Are We Prophets Of Baal?

Introduction

It’s all good. I’m not using PowerPoint anyway, so going old school tonight. I use a Mac and so all my stuff trying to put it on windows and just forget about it. So I haven’t used PowerPoint in like almost a year. You know, it’s kind of refreshing, actually. If you wouldn’t grab your Bibles and turn to 1 Kings chapter 18, we’ll be studying from there for just a few minutes this evening. I’d love if you would grab your Bible or your iPad or phone or whatever it is that you use to follow along in God’s word. Do you appreciate Daniel’s good job leading us this evening in worship? And the song that we just sang for you have promised one of my favorites. the top of the song it quotes from Hebrews 10 and verse 23.

Let’s hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For he is faithful. That promise. God has made us so many promises that if we serve him and love him and give him our all and trust in him that he will deliver us. And praise him for that. I’d also be remiss if I did not, as Jared did this morning, express my thankfulness for the opportunity tonight to speak to you and give Tony a little bit of a break and let him know that anytime he needs me, I’m more than willing to fill in. and also our thankfulness for I mean, as you know, we had a shower this afternoon, and just the outpouring of love that we’ve had, and we’ve only been here for two months.

I just I cannot express enough how thankful we are for y’all taking us in and embracing us and making us part of your family. So we have been very happy, and we could not have made a better decision than to move to work and worship with you here at Jacco Prairie. So thank you. First Kings chapter 18. Did you ever look around at the religious world today and think about all the things that go on in not only in Christianity and things that are passed off as acceptable and things that God loves, but also the rest of the religious world. I mean, whatever it be, whatever religion or pseudo-religion that you can think of, and think of all the practices that are that are done in those religions in the name of spirituality or God or worship or whatever it is.

And think, where did they get that? Where in the world did that come from? How did they possibly come to the conclusion that is something that is acceptable to God and something that God wants? I look around and I think, how did they get that? Where did it come from? Do they really think that does them any good? Do they really think that anyone is listening to their praise? That God would approve of such a thing. And yet these kinds of practices are not new. We look around the world and we think, oh, things are just getting so much worse. And how it is just every day I look around and where is everything’s going? It’s just all going in the trash. It was that way in the Bible.

Nothing’s changed, nothing new. There’s nothing new under the sun. 1 Kings chapter 18 is a passage that you’re probably familiar with. Something Tony actually alluded to, I think it was last week, just briefly in his sermon, and it made me think about it. And this is a passage where this strange kind of worship takes place. And you read about it and you think, how in the world did they come to that conclusion? They’re cutting themselves with swords and lances, as we’ll get to in a minute. And you think, really?

But this worship was no good because their God was no God. And I want you to read along with me in 1 Kings 18 and beginning in verse 15. This is a somewhat lengthy reading, so please bear with me. 1 Kings 18 and beginning in verse 15. Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is it you troubler of Israel? Interesting the reputation that he has. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, in your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.

Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asheroth he at Jezebel’s table. So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go limping between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. That I find interesting. It’s not just these prophets, it’s not just Ahab. It’s not just Jezebel. The whole of the nation of Israel was carried away with this. And then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left a prophet of the Lord.

But Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull from themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bowl and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your God, and I will fall upon the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. Makes sense, right? Sounds like a good proposition. All the people agree with that, so they say, It is well spoken. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourselves one bowl, prepare it first, for you are many. And call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it.

And I think one thing that needs to be taken note of here is that surely, if there are 450 of these prophets, surely their God can hear them. I mean, that’s a whole lot louder than one guy, right? Continue your eating. They took the bowl that was given them and he prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, Oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no voice. And no one answered them. And they limped around the altar that they had made, and at noon Elijah mocked him. And this is to be one of the funniest things in the Bible. He mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a God, right? Surely. Surely he is a God. Either he’s musing or he’s relieving himself.

Or he’s on a journey. Or perhaps he’s asleep and he must be awakening. You’re just not being loud enough. He can’t hear you. He’s gone far off. And of course he’s making fun of not only the fact that he’s not there, but just the fact that if he’s a God and he can’t hear you, is he really a God? And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. What kind of a worship is that? And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the ablation, but there but there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. I just love the way that scripture puts that. And then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me.

