Sermon in Rockford 06.08.2017

Our service, that you would give of your understanding that we could believe, be comforted, and be taught by your word. Dear God, we also pray that you would give us a believing heart to accept your word and your will.

And we say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. But thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

This Sunday's theme speaks of the battle between the church and the church. The battle which takes place in this world between truth and falsehood. We know how Jesus spoke of himself and said, I am the truth. In this world, there are many teachings, many doctrines, and the battle between truth and falsehood goes on through the ages.

I will read the Old Testament text set aside for this Sunday, which is found from 1 Kings 18. I'll read verses 21 through 26 and 36, 39 in Jesus' name.

And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him, not a word.

Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.

And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.

And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many. And call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.

And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.

And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord. Hear me, that these people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and 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 they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. Amen.

Ahab was the king of Israel. The Bible says that he did more evil than any evil king before him. And God's anger was kindled against him. And he took as his wife the daughter of the king of Sidon, Jezebel. And she was a woman who loved false gods. Idolatry flourished at the court and in the country.

Elijah was troubled. It's hard to imagine how difficult it must have been to be the servant of God in the time, in the situation, when it looked like everybody else was falling away from faith.

Israel was God's chosen nation. Idolatry flourished in the country. There was drought. There was a time when people died because of hunger.

God taught this rebellious man to be a man who carried food for creatures, now even until his religious family would forbid his disciples from being Elijah, commander of the faith and expression of his own power. He was totally driven to Ahab, the king.

And it's interesting that Obadiah was a governor of the king's house, was a believing man. So, even this very ungodly king, and his even more ungodly wife, had a believing man serving them. It must have been very difficult for Obadiah.

And the drought was so sore that the king himself and Obadiah divided the land between themselves to go through, to go see all the wells, all those places where some grass could grow, to see if there was any grass left. Because if they couldn't find grass, they were forced to slaughter, start slaughtering their animals because of the lack of food for the animals.

And there, Elijah met Obadiah and told Obadiah, go to King Ahab and tell that I, Elijah, will meet him. And Obadiah was so troubled. He said, that now, if I go to the king and tell that Elijah wants to see you, and God's spirit will take you to whatever place, and the king comes and doesn't see you, he will kill me.

So, this difficult was the situation for those believing men. And so much did Obadiah believe about God. The God works through his servants.

Think about that, that statement that Obadiah made, that the God takes, God's spirit takes you. It is here, I try to find, where he says, speaks of this, but it is in the early part of this same 18th chapter.

And he says, these are the words of Obadiah, and now thou sayest, go, tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not. And so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me.

So this much trust Obadiah had to the power of God, that God works through his servants.

It's good to keep in mind that the theme for this day is truth and falsehood. God is the God of truth. But God does not work in this world himself. He works through his own.

And now, Obadiah went to Ahab. Ahab came and met Elijah. And the king asked, so there is a man that troubles Israel.

But Elijah said, I am not the one who troubles Israel, but you. You have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed Baal, the idol. That was the source, the curse of these troubles for the country.

And now he says, Elijah says to the king, now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, 450, and the prophets of the groves, 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. That means your wife's table. 400 as he calls prophets of Baal. Those men who preached the wrong God, the idol, who worshipped the idol.

And then he also, it's interesting that he kind of commands the king to do that and gets all the people there to witness it.

So they came to Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is on the seashore of the Mediterranean Sea. And it is a big city even today. And on that mountain gathered lots of people. And the false prophets and Elijah alone.

It must have been one of those moments when the servant of God felt desperately alone. He even says it here before the people. That I am the only one left. That troubled him very deeply.

And now we come to our text where Elijah speaks to the people. How long will you halt or limp between two opposites? There are two teachings. There are two understandings. There are two ways of worship, God.

And now let us see which is a true God and which is a false God. If Baal is the God or if the Lord is the God.

And how do we do it? Let's build two altars. Let's prepare two burnt offerings without fire. And let God choose which offering he chooses. And everybody said that's well spoken. Let God choose.

Of course this brings our thoughts to the first brothers Cain and Abel. Who also offered a burnt offering to God. They put fire onto the offering themselves. But God only chose to show favor on one.

Two options were not possible. Only one is possible. That's very logical or very clear in the Bible all the time. One can be right and the others are wrong. And it is not in our doing. It's in God's doing. God chooses.

