Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20071028.htm
BIOGRAPHIES OF BIBLE SAINTS II. Elijah: Trusting God In A Faithless Generation B. Standing For The Truth Before Powerfully Opposing Parties (1 Kings 18:1-46)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

We often face strong and seemingly intimidating opposition to the truth of God that can confuse us and weaken our faith in that truth:

(1) Dinesh D'Souza's article, "A Christian foundation" in the October 22, 2007 issue of the nationwide paper, USA TODAY, p. 15A noted that "best-selling atheist books, academic tracts and a sophisticated network of atheist organizations and media" are making "an aggressive attempt . . . to portray religion in general, and Christianity in particular, as the bane of civilization. Finding the idea of God incompatible with science and reason, these atheists also fault Christianity with fostering a breed of fanaticism comparable to Islamic radicalism. The proposed solution: a completely secular society, liberated from Christian symbols and beliefs."

Yet, as D'Sousa added, "Christianity is responsible even for secular institutions such as democracy and science. It has fostered in our civilization values such as respect for human dignity, human rights and human equality that even secular people cherish . . . Science is based on . . . the principle of universality ' . . . that the laws of nature we discover here and now in our laboratories are true everywhere in the universe . . .' So where did Western man get this idea of a lawfully ordered universe? From Christianity. Christians were the first ones who envisioned the universe as following laws that reflected the rationality of God . . . These laws were believed to be accessible to man because man is created in the image of God . . ." (Ibid.)

(2) At times the most perilously disillusioning opposition to the truth comes from religious parties we know: while one of our Church families was once visiting a relative, they saw him turn on the television to a religious service of another faith and kneel before the television to try to get them to follow his lead and so impress them to return to their former religion!

Though this family in our Church instantly knew the error of the relative's efforts and belief, we can only imagine the days or even weeks it took for them to counter the disillusioning force of that event!



We then ask, "How can we handle facing intimidating forces that strongly oppose what we once thought was the truth?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I face an INTIMIDATING party that STRONGLY opposes what I THINK is God's REALITY, so how may I respond well?!"

1. In Elijah's era, the GODLY in Israel faced INTIMIDATING OPPOSITION to God's TRUTHS, 1 Kings 18:1-15:
1. For standing as God's prophet opposed to Baalism before the pro-Baal king Ahab in predicting that it would not rain for several years, Elijah was told by God to hide from Ahab, 1 Kings 17:1, 2.
2. God had then sent Elijah to live with a Canaanite widow since, in the words of our Lord, there were no godly widows left in Israel, cf. Luke 4:22-26; Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament , p. 214.
3. Elijah's conversation with Obadiah showed Israel's king Ahab and his wife Jezebel powerfully opposed God's truths, 1 Kings 18:1-17:
1. When Elijah asked Obadiah to tell Ahab he would meet with him, Obadiah feared Elijah might not remain available if Ahab was thus told so that Ahab would kill him for mocking him, 18:7-12, 14.
2. Obadiah even tried to persuade Elijah to promise to appear to Ahab by telling of his past efforts to hide God's prophets from Jezebel when she tried to annihilate God's worshipers, 1 Kings 18:4, 13.
3. Only as Elijah took and oath in God's name to appear that day to Ahab did Obadiah feel safe enough to contact Ahab, 18:15-16!
2. Yet, as Elijah RELIED on SCRIPTURE, God's PRECEDENTS and LOGIC, he THOUGHT CLEARLY so as to STAND FIRM in FAITH for God's TRUTHS, 1 Kings 18:16-37:
1. When Ahab saw Elijah, he foolishly blamed Elijah for the drought: faulting God's prophet this way left Baal as the alleged god of rain weaker than God, and made Ahab's loyalty to Baal illogical, 1 Kings 18:16-17; Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the O. T., 1973, p. 172!
2. Supported by Ahab's own self-defeating critique and by recalling God's wonderful provisions for him at Brook Cherith and Zarephath in vast superiority to Baal (1 Kings 17:2-24 and our last sermon), Elijah countered Ahab's charge, holding the drought was Ahab's fault as judgment for his idolatry, 1 Kings 18:18; Deut. 28:15, 23-24.
3. To prove his point, and based on a Biblical precedent, Elijah then challenged Ahab to a contest at Mount Carmel to see if Baal or God would answer with fire to ignite a readied sacrifice, 1 Kings 18:19-25:
1. Canaanite Baal beliefs held Baal was the god of thunder, lightening and storms who gave rain and fertility, Ibid., Unger; 1 Kings 18:24.
2. Mount Carmel where the contest was held was felt by Jezebel's people, the Phoenicians, to be the "sacred dwelling place of Baal", and rain and lightening often occur there since the mount juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 522, 526f.
3. However, Elijah knew God had ignited the sacrifice at Solomon's dedication of the temple, cf. 2 Chronicles 7:1-2. He thus relied on God's precedents of miracles in his own life and this Scripture precedent to challenge Baal worship at Carmel, 1 Kings 18:23-25.
4. The Baal priests vainly tried to get Baal to ignite their sacrifice, so Elijah used Baal theology logically to expose its futility, 1 Kings 18:26-27 ESV: Phoenician sailors claimed Baal went with them on the sea and elsewhere, so Elijah urged the false prophets to cry louder as he might be away or sleeping or relieving himself, Ibid., p. 526!
5. The Baal prophets worked in vain from the morning until the evening sacrifice at 3 p.m. to get Baal to ignite their sacrifice (18:26-29), so Elijah then prepared his sacrifice in a Biblical way and soaked it with water so (Baal's) natural lightening could not ignite it, and he made a short prayer before the people for God to ignite it, 1 Kings 18:30-37.
3. GOD then OPENLY VINDICATED Elijah's STAND, 18:38-46:
1. In answer to Elijah's stand and prayer of faith, God sent fire like He had done in Solomon's era (2 Chron. 7:1-2); it not only consumed the soggy sacrifice and wood, but also the altar stones and the water in the trench around the foot of the altar in vast superiority to the power of the (natural lightening) fire of Baal theology, 1 Kings 18:31, 38!
2. Similar to the response in Solomon's era, the people fell down to worship the Lord as the only true God, 1 Kings 18:39; 2 Chron. 7:3.
3. Elijah then led Israel to kill the prophets of Baal as the Law had taught (1 Kings 18:40; Deut. 13:5), he prayed for rain and God sent a great storm (1 Kings 18:41-45), and in God's power, Elijah outran Ahab's chariot for 25 miles from Carmel to Jezreel (18:46; Ibid., p. 527)!

