The Throne Of Grace (part 2) - [Hebrews 4:16]

Well, if you had to describe Christianity with one word, what word would you use?

Describing all of Christianity, maybe you might say Jesus, but I would think that Paul

would say the word righteousness.

Doing right things, God is the creator and he expects his creation to do

right and to do things righteously.

Of course, because of the fall, we are unrighteous, we have self -righteousness.

But God still demands perfect obedience.

He has said that you do this and live, that the doers of the law shall be justified, so

someone has to do the law.

And so that person is the Lord Jesus Christ, eternally God, eternally

the Son of God, and then he adds human flesh at the incarnation, and he does everything rightly.

He perfectly, righteously obeys the law in our place, on our behalf, in our stead,

dies on the cross for our unrighteousness, our self -righteousness, and is raised from the dead.

And so if I wanted to describe Christianity with one word, it would be the word righteousness.

If I wanted to describe Christianity in two words, it would be sin and the Savior.

We have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, yet Jesus never sinned, he perfectly obeys

and he dies on behalf of sinners and is raised from the dead, and those who trust in him have eternal life.

If I wanted to describe Christianity in three words, it would be guilt, grace,

and gratitude.

We stand before God as guilty, sin one time and you're held guilty for all the law, breaking

it, James 2 .10.

But God is gracious by nature, and He saves sinners.

They don't deserve it.

It's not just unmerited favor, it's, as Sinclair Ferguson calls it, demerited favor,

and He graciously gives salvation to all those who would believe, and the response is

gratitude.

So you could probably describe Christianity as righteousness, sin and the Savior, or guilt,

grace, and gratitude.

I know some of you are already thinking, what about four words?

Okay, for you, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And since God has saved the unrighteous, He saved the self -righteous, He saved the

sinful by the grace of God and punished Jesus in our place because He loves sinners that

much that Jesus, He loves sinners so much, He obeyed the Father and was obedient to

death, even to the death on the cross, and the Spirit of God involved too.

What should be our response?

Yes, thanksgiving, yes, praise, but one of the best responses, one of the most important responses

when it comes to salvation and for your own sanctification is prayer.

God speaks to us in His Word, and we speak to God through prayer.

Now, here's my next question.

Why do you pray?

What are the motivations for your prayer life?

If you'll take your Bibles, the one I want to show you today is because you can.

You can pray, God hears because of His graciousness, He is a Father, and you can actually pray

and be heard.

Two ways to think about prayer's motivation today, number one, you can pray, and number two, God

answers.

The book of Hebrews, please, in the New Testament, it has to be probably the most Christ -centered book in all the Bible.

I know from Genesis to Revelation, there's a theme of the law and the prophets and the gospels and the

epistles, it's all Jesus Christ is the Messiah, but if you had to crystallize one book that just shouts

out, that screams out, Jesus is great, He's not just a great prophet, He's not just a great king,

but He's a great what? Priest.

This is the book, the book of Hebrews.

If you're visiting me today, we're just marching through Hebrews, chapter by chapter, verse by

verse, sometimes word by word, but I want you to remember and be reminded of,

although I'm going fairly slowly, I could go slower,

I just want you to know that.

Remember MacArthur one time, he said, the whole sermon is going to be the first word today in the book of Romans,

Paul.

That's all we did.

And remember that New England preacher who preached for 40 years?

That's right, for 40 years, not all at once though, and he started in

Isaiah chapter one and finished in Isaiah eight, 40 years, it took him to do eight chapters.

So we are going so fast, it's not even funny.

It's lightning speed.

Hebrews starts off just with a proverbial bang, and even if you notice, to remind

you, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last

days, He spoke unto us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He

created the world.

He, the Son, is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature, and He

upholds the universe by the word of His power.

After making purification for sins, He, Jesus, works done.

He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much

superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

When I hear preaching, sometimes preachers start off so fast, so much enthusiasm, so

high to start, they have nowhere to go.

I'm thinking, if we're already going to start at volume 10 now, where are we going to go?

But it's fascinating with the book of Hebrews, and remember, it's kind of a sermon.

It's a letter sermon.

He starts off with a bang.

He doesn't slowly lead into His subject.

He doesn't have any kind of attention getting illustration of the world.

It's all about Jesus, and it doesn't stop until the very end.

Chapter 8, verse 1, now the point in what we are saying is this, we have such a high priest who is seated

at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

Everything about this book is that Jesus is the mediator.

