WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 All right, we're going to read together from 1 Kings chapter 18 and we're going to read 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.120 verses 17 down to 45. 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:16.640 This is God's word. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:25.160 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:30.039 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your Father's house, because 00:00:30.039 --> 00:00:35.079 you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the bails. 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:40.159 Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:46.200 of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:51.799 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:56.599 When Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between 00:00:56.599 --> 00:00:58.679 two different opinions? 00:00:58.679 --> 00:01:04.159 If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him, and the people did not answer 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:05.479 him a word. 00:01:05.479 --> 00:01:10.519 Then Elijah said to the people, I even I only, and left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:13.359 prophets are 450 men. 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:18.439 Let two bulls be given to us and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:20.679 and lay it on the wood. 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:25.240 But put no fire to it, and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put 00:01:25.240 --> 00:01:27.000 no fire to it. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:31.120 And you call upon the name of your God, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:34.840 the God who answers by fire, he is a God. 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:38.400 And all the people answered, it is well spoken. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:43.400 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:44.800 for you are many. 00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:48.320 Call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:52.000 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:59.039 of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us, but there was no voice. 00:01:59.039 --> 00:02:02.879 And no one answered, and they limped around the altar that they had made. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:09.199 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a God, either he is musing 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:16.079 or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:21.000 And they cried aloud, and they cut themselves after the custom with swords and lances until 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.480 the blood gushed out upon them. 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:29.000 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:30.680 there was no voice. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:32.080 No one answered. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.280 No one paid attention. 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:38.840 Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me, and all the people came near to him, 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.240 and he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:47.640 Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom 00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:51.439 the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:55.640 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. 00:02:55.640 --> 00:03:02.200 And he made a trench around the altar, as great as would contain two seas of seed. 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:05.480 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull into pieces. 00:03:05.480 --> 00:03:07.000 And he laid it on the wood. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:13.080 And he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:14.599 And he said, do it a second time. 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:15.599 And they did it a second time. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:16.680 And he said, do it a third time. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:18.360 And they did it a third time. 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:23.199 And the water ran around the altar, and it filled the whole trench with water. 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:27.920 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, Oh 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:33.039 Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God and 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:38.439 Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word. 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:45.000 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God and that 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.639 you have turned their hearts back. 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:51.959 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones 00:03:51.959 --> 00:03:55.919 and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. 00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:01.239 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, he is God. 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:07.920 And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal, let none of them escape. 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:09.439 And they seized them. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:14.159 And Elijah brought them down to the brook, Kishan, and slaughtered them there. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:22.600 And Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain. 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:25.000 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:28.040 And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:32.520 And he bowed himself down on the earth and he put his face between his knees. 00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:36.360 And he said to his servant, go up now, look towards the sea. 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:39.600 And he went up and he looked and he said, there's nothing. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.320 And he said, go again seven times. 00:04:42.320 --> 00:04:46.840 And at the seventh time he said, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising 00:04:46.840 --> 00:04:47.840 from the sea. 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:54.759 And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:58.759 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind. 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:00.560 And there was a great rain. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:03.560 And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:09.159 This is God's holy word. 00:05:09.159 --> 00:05:16.560 We started last week a series called The Gospel according to Elijah and Elisha. 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:23.480 And this is one of the more famous stories in the whole of the Old Testament probably. 00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:28.840 Elijah ranks at the top of the list when it comes to important people from the Old Testament. 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:31.240 You know, you've got Moses, you've got Elijah. 00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:34.759 They're the two that we see at the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:36.000 They're a big deal. