

worshipping now. And I'll be glad then as well to

join in that moment of worshipping Him.

Then Elijah's going to kill these prophets.

These false prophets are going to be slaughtered.

And if you want to know whether that was right or not, you got

to come next Friday. Let's pray

with immense gratitude. Lord, we thank you for feeding

us with Your word. We thank You for richly

providing for us a banquet where we can feast upon the truth that

answers our questions and our hearts desires well.

We thank you that we are not a group in here groping for

answers, but we sit here satisfied knowing that we have

the truth at our disposal. We thank you for opening our

eyes. Thank you for turning our hearts

to you. Lord, we pray that if we might

be in a season of limping between two opinions, that the

limping would stop and we would plant ourselves on the side of

truth. Of true devotion to you.

And Lord, we pray that you would indeed deliver us from being

impressed or moved by false narratives because the majority

believe it or because they feel strongly about it and they feel

strongly about those who don't agree with it.

Lord, help us be like Elijah and knowing that one with God is

majority. Lord, with all these truths that

were shared, we just pray that they would be appropriately

applied to our hearts. Please Lord, may this never be a

lecture that just bounces off our minds.

Lord may take root deeply in our hearts.

Lord, in this moment, as we ended this study, we choose to

worship you in light of our salvation, in light of the truth

that Your wrath was poured upon Your Son and not us.

And Lord, we can rejoice in knowing that when we deserved

wrath, being your enemies, You adopted us instead.

And we have eternal life secured, guaranteed, because of

that wonderful sacrifice, far greater than this bull and all

the other bulls that have been mounted upon altars throughout

history. Your sacrifice, that soul

singular sacrifice, satisfies forever and ever.

And we thank You for that truth that we benefit from because of

your grace. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

What a mighty God we serve. Let's stand and worship Him and

honor Him and adore him together.