Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we have the joy to now turn in our Bibles to read God's Word, to be nourished by His Spirit as the Word is preached. It's a very distinct and blessed privilege that we have as the people of God. So if you would, take out your Bibles. We will be looking at 1 Kings chapter 18 tonight. 1 Kings chapter 18, beginning at verse 16. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, our Scripture passage this morning is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting and one of the most dramatic accounts on the pages of the Bible. We'll read in just a moment that the Almighty God of Israel, our God, is coming face to face with the idol Baal in a somewhat tense encounter on Mount Carmel to determine once and for all who is the one only true God. But before we read our passage, before we look more closely at it, it's always important that we ask certain questions about our passage, and really about any passage of Scripture. Questions like, well, how did we get here? What led up to this important event that we are reading about? You know, we approach any passage of the Word of God as we would if we came upon a group of friends who are already halfway through a conversation. Think to yourself of some questions you might ask your friends as you join in their chat. You might ask something like, well, what are you talking about? How in the world did you get on this topic? Fill me in here, you might ask. Well, we want to ask questions like that of our own passage this morning. We see Elijah and King Ahab and the prophets of Baal and the Israelites all gathered together on Mount Carmel. How did they get there? Why are they there? When we glance back just a few chapters in the book of 1 Kings, we notice that Israel has a problem. And it's an idolatry problem. And you may remember that the source of this problem is that King Ahab took for his wife Queen Jezebel. Queen Jezebel was not only a foreigner, she was a wicked queen. and she encouraged her husband to join in with her idolatry of the idol Baal. Not only did King Ahab and his wicked bride worship Baal, but we're told in chapter 16, verse 32 of 1 Kings that the king actually set up an altar to Baal in Samaria so that all Israel might worship this idol. That was a tragic decision. A tragic decision, because you see, it was the king's duty to preserve the true worship of God in Israel. He should have urged the church to worship God and God alone. Instead, Ahab teaches Israel this, you can worship God and the idol of your choice. You can supplement your worship of the one true God with idolatry. And we are told that the Lord was so angry that He sent a devastating drought on the land because of Israel's disobedience. Now, after this drought persists for three and a half years, the Lord comes to His servant Elijah, His prophet Elijah, with a very encouraging message. He says, the rain is going to return. And this is the message that Elijah is to tell King Ahab. You'd think the king would be positive about this news, wouldn't you? After all, the rain is going to return, the crops can grow, the cattle can be fed, prosperity is going to cover the land again. But when Ahab saw Elijah, the first words to come out of his mouth are what we read in our passage tonight, beginning at verse 16. So Obadiah, the servant of Ahab, went to meet Ahab and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, Is that you, you troubler of Israel? I have not made trouble for Israel, Elijah replied, but you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now, I want to stop just quickly in our reading because we need to be reminded of something. Elijah has a very important role here. In fact, an important role in the whole history of redemption. Because Elijah as God's prophet, as God's mouthpiece, really represents the very Word of God. His name actually means, My God is Yahweh, or the covenant name of God. And so when Ahab speaks to Elijah in this way, You menace! You troubler! What he's really revealing is that the state of his heart is just as hard as it was before. He's hardened to the Word of God. In hating Elijah, the prophet of God, he reveals that he hates the Word of God down to the deepest part of his being. Ahab and all of Israel with him regard the Word of God as a troublesome menace getting in the way of their idolatrous fun. Well, regardless of Ahab's hard-heartedness, the Word of God has gotten the better of him this time. But, what we will see as we continue to read is that that is not enough. God demands complete commitment from us as His covenant people. And so, the big showdown is now at hand. It's time for Yahweh and it's time for Baal to come head to head, as it were, face to face, before the entire nation. And so, we pick up at verse 19. Elijah continues, Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow Him. But the people said nothing. Then Elijah said to them, I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves. and let them cut it into pieces, and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bowl, and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. When you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire, He is God. Then all the people said, what you say is good. Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your God, but do not light the fire. So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. Oh, Baal, answer us, they shouted. But there was no response. No one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them. Shout louder, he said. Surely he's a god. Perhaps he's deep in thought or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened. So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response. No one answered. No one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, Come here to me. They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Your name shall be Israel. With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two sayes of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bowl into pieces, and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. Do it again, he said, and they did it again. Do it a third time, he ordered, and they did it a third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me. So these people will know that You, O Lord, are God and that You are turning their hearts back to You. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifices, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, The Lord, He is God, the Lord. He is God. Then Elijah commanded them, Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away. They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. This ends our reading for tonight from the Word of God. We read that Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Now, for a moment, let's try together to capture the anticipation of the Israelites. There's been no rain on the land for a long three and a half years. Food was terribly scarce. The people were literally hungering and thirsting for relief. And now, after this word from the king, there seems to be some hope in the air. Amen. And you can imagine in your mind's eye thousands of Israelites jostling each other, pushing each other forward, urging each other on to the top of this mountain to see what is going to happen. Was an end to their suffering finally in sight? Would the prophets of Baal work a miracle and bring rain once again to the land? And then a hush falls over the crowd as public enemy number one comes into view. Elijah, what is that menace? What is that troubler of Israel doing here? Isn't he the one who caused this disastrous drought in the first place? You can imagine their thoughts, their questions. And you can picture the angry stares that Elijah must have faced as he approached this crowd of Israelites. But Elijah stands firm. He stands undaunted before the crowd and he lays out the Word of God for them once and for all. He doesn't beat around the bush. He doesn't waste time. He's not vague and he does not hesitate. God sets before the church a rather disturbing proposal. A disturbing proposal. And the Lord says to them, How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow Him. The Hebrew literally says, When will you stop limping around on two crutches? Because that's exactly what Israel was doing. They were tottering back and forth. They were limping between God and Baal. They weren't walking rightly. You know, we might imagine a small schoolboy who's in crutches. And he walks out into the playground and immediately he's approached by two bullies who steal one of his crutches. And they proceed to cruelly toss this crutch back and forth over the little boy's head. And because of his injury and because he's uncertain of what to do, he just grasps half-heartedly, hopelessly, back and forth at this crutch as it sails back and forth over his head. The Lord uses this kind of imagery to reveal how much lack of commitment Israel suffered from. Sometimes Israel would totter over to the side of God because they hadn't completely rejected Him or forgotten Him. But then like an intoxicated person, they would stumble over to the side of the idol gods and serve them. You see, they weren't fully devoted to either God or Baal. They wanted the benefits of both, But they weren't willing to be fully committed to either one. They were very fickle and very inconsistent. But God comes to them and says that He demands a definite decision. He wants willing people with willing hearts and willing lives that are fully devoted to Him. Only an undivided heart and an undivided life will please him. And so he makes this disturbing proposal. If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. The people cannot have both. They must choose one from the other. And how do the people respond? Our passage says they did not answer him a single word. Now we are somewhat tempted to chuckle at Israel's dilemma. We laugh to ourselves possibly and say, if the Lord is God, follow Him. Well, it's quite obvious that He is, isn't it? What's the problem, Israel? Why the hesitation? And we think to ourselves, of course, we would never be tempted to worship a carved image like Israel did. But it might help us to consider why Baal worship was so popular, so sought after in those days. The worship of Baal was actually a very ancient practice and many of the nations surrounding Israel were already involved in Baal worship. You might say that Baal had quite a bit going for him. He was considered to be the god of the storm and the god of fertility. And so if you wished for a fruitful crop and a fruitful marriage, you went to Baal. The gifts of Baal that he supposedly provided would have meant a lot to an Israelite farmer, for example, in those days. But Baalism also appealed to the people's sensuality. If your marriage wasn't satisfying, if your wife was looking somewhat less attractive, there was an ample supply of so-called holy prostitutes at the Baal shrine that could fix that problem too. But regardless of what the people mistakenly believed that Baal could do for them, God's proposition stands. Who is God? Whom will you serve? If Yahweh is God, then follow Him. You see, the Lord is teaching us something very important here tonight. And that is this, that our belief in who God is leads to complete commitment to Him. Or as another commentator puts it, theology leads to discipleship. So we need to understand tonight that there are consequences to the commitments that we make. Israel stood silent. They stood dumbfounded because they were shocked