Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Session 2 Sermon 12

Review

Last week keeping the battle on the proper field: Not Ahab versus Elijah; not self-vindication; but it was the proper fear of God and not man.

Text

And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God." And all the people answered, "It is well spoken." (1 Kings 18:24)


 

Your Gods

History

As the Sun-god, Baal was worshipped under two aspects, beneficent and destructive. On the one hand he gave light and warmth to his worshippers; on the other hand the fierce heats of summer destroyed the vegetation he had himself brought into being. Hence, human victims were sacrificed to him in order to appease his anger in time of plague or other trouble, the victim being usually the first-born of the sacrificer and being burnt alive.

Isaiah 44:17

And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (Isaiah 44:17)


 

This verse says that a false god was worshiped because the idolater believed the block of wood could deliver him. Herein we find a definition for what constitutes a false god. According to Isaiah 44:17, a god is anything to which we ascribe the power to deliver us. Westerners have their own set of false gods—sources to which they turn for deliverance when in times of crisis or need (let the reader understand):

 

• Money

• Health insurance

• Medical treatment/prescriptions

• Social Security

• Retirement plans and IRA's

• Credit cards/consolidation loans

• Pleasure/entertainment/recreation/sports

• Sex

• Friends (to deliver us from loneliness)

• Counselors

• Lawsuits

• Filing bankruptcy

 


 

Fire Not Water

Water was what Israel needed, there had been 42 months of drought—so why wouldn't Elijah say the God who answers by water, he is whom you will serve? The Mt. Carmel experience was more than meeting a need—rain—it was to reestablish the Lord as God!

Yes, there are times that we need to ask specific things of our God, but there are other times that we need to see the fire of God—His sovereignty that reestablishes Him as the Lord of my entire life, not just my specific area of need!

The question is do I want relief or sovereignty; do I want rain or fire?

Call

Contrast:

Prophets of Baal: Hours of being seen

Elijah: repair (mend/cure) (repent) the Word of the Lord—12 tribes (stones) and 12 barrels of water

Stones are my strength; water is my effort and all of it needs to be consumed by the fire that is God!


 

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