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:39.000 And so the Elijah story is a big deal in the Old Testament. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:40.360 There's a lot to see here. 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:45.280 Now I think you could probably do a sermon series on 1st Kings 18, but we won't do that. 00:05:45.280 --> 00:05:49.240 We'll just look at it one time tonight, which means there's a lot of stuff in it we can't 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:52.000 look at or talk about. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:57.399 But right here, Elijah comes up to the top of Mount Carmel and he confronts the 950 00:05:57.399 --> 00:05:59.639 prophets of Baal. 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:03.120 And he has, Jack took us through 1st Kings 17 last week. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:10.360 Last week we saw that Elijah was in the wilderness for three years in exile and there was droughts 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:11.639 upon the land. 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:12.639 Nobody was drinking. 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:14.519 The crops weren't coming up. 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:16.040 There was no water. 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:18.319 People were really struggling. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:22.279 And now all of a sudden in the very next chapter, he's on top of a mountain and Mount 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:26.199 Carmel translates to garden. 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.399 That word Carmel, Carmel is garden or vineyard. 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:33.120 And so he was at the bottom of the valley in the wilderness in the midst of a drought. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.199 And now all of a sudden this passage, he's on top of a mountain in the vineyard in the 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:37.199 garden. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:40.439 You know, he went from the bottom from the wilderness experience all the way to a mountain 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.199 type experience very quickly. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:47.560 Three years he was in isolation, probably the worst part of his whole life. 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:52.240 Can you imagine three years by yourself in the wilderness with very little to eat or 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:53.319 drink. 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:56.120 And now here he is defeating the prophets of Baal. 00:06:56.120 --> 00:07:00.199 There's a great confrontation and God shows up here. 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:03.800 And so Mount Carmel is at the very tip top of Israel. 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:10.279 You can go visit it today and just across west of the Sea of Galilee by Scottish standards, 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:15.879 it's a Corbett, not a full mountain, about 500 meters or so. 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:20.480 And this mountain type experience, a lot of times people come to this, the preachers, 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.959 the theologians, they've come to this and looked at it in a lot of different ways. 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:29.719 One of the ways that people have talked about this passage is to say, what are the conditions 00:07:29.719 --> 00:07:33.000 for God to bring the fire down? 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.000 You know, so they build the altar and then God brings the fire down. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.480 What are the conditions for revival? 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:43.560 What are the conditions for God bringing the fire down to show up, for God to say, I really 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.680 am the true God and I want to change people's lives. 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:48.280 That's one of the things that happens here. 00:07:48.280 --> 00:07:51.079 He transforms Israel. 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:54.680 And what are the conditions for bringing revival into our city? 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:57.840 What do we need for God to bring the fire down? 00:07:57.840 --> 00:08:00.000 What has to happen? 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.360 And I just want to point to one thing tonight, but I'll make it into three points nonetheless. 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:06.120 Okay, don't worry. 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:10.160 The one thing, the one thing is just this, that we're being asked, I think, in this passage 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:16.480 to say that one of the conditions for really seeing the reality of God and His presence 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:21.400 in our city is to know that every single human being, every single one of us tonight, is 00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:26.720 called to seek the truth, actually, to look for truth, to think about that, to give a 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:32.840 good hard look at what's on offer in the world in terms of religion and philosophy and truth 00:08:32.840 --> 00:08:38.080 claims and to actually say, we've got to put these things side by side and look and say, 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:40.400 which God is the real God? 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:45.000 We've got to let the gods confront one another and ask, what's the truth? 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.759 Who is the God that actually shows up? 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:48.840 And that's what happens here. 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:53.520 So this passage really confronts us as modern people, I think. 00:08:53.520 --> 00:08:55.720 Let me just show you three things here. 00:08:55.720 --> 00:09:03.480 We're being asked tonight to be willing to seek the truth and then to have a confrontation 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:06.640 and then lastly, to choose the real God. 00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:07.640 Okay. 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:08.960 So let's think about that together. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:13.919 First, we can't be nonchalant about the truth and we can't be nonchalant about looking for 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:18.519 it and seeking it and wanting to know it and really find it. 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:19.679 And so that's what we learned first here. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:24.679 So this is about 850 BC, a pretty long time ago. 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:26.840 And Elijah is the prophet of God. 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:28.159 We saw that last week. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.120 We don't know a lot about him at all. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.799 And the kingdom of Israel has been split in two already. 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:34.919 So there's a northern kingdom. 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:36.399 There's a southern kingdom. