Word of Salvation – Vol.17 No.22 – June 1971

 

The Lord, He is God!

 

Sermon by Rev. A. Nijhuis, B.D. on 1Kings 18:39,40,45a

Scripture Readings: 1Kings 18:36-46; 2Cor. 6:14-18

Suggested Hymns:

Psalter Hymnal  86 116:2 (Procl. grace) 235:7 (Law) 313 169:5,6 361:4

 

You will remember that the people of Israel remained silent after Elijah’s accusation: “How long will you go limping with two different opinions?” and after he had suggested: “If the Lord is God, follow HIM; but if Baal, follow HIM.”

They did not answer him a word.  That was very disappointing indeed.  However, this was not the final word.  The Lord did not turn His back on Israel after they refused to give heed to the word of Elijah.  On the contrary, He continued in His love and mercy to speak to His people in a clear and visible way, by demonstrating His power and His grace to them.  Baal appeared to be powerless to help his worshippers.  He did not answer their prayers, even when they cut themselves with their swords and lances, and the blood gushed out upon them.

There was no voice; no-one answered, no-one heeded.  Exactly the opposite was the case with the Lord, the God of Israel.  When Elijah called upon His Name, He immediately gave answer by sending fire upon the altar-fire that consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

What was the answer of the people of Israel to that mighty and impressive act of the Lord?  Did they still keep silent?  Did they still try to escape a definite choice?

No, they did not.  Just listen: “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said: ‘The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.’”

Today we want to listen to the Word of God in I Kings 18, vss.39, 40 and 45.  The theme of this sermon is:

“THE LORD, HE IS GOD.”

1.  Yes, indeed: finally the mouth of Israel has been broken open after that impressive manifestation of the living God, the Lord of Israel, who answered the prayer of His servant Elijah by sending fire from heaven upon the altar which was built upon Mt. Carmel.

Up till that moment, the people of God had moved about between two worlds trying to combine the service of the living God with the worship of the lifeless Baal.

But now their choice was made.  There was no doubt anymore: “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”

We may speak of a general conversion of the people of Israel, turning away from their idols, to the living God.  Yes indeed, this confession is a proof of the grace and power of the Lord in moving the hearts of these people, who for so long had followed their idols.

Isn’t this great, that all who came together on that Mountain answered that clear revelation of the Lord by their confession “The Lord, He is God”.

Now we may be ready with our criticism and our doubts, and we may ask: do you think this was a true conversion of all those people who were present?  This question may be the beginning of an endless discussion on the genuineness of their conversion.  We may ask: were they really all saved in the true sense of that word?  This way of dealing with the word of God is useless and unwarranted.  We may ask a lot of questions, but we had better leave them because we don’t know the answers.  In this way we are getting in the fog; voicing a lot of presumptions without any foundation.  Some may conclude: yes, the miracle of the fire falling from heaven was the moment of their true conversion.  Others may point to the complaint of Elijah, who – when Jezebel threatened to kill him – fled from the territory of Israel into the wilderness, discouraged because of the uselessness of his work.

However, we have just to listen to the Word of the Lord, and to realize that the secret things belong to the Lord our God and not to us.  We are not able to read the thoughts of the hearts of our fellow-men; still less can we do so concerning those people who lived so many centuries ago.  We have to praise the Lord for this miracle – that He revealed Himself to His people, and that He drew from them this confession: the Lord, He is God.

He was and still is that wondrous God Who in His grace turned His people away from their sin, from their forsaking of His covenant, back to the joy of recognizing Him as the Lord the God of His people.  It is a real miracle that the fire from heaven did not destroy that sinful Israel.  On the contrary, the burnt offering was consumed instead and the people were allowed to live and to glorify the Lord.  Is it not amazing, brethren and sisters, this proof of God’s love beyond our understanding?

It would not have been unfair if Israel had been consumed by that heavenly fire because of their sins, because of their unwillingness to listen to the Lord for the past years.  This did not happen; the people were saved, and the burnt offering was consumed instead.  Here is the gospel, the good news; the Lord did not finish His work of salvation through Israel.  He went on and continued His mercy.  Look, that altar is smoking and the people are alive and confess: The Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God.

It is not too difficult to draw the line from here to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was that burnt offering that was consumed completely for the sins of His people.  We were saved due to His sacrifice.  The fire of heaven hit Him – and all who belong to Him are saved.  They may say again: The Lord, He is God, He is our God, because of that cross on Golgotha; because of the fact that our Saviour was consumed by the fire of His wrath,

It has often been said that Elijah was the prophet of judgement.  However, this is not entirely true; he is also the preacher of the gospel, of free grace; he speaks also of atonement through that burnt offering.  He leads the people to the Messiah to come.  Sure, Elijah was a prophet living in O.T. times – that is, in the times of shadows, of the offering of animals.  They are a picture of Him Who was promised and Who would come: Jesus Christ.

Still, it was the same message: we are saved by grace, by grace alone.  Glory be to God!  And blessed are those who turn to Him from their sins.  Blessed are they who confess His Name, and know Him as their God in Jesus Christ.

2.  When we turn to vs.40 of this chapter, we see that Israel’s confession was confirmed by what they did.  We read there: “And Elijah said to them: seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.  And they seized them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.”

A slightly different version reads as follows: “and Elijah had them brought down to the brook Kishon, and had them killed there.”  This means that the prophet gave the order, but he did not bring them down himself, neither did he kill them himself.  For that matter Elijah said to the Israelites: seize the prophets of Baal.  And that is what they did.  It is most likely that they not only seized the prophets of Baal, but also that they killed them by order of Elijah.

