Good evening, welcome to our services tonight here at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
It's very good to see you all here this evening.
If you'd all please find your seats and take your hymnals and begin with our song service
tonight.
So go to hymn number 392 to begin.
Hymn number 392, a soul winner for Jesus.
Hymn number 392, we'll start together on that first.
Let's sing it out nice and loud together.
Hymn number 392.
Sing it out now.
I want to be a soul winner for Jesus every day.
He does so much for me.
I want to aid the lost and to live in His every way and be from God this spring.
A soul winner for Jesus.
Oh, let me be each day.
A soul winner for Jesus.
He's done so much for me.
I want to be a soul winner and bring the lost in Christ through they His grace may know.
I want to live for Christ ever and do His last name well.
He does so much for me.
A soul winner for Jesus.
Oh, let me be each day.
A soul winner for Jesus.
He's done so much for me.
I want to be a soul winner till Jesus calls for me to lay my burdens down.
I want to hear Him say, search and gather many sheeps, receive a sorry crown.
A soul winner for Jesus.
Oh, let me be each day.
A soul winner for Jesus.
He's done so much for me.
Amen.
Good start to sing tonight.
I've asked for the Thomas collector if you'd like to open this up in a word of prayer, please.
Father in heaven, Lord, thank you for another day.
Thank you for this church and thank you for all the soul winners that are in this church.
Lord, we just ask that you bless our service and bless the preaching to come.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Hymn number 389 is next.
Bring them in. Hymn number 389.
Continue that theme of soul winning.
Hymn number 289 on this verse together now.
Art this the shepherd's voice I hear
Loud in the desert, dark and clear
Falling for sheep who've gone astray
Far from the shepherd's fold away
Bring them in, bring them in
Bring them in from the fields of sin
Bring them in, bring them in
Bring the wandering ones to Jesus
Who'll go and help this shepherd thine
How can the wandering ones to find
Who'll bring the lost ones to the fold
Where there'll be shelter from the cold
Bring them in, bring them in
Bring them in from the fields of sin
Bring them in, bring them in
Bring the wandering ones to Jesus
Out in the desert, here they're crying
Out from the mountains, wild and blind
Art this the Master speaks to thee
Go find thy sheep wherever they be
Bring them in, bring them in
Bring them in from the fields of sin
Bring them in, bring them in
Bring the wandering ones to Jesus
Amen. Good singing.
Alright, this time we will go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10.30.
Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
And this week we're going to be starting a brand new book.
A mystery book that's coming this Wednesday.
It's a book you've been waiting for, so you better just show up just in case.
Otherwise, I don't know what to tell you. What's that?
Yeah, you got a 1 in 66 chance. Actually, you got a better chance than that because
I've already done so many books. I'll give you a hint.
I've never done this book before. Alright, there you go.
So, on the inside we've got the Soul Winning Times on the left there.
There's a small town Soul Winning Praise report about
not very receptive, but one person got saved, so it's worth it for that one salvation.
Some of these are obviously better than others, but
you just got to keep grinding them out because our labor's not in vain.
And then below that, we've got the Navajo Reservation Soul Winning Trip coming up.
And this is also going to include a time of recreation at Monument Valley
which is a world-class destination. Every cowboy
movie in the 19, I don't know, 40s, 50s, 60s
was all filmed there. All the old westerns and everything. They lie and say it's Texas,
but I don't want to bring that up again. But it's actually Arizona.
And then on the back, we've got the Tucson Church Plant
anniversary coming up on September 4th. So, that's
a special day if you wanted to drive down because there's a morning service at 10.30,
there's a potluck lunch at 12.30, and then afternoon service at 3.30.
If you're planning on going, it's best to let them know just so that they'll know how much food
is ready, but you can also just show up. Keep praying for our ladies that are expecting
so that they can have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
And that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the Soul Winning for the past few days.
So, going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? Gotcha.
Anything else from Thursday? What about Friday?
Got it, got it. Anything else from Friday?
What about Saturday? Of course, we have the one. And then what about outside
We've got another one over here. Anything else from Saturday?
And then how about today, Brother Scott? Four for the main group
with Brother Scott. We've got seven and two over here.
Okay, we've got, is that a four? Alright.
Anything else from today? Alright, keep up the great work
on Soul Winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us.
Alright, we're going to sing Psalm 96. You should find the answer in your hymnal there.
Here's your hand. Psalm 96. So, sing unto the Lord.
Sing unto the Lord, for the Lord is great and great to be praised.
He is to be feared, the love of God.
Give unto the Lord, all ye kindreds of people.
Give unto the Lord, glory and strength.
Oh, sing unto the Lord, a new song.
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, blessed is he.
The Lord is salvation from day to day.
For all the gods of the nations are idols.
From the Lord came the heavens.
With honor and majesty are we for him.
Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Give unto the Lord, all ye kindreds of people.
Give unto the Lord, glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord, the Lord do unto his name.
Bring up a ring and come into his court.
Oh, worship the Lord and the beauty of wholeness.
Fear the poor and all the earth.
Stay among the heathen and Lord with.
The world also shall he stand at watch.
That shall not be moved in.
He shall judge the world wide to sleep.
Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad.
Let the sea pour and the fullness stare up.
Let the fields be joyful and all that stare in.
Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.
Before the Lord, for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth.
Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless his name.
Show forth his salvation from day to day.
Amen, good singing. Let's go on your hymnals now to hymn number 396.
396, so little time, the harvest will be over.
Hymn number 396.