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.360 And here we are in the north. 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:40.919 And Ahab, he's the king of the north. 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:45.879 And the book of kings says Ahab was the worst king in all of Israel. 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:50.600 He was the worst king of the history of the Israelites, which is pretty bad. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:56.720 And he married Jezebel, who's very famous even in pop culture, that connotation. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:01.240 And she was a Canaanite, bale worshipper. 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:07.200 So he married a woman who he was forbidden to marry from a pagan family. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:12.000 And she, they together, really made Samaria great. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:17.279 So Samaria that we see in the New Testament quite often, they really built it up and made 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.440 it great in their time, a big, great city. 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:25.919 And at the very center of that city, they put a temple to the bale. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:28.799 Now a bale shows up here. 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:30.600 The prophets of bale, 950 of them. 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:32.120 It's a bale. 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:40.399 A bale is just a word for a generic, small g god, which is just to say that you have 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:47.080 a bale anytime you take something in this world and you divinize it. 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:52.399 You say that behind this item that I want, there is a god, a spirit, who will give it 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:53.920 to me. 00:10:53.920 --> 00:10:59.639 And so there's rain bales, there's fertility bales, there's wealth bales, there's cattle 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:01.759 bales, there's sheep bales. 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:04.039 Pick your thing, there's a bale for it. 00:11:04.039 --> 00:11:07.480 There's a spirit in the eyes of the ancient Aries that stands behind it. 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:13.519 And you've got to worship that spirit in order to get that thing that you're chasing after. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:20.039 And here Jezebel came from a section of this area in the ancient Aries where she particularly 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:22.960 worshiped the bale of Tyre and Sidon. 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:23.960 We saw that last week. 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:28.399 And the bale of Tyre and Sidon, this is very important, is that it was the bale of fertility, 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:31.840 of nature, of rain in particular. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:37.759 So because at the very center of the temple in Samaria, the temple to the bales, the principal 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:41.360 deity that they were worshiping was the god of rain. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:42.360 And so what does god do? 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:45.840 God says, I'm going to take away the rain and he gives drought. 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:50.319 And so the prophet of god Elijah says, no rain for three years. 00:11:50.319 --> 00:11:54.799 He's trying to show that the idols of the people are empty, that this bale that you've 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:57.559 been worshiping is not anything at all actually. 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:00.239 You're just praying to an idol. 00:12:00.239 --> 00:12:06.559 Now that means that the context that Elijah is in is what we call pluralistic. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:09.639 So it was polytheistic. 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:12.679 There's lots of different gods, lots of different spirits. 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:17.159 And you can believe in Samaria and Israel and any god you want to believe in. 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:20.599 And you can come to the temple and you can worship any god that you want to worship. 00:12:20.599 --> 00:12:27.119 And so in the bale temple in Samaria there was worship of the god of the Bible. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.240 And then they would walk across the room and they would worship the god of the rain and 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:32.879 the god of the crops and the god of fertility and all these different things. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:34.279 So they were doing all of it at the same time. 00:12:34.279 --> 00:12:37.440 It was a polytheistic, pluralistic context. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:42.639 And the one very important thing is never become exclusive. 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:46.639 So never say that there really is only one god. 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:50.960 So you can make a principal deity out of anything you want to do, any god you want to worship. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:54.440 But the one thing you can never do is say that there's only one god and everything else 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:57.280 is just an idol. 00:12:57.280 --> 00:12:58.280 Does it sound familiar? 00:12:58.280 --> 00:12:59.640 It's a pluralistic context. 00:12:59.640 --> 00:13:00.640 It's very modern. 00:13:00.640 --> 00:13:03.720 It's very similar to the times we live in. 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:06.400 And in other words, you can be a spiritualist. 00:13:06.400 --> 00:13:08.520 Believe whatever you want. 00:13:08.520 --> 00:13:13.320 Recognize that there are lots of spirits and all the spirits have just a piece of the truth. 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:15.600 No religion has the whole of the truth. 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:17.160 So worship whatever you want. 00:13:17.160 --> 00:13:19.200 Just don't say that there's one god, there's one way. 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:20.720 So this was the context. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:25.160 And so God gives this three year drought to show the emptiness of this idol. 00:13:25.160 --> 00:13:27.000 Now here it is. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:33.600 We've got this moment in verse 17 where Elijah comes up Mount Carmel to meet Ahab the king 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.560 after three years of drought. 00:13:35.560 --> 00:13:41.800 And you see in verse 17, he says, Ahab sees Elijah and it's very Tolkien-esque. 00:13:41.800 --> 00:13:46.920 He says in the Hebrew literally, you trouble bringer. 00:13:46.920 --> 00:13:48.519 You are the trouble bringer to Israel. 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.240 You know, you've brought this mess. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:55.279 And you started saying Israel had to worship just the God of Moses, just the God of the 00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:56.680 Bible. 00:13:56.680 --> 00:13:57.919 That's when all the trouble began. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:13:59.799 And you see what Ahab's saying. 