He is the priest.

There has to be a go between the Father and His thrice holy character and being,

and sinful man, and Jesus is that God man.

And what does God want out of this?

What does He want from you?

To do good?

To do religious things?

To be good?

No, He wants faith, faith in the good one, faith in the one who perfectly keeps the law.

And let me just show you, before we get into our passage today specifically, the response found to

Jesus' high priesthood in the book of Hebrews.

I'll give you just a few examples.

Hebrews 4, 2.

What is the response?

Is it pilgrimage?

Is it self -denial?

Is it asceticism?

Is it Ezekiel 4, 9 bread?

What is it?

And you laugh, but we have people in that city right over there that think their relationship with God is based on what they eat

or what they don't eat.

What is the response?

That Jesus is a great high priest and saves sinners.

Chapter 4, verse 2, for good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not

benefit them.

Why?

Because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

The response God wants is, you have two options, perfect obedience to the law, since

that's out.

He wants you to have faith in the one who perfectly obeyed the law.

The response to Jesus' high priesthood is what?

I believe, I trust, I have confidence in, remember we just sang that song,

confidence.

It's got inside of that word confidence is that Latin word fide, faith.

Look at chapter 6, it's the same thing, sprinkled all throughout Hebrews, Jesus is the high priest and your

response is faith.

Hebrews 6, 1, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.

Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward

God.

Chapter 6, verse 12, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through

faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews chapter 10, it's the same thing.

The refrain is similar.

Hebrews 10, 22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of,

what if it was obedience?

What if it was works?

What if it was merit?

God's standard is not just that'll do, it's perfect, perpetual, entire

obedience.

So if the response to God as your creator and savior is obedience, we're doomed, but if it's trusting in the obedient one,

well then we have hope.

Hebrews 10, 38, but my righteous one shall live by faith

and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

Verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith

and preserve their souls.

And then chapter 11, of course, you know that great chapter.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet

seen.

For salvation, there is nothing that has to be done by you, it has been done by God and you trust in him.

Because if it had to be done by you, how is that working out for you?

Even if you say, you know what, let's just put a scenario together.

Somebody gets charged for murder and they come before the judge and the judge says, we have you on video camera, we have these

eyewitnesses, you know, you're caught dead to right, the DNA evidence, and the judge says, you know, how do you

plea?

And the person says, well, you know what, I'm 40 years old and for 40 years I've never murdered anybody.

And therefore my good should outweigh my bad.

I know for that split second I murdered the person, I confess it, but I haven't murdered anybody for 40 years, I've only murdered

somebody for one second.

What would you say?

But that's how we treat Christianity.

We work and work and work and work and work and work and work and how much do we have to work and then we have that one bad thing, but our good

outweighs the bad.

But God's perfection is holiness, righteousness, justice, and to get into God's

holy heaven, you have to be holy and righteous and just perfectly.

It's impossible for us to do that, that's why although the first Adam fails, the second Adam

comes along, Jesus the last Adam, and he perfectly obeys.

He never murders, not for 40 years, not for 4 million years.

And the writer of Hebrews wants everyone here, including me, to therefore trust in him, to have hope in

him, to have no confidence in the flesh, because when we do that, our standards are always too low.

They're not high enough and high standards are perfection.

Sometimes on bad days I'll watch like a fail video, you know, on YouTube,

and just type in high hurdles fail.

I think the Germans have a word for this, about laughing at someone else's pain.

They do, I won't pronounce it.

Trying to hurdle over the law of God.

It's just one fail after another after another.

That's why you have to have faith in the one that did not fail.

And so the argument of Hebrews is this, although you might be struggling, although you might be

persecuted, although you might be going through trials, you might be tempted to go back to your old religion with the

smells and the bells and the Latin, and the temple and the marble and the gold,

and the comparisons where I'm not as bad as the other person.

Don't go back, there's no hope for you if you go back.

If you turn your back on the Lord Jesus, there's no hope.

I like that.

20 years ago I might not have, but I'm already kind of in grandpa mode.

Doesn't bother me at all, as long as they're young.

When some of the deacons start talking back, we're in trouble.

So now we come back to chapter 4 and we're in verse 16.

Do you remember?

Probably one of your favorite verses in Hebrews.

Even if you're unfamiliar with the book of Hebrews, you'll love this verse.

But when you're more familiar with Hebrews, you love it all the more.