And all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down, which really represents the spiritual condition of Israel at that time. And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar as great as would contain two sayals of wood of seed, and he put the wood in order and cut the bowl in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.

And he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time. And he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And it’s the time of the offering of the oblation. Elijah the prophet came near and said, and this is one of the most wonderful prayers, I think, also. I just love the story. You can’t tell. He says, O Lord, Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and I have done these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God.

And that’s you. I love this phrase. Have turned their hearts back. Their hearts were so far gone away from God, they were carried away with the bales. And Elijah calls upon God not to glorify Elijah, but to glorify himself and show that he was the God of Israel. He was the one that had built of them a great nation and led them out of the land of Egypt. He was their God. He was the one that allowed them to conquer the land of Canaan.

And then fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering in the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. They get it.

They had been led astray. And they realized there was one God in Israel, Jehovah. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal. Let not one of them escape. And he sees, and they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook of Kishon and slaughtered them there. What an amazing story. And a story of sometimes what it takes to get us to realize the error of our ways.

But today I want to take a little bit of a different angle at the passage than maybe you’ve heard before. A lot of times we talk about the story from Elijah’s viewpoint. And we talk about the things that he did before this and after this, and how he went from this great victory to hiding and running and being scared. And those are all wonderful lessons and lessons that we have learned before. But I kind of want to come at it a little bit differently tonight. What about the prophets of Baal? What about the people of Israel? How had they gotten here? To this point where they are so far gone, their hearts have to be turned back by this great showing of power from God that was undeniably only Jehovah could have done this.

1. Why Do We Worship God?

How did they get there? And how can that be us today? Do we ever make the same mistakes in our lives? And I want to ask you three questions this evening. And the first of which is why do we worship God? Why do we come here each Sunday and each Wednesday? And why do we come together at other times? What is our worship really all about? Is it for personal enjoyment? Is it because you enjoy singing or maybe listening to a particular preacher? Nothing wrong with that. Or is it for the social interactions? Is it because it’s fun? I mean, the Greeks and the Romans, man, their worship, that was all about fun. It was about human interaction, human enjoyment, fleshly fulfillment. And here in this context, we see that I don’t know what was fun about cutting yourself with swords, but obviously there’s something that made sense to them about this.

You know, and that’s what worship has become to many people in American society today, hasn’t it? It’s all about what do I get? How does it make me feel? Is it a good time to fill a couple of hours out of my week? Is it for personal enjoyment? Why am I here? And a lot of people say, well, I’m going to go and worship over at church X over here because, you know, I like the band over there. It’s really cool. A lot of fun to hear them, a lot of talent going on there. Or I like the singing at that church. Let’s bring it a little closer to home. Or I like the preacher. Regardless of the truth or the acceptableness of the worship going on at said congregation.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is anyone paying attention? Does anyone answer? Or maybe it’s because, well, that’s what my family does, and that’s, you know, that’s what they want me to do. That’s what they want me to do with them. And so I want to please my parents, my grandparents, and so that’s that’s what I’m going to do. And it has nothing to do with our heart or our love for God. Or maybe is it just for personal enjoyment, or is it because we are here to praise God? Turn with me to a couple of passages over in the Psalms. And we see the kind of praise that we ought to be giving to our God. Psalm chapter 29. Ascribe to the Lord, verse 1, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. This Psalm goes on and on about glorifying the name of God, showing us that He is worthy of our praise. Psalm 96. Psalm 96. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Just as these people were worshiping these idols that were not worthy of any kind of glory, this Psalm tells us that the Lord is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 100 in verse 1 through 5, the entire Psalm, make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth, serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God. Does that sound familiar? We just read that’s exactly what the people were saying. When they saw, they really came to understand and know the glory and the power of God. What was their only reaction?