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:03.080 He's saying the problem is exclusivity. 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:06.039 If you say there's only one real God, that's what's brought the chaos. 00:14:06.039 --> 00:14:08.120 That's what's brought all the trouble. 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:11.720 And Elijah says, no, let's see. 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:12.960 Let's have a confrontation. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:15.759 Let's have a battle. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.279 Let's choose between the two. 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:19.600 Let's see whose God is actually real. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:28.040 And so in verse 19 and following, Elijah's calling the people and calling the modern person 00:14:28.040 --> 00:14:32.879 to actually put the God side by side and say discern the truth. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:34.639 Who's making a real claim? 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:37.639 What God is actually, actually fits reality. 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:39.120 Which God are you going to actually follow? 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:40.120 And so he does that. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:46.480 And so in verse 21, he says, stop limping between two different opinions. 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:48.360 This word limping, the way they translated it. 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:51.480 This is a word for cultic dancing. 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:55.639 So he's actually referring here to the fact that you are going to the temple in Samaria 00:14:55.639 --> 00:15:02.000 and you're dancing between two different gods, the Baals and the Lure, the God of the Bible. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:03.320 You're dancing between the two of them. 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:05.480 So he says, you've got to stop. 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:09.039 The text literally says you're limping between two crutches. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:10.360 You're trying to stand on both sides. 00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:13.120 And he's saying, no, you've got to discern the Spirit. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:17.480 So you've got to let the gods confront each other right here on the mountain and discern 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:20.120 which of the experiences is real. 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.440 And then it says that the people don't answer. 00:15:22.440 --> 00:15:23.879 They don't give an answer at all. 00:15:23.879 --> 00:15:26.000 They were just quiet. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:27.000 Why? 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:28.519 And the people don't say anything. 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:32.920 You know, Elijah says, let me call upon you to worship the real God, the Lord. 00:15:32.920 --> 00:15:37.240 Stop limping between two different options, the Baals and the Lord. 00:15:37.240 --> 00:15:39.440 And they don't say anything. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:40.440 Why is it? 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.480 Well, on the one hand, it's because they were afraid of the government, you know. 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:47.080 They looked out and there was the king and the king said, the one thing you cannot do 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:48.520 is be exclusive. 00:15:48.520 --> 00:15:52.440 You have to say that you can worship any spirit you want to worship. 00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:53.440 And so they were afraid. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:58.400 What's the king going to do to me if I say that the God of the Bible is the real God, 00:15:58.400 --> 00:15:59.400 the only God? 00:15:59.400 --> 00:16:00.400 They were afraid. 00:16:00.400 --> 00:16:03.000 But they also were there to promote religious neutrality. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:07.560 They say, you know, the one thing we must never do is make a hard and fast claim that 00:16:07.560 --> 00:16:12.480 there really is only one God and that all the other religions are actually wrong. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:13.640 And so they were afraid to do that. 00:16:13.640 --> 00:16:15.200 They didn't want to do that. 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:19.560 Now, this is the Western mindset. 00:16:19.560 --> 00:16:24.720 We live in a very similar time where people ask, why do I need to discern between the 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:26.280 religions? 00:16:26.280 --> 00:16:29.000 Why do I need to decide between the gods? 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:32.920 In the city of Edinburgh, most people are not atheists. 00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:36.960 Most people are not even agnostic in the classical definition of that word. 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:39.960 Most people are believing the supernatural. 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:43.420 Most people in our city are spiritualists of some kind. 00:16:43.419 --> 00:16:47.159 They don't think that there's no God, but they also aren't willing to say there is one 00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:48.399 God. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:54.240 And instead, the most common opinion, I think, in our city is to say, we can never really 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:55.240 say. 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:56.240 We can never really be sure. 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:59.240 We can never really know that one religion has a claim to the truth. 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.120 And so the best thing we can do is to say there's something more. 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:03.959 We can't really know what it is. 00:17:03.959 --> 00:17:06.240 That's the heartbeat of our city. 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:13.359 Now, Stephen Prothro, a professor at Boston University, he wrote a book, 15th Century, 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:17.079 18 years, 20 years ago now, called God is Not One. 00:17:17.079 --> 00:17:20.079 We read this book when I was in seminary in the States. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:26.399 And in this book, he tries to play the role of outside observer, and he examines Islam, 00:17:26.399 --> 00:17:32.679 Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Yoruba religion, Taoism, and Atheism. 00:17:32.679 --> 00:17:37.639 So he says these at the time were the eight great rival religions that ruled the world, 00:17:37.639 --> 00:17:42.039 that had the most statistical population that subscribed to them. 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:43.559 And this is what he says. 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:48.759 Now listen, this is very simple, but I hope it's not simplistic, because I think it stands. 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:50.920 And this is what he says. 00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:56.680 He says every single one of these eight religions devise a unique problem. 