And it says, let us then with confidence, with faith, with trust,

not only trust in who the Lord is, but draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace

to help in time of need.

Christian, you can pray because of the Lord's intercessory work.

Why should you pray?

You can.

Now, left to ourselves, we just think we can kind of just saunter into God's presence, ask Him for anything.

But there's only one way that you have access to God, and that is because of the work of Christ Jesus.

Does any sinner, does any unrighteous person, does any self -righteous person really think they have

worthiness to just go and have access to God?

No, it's only because of what Christ has done.

He has turned, as we said last week, the no -trespassing sign into the welcome mat.

Not based on you, because that would have to be perfection, but based on the work of another who did

perfectly live.

There's no more veil in the temple.

There's no more temple building.

You have access to the Father through the Son by the Spirit of God, access.

And by the way, remember, we looked at it last week, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace?

That's in the present tense.

It's not just when you're really obedient.

It's not just after you've done all God's requirements.

You have access to God anytime you'd like, just like a father wants access or grants access

to his children anytime they would like to come to him.

Did not Jesus say, I am the way, the truth, and the life?

No one comes to the Father but through me.

And if you go through him, you therefore positively have access.

Boldly going into this holy of holies, as it were, with confidence.

Last time we looked at three aspects of this.

The first was with confidence, and with a little review, verse 16, then with confidence draw

near.

It doesn't just say draw near, but let us draw near with confidence, approaching God,

knowing you're good with God.

Why?

Based on what you did this week?

How was your prayer time?

How was your devotional life?

No, based on Jesus, because his prayer life was perfect, his devotional life was perfect.

You approach God on the basis of another, so you have confidence.

He's not going to reject you.

Remember the Old Testament scenario where the priest would have the bells around him, this is tradition, and the

rope, and he would go into the holy of holies that once a year in Yom Kippur, and if you didn't hear the bells,

and you would pull the dead person out because this dead priest had sinned that he didn't confess?

Well, here's the picture.

Jesus goes in the holy of holies.

He doesn't need bells.

He doesn't need rope.

He's perfectly going to obey.

He's sinless.

He's blameless.

He's perfectly obedient to the law, God's law, and he just walks into the throne of

grace to the mercy seat as your representative.

Gentiles couldn't walk in there.

Pagans couldn't walk in there.

Female Jews could not walk in there.

Male Jews could not walk in there, but one priest on one day of the year could, and he had fear.

He had trembling, except now Jesus dies on the cross, and he's been raised from the dead, and now we

have access.

Why pray, Christian?

Because you can.

Since therefore, brethren, Hebrews 10, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the

blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is,

his flesh.

You say, well, I'm in a hard position in life.

Do I still have free access?

We know the answer.

I'm backslidden in life.

Is there access to God based on the blood of Christ?

You know the answer.

I'm struggling in my marriage.

Is there still access to God?

You know the answer.

Esther.

On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace in front of the king's quarters while

the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace.

And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he

held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand.

Why did he do that?

She, the queen, could not just saunter on up to the king.

She had to be given permission to even go up to the king.

Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

You can now approach me if you'd like, queen.

So here's how you think about it.

In the person and work of Christ Jesus, the scepter has been given to you.

You may approach the king.

Present tense always.

And where do you go?

The throne of judgment, remember from last week?

Not the throne of judgment, not the throne of punishment.

Draw near to the throne of, isn't that great?

Grace.

That's grace.

Anytime you'd like, you get to approach the throne of grace.

Tyndale translated this in a very interesting fashion.

Also translated in the great Bible, 1539, same rendering.

He didn't translate it, the throne of grace.

He translated it, the seat of grace.

It's the same thing.

You go there when you need grace.

He could have translated it, go to the mercy seat.

Remember the mercy seat?

If that priest would go into the middle of the Holy of Holies, and you would see that box there with the gold on

top and the cherubim on top.

And inside that ark, inside that box would be Aaron's rod.

Inside that box would be manna.

Inside that box would be the Ten Commandments.

And God sees those Ten Commandments, and He sees all His people breaking those Ten Commandments.

But God doesn't see, the picture is, the Ten Commandments being broken by His people when there's something put on

the top of that cover, something on the top of that mercy seat.

And what is that?

Blood.

The blood is put on top, and therefore God says, what has been broken,

wages of sin is death.

There must be death.