Now we may be ready to conclude: it was a very cruel business anyway, killing all those 450 prophets of Baal.  However, we should never forget that those prophets turned the people away from the living God.  Moreover, we should realize that the Lord Himself commanded in His Word to punish by death all those who served other gods and worshipped them.  (Deut.17:2-7).

And a still more severe punishment was imposed on those who drew others away from the service of the Lord in order to make them serve other gods.  (Deut.13:12-18).  Even the city in which those seducers lived should be utterly destroyed, with all its inhabitants and all its cattle.  Yes, indeed it was very severe punishment.  But we should never forget that it was necessary for the O.T. people to prevent the pure knowledge of the Lord from disappearing.

The future of the whole world was at stake.  It was not just a matter of sticking to certain nice ideas.  That is what many people think, today.  We have to remember that, humanly speaking, the salvation of the world depended on the fact whether the people of Israel, the Church of the O,T., would survive.  You know that the people of Israel had to bring forth the Saviour of the world.

Time and again the danger was there that this people would forget their special place and duty.  In addition, we live in another time; quite a lot of the regulations and rules of the O.T., are not applicable in our days.  Still, we must not overlook the fact that also in our days our salvation depends on the question whether we and our children will be kept in the knowledge of the Lord.  It is still true that all those who reject the Lord and don’t want to fear Him, shall be destroyed.  The gospel is not a matter of nice words or ideas, but it is a matter of life and death, of eternal life and eternal death, of blood and suffering, of faithfulness to the end.

This is yet more important than everything in our life.  Let us not neglect the seriousness of our life.  Faith and the fear of the Lord are not matters to be treated lightly.  Our life here is decisive, and is a preparation for the future.  Jesus Christ is the only Saviour for all of us.  If we refuse to accept Him as our Saviour, there is no hope whatever for us.

Therefore, parents are urged, at the baptism font, to instruct their children and to cause them to be instructed in the Word of God to the utmost of their power,

We must act accordingly, and never get the idea that faith grows automatically.  It does not.  We have to sow; we have to teach and to be an example to our children.  At the same time we must continue in prayer, in order that the Lord may open the hearts of our children for Him.

In vs.40 of 1Kings 18 we read that the Israelites not only confessed with their mouth “The Lord, He is God,” but they also did accordingly.  They seized the prophets of Baal and killed them.  That means, they broke completely with the service of the Baals.

Our Christianity runs the risk of becoming a matter of cheap words and sermons which may be “nice” or “not nice”.  Let us be aware of that danger, and realize that we are called to obey the Lord, not only when He speaks to us directly, but also when He comes to us through His servants.

If we love the Lord, there is only one answer when we are confronted with His Word; to obey, to do accordingly; to turn away from our sins and to turn to the Lord in obedience to Him.  True conversion is not a matter of discussion, but of practice, of daily dedicated living.  Yes, sin is not to be taken lightly.  Remember that our sin meant the killing, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Cruel, indeed, but it is OUR cruelty, because WE are the cause, through OUR sins.  WE are to blame for it, NOBODY else!

3.  Finally, I want to draw your attention to vs.45, where we read: “And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.”

You will remember the cause of the drought in the land of Israel.  It was the consequence of the people leaving the Lord and serving the Baals.  And now we hear the heavens growing black with clouds and wind, and of a great rain.

No, it was not a matter of chance.  People who know the Lord don’t accept such an explanation.  They are taught to see everywhere the hand of the Lord.  In our Catechism, Lord’s Day 10, we confess the providence of God, His care and His doings.  He rules over everything.  Also rain and drought have to listen to His voice and obey Him.  There are no independent forces of nature that act of their own accord.  The Bible does not know of such nonsense.

The drought was in this case a punishment from the Lord, because His people had left Him, their God and Father, and had gone after their idols.  And the rain?  It came back now after the people had made their confession of faith: The Lord, He is God.  After they had made the right choice again and turned to Him Whom they had rejected, He gave His blessings back to His people.

Life is not divided into several different areas, in one of which we have to listen to the voice of the Lord, while the rest is left to ourselves.  In the Bible, life is one.  Our whole life belongs to the Lord.  Life in all its aspects.  Yes, also drought and rain and food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, work and entertainment, the fellowship with the Lord, but also with one another, night and day, Sunday and the days of the week, when we are at school or in our homes, we are the Lord’s.  And everywhere we are called to obey Him, to serve Him.

Now that the people knew the Lord was God, and now that they had shown they wanted to obey Him again, they might also expect the blessings from His hand.  There was a great rain.  Yes, but the believing Israelite was not happy and grateful only for this beautiful rain.  Above all he knew: the broken relationship between the Lord and His people had been restored.  They heard in the pouring-down of the rain the glorious song of His grace and His mercy.  Every rain-drop was a proof that the Lord of the rain had lifted up the light of His countenance upon them.  Yes, more than rain was here.  The Lord Himself had turned His face in favour towards His people.  Those clouds were sure tokens of His mercy.

When we know the Lord as our Father, our whole life becomes different.  It is a glorious life with the Lord.  We may discover His hand everywhere and in all things.  His blessings are not so wonderful as such, but because they are gifts of my caring Father.  Such a life is a real joy.

   Yes even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
   I fear no evil; FOR THOU ART WITH ME.

   “By waters still, o’er troubled seas,
    Still “tis God’s hand that leadeth me.”

Here is the glory of a Christian’s life; not that he may have more than other people; nor that he will have an easy life without trouble: but that he may know the Lord as his father in the Lord Jesus Christ in all his ways,

Yes, this is eternal life.  And, as children of our Father, all things are ours.

When we really confess with our mouth and with our heart: “The Lord, He is God”; when we really walk in His ways, we may be sure of His promise: “Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you” (1Pet.5:7), and also of the fulfilment of that promise.

The rule holds: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Mat.6:33).

Amen.