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.480 So when the religions look out, they all say, when you ask what's wrong with the world, 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:03.480 they all answer it differently. 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:06.960 So they recognize a different problem with what's wrong with us and what's wrong with 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:07.960 the world. 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:14.079 Then they all offer a different salvation, a unique salvation, a different solution. 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:16.319 Now look, you see what he's saying? 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:20.120 It sounds simplistic to say this, but he's saying when you really look at the religions, 00:18:20.120 --> 00:18:24.279 when you really discern between the gods, one of the things you find out is that they 00:18:24.279 --> 00:18:28.559 all make claims that contradict each other. 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:32.240 They all say that what's wrong with us, they're saying something different. 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:33.240 How do you fix it? 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:34.480 They're all saying something different. 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:38.720 And actually he comes around and he says, essentially this is the paraphrase, to say 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:45.240 that all religions are basically alike is ultimately to disrespect and fail to listen 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:50.640 to the claims those religions have been making for thousands and thousands of years. 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:54.480 So if you're not willing, if you want to say as a modern person, all the religions are 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:55.920 basically the same. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:59.200 And everybody just has a piece of the truth, and we can never really know which one is 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:00.200 right. 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:02.480 He says you have not listened to the religions. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.799 You haven't listened to what they're saying. 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:08.759 You failed to take in the thousands of years of theology that they've developed because 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:14.000 they all know they're making different claims, claims that don't work with one another. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.200 And Elijah says to the people of Israel, you can't just be neutral. 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:23.039 In fact, when it comes to the God of the Bible, you've got to either say yes or no. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:26.000 Don't go limping, he says, between two different opinions. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.039 You've got to look at the God of the Bible and say yes or no. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:30.559 Is this the truth or is it not? 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:32.200 Am I going to follow the truth? 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:33.720 Or do I think something else is the truth? 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:35.640 He's saying you've got to actually discern. 00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:37.319 You've got to choose. 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:39.759 You can't dance between the faiths. 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:41.920 You can't be a mere spiritualist. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:42.920 All right. 00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:45.640 Secondly, then, the confrontation. 00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:47.160 We need a confrontation tonight. 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:48.160 All right. 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:52.680 So what we have here is a court, very literally a courtroom confrontation. 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:59.200 There's language here that uses the concept of a disputation. 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:04.759 To this setup between the gods and the God of the Bible is like a courtroom going down. 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:07.240 One will be vindicated on top of this mountain. 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.160 One's going to be condemned on the top of this mountain. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:14.360 And so in the contest, they prepare a sacrifice. 00:20:14.360 --> 00:20:20.720 He says, Elijah says, you call on your God to consume this bull by fire. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:23.880 And then in verse 25, he says, you know, you've got a lot of people. 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:25.600 So you go first. 00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:27.759 You call on your God and you go first. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:31.720 Now, the reason he says that, you are many, so you go first. 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:36.799 As he's saying, look, if your God actually does it, then we'll know. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:40.119 If the bail comes down, then we'll know. 00:20:40.119 --> 00:20:42.079 We don't have to continue. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:43.640 And you are many. 00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:44.839 Why is he pointing that out? 00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:49.519 There are 950 prophets total, 450 on top of the mountain. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:54.440 And he's saying this because in ancient Near Eastern religion, the way it works is that 00:20:54.440 --> 00:21:02.799 you have to give your God the right thing at the right time with the right words in 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:05.640 order to get from your God what you desire. 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:09.279 So when you come to the temple at the right moment, you give the right amount of grain. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:11.320 You say the right incantation. 00:21:11.320 --> 00:21:13.400 You move in the correct ways. 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:18.160 You are trying to appease your God, coax your God into giving you what you're asking for. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:20.480 That's how ancient Near Eastern religion works. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:26.519 And so he's saying, look, you've got 450 people and the gods love to be asked. 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:28.559 They want to be appeased. 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:33.680 If 450 of you can't all do the right thing at the right time, give the right thing to 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:37.799 your God, then we'll know. 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:39.799 It's not the real God. 00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:46.079 In other words, Baalism works exactly the opposite as the God of the Bible. 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:52.480 In Baalism, give this, give that, dance for this, perform in this way. 