Elijah, Troubler of Israel?

Dear brethren, there is a story about 3,000 years old. And you may think, well, it's not applicable for today. You know what? It's more applicable today than ever before. And you can summarize that story with this simple statement. Pick a side. Make a decision. Let's read that story. And for us to start reading that story, let's turn to 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18. And we're going to start reading from verse 27. 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 27. I beg your pardon. Verse 17. 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 17. And then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, so, yeah, Elijah wanted to see Ahab, so the two met. Ahab said to Elijah, is that you or trouble of Israel? And verse 18. Then he said, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and have followed the bowels. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me to Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Asherah, or as it says in a margin of this goddess, Canaanite goddess, who eat at Jezebel's table. And so, Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, got the whole nation together, all the leaders of the nation, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah said, verse 21. And Elijah came to all the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal, follow Him. But the people answered him not a word. And Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are 450.

Therefore, let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other bull, and I'll lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, He is God. So, all the people answered and said, it's well spoken. Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first.

For you are many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it. So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from the morning till noon, saying, Oh Baal, hear us! But there was no voice. No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for He is God!

Either He's meditating, or He's busy, or He's on a journey, or perhaps He's sleeping and must be awakened. So they cried aloud, cut themselves as their custom, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when the midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. Then Elijah said to the people, Come near to me.

So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Word of God of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name. Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two sieves of seed.

And then he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood, and said, Fill four water pots with water, and poured it on the burnt sacrifice in the wood. Then he did. Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time.

And they did it the third time. And so the water ran all around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water. Then he came to pass. At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, the Elijah the prophet came near and said, and as his prayer, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Let it be known this day that you are God of Israel, and I'm your servant. And I have done all these things at your word.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that these people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it lit up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord is God. The Lord is God. It's an amazing story. Now let's just read the context here.

In 1st chapter, 1st King chapter 16, we see in verse 29 that Aab became king. And then we see that he married Jezebel, and in verse 32, he set an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Aab made a wooden image, and Aab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel were before him.

And it was therefore why he had this mixed up worship. But he blatantly put Baal first, blatantly put that. And then we read in chapter 17. Elijah comes into the story, and he says, There shall be no Jew, nor rain, these years, except at my word. And so there was no rain. And then we get to chapter 18, in verse 1, And it came to pass, after many days, that the word of the Eternal of the Lord came to Elijah in the 30 years.

So this was three years of no rain. And he said, Go and present yourself to Aab, and I will send rain on the earth.

And that is the context. So now we start reading in verse 17, as we read, and in verse 18 we see, this is, You have followed the Bals at the end of verse 18.

And therefore is asked to gather all the prophets of Baal and of Asherah of this goddess. So a total of 850 prophets, 450 of Baal, and another 400 of Asherah of this wooden pole goddess. And then Elijah asks in verse 21, How long will you falter between two opinions? How long do you go before you make a decision? Peeke aside. Make a decision. Peeke aside. Are you going this way or that way? Peeke aside. And then they said nothing, because they knew better. You know, when you ask some people something and they know better, they just keep quiet. And so, he said, okay, there's two bulls. You choose the bull. Because maybe if Elijah chosen the bull, they said, oh well, it's because you chose the bull. And if I had chosen the bull, it would have happened because you chose the bull. So they had no excuse. You choose the bull. And then we read in verse 25, and it says, Elijah said to the prophets, besides choosing the bull, you prepare it first. You go first. You have all the time you want. So you have no excuses to say, oh well, you did first. We would have done that as well. So you do it. You take as long as you want. You have zero excuses. Take it as long as you want. And then, look at verse 27. Verse 27 says, Elijah mocked them. You see, cry aloud. For he's a god. You've got to really make a noise to wake him up. He's meditating. Oh, he's thinking. He's meditating. You've got to get him out of his. Or he's busy. Do you know what that means? He's in the restroom. He's busy. He's actually doing some film. He's busy. He's meditating. Oh, he's traveling.

You've got to get on a cell phone. You know, maybe the cell phone does not have coverage at this moment. Keep doing. Or perhaps he's old and he's sleeping. He's tired. So he's taking them all and now he's mocking them. And then they couldn't do anything. The time has come. Now it's like towards three o'clock in the afternoon. They've had all day. Nothing. So now he prepares this offering and it fills it up with water until it's drenched. Then he fills it up with water until it's drenched again. Then he fills it up with water again until it's drenched, till it flows all over. Why? So don't have excuses to say, oh well, he didn't put enough water. I mean, this thing was drenched.

And then he prays. He prays. And that's in verse 36 and 37. I've timed this prayer. I said it a few times and I put my stopwatch. It's about 20 seconds. It's about a 20-second prayer. Maybe if you talk, do it slowly. Maybe it's 25 seconds. But it really, you don't need to pray long, repetuous prayers. As much as you're close to God and you have a relationship with God, you don't need these long laborious, put into sleep prayers. Get straight to the point. Obviously, he's got a relationship with God. He's close to God. He's been praying privately. And then what happens? Fire comes through heaven. From heaven, this hole burns up. And what do the people say? The Lord is God. The Lord is God. You see that twice. They say that twice.