2. Who Do We Worship?

What could it only be? But that the Lord, He is God. Why do we worship? Is it for our own personal fulfillment and what we get out of it? Or is it because we need to praise God because He deserves it? Because we are amazed by His power? Because we want to proclaim that power to the world. Is it because that’s what He commands of us? Is it because He deserves it? Why do we worship? Number one. Number two, who do we worship? And, you know, we get, I think a lot of times caught up in, we read the Old Testament and think, how could they have gone off and worship idols? And it just doesn’t even make any sense to us. We don’t build little carved images and bow down to them today, but I know we’ve heard it a thousand times, but what are our gods today but ourselves?

Our entertainment, our recreation, our job, our money, whatever. Are we worshiping self? Is my life simply about fulfilling my own pleasures? The mantra of today is God just wants me to be happy. That is simply an excuse to worship self instead of God. We need to ask ourselves: have I bought into that kind of thinking? Or maybe I worship false gods. Again, the God of fun and entertainment. Are we trying, as we talked about this last week, and Jared again alluded to this morning, are we trying to broaden the narrow way? Are we trying to bring in all these other kinds of worship that we see around us and we think, wow, hey, you know, that looks kind of fun. You know, but I’m doing it for the right reasons.

The end is just by the means, right? So I’m just going to pull that in, even though I know it’s not in scripture, but you know, it makes me feel good, and I’m doing it because I love God. Of course, the error in that logic is that if you’re not obeying God and keeping his commandments, that means we don’t love God. Or maybe we’re worshiping the God of our favorite preacher or our favorite church or our favorite friend or our favorite elder or whatever. We can’t be too attached to those things because all too often they can lead us astray. Not that it’s wrong to have a good relationship with people who can strengthen us, but that’s not what it’s about, brethren. It’s about God.

And it’s only about God. We may say that we worship Jehovah, but in the end, I think all too often he is little more than an idol made in our own image. A God of our own imagination. A God who is exactly and only who we want him to be, who’s there to serve my needs and my wants on my schedule. There to be worshiped when and how I want.

Is the God of this world? And when that’s the God that we choose to worship, we need to seriously ask ourselves the question is that God listening? And what 1 Kings chapter 18 tells us is that no one’s there. No one’s listening, no one is going to answer, no one is gonna pull through for you if that is your God. Baal didn’t listen to his prophets because he was not a God. So who are we calling to? The one true God, Jehovah, listened to Elijah because he is God. And Elijah, what we, of course, need to learn from Elijah is that he had no doubt about that. He was so sure that he was going to dump water all over that altar three times until it filled the water in the trench around it.

He was sure. Brother, we need to be sure. Who is your God? Who are you calling to? He mocked the prophets of Baal, saying maybe he’s sleeping, or maybe he’s relieving himself, or he’s on a journey. That’s how sure he was. And we need to be as sure that we know that Jehovah listens to his children today when they truly believe and call on him in faith. And if we are worried that he’s not listening, it is one of two reasons. It is either because of a lack of faith on our part. Or because we know deep down that he is our Lord in name only. And we are not worshiping and serving him as we ought. That’s the only two reasons that God will not be there for us.

If we draw near to him, he will draw near to us. He is there. He is waiting, wanting, watching, desiring that we come to him. That we have a relationship with him. He wants us. He created us in his image. It’s not the other way around. And if we’re worried he’s not listening, we need to ask ourselves why that is. Because he is there for us, if we draw near to him. We need to have the kind of faith that Elijah had and that the people had when they saw this great work, this great miracle, this fire coming down from heaven, that they said, the Lord, he is God. At that point, there was no doubt that there was any other. Jehovah, Yahweh, the great I am, the eternal creator, the one true God.

He is God and God alone in heaven, the creator of the heavens and the earth. And when this contest was all over, the people were shouting, the Lord is God. And they didn’t come away from this spectacle thinking, wow, you know, Elijah, he is a great speaker. I mean, wow. Look at him calling down that fire from heaven. I’m going to go see that guy again the next time he’s on that mountain. I’m going to be there every Sunday because I’m going to see that. And they didn’t come away from it going, you know, Elijah, he sure does know how to connect with God. Look at what he was able to do. It wasn’t about Elijah. They knew that it was God’s doings. They were stunned by what he had done.