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:55.399 And maybe the gods will answer you. 00:21:55.399 --> 00:21:57.839 And in just a minute, we're going to find out that the God of the Bible, the only way 00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:02.799 that you can ever hear from the God of the Bible is when he decides. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:03.799 He can't be appeased. 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:04.839 He can't be danced for. 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:06.519 He can't be coaxed. 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:07.759 That's one of the fundamental differences. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:15.019 And so here, for several hours, verse 26 and following, the people cry out. 00:22:15.019 --> 00:22:18.480 This is a reference to cultic ritual prayers. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:23.000 So they're crying out and it says, but no voice. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:27.920 And then it says, then they started to limp around the bull, which means dance. 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:33.200 So they were ritually dancing around the bull, trying to get the gods to answer and bring 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:34.200 the fire. 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:37.519 And it says, but no answer. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:44.079 And then when your God doesn't hear the 450 voices, when the gods, the Baals, don't respond 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:46.359 to the dancing, what do people have to do? 00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:48.720 They have to level up their performance. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:49.720 They have to give everything. 00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:54.960 You know, when you chase after a Baal, but it doesn't answer you, you start to give everything 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.519 you have to it. 00:22:56.519 --> 00:22:57.519 And so what did they do? 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:03.480 It says that they cut themselves and they pour their blood out in this performance. 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:08.599 And then in verse 29, you get the threefold response. 00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:11.399 No answer. 00:23:11.399 --> 00:23:12.639 No one paid attention. 00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:16.040 There was no voice, utter silence. 00:23:16.040 --> 00:23:18.280 Now listen, here's Baalism. 00:23:18.280 --> 00:23:21.120 This is what the Bible calls idolatry. 00:23:21.120 --> 00:23:24.200 We mentioned it briefly this morning. 00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:25.480 It's from Romans one. 00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:31.000 It's when anytime you take a creaturely thing in this, in this life, in this realm, and 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.540 you replace the creator for the creature. 00:23:34.540 --> 00:23:39.480 So in the ancient Erees, they took rain and they said, this is the thing that we want 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:40.480 most. 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:43.360 We want worship to spirit that stood behind the rain. 00:23:43.360 --> 00:23:44.599 That's Baalism. 00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:46.559 And in the ancient Erees, there were rain bales. 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:48.759 Remember crop bales, fertility bales. 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:54.799 But there were also gods in this time, there were also gods of beauty and money and power 00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:59.759 and tradition and sport and reputation and intelligence and approval and comfort and 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:06.079 control and independence and even gods of suffering. 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:15.799 The idols of self-pity and it's very important to say in our city today, modern human beings, 00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:20.879 there are people who are worshiping the bales in a similar way to the ancient Erees. 00:24:20.879 --> 00:24:23.439 So we don't need to be confused about that. 00:24:23.439 --> 00:24:28.720 That if you go to the Beltane Festival, for example, you will find that there are people 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:33.199 who worship the gods in similar ways to the ways that people were worshiping gods in the 00:24:33.199 --> 00:24:34.639 old world. 00:24:34.639 --> 00:24:36.039 And so this is not primitive at all. 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:39.200 This is actually very common and very modern. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:42.799 But we need to know that while there is a group of the population doing that, a group 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:46.680 of people doing that, every single human being struggles with Baalism. 00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:47.960 Every single one of us. 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:49.960 We all do. 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:54.519 And while we might not be chasing after the gods of the rain and the gods of fertility 00:24:54.519 --> 00:25:00.759 and crops and all these sorts of bales, it's much more common for us to chase the bales 00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:07.879 of eternal youth and the bales of wealth and comfort and approval and being the smart person 00:25:07.879 --> 00:25:12.480 in the room or whatever it may be. 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:18.119 Baalism is making, taking anything good that God has made and flipping it around and making 00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:24.400 it into the Creator, making it into your God, taking anything good that God's made and misusing 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:28.839 it, misappropriating it, chasing after it and treating it like it's the God of the Bible. 00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:29.839 That's Baalism. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:31.839 It's happened for all of human history. 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:38.639 It's the problem in the Garden of Eden and it carries on even today. 00:25:38.639 --> 00:25:46.519 You can be a Christian tonight and you can be chasing the truth, following Jesus, justified 00:25:46.519 --> 00:25:52.720 by faith and still be struggling with an idol. 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:54.559 In fact, that's the case for all of us. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:59.039 You can be a Christian tonight, following Jesus Christ and still be chasing after something 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:03.079 and it's like some creature and loving it quite often more than you love the God of 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:06.159 the Bible, the God who saved you. 00:26:06.159 --> 00:26:11.639 What creaturely good tonight is more important to me than God? 00:26:11.639 --> 00:26:12.639 That's the question. 00:26:12.639 --> 00:26:13.639 What creaturely thing in my life? 00:26:13.639 --> 00:26:17.440 What thing in my life am I chasing after and loving more than I love the God who has saved 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.079 me? 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:26.920 I've used this quote, this moment from David Foster Wallace's speech at Kenyon College 00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:29.400 a couple times in the past couple years. 