In verse 39, the Lord is God. The Lord is God. Brethren, Elijah is pointing to God. Elijah is saying, pick a side.

Don't falter between two opinions. Make up your mind.

Doesn't that remind you of something else?

I'll tell you what reminds us. It's in the book of Revelation chapter 3. Let's go to book of Revelation chapter 3 and the church of Laodicea. That's right at the time of the end.

And start reading from verse 14. In the angel to the church of the Laodiceans, right, this thing says to our man, the faithful and true witness, the beginning, in other words, the one that began the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you are either cold or hot. I wish you'd make and pick up a side. Either get cold or get hot, but don't sit in the middle.

Pick up a side, make a decision, go with God or don't, but don't falter between two opinions. So, then, because you look warm and neither cold nor hot, I'll vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I'm rich and I'm wealthy and I've neither nothing. And do not know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. And this richness, brevin, does not mean just wealth. It means maybe an emotional, spiritual attitude. I'm okay, Jack. I need nothing.

I counsel you to buy or need gold, refining the fire. In other words, I counsel you to go through the Great Tribulation that you may be rich and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakres may not be revealed and anoint your eyes of eyesalve that you may be seen. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase, therefore be zealous and repent, therefore pick a side.

Now, continue with the story in 1 Kings 18. They were following the Balaens, the Bales. Why? Because Bales represented gods that were humanly created, that made themselves as God, which were not gods. They were just humanly made gods. Things that you humans make up as gods. And today, there are many things, many things that you and I, and particularly young people, for instance, can make up as gods.

Virtual reality games, you just sit and play with these games and games and games or these war games.

Or whatever it may be, maybe drugs, maybe watching things that you should not be watching. They crash. They junk. They're useless. Don't dedicate your time to the wrong things, because to what you give your time is to what you value highly. These Balaens don't exist. They're not gods. They're not gods.

You know, that was the problem with Israel. The problem with Israel was always going after gods that were not gods. They were human made representations that were not gods. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 4. I mean, time and time again, in the Old Testament, we see that. But let's just look at one or another example in Deuteronomy chapter 4.

Deuteronomy chapter 4 is when the law is repeated or restated at the end of of those 40 years in the wilderness. And then Moses is saying to the Israelites at the end of these 40 years, soon before he is going to die, he says, Now Israel, listen to the statues and the judgments which I teach you to observe that you may live. Why does Moses say, choose, listen, choose, pick a side so that you may live, that it may be well with you, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. Don't add to the word which I command you or take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Balfour. That was the area where they left Egypt, and that area that was destroyed with the red spider, the Red Sea, that was where the Egyptians had this worship of Baal. For the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor.

So this was the problem with Israel. Don't follow these gods that are not gods. Look at it a bit further in verse 15. Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Oreb in the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any image the likeness of male or female. In other words, be careful. Don't make statutes and things that you're going to worship because they're not gods. Don't make anything that is going to focus and take your time because they're not gods.

They're trash. They're not gods.

Look at verse 35, the same chapter. "'To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord himself he is God. There's none besides him.'" It's exactly what the people said when the fire came in Mount Carmel when Elijah prayed. The people said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. But these false gods they were making, they're not gods. They're fake. They're rubbish. They're trash. They're useless. They're junk. And then we read in the same context a little bit further in the Autonomy chapter 6 verse 4. That it says, here O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is the one. The one is one, is the God. God is God, not these fake gods. God alone is God, not these fake gods. They're not God. And look in verse 14, you shall not go after at the gods that you make yourself, the gods of the peoples who are around you.

For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you.

The Lord he is God. The Lord he is God. Peek aside. Keep a focus on God. What bottoms have we created today for ourselves as God?

You look at the society around you, you look at society around us, it's full of things to take us away from the true God. Distractions, distractions, time wasters, trash.

Brethren, we've got to put a focus on the things that are of God. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. We'll start in verse 1.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things that are above. Brethren, we have committed our lives to be true Christians. We've been baptized. We've been raised out of the watery grave. So let us seek those things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. What things of the earth are there today that take our time, that are trash? They really are trash. They are junk and they're not God. Particularly our young people today. There are so many distractions. It's just unbelievable.

I was talking to somebody the other day, and they invited some young people to their house to be with their children. And these young people, all they wanted was to put these little things over their eyes, and they were there all the time, just playing virtual reality.

I'm not saying it's wrong to play some games now and again, but when that becomes a God, that's a problem. That's a problem. Set your mind on things above, and whatever the things of the world they are.