Instead of killing the people, since I'm a God of grace, I kill the animal and sprinkle that on top instead

through the priest.

That's the picture, that's the idea, except it's not an animal that you have to kill every year.

Once and done.

And what do you get when you approach the throne of grace?

It shouldn't shock us.

What's the text say?

To find grace.

It'd be odd to find something besides grace at the throne room, that we may receive mercy

and find grace to help in time of need.

And what's the difference between mercy and grace there?

There's probably some overlap.

If you had to make a difference, mercy in Hebrews talks about forgiveness of

sins.

Hebrews 8, 12, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no

more.

So you go and there's forgiveness found, mercy, and then you're in a trial, you're in a temptation, you're in a difficulty,

there's grace for you.

That's probably the nuances of the word.

There's forgiveness and there's help at the right time.

Thomas Watson, the Puritan, wrote, prayer as it comes from the saints is but weak and

languid.

But when the arrow of a saint's prayer is put into the bow of Christ's intercession, it

pierces the throne of grace.

I said this to you before, and I could convict myself just as much.

I mean, the Bible does say, pray without ceasing.

We should be convicted when we aren't prayerful.

It is a response to God, it is a duty, it is a command for Christians, not to increase their status

before God, but because they are children, we are children.

But when your prayer life is weak and languid, you think to

yourself, Jesus didn't fail in His priestly sacrifice, He didn't fail in His priestly intercession.

Richard Sibbes, the Puritan, wrote, we may have a heart sprinkled with the blood of Christ now, ascend into heaven, answer all

objections, and triumph against all enemies.

We may go boldly to God and demand the performance of His promises.

That's pretty amazing.

Not because my prayer life is so great, but because the one who's the

mediator, his life is great.

Now, how would Paul talk about this?

Some people think Hebrews is written by Paul.

Turn to Ephesians.

I know Hebrews has complications on who wrote it, but Ephesians, no

complications.

Let's see what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2.

Do we have access to God?

Is it a big deal?

Should we just think it's no minor issue, or should we say, I have access to God.

I can pray, period, I can pray.

God will hear me.

I mean, you go to an idol and you pray to the idol.

Does it hear you?

Does it answer?

It might have eyes, but it can't see.

It might have ears, but it can't hear.

Does God answer prayer?

How does God answer prayer?

Answer, through the priestly mediation of Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2 .11.

And by the way, do you see what the writers are doing here in Scripture?

I love to go to Scripture because I have problems in my life.

I have issues in my life.

I have unresolved things in my life.

And all of a sudden, I think, you know what?

Okay, I'll come to church today, and here's what I want from the pastor.

Can you just give me a life hack?

That's all I want.

I just need to get through the day tomorrow through a life hack.

I'm not going to give you a life hack.

Because if I had the life hack, you'd already have the life hack.

And then I would tell you, but it's obvious by your performance and mine, you're not doing the life hacks.

Sorry, did I just say that?

You're New Englanders.

We can take it.

There's no life hacks here.

It's all, let me impress upon you who Jesus is.

This is not how you cut watermelon in such a way with a life hack that you can get the rind so it doesn't hit your cheeks.

I saw that life hack, by the way.

It's cool.

But that's not what you want from the pulpit.

Tell me about who Jesus Christ is.

I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him what?

Crucified.

That's what we need.

Ephesians 2 .11, you see the Pauline equivalent of Hebrews chapter 4.

You can pray because you can.

I believe this is the first command in the book of Ephesians.

He's talked about how God elects, and how the Son redeems, and how the Spirit seals.

He's talked about how the church should be the focus of this exaltation of Christ Jesus and the triune

God.

And now he says in Ephesians 2 .11, therefore, remember

that you, formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, all you non -Jews who are called the

uncircumcision by the so -called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands.

What's he trying to say in Ephesians 2 .12?

Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ.

If you have no Jesus, this is the Gentile.

This is the non -Jew.

This is the unbeliever.

Separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no

hope, and without God in the world.

So what's the writer Paul want you to do?

Could you just stop for a second in the middle of all the things that you're doing, and just say to yourself, if it wasn't for

Jesus, I'd have no hope for the future, no hope in this world,

excluded from God, separate from Christ.

But now, verse 13, the privileged position now that you have because of Christ's work,

now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, Gentiles, have been brought near

by the blood of Christ.

Not by you, not by anyone else, not by good works, but by the blood of Christ, by the vicarious death of

Christ Jesus.