at how great a proposition, how disturbing a proposition this was, how demanding it was. They feared the disturbing results if they made a wrong choice between Yahweh and Baal. But God's proposition, His disturbing proposition, is no less real for you and for me tonight. Because the Lord says to you and to me, if I'm God, follow me. Follow me alone. And like C.S. Lewis' great lion Aslan, God is good, but He is not tame or safe because He will and He must invade your life and expose the idols of your heart that compete for your love and commitment to Him. He will do this. He demands that He is your all in all. So we need to toss out completely this nonsensical idea that we can have Jesus Christ as our Savior, but not as our Lord, not as the Master of every aspect of our lives. That option simply does not exist for us tonight. What bails compete for your love to God tonight? What commitments get in the way of serving and loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Do false religions exist among us? I think they do. I think they're rather prevalent. Perhaps some of you sitting here tonight have had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. But by now you've tasted some of the pleasures, some of the attractions of this world. Maybe it's the wealth of our society. It's comforts, it's ease, it's glittering electronics, it's gadgets and toys. And that invitation to indulge in the sinful and lustful desires of the flesh are attractive. And if you don't participate, you'll be made fun of. To be sure, you go through the motions, you read the Bible, you attend worship services regularly, you retain the look of a Christian, of a godly individual, but deep down inside your heart is divided. Your allegiances are divided so that you will not cling to God alone and abandon everything that would get in the way of loving Him completely and exclusively. Your heart is divided. Perhaps you're somebody who did not grow up in a covenant home. In fact, you were raised among, you grew up amidst all of the foolish and destructive ways of this world, but by some gracious means or another the Lord has brought you into His church. He's given you a desire to serve Him and to put to death the old life. But you're surrounded still by family members, by friends who do not know what it is to taste the salvation of God. And so you're afraid of changing your life too much, becoming too distinct, lest you be jeered or belittled by those closest to you. And so you still cling to certain aspects of your former life. You make certain small but sinful compromises. Maybe it's gambling. Possibly excessive drinking. Filthy entertainment. Dishonoring the Lord's Day. These things you take on to cover up your most deeply held convictions. And so like the Israelites, you limp between two different opinions. God's claim over every part of your life and the opinion of your worldly relatives. You're afraid to be all out for Christ, no matter what your enemies might say or do to you. I point this out because you see, brothers and sisters in the Lord, the idols of our day are rarely made of stone and wood and clay, but they are real and destructive idols nonetheless. Sexual lust, greed for money, greed for the desire of being recognized as having money, Influence, personal security, relationships, our children and our family activities, when we make them our obsession, we're tempted each and every day to trust in these things rather than God. Or maybe it isn't so simple. Maybe we do trust God, but incompletely. We search for personal security and health and wealth and comfort because we think that these things will fill up in God what is lacking. And so we say to the Lord, well, can't I serve you and money? And he comes back with the answer, no. Well, what about my wonderful job? That fancy new boat and those extravagant family vacations we love taking. We love these things. Can't we love these and God? He says, no! Not even just a little bit. No! No! If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, you fill in the blank. Money, influence, sex, material possessions. If that's God, follow it. If you bow before Baal, the Lord says, then you must live for Him too. But if you choose this day to worship the Lord, the covenant God of His church, then worship Him and nothing else besides Him. Because God demands complete commitment from us as His covenant people. But if we end it here tonight, we would be without hope. We would be in very deep trouble. Our passage does not end here. With this disturbing proposal, God goes on to provide gracious preservation and provision. We left the Israelites standing by, dumbfounded, quiet, not sure what to say to Elijah's direct challenge, And in their silence, God begins to show them, even in greater measure, the foolishness of their idolatry. The prophets of Baal have already prepared their sacrifices, their altars ready, and now they begin to dance wildly around their altar and they begin to cry out, O Baal, answer us! And what's the answer? Nothing. Complete silence. The altar remains cold and smokeless. the bowl on the altar has not yet been consumed. So Elijah begins to expose even further the stupidity, really, of this hoopla of these prophets. And he adds a little bit of sarcasm. Cry aloud, he urges them. After all, he is a god, right? And yet, still no fiery answer falls from the sky. So he continues. Maybe he's on a trip. Perhaps Baal's cell phone isn't working properly. Maybe he's just busy. He doesn't have time for you right now. Elijah's righteous jeers are meant to show the absolute foolishness and stupidity of the mere thought of seeking a God other than the one true God of heaven. But the Baal prophets persist. And they dance more fiercely. They cry more loudly. They begin to cut