God chose also there. The artists have rendered it and I think maybe that is a good way to show it that from Abel's burnt offering the smoke rose straight up towards heaven. But from Cain's offering the smoke fell down towards the earth.

The Bible doesn't say how God showed it. And that's not important. But it is important that both of them, Cain and Abel, knew which one God had favor on and which not.

And the interesting is in that story that when that happened Cain became angry. That is understandable. That was of course a frustration to him. But he became angry with his brother.

Now, not with God. Abel couldn't do anything to put him in favor or out of favor. He was not Abel's doing if God had favor on his offering or not. But he became very angry to his believing brother.

And I would say in human terms that was envy. They both recognized. They both were forced to see that Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's offering was not accepted.

And Cain was even then warned by God. God warns. God does not want anyone to go wrong without a warning. God warned Cain.

Why are you angry? Why is your countenance falling? Why do you look so angry? Why do you look so gloomy on the ground? If you do good, God will forgive you. But if not, sin is standing at the door of your heart. Right next to you. And it wants to get into your heart.

God warns him very clearly. Very straightforward. And he chose not to do it. He chose not to believe it. He can never say to God that you didn't warn me clear enough.

God is full of love towards us erring people. And he warns even an erring child of God. As we have experienced so many times in our life. God warns, don't go that path. It's not good for you.

This is how God operates. And it takes a humble heart to accept it. We can hear it with our ears. It's a different thing to hear it with our heart. To be obedient and to accept it.

So now, Elijah set these two possibilities before people. And everybody accepted that's fair. That's well said. Let's try. And let God show.

And the story of the Baal's prophets is longer. It was not, when I read the text, I jumped over ten verses where it tells how it went.

Those Baal's prophets did, I would say in human terms, they did a good job. They did everything as best as they could. And there were many, there were many helping hands. Even dressing this big animal.

Elijah did it on his own. It must have been a big job. I've never done that. And I know that there are hunters here who know how much work there is to do it right.

He was alone. He had to possibly cut some corners to get it done at least not as beautifully well as 450 men did. They had luxury of many hands. Everybody could do their little part very well, as well as possible.

They had plenty of time, plenty of manpower. And they did all kinds of, how would we call them? Tricks. Everything possible to please their God.

And I've heard a saying from the old, old believers where they said that where the faith ends, the tricks begin. If you have to please God by your own works, it shows even in the outward actions.

I've seen, and I remember it very clearly, I've seen a very self-righteous person go to the communion decades ago. And the person was so careful that it even caught my eye.

And I followed this lady preparing to go to the communion. And I remember it very well because I took a photo of this communion table from behind, far from behind.

And this lady was so offended and she would have wanted to break my camera. And she was very offended that I took a photo of that.

I still don't fully understand the mindset of that. Why? But one element I know, for her, this was her work to God.

And in some ways, she felt that she was not confessing faith, she was a worldly person. So she felt like I ruined her show, her something, what she was doing.

I remember it very clearly, although it's decades ago. And I didn't expect that to happen at all. I was very surprised by her attack.

But I've thought about that a lot. But oftentimes, for her, the communion table was more than we think it was.

For us, it's precious. It is God's gift for us. It is the closest reminder for us of what God has done for us.

But it's also the closest reminder for us how we cannot please God with our works. There in the table, the Lord God serves us.

We who serve you today are only servant boys. We only serve this visible part. God serves you there in the table.

God wants to encourage you to believe. God wants you to remember how he has done everything for you. How your and our faith is based only on his merit work.

It's a reminder. But for this lady, obviously, it was also a table of forgiveness of sins. That by receiving this bread and wine, she received the forgiveness, the absolution of her sins.

And maybe that was the reason why she was so offended. I don't know.

But it just came to my mind when I thought about these prophets, the idol of Baal, how they wanted to please their God.

What they did, how they, as it says, they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them.

They were jumping and screaming for hours. And obviously because of the fatigue, they came unto some kind of a trance and nothing happened.

And how could something happen? Idol means a dead God or a dead object.

There is one God. There are no other Gods. There is one Godhead who operates and reveals himself in three different ways.

And one way was the way that Elijah operated. Through man.

Those people before this did not believe that God works through him. They saw in him just a man whom they called prophet.

They, for sure, they had respect on him because of his teaching. But they did not believe that God operates through him.

They did not believe, they could not believe that some man, some human could have the spirit of living God.

And that's strange. Because it seemed that for them it was easier to see or believe that those man-made statues or raised up stones and groves, man-made groves were, were tall trees growing on the hilltops.