Instead of seeing that little Dante sign above hell in his poem that says, abandon

hope all ye who enter here, by virtue of union with Christ and trusting in Christ,

you have all hope who enter in through here, in through Christ Jesus.

Verse 14, Paul extols this one who grants us access.

For he himself, that's emphatic.

It could just say for he, but he himself is our peace, who made both groups

into one, Jew and Gentile, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.

Jesus, he himself is our peace, he and no one else.

And his name will be called Prince of Peace.

And in Jewish writing, remember, it's not just absence of war, it's presence of

something.

The presence of God and his blessings poured out, we get it all.

And he made both groups into one, he's talking about the church.

Verse 15, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances,

that he himself might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.

He is peace, establishes peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross

by it having put to death the enemy, the enmity rather, excuse me.

And now we come to the verse.

What's it all leading up to?

It leads up to 2 .18, but I'll read verse 17 first.

And he came and preached peace to those, or to you who are far away, and peace to those who are near.

And now we come to verse 18 that Lloyd -Jones calls one of the greatest and most glorious statements that's found in

all the scripture.

For through him, we both have our, here's the point, access in

one spirit to the Father.

You pray because you can.

Look at chapter 3, verse 12 of Ephesians, he can't get over it.

Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles in whom we have boldness and access with

confidence through our faith in him.

You, Christians, should pray because you can.

And let me give you another reason you should pray, is because God answers.

Wasn't that long ago some of us were standing on the mountain range of Carmel, Mount Carmel.

And it reminded me of a picture of a God who answers prayer.

And I'd like you to turn to that chapter, 1 Kings chapter 18.

1 Kings 18, we're going to go to Mount Carmel and see what happens to this God who answers prayer.

It's not original, but I will quote it anyway.

This is Elijah's challenge to the priest of Baal, and at some times called

the showdown at the OK Carmel.

It's pretty good, I like that.

It's like when I heard somebody preach John chapter 3 one time with Nicodemus.

Remember by night Nicodemus went, and I heard a guy preach it, and he called it Nick at night.

I thought, but then that's the only thing I remember.

No, it's Jesus who goes to Nicodemus.

I've heard preach from this pulpit, not by me or any people that are here now, but they did Ephesians chapter 2, 1 to 3, dead in

trespasses and sins, and they called it Natural Born Killers.

It was an older movie.

Don't look it up.

Okay, Elijah, 1 Kings 18.

Who wrote 1 Kings?

Could have been a prophet, could have been Jeremiah.

We know the divine author, of course.

And there's an issue going on, and it's an issue of rain.

And it's an issue of three years and six months, no rain.

And Ahab is furious, and Elijah is to be blamed.

This account actually is in James chapter 5.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain.

And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

Why do I bring up Elijah?

Because James brings it up and says, by the way, Elijah prayed.

He was frail, he was weak, he was sinful.

He prayed, but God answered.

So when you read 1 Kings 18, you should be thinking, this is the God who answers prayer.

Chapter 1, verse 1 of chapter 18 of 1 Kings, it came about after many days that the word of the Lord came

to Elijah in the third year, saying, go show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.

That's how the chapter starts, and of course, Elijah is confident in God.

It would be a frightful thing to go before this king, and you're the one to blame for this

drought.

And there's some discussion with Ahab and Obadiah, a different Obadiah, not the writer of our book Obadiah.

And there's an argument, and is it really Elijah, and what's going on?

And it says in verse 15, Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will

surely show myself to him today.

Don't be afraid, I'm going to go there, I'll keep my word, Obadiah, don't worry.

Obadiah goes to Ahab, tells him, and now Ahab goes to meet Elijah.

Verse 16, we come to our passage for this morning.

And it came about when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, is this you, you troubler of Israel?

I mean, you're a curse, you're taboo, you cause trouble.

You're the one to blame, not just troubling me, but all of Israel.

And he said, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have.

This is kind of back at you in your face.

Because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord.

And not only that, and you have followed the Baals.

These shrines, this awful God who requires awful things, a God of lightning and

thunder and rain, and you're going to worship Him?

It's not raining, so what do you do instead of asking God who's alive, you're going to ask these Baal gods for rain?

Now then, send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel,

together with 450 prophets, verse 19 of Baal, and 400 prophets of Asherah, the female equivalent,

who eat at Jezebel's table, the ones she's responsible for, that are in her

clique, if you were.