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation from sin to have eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, if facing strong foes to our true beliefs, (a) in the Holy Spirit's power (Gal. 5:16), may we (b) RELY on God's precedents of indications of the truth in our lives, on (b) Scripture and on (c) logic to (3) THINK CLEARLY and so to STAND in FAITH for the truth. (4) Then God will bless!

Lesson: In facing INTIMIDATING foes of the truth, Elijah relied on Scripture, God's precedents in his life and logic to THINK clearly and so STAND FIRM in FAITH for the TRUTH. God then richly blessed him!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Applying this lesson provides an effective guide to handling strong anti-Christian atheistic forces that press believers to be confused and so to doubt their own Christian faith:

In the article, "A Christian foundation" that we cited in our introduction, Dinesh D'Souza observed that seemingly intimidating atheistic forces counter the Christian faith, pressing to eradicate it as the scourge of civilization in favor of a purely secular society. (Ibid.)

However, citing a key atheistic philosopher, Nietzsche, D'Souza revealed the illogical futility of this very stance: "Nietzsche argued that since the Christian God is the foundation of Western values, the death of God must necessarily mean the erosion and ultimate collapse of those values. Remove the base and the whole building will slowly crumble. For a while, Nietzsche conceded, people would out of custom or habit continue to respect human life and treat people with equal dignity, but eventually there would be ferocious assaults on those values, and practices once unthinkable such as the killing of people deemed inferior or undesirable would once again occur. This is precisely what we have seen in our time [Hitler's treatment of the Jew, abortion on demand, Third World genocide, etc.], and Nietzsche predicted that it would only get worse." (Ibid., brackets ours) Were Neitzsche's idea to occur to the fullest extent, open warfare would occur over defining who was valuable and who would be eliminated! The result would be the very barbarism out which our ancient European ancestors were rescued by the arrival of Christianity!

So, much like Ahab's critique of Elijah only exposed the futility of the very Baal beliefs he held, the words of Nietzsche, a key atheistic critic of the Christian faith, logically expose his own atheism to be sociologically futile! Simple logic united with what we know Scripture affirms of God's existence and the Christian faith coupled with our own experiences as Christians of God's work in our own lives equips us to think clearly about where the truth lies, and to stand before even strong atheists in full conviction of the validity of Christianity!

In the Holy Spirit's power, then, may we rely on God's PRECEDENTS in our lives, on His WORD and SIMPLE LOGIC to THINK CLEARLY so as to STAND in FAITH for the TRUTH before EVEN STRONG OPPONENTS to the CONTRARY. GOD will bless us as we do so as He blessed Elijah of old!