00:26:29.400 --> 00:26:33.880 You've heard this before probably, but you're going to hear it again beyond tonight as well 00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:36.519 because it's too good not to use. 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:41.840 This is what David Foster Wallace, a philosopher, this is what he says. 00:26:41.840 --> 00:26:45.480 He was not a Christian, but I think he really nailed the sense of this. 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:51.160 He said, in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. 00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:53.759 There's no such thing as not worshiping. 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:58.200 You might add there's no such thing as religious neutrality, believing in nothing. 00:26:58.200 --> 00:26:59.920 He says that everybody worships. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:03.599 The only choice that we get tonight is what we're going to worship. 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:08.000 He says pretty much anything you worship in your life is going to eat you alive. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.960 It's going to eat you alive. 00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:16.200 If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you 00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:17.359 will never have enough. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:19.920 You will never feel like you have enough. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:20.920 It's the truth. 00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:26.000 You will have your body and beauty in a lure, and you will always feel ugly. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:31.360 When time and age start to show, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve 00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:32.360 you. 00:27:32.360 --> 00:27:33.360 You worship power. 00:27:33.360 --> 00:27:35.200 You will end up feeling weak and afraid. 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:40.519 You will need even more power over others to numb your own fears. 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:43.400 You worship your intellect being seen as smart. 00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:47.320 You will end up feeling dumb, fraught, always on the verge of being found out for who you 00:27:47.320 --> 00:27:49.400 really are. 00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:53.560 The insidious thing about these forms is that they're unconscious. 00:27:53.560 --> 00:27:57.519 They are the default setting of the human being. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:02.320 They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip back into. 00:28:02.320 --> 00:28:03.960 It's balism. 00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:05.960 We've been doing it for a long time. 00:28:05.960 --> 00:28:11.360 Now, lastly, that means as we close, we've got to choose the real God. 00:28:11.360 --> 00:28:14.880 We've got to let the gods confront one another, and we've got to choose the God who is real 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:17.240 tonight. 00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:22.960 And so here's the confrontation how it ends from verse 36. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:31.519 Verse 30 to 35, Elijah made it very hard to win because he said, dig a ditch, pour water 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:37.279 over the offering three times, fill the entire trench up with water all around it, and I'm 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:43.120 going to call on my God not only to burn the bull, but to take up the water as well. 00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:47.639 So he doubled down, he tripled down, and he made it much more difficult. 00:28:47.639 --> 00:28:52.479 And one of the things you see here, the big difference between balism and the true God, 00:28:52.479 --> 00:28:58.719 the God of the Bible is they performed, they danced, they did magical incantation, they 00:28:58.719 --> 00:29:06.079 cut themselves, they gave everything just to try to get their God to listen. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:09.759 And Elijah simply lifts up his voice in praise. 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:10.759 Very simple prayer. 00:29:10.759 --> 00:29:15.119 Would you just make yourself known tonight today? 00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:16.839 Show yourself to be the real God. 00:29:16.839 --> 00:29:21.839 And Elijah asked God to make God self-known and reclaim the people's hearts. 00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:26.079 And that's because the only way to know the real God, the only way to know the God that 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:29.400 is real is if he chooses to reveal himself. 00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:33.640 You can't dance, you can't perform, you can't manipulate, you can't get the real God, the 00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:36.799 God of the Bible to just do things. 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:37.799 God is absolute. 00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:38.920 He chooses to condescend. 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:40.519 He wants to come down. 00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:43.960 And so prayer, he just prays and says, God, we show up. 00:29:43.960 --> 00:29:45.039 And God says, yes. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:50.759 And so in verse 38, the fire falls down and the people say, this is the Lord, this is 00:29:50.759 --> 00:29:51.759 the real God. 00:29:51.759 --> 00:29:53.320 Now, here's the basic point. 00:29:53.320 --> 00:29:54.680 It's very simple. 00:29:54.680 --> 00:29:58.440 The point of the passage, I think, is just very simply this. 00:29:58.440 --> 00:30:04.080 Our bails, the creaturely things we chase after and divinize in this life are not real 00:30:04.080 --> 00:30:06.400 gods. 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:07.480 That's the simple point of the passage. 00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:12.000 The things that we treat as gods in this life in the ancient world and in the modern world 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:13.839 are just not actually gods. 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:14.839 They're not real gods. 00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:16.640 They're just creatures that we long for. 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:19.079 We want them so bad, but they're just creaturely things. 00:30:19.079 --> 00:30:20.079 They're not the real God. 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:21.480 They're not gods at all. 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:22.480 That's the very simple point. 00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:29.279 And so there's just an invitation tonight to take a hard look at the truth, the God 00:30:29.279 --> 00:30:38.240 of truth, and see that Christianity offers a theology and a worldview and an existential 00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:44.839 hope that actually fits reality, actually fits reality and is so different from all 00:30:44.839 --> 00:30:47.680 the other religions and so much better. 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:51.000 So let me close with one more invitation. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:52.399 That's the big idea of the passage. 