That God is there. Why is it easier to believe on man-made things than God's spirit? That's how man is.

But God works and operates through his spirit. And in this day, it became reality.

In the end, in the evening, all day long those false prophets had tried. And finally, Elijah said, come unto me.

People left from the place of those false prophets, idolaters. I don't know what they did. Did they stop or did they still try? Or did they also come to see what's going to happen in the future? What's going to happen in where Elijah went?

And what did Elijah do? He had men dig big trenches around this altar. He built the altar.

And he put there, as God had said in his word, twelve stones. God gave very precise, very precise instructions to the Old Testament believers how to build an altar.

God said, do not touch these stones with your tools. Don't make them look nicer. Take twelve stones and build an altar of them.

Even that was forbidden to touch or to chisel them, to make them fit nicer or look nicer.

Man's work was not needed nor allowed in the work of building the altar. Twelve stones.

And that's what he did.

And then he dressed the bullock, possibly hastily, possibly clumsily, possibly not so well as this big group had done.

I don't know what people thought in their hearts. Did it look like, oh, what a pathetic try. This one man only there, trying to do this all thing which those wild prophets did so beautifully.

And if it didn't work for them, how could it work for this guy?

But he wanted the trenches to be dug around. And he had huge amounts of water to be used for the water.

And he had to do it. And he had to use water to be carried there so that everything was wet, dripping wet.

And then even the trenches were full of water.

And then he said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel.

That's one thing. Let it be known that you are the God.

Second thing, and that I am thy servant.

And the third, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

A servant is not greater than his master. A servant cannot do anything more than the master. He cannot do more than the master allows.

And the servant is not supposed to add or subtract anything of what the master gives.

The servant is a mouthpiece. The servant has to be obedient. Not to follow any other ideas.

But what God gives to his spirit in his congregation.

And then he continued. And he said, Hear me, O Lord. Hear me, that these people may know that thou art the Lord God. And that thou hast turned their heart back again.

That was the prayer. That was the prayer.

And we know that was a prayer of the heart. He prayed sincerely in distress. Maybe even doubting.

It's hard to understand how he must have felt. All day long he has been following those false, what was going on around the other altar. The false altar.

Maybe it encouraged him. Maybe it tired him. I don't know.

One thing that I know is that we are even doubtful prayers. When we pray, we may doubt at the same time.

Oftentimes we are full of doubts, full of fear, full of weakness. Even when we pray in our plight, we may doubt.

It may have been the situation here. Elijah was just a man. He was called by God and gifted by God with many gifts.

And I don't know, but when I think of myself, how weak and doubtful I often times am.

And that's the prayer that he said. Nothing else was needed. No dancing. No, no, not an outward show was needed.

Then the fire of the Lord fell. So it happened immediately. Right there.

And it consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust.

And licked up all the water. So everything disappeared before their eyes.

Nobody could say that that was a trick. Nobody could say that, oh, that's your opinion. That's how you see.

It happened right there and then. That was God's show of what is true and what's false.

What does this teach unto us? To me it teaches it pays to fear God. It pays to be humble.

And it also teaches that God is powerful. God is mighty. He is almighty. He can. We can't, but He can.

So it pays to fear God and to pray for His guidance and blessing.

Jesus said, seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened. Ask, and it shall be given.

Even in these times when we feel troubled, when we feel burdened, when we feel how the enemy works feverishly, even around and amongst his own, God's own.

And we may fear that, how do I know? If I hear two understandings, how do I know which one to believe? Because both cannot be right.

What is true, what's false.

Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all other things shall be added unto you.

How do we seek for God? Pray. Pray with a sincere heart. Humble your minds and hearts.

Pray before the Almighty God and He will lead you.

If you are weak, good. God knows how to handle the weak ones.

If you fear your sinfulness, God, let God help you. God knows how to operate with sinful, weak, poor sinners.

But may God keep us from growing strong, confident, trusting in my understandings.

May He keep our hearts tender and our ears tender to hear and to listen.

And may He also protect us from anger and pride because they are not from God.

Dear brothers and sisters, uplift your hearts and believe your sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

And be of good cheer. God loves His own, protects His own, and guides His own.

He guides His congregation throughout all the turmoil of this world.

God protects you.

And I would also need, I want to hear the same gospel. Can I believe my sins forgiven? I want to believe together with you.

In Jesus' name, Amen.