Go to this place called Carmel.

Carmel means park -like, it's beautiful.

Who's been to Carmel?

Bill has.

Good.

At least someone has.

Who's been to the Shepherds Conference?

Let's see who's really God.

Now, the key to unlock this chapter is found in one word, and it's the word answer.

Answer, answer, answer, answer, answer, answer.

The false gods, they don't answer.

The real God, He answers.

Answer, answer, answer, answer.

You should be writing at the top of this in your Bible, 1 Kings 18, answer, and it'll unlock it for you.

Is there a God who responds?

Is there a God who answers?

The God who answers is really God.

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you hesitate between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow Him.

If Baal, follow him.

But the people did not answer a word.

Here's how we would say it in our English language.

How long are you going to sit on the fence?

The technical language is, how are you going to limp along?

How are you going to, you know, what side of the crutch are you going to lean more on?

You've got this side of the crutch, that side of the crutch just limping along.

It doesn't do any good.

And the problem here was not some people worshiped Baal and some people worshiped Yahweh.

It was some people worshiped both.

Because that's the way you did religion back in those days.

We'll take a little bit of Baal, a little bit of Ashtaroth, and a little bit of Yahweh.

And he said, no, it's all or nothing.

But the people did not answer him a word.

They're convicted.

The indecision of the people, the hesitation of the people, the mixed mindedness of the people.

Psalm 119, I hate those who are double minded.

Some allegiance here, some allegiance there.

Be the same thing now for people.

I trust in God a little bit, and I trust in my credit card some.

I trust in God a little bit, and I trust in my own brains a little bit.

I trust in God a little bit, and I trust in my own education a little bit.

There's no neutrality, no sitting on the fence spiritually.

Stop limping along.

You can even hear Jesus' words, can't you, in Revelation 3?

So because of you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Can't you hear Jesus when he says in Matthew 12, he who is not with me is against me.

The sin of Israel was not rejecting Yahweh and stiff arming him, but saying I'm going to combine his worship with

these other kings.

Now I know I'm going to mess up my timeline some.

Here's Elijah, and he is on the mountain tops of Carmel, this ridge, with a here I

stand Martin Luther moment.

Did you get the time frame right?

No one can serve two masters.

Pick one or the other.

Verse 22, then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450.

If you were Ahab, would you like the odds?

There's going to be a duel.

That's pretty good odds.

Now let them give us two oxen, verse 23, and let them choose one ox for themselves, cut it up, place it on the wood, put

no fire on it.

I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it.

Then, don't forget the key word, then you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord.

And the God who answers by fire, He is God.

And all the people answered and said, that's a good idea.

If you want more colloquialisms, fighting fire with fire,

that's what's going to happen.

Hey, Baal's a fertility God, Baal's a lightning God, Baal's a rain God, Baal's a fire

God, but so is God.

Psalm 18, lightning flashes in abundance, and God routes them.

He makes His winds, His messengers, flaming fire, His ministers.

Which fire God is going to win?

450 to 1.

You can tell who's already in charge here.

It's not Ahab, it's not the other priest, it's not the astros priest, it's all Elijah.

Verse 25, so Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose one ox for yourself, prepare it first for your many, call on the name of your God,

put no fire under it.

It's going to be a clash.

And Elijah wants Baal eradicated, Elijah wants Baal gone, Elijah wants

no more allegiance to Baal, only for God.

God is a jealous God and Elijah is a jealous prophet.

Then they took this ox, verse 26, which was given them, they prepared it and called on the name of Baal

from morning until noon.

You're going to get hoarse doing this.

Oh Baal, what?

There's that word again, answer us.

But there was no voice and no one answered.

And so what do you do?

You got to get his attention.

And they leaped about the altar, which they made.

They're jumping around, they're running around.

Nothing has gone right for them.

No celestial fire, no answer, and the dancing gets wilder.

And by the way, Elijah gets wilder too.

And what does he say?

He mocks them, he's sarcastic.

It came about at noon, these guys are tired, they're hoarse, they're sweaty.

Elijah mocked them and said, call out with a loud voice, for he's a God, either he's occupied

or gone aside or he's on a journey, perhaps he's asleep and needs to be awakened.

That is so good, that is the best.

That's like Mae West saying to somebody, his mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.

I mean, that is the best.

That is like Billy Wilder who said, he has Van Gogh's ear for music.

That is the best.