They were in all of his power. They knew that what they’d experienced could not have been manipulated by Elijah. It was not magic. This was a work of God. This was the power of God. And so our worship today should be solely to his glory. Because we have seen his power in our lives. We have seen his power in the resurrection. And in our salvation.

3. How Do We Worship?

Why do we worship? Who do we worship? How do we worship? Do we worship him with our lives? It is so much more than just about what we do when we gather together in this room. Francis Chan in his book, Forgotten God. And again, I don’t endorse everything Francis, far from everything Francis Chan says, but I like that.

People ought to see the transformation in our lives and respond by saying, The Lord, He is God. Has anyone ever been amazed by your peace? Love, joy, self-control. Have they ever prayed that God would so fill you with the Spirit that people would know the change could that change that change could be empowered only by the Spirit? It is when we are filled with true peace and hope that people notice there’s something different about us. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us both peace and hope. God empowers a change in our lives. And that should be evident to the people around us. Do we glorify God by trusting fully in him? And that evidences itself in our every act, every day. Again, Chan says later on in the same book, even in our daily living, we can look more like the prophets of Baal.

As we live our lives, running about in a frenzy, trying to fix our problems, not stopping long enough to call on the power of God Almighty. Yet, as children of God, we are not called to trust in idols or ourselves. We are made to be like Elijah. We did not question whether God would show his face that day. He prayed and asked for help, and God sent down fire from heaven in response. All too often we run around in a frenzy trying to fix everything, or we depend on a preacher or an elder or a family member for all the answers to our problems in life when we should be trusting in God. And don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. God places people in our lives to encourage us and help us along our journey for a reason.

But we need to trust in him first. How do we worship? Do we worship him with our lives? Do we worship him as he has commanded us to worship? Do we worship in spirit or in vain? John 4 and verse 24. If we were worshiping in spirit, we are worshiping a God whom we know is there, whom we know is listening, and whom we know cares. There is no doubt that when we call on his name, he will answer us. But when we worship in vain, when we worship in a way that is not as he is commanded, when we make up things for ourselves, and we look at the world around us, and we think, you know, that would be really nice because that would feel good to me, and I would really get something out of that.

And this is something that I is just so near and dear to me because I see it almost every day, especially with those of my generation, that people are falling away from that church because all they’re concerned about is what is in it for me. What do I get out of it? How does it make me feel? You know, I go to that church and it’s just boring and it’s dry and it’s drab, and I’m just looking for something more exciting, something that makes me feel good. Brother than that, it’s not what it’s about. It is about God, and only God. It will never be about me. Because God has done everything for me, and I have been called to spend a lifetime giving it back to Him.

Don’t worship in vain. By our own methods and interpretations. But by the word of God and our every action in this room and outside of it. The prophets of Baal put on a big show, but for what? It was all for naught. They had become so self-serving, so self-focused that they forgot what worship was all about. God! What does it seem like at the end of the periods of worship that you attend? And I have to say, when I walk out of this room, I feel like God has been praised. And that is such a wonderful feeling.

Because I’ve been places where that’s not how it’s felt. And again, it’s walking the spine line between how I feel about things, and I understand that. But why do I feel that way? It’s because I you can tell when everyone around you is putting their hearts into their praise to God. Because it’s about Him and not about us. Are we in awe of Him? Is He truly praised? Or is it more like the worship of Baal? We have a great time singing and making a show, but at the end of it, nothing and no one is really changed. People leave talking about the people that led rather than the power of God. Our focus needs to be on God, our Father, and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

We cannot afford to turn God into an image made in our own likeness. When it is exactly the opposite. Do not be a prophet of Baal in your spiritual life. Who is your God tonight? Who do you worship? How do you worship? Our admonishment to you this evening is that you would worship Jehovah God with your life today. Do not be self serving. Do not put yourself above all else because it is not about me. It’s about me being a servant to the Lord. You need to put to death the enemies of God in your life. Anything that would draw you away from Him, anything that would hinder you from drawing near to Him, hinder him from being there and answering you when you call. Put those things to death.

Put to death the old man by putting on Christ in baptism for the remission of your sins. And rise to walk in newness of life. Is there anyone here that needs to respond to the gospel call? We invite you to do that now as we stand instead.