themselves with knives until their blood flowed. What a bloody, dirty, and nonsensical mess idolatry is. God said, if Baal is God, serve Him. And the prophets of Baal did just that. But we read, no one answered. No one paid attention. The vanity, the absurdity of idolatry was plain for the entire church to see. It's in plain sight. But finally, Elijah prepares the Lord's altar. And he does something very unique which you and I should notice. Something very curious. Now, in our opinion, it seems that Elijah is already at a great disadvantage. For one, he's vastly outnumbered. We also might say he didn't have a home field advantage. The field on which, or the mountaintop on which these sacrifices were being made was a common place for sacrificing to Baal. But if that wasn't bad enough, if that didn't put him at a disadvantage enough to top things off, He orders that the Lord's sacrifice be drenched with 12 jars of water. The onlookers were foolish idolaters, but they were not witless. They knew that drenching a sacrifice in water would not help it burn. And so you can imagine their questions to one another. You know what? This is going to be a miracle. If this goes up in smoke with all that water, it's going to take a supernatural event or something. Exactly. That was exactly the point. Every circumstance seemed to be in Baal's favor on Mount Carmel that day, and this was necessary. So that Israel might witness firsthand the supreme power and sovereignty of their covenant God, and also that the foolishness of their idolatry would be utterly exposed. Yahweh wants His church to see the utter madness of serving false gods, but He also wants you and I to see that He is a gracious God, providing reconciliation, providing preservation for those who repent, for those who turn to Him in faith. And so Elijah cries out to the Lord in prayer. He raises His voice to heaven and He says, Answer me, O Lord, answer me! So these people will know that You, O Lord, are God and that You are turning their hearts back to You. And we know God's powerful response, don't we? The fire of God fell with fury upon the sacrifice, consuming everything from the burnt offering to the wood, even to the dust below the altar. And you better believe the Israelites were not silent any longer. They fell on their faces and they cried out, The Lord! He's God! The Lord, He is God! And we need to see what a tremendous moment in redemptive history this is. Because here, the justice of God is displayed in great measure. He acts as a consuming fire to show that He will be worshipped as God and as God alone. As the holy God, He must deal with sin by the fire of His judgment. But, God's grace is here in a glorious way because, this is so important, His grace is here because the fire of the Lord does not descend upon His rebellious people to consume them. God provides an escape. He provides a substitute to stand in for His rebellious and idolatrous people. His wrath falls upon the sacrifice. His wrath consumes the sacrifice and the people of God go free. God's church is spared that day on Mount Carmel. Brothers and sisters, in the Lord, the redeeming sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ was foreshadowed in the events that took place on Mount Carmel that day. Anticipated was His own death on Mount Calvary as the Lamb of God, substituting Himself in the place of idolatrous and rebellious sinners like you, like me. there, much like Elijah, Jesus stood alone. And He faced angry jeers and angry stares. There upon the cruel cross, Christ suffered the agonies of hell to spare us from the wrath of God and to bring us into fellowship with God. The fire of the Lord consumed Him and fell upon Him. His prayers went unanswered so that we are not consumed. We are accepted. And our prayers will always be heard. Our prayers will always be answered by God. And so from the fire of judgment comes a blessed invitation to turn back to God and to serve Him only. And that invitation is ours tonight. That invitation is ours tonight. Christ demands of you and of me that we unsparingly judge whatever evil is in our lives and that we should not shelter any rival to the Lord our God. We must put to death the idolatry that clings to us and rather cling to God and cling to God alone. You know, the real God stood up that day on Mount Carmel. The real God stood up, but the same God has also come down in the person of Jesus Christ. And you'll find Him to be very much the same. He uses various servants. He makes disturbing proposals. But He laces His severity with grace. His demands with provision. And He exposes our shoddy level of holiness. But out of the consuming fire of God's holiness comes reconciliation, provision, forgiveness, and empowerment to set apart Christ as Lord. Amen. Let us pray tonight. Heavenly Father, You call us, all of us, to live and choose this day to worship nothing and no one besides You. You do demand from us complete commitment as Your covenant people, and yet we know that we so often fail to set You alone apart as Lord. But we praise You for Your grace that was so vividly present on Mount Carmel that day where You did not allow Your fire to descend upon Your rebellious people to consume them, to destroy them. No. Oh God, You provided an escape. You provided a sacrifice to stand in for Your rebellious people, to be a substitute for them. And tonight, we praise You with tremendous gratitude in our hearts for Jesus Christ. The perfect and final sacrifice. Because Your just wrath fell upon Him and consumed Him. And as a result, we are spared. Please, Heavenly Father, give us the reconciliation, the preservation, And the empowerment to set apart Christ as Lord and Him only. We pray this in the name of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.