That is like Mark Twain saying, I didn't attend the funeral but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.

This is sarcastic ridicule.

You see people taunting during basketball games and somebody's got to shoot a free throw and people under the court with the

signs and with all the kind of chanting and ridiculing.

Your God should be awake by now, it's noon after all, had a hard night last night.

There's no God named Baal who's real.

Cry, shout, yell, jump.

He's not gonna answer, no answer.

Actually, one of the things he does here, he says maybe he's occupied, NAS says.

Literally that's relieving himself in one translation.

Maybe your God's not here because he's in the bathroom.

Mocking.

I would imagine if I was one of those false gods and now Elijah starts mocking, what do you do?

You wanna try to prove him wrong.

He's saying my God's in the outhouse.

My God's a failure, my God's not God.

I'm imagining it's louder and louder.

Yes, in fact, it's true, verse 20.

So they cried out with a loud voice.

Now how do you get God's attention?

We're gonna cut ourselves.

Cut ourselves according to the custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

Maybe God would be merciful now.

Isn't it wild that they're thinking there has to be some merit to shedding of blood?

They're actually right in that.

It's built into the system of the fabric of humanity.

The wages of sin is death and without the shedding of blood, there's what?

No remission of sin.

But they've got the wrong God, they got the wrong object of their faith and no matter how much ecstasy, how much running around, how many

self -inflicted wounds and sacrifice, not gonna work, verse 29.

And it came about when midday was passed that they raved until the time of the offering of evening sacrifice.

Look for your key word, beloved.

And there was no voice and no one answered and no one paid attention.

You can yell at a scarecrow for a long time and it's not gonna talk back to you.

Then Elijah said to all the people, six hours later, come near to me.

All the people came near to him.

He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.

Notice how calm this is?

Wild, chaotic, frenzy, bleeding, yelling, jumping, dancing, commotion,

calm, serene.

There's a God who answers.

Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come saying Israel

shall be your name.

Symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel.

And so with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord.

And he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed.

Let's make it harder and harder.

He arranged the wood, cut the oxen pieces, laid it on the wood, fill four pitchers of water, pour it on

the burnt offering and on the wood.

There's gonna be no spontaneous combustion here.

Do it a second time.

Do it a third time.

Water everywhere flowing around the altar, filling the trench with water.

Then it came about at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said,

oh Lord Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that you are God

in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word.

No jumping, no jiving, no screaming, no cutting.

He prays to a God who answers.

Answer me, oh Yahweh.

Answer me that this people may know that you, oh Yahweh, are God and that you have turned

their heart back again.

Short prayer.

20 seconds compared to six hours of jumping and cutting.

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the

dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.

At the exact perfect moment, striking with lightning like power, one man said,

God answered and it was such an answer.

God answers with fire, regularly judges, the flame went up from the altar toward heaven.

First Chronicles 21, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of the burnt offering.

Second Chronicles seven, now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt

offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

Verse 39 of first Kings and we close, 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, the

Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal did not let one of them escape.

So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the book of Kishon and slew them there.

Congregation, you ought to pray because you can.

And you ought to pray because God answers prayer.

And you ought to pray because God answers prayer through the merits of Jesus.

You don't have to fast.

You don't have to put ashes on your forehead.

You don't have to give up anything for Lent.

You don't have to be this perfect person.

You don't have to do anything in advance.

You don't have to jump and cut and jive and run around and scream.

You just have to say, our Father who art in heaven.

God answers prayer.

And you ought to pray because you can.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for our time in your word.

We always have your attention, not only because you're omniscient,

but because you see us in Christ and you love your son with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And he loves you with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your spirit has placed us into the body of Christ.

And therefore, when you see us, you see your son.

And therefore, since he has entree, since he has access, we have not only

access, but we have an introduction into your presence.

And in light of that, Father, would you then help us to pray?

Would you help us to live holy lives, commensurate with our calling, to live our lives worthy of the calling that we

have as sons and daughters?

We get to pray and you answer prayer.

And Father, my particular prayer this morning for Bethlehem Bible Church would be that you would answer the

prayer that if there's anyone here trusting in their own unrighteousness, trusting in their own righteousness, trusting in their

own self -righteousness, trying to relieve sin in some other way, except

by recognizing their own guilt and turning by faith to the high priest, Jesus Christ, the risen savior,

would you grant them repentance this morning?

In his name we pray, amen.