00:30:52.399 --> 00:30:55.480 Here's the second invitation as we conclude. 00:30:55.480 --> 00:30:59.240 Did you notice at the very end of the passage, the story does not end? 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:05.880 It's focused on Elijah, but from verse 41, for just a moment, it actually focuses on 00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:08.000 Ahab. 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:15.240 So at the very end of all this, I think the author is asking us here maybe just for a 00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:20.240 moment to think, who am I in this passage? 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:24.079 Who are we in this passage? 00:31:24.079 --> 00:31:28.279 And Ahab is the most wicked of all the kings in Israel's history. 00:31:28.279 --> 00:31:30.240 It says he was the worst. 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:32.119 He created this mess. 00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:37.399 He brought idolatry and worship of all these false gods into Israel. 00:31:37.399 --> 00:31:45.720 And at the very end of this passage, the ultimate idolater who drove Israel into death and drought, 00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:52.519 Elijah says to him, now Ahab, go up on the top of the mountain, eat and drink, for the 00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:54.000 rains are coming. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:03.559 You see, in that moment, the greatest idolater of them all, the Lord tells Elijah, now you 00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:08.920 invite that man to come to the top of the mountain and to take and to eat and to drink 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:13.240 because the drought's going to end, the rains are coming. 00:32:13.240 --> 00:32:15.279 He invites Ahab to come up the mountain. 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:21.240 I think it's probably the last thing you would expect to happen at the end of the passage. 00:32:21.240 --> 00:32:27.000 The prophet offers Ahab a feast. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:32.079 The drought's over, the debt is paid, the bull has been burned. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:36.120 The sacrifice has been offered, and now what's on the table for you is to come up and eat 00:32:36.120 --> 00:32:37.960 and drink. 00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:42.480 Now this passage isn't really about Elijah. 00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:44.519 It is, but it's about something more than that. 00:32:44.519 --> 00:32:49.880 And remember that Elijah's a prophet, and a prophet is there to point away from himself 00:32:49.880 --> 00:32:51.320 towards something else. 00:32:51.320 --> 00:32:55.600 A prophet gives a message that says, don't look at me, look at that. 00:32:55.600 --> 00:32:59.440 And what is it that Elijah's trying to get us to all look at in this passage? 00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:02.520 He's trying to get us to look at the sacrifice. 00:33:02.520 --> 00:33:06.400 Three times, the water, the bull, the altar, the fire comes down. 00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:08.720 Don't look at Elijah, he says, look at that. 00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:09.840 Look at the sacrifice. 00:33:09.840 --> 00:33:13.040 Look at what God has done here. 00:33:13.040 --> 00:33:15.080 Prophets point to something else. 00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:21.039 And when you come to the New Testament, in Matthew 11, Jesus speaks to the crowds, and 00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:29.720 he says, crowd, John the Baptist, truly, truly I say to you, of all those born of women, 00:33:29.720 --> 00:33:34.599 there has arisen no one greater in human history, no greater prophet than John the Baptist, 00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:38.079 and he is Elijah. 00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:40.879 You see, the prophet Elijah came to point to something else, the sacrifice, and then 00:33:40.879 --> 00:33:44.799 Jesus comes in the New Testament and says, do you know that John the Baptist, you look 00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:47.680 at him and you're looking at Elijah? 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:50.359 And what did John the Baptist come to do? 00:33:50.359 --> 00:33:53.240 John the Baptist did not come to point to himself. 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:55.279 Remember, the people came and said, are you the Christ? 00:33:55.279 --> 00:33:57.319 And John said, not me. 00:33:57.319 --> 00:33:59.879 I'm here to point to something else. 00:33:59.879 --> 00:34:04.919 Elijah lived in the wilderness for three years, and he ate the food of ravens. 00:34:04.919 --> 00:34:08.759 John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, and he ate the locusts. 00:34:08.759 --> 00:34:12.360 He is the new Elijah, and he was there to point to somebody else. 00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:19.640 And Luke 1.17 says, this new Elijah will go in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn 00:34:19.640 --> 00:34:22.960 back the hearts of the fathers. 00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:26.720 Elijah pointed to the sacrifice, the bull, but the bull was only a dim shadow, just 00:34:26.720 --> 00:34:30.280 like Elijah is a shadow. 00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:34.160 John the Baptist came to point to the true sacrifice. 00:34:34.160 --> 00:34:37.200 He pointed straight at Jesus Christ. 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:42.359 And the entire point ultimately of 1 Kings 18 is that Jesus Christ came to be burned. 00:34:42.359 --> 00:34:44.599 He came to enter into the midst of the fire. 00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:51.279 He came to go to hell for idolaters, for people who struggle with Baalism. 00:34:51.279 --> 00:34:56.319 And at the very end of the passage, Elijah can say to Ahab, you idolater, because the 00:34:56.319 --> 00:35:03.119 debt has been paid, come up, take and eat, the rain is coming. 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:09.599 And tonight we can say, God so loved the world that he does not ask me to dance for him. 00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:13.480 He does not ask me to perform for him. 00:35:13.480 --> 00:35:14.480 Not at all. 00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:17.599 Instead, he looks down at me and idolater, a person who struggles with loving creatures 00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:19.599 more than him. 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:23.759 And he says to me, because the Son of God was burned in the fires of hell for me, for 00:35:23.759 --> 00:35:29.679 you, come tonight, take and eat. 00:35:29.679 --> 00:35:30.679 This is my body. 00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:31.679 This is my blood. 00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:36.199 It is broken and poured for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins, for the forgiveness of 00:35:36.199 --> 00:35:38.299 all of our idols. 00:35:38.299 --> 00:35:39.299 So let's do that now. 00:35:39.299 --> 00:35:40.299 Let's pray. 00:35:40.299 --> 00:35:46.199 Lord, we thank You for the gospel according to Elijah and we pray now that You would 00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:51.480 speak life to us as we come and we take and eat by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 00:35:51.480 --> 00:35:53.099 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:35:53.099 --> 00:36:03.679 Amen.