Look a bit further down in verse 5. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, whatever things that we get attracted, we get pulled based on carnality, on a carnal mind, and that gets pulled. And we've got to peek aside. Are we going to go with that or not?

Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which things you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Which basically says, put them off, put them to death if they try and resurrect, come out of the watery grave. But it says, you walked, you are not walking according to that. But now, see that's in the past. So you should, we, you, us, we should not be doing those. Put them to death. But now, beyond that, you yourselves are to put off what else, which means we still have it. You see, those others, we should have put aside, we shouldn't have them anymore. You walked on them before. And if they come up, put them off. But now, yourselves are to put off these as well that are probably amongst us still. What are they? Anger! Oh, do we ever get angry? No. Well, it says, put off, wrath, malice, blasphemy. Sometimes say something wrong. Do we sometimes, something come wrong out of our language? It says, filthy language out of your mouth. Are we clean? Is our tongue clean? Do we not lie to one another? Oh, I don't lie. But sometimes, when we are at a checkpoint, and it's so easy to say, no, I didn't do this. But maybe we did. We gotta be careful. We gotta be careful. Since you have put off the old man, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of him who has created him. So, pick aside, have you, have we really changed? Have we really made a decision?

So, we need to be picking the side. Look at verse 17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, give thanks to God the Father through him. Do everything. And in fact, if you look at it a little bit earlier, it says, put on tender mercies, put on kindness, put on humility, put on meekness, put on long suffering, put on bearing with one another, forgiving one another. And above all, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And therefore, let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you also were called in one body. And be grateful, be thankful. So, brethren, are we picking a side? The story of Elijah, nearly 3,000 years ago, is even more applicable today. We today have hundreds of man-made gods. They're not God. They trash. They junk.

The Lord is God. Pick a side. Keep a godly focus. And so, Elijah, in a sense, has a role. We have a role. And the role we have is actually described in Isaiah chapter 40. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40, and we're going to read from verse 1. Isaiah 40, verse 1, Comfort, yes, comfort my people, says the Lord. Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to earth that our warfare is ended, that our iniquities pardon, for she is received from the Lord's hand, double for her sins. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. That was Elijah. He was crying in that wilderness for three years. There was no water. And he was saying, pick a side. But we ourselves today, our example, our conduct, our work, is work of one crying out in this wilderness in the world today, which is full of balems, full of false gods, which are not gods. And therefore, we have to cry aloud, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert our highway for our God. We live in a desert, a spiritual desert. Today, we live in a spiritual desert. This world, you listen to the news, you listen to things around us, spiritually speaking, is a desert. But there is a hope, because every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be brought low, the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places move, the glory of the eternal shall be revealed. Jesus Christ is going to come and is going to reveal that. All flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The voice said, cry out. Cry out. And he said, what shall I cry? Cry out! What shall I cry? What do we cry to this world today? What we cry is the following. All flesh is grass, and all its leaveness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. All these gods that people have made are trash, are grass, and it will burn. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the eternal stands forever. Pick a side. Alzheimer's was the church. You will bring good tidings.

Get up into the high mountain of Jerusalem. You will bring good news. Lift up your voice with strength. Lift up. Be not afraid. Cry to the cities of our nation. Behold your God. The Lord is God. Pick a side. Behold the Lord Jesus Christ shall come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him. When Christ comes, you'll bring his reward with him, and his work before him. That's the work we're doing now. Pick a side.

There's a section in Scripture which is a section of blessings and cursings. The fact appears twice, but one of them is in the Autonomy 28. The Autonomy 28. Let's turn there. The Autonomy 28. And the Autonomy 28 has got a section from beginning, run about till verse 14. It says, blessings for obedience. If you obey, and this was supposed to be said from Mount Gersim, it says, if you obey, you will be blessed, and you'll have all these blessings. And it says, and his blessings shall come upon you. Blessed shall be in the city. Blessed shall be in the country. Are we blessed in the cities today? Are we blessed in the country today? Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle. Blessed shall be your basket, and blessed shall be. So there is a whole bunch of blessings. But then in verse 15, but it shall come to pass if you do not obey. Then he has all these curses. Curses shall be in the city. Curses shall be in the country. Curses shall be your basket. Pick a side. What do you want? Make a decision. That's why a little later in chapter 30, in chapter 30 verse 19 says, I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you, that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life. That both you and your descendants may live.

God wants you, wants us to pick a side. God wants us to choose to pick a side, not to be faltering between two opinions, but to choose life. Yes, God is pro-life. God is pro-life. Choose life that both you and your descendants may live.

Why? Because God wants to give you and us and all of us an abundant life. And if not now, in the wonderful world tomorrow. And you have an opportunity, we all have an opportunity, to be ruling and serving the wonderful world tomorrow under Christ, to bring this wonderful, happy, abundant life to the whole of mankind. So let's be godly focused. Let's set our minds on the things above. If God is God, choose Him.