Sing all the verses there. Hymn number 396, sing it out on this verse together.
So little time, the harvest will be over.
Our rape can die, we reapers take it home.
We report our work to Jesus, Lord of Harvests.
And hope and smile and laugh and say, Well done.
Today we reap, for this our golden harvest.
Today it's given us lost souls to claim.
Oh, that he saves the new ones from the burning.
Oh, there they'll go to bring some sinner in.
How many times I should have strongly pleaded.
How often did I give to strength reborn.
The Spirit who had a plan for Jesus.
The greatest fallen, lost ones not reborn.
Today we reap, for this our golden harvest.
Today it's given us lost souls to win.
Oh, that he saves the new ones from the burning.
Oh, there they'll go to bring some sinner in.
Despite the heat that's ceaseless for the hardship.
The broken heart for those we cannot win.
This understood because we're all familiar.
And our regrets go out before our sin.
Today we reap, for this our golden harvest.
Today it's given us lost souls to win.
Oh, that he saves the new ones from the burning.
Today they'll go to bring some sinner in.
A day of pleasure or a feast of friendship.
A sword, bar, or garment's fair or king.
We'll all be trashed when souls are brought to heaven.
And then are sad to face the slackers playing.
Today we reap, for this our golden harvest.
Today it's given us lost souls to win.
Oh, that he saves the new ones from the burning.
Today he'll go to bring some sinner in.
The harvest life when we first knew it's facing.
And many souls will die and never know.
The love of Christ, the joy of sin's forgiven.
Oh, let us weep and love and pray and go.
Today we reap, for this our golden harvest.
Today it's given us lost souls to win.
Oh, that he saves the new ones from the burning.
Today they'll go to bring some sinner in.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads 1 Kings chapter 17 starting in verse number 1.
1 Kings chapter 17 the Bible reads,
And Elijah the Tishbite, who is of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab,
As the Lord God of Israel liveth, perform whom I stand.
There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook cherith that is before Jordan.
And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord,
for he went and dwelt by the brook cherith that is before Jordan.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.
And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zion, and dwell there.
Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
So he arose and went to Zarephath.
And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks.
And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink.
And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said,
Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse.
And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said.
But make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail,
until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah.
And she and he and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not,
neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah.
And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house,
fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him.
And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?
Art thou coming to me, to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
And he said unto her, Give me thy son.
And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn,
by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times,
and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber, into the house, and delivered him unto his mother.
And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God,
and that the word of the Lord is in thy mouth his truth.
Thanks.
Dear Father in Heaven, please fill the passage with your spirit.
And I thank you for this evening, and thank you for setting Jesus to die and pay for our sins.
And may we receive wisdom from the sermon this evening. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
Amen. Well this evening I want to continue with the story of Elijah.
This morning we laid the groundwork with the initial story about him prophesying to King Ahab about the years of drought that are coming.
And of course he goes into the wilderness. He's fed by the ravens. Then the brook dries up.
He goes into another country, into Zarephath, the land of the Zydonians, which is just north of Israel.
And he spends time there with the widow woman.
And the meal and the oil don't run out so that they can survive and eat and get through the famine.
Then of course we just read the portion where the woman's son dies and Elijah performs this miracle of bringing the boy back to life.
He prays to God and the boy is raised back from the dead and so forth.
So as we get into chapter 18, we get into the really famous story about Elijah, which is this showdown that Elijah has with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
And this is the most famous story about Elijah.
So you have to understand where we are in the narrative here because three years of famine have gone by.
In fact, the New Testament's a little more precise and says that it's three years and six months.
So for three and a half years, it has not rained and people are starving, there's a famine, the economy is doing really bad and everybody's in bad shape.
And so finally Elijah is going to show himself and come back into the land of Israel, confront Ahab.
And if you think about it, the people of Israel are probably going to be a little bit more receptive to the word of God and to what Elijah has to say after being sort of brought to their knees for the last couple of years through this severe drought and famine.
Because think about it, during times of crisis, people seek after God more than they do at normal times.
If you remember when 9-11 happened, everybody was seeking God for like a few minutes.
But anyway, you know, it's short lived, after a few weeks everybody forgets about it, but it's still a thing.
You know, we were just, Evelyn, we were just talking about this morning the hurricanes in Florida and how people are praying and seeking God when these hurricanes come through because they're so scared about that.
So you know, when you're going through a famine for three and a half years and a drought, then you're going to be in a more humble place at that time.
So the Bible says in verse 1 of chapter 18, it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go, show thyself unto Ahab.
And when it says the third year, it's what we know as three and a half years in, just a different way of looking at things.
And it says, and Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab and there was a sore famine in Samaria.
And remember, Samaria is the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel.
And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house, meaning the governor of Ahab's house.
Elijah doesn't have a house, right? Elijah's been living with the widow woman in Zarephath, but he calls for the governor of Ahab's house.
Now here's what's ironic, is that even though Ahab is this wicked king and he's married to Jezebel, who is way more wicked than he is,
yet the governor of his house happens to be a saved, righteous man.
He actually has this godly man because the Bible says that Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, even though he is running Ahab's house.
It says in verse 4,
For it was so, here's the evidence that he feared the Lord, for it was so when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord,
that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water.
And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all the fountains of water and unto all brooks.
Peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts,
because virtually all the animals are dying and they're trying to save what's left
and try to find some last bit of grazing in the land by following all these brooks and rivers,
trying to see if they can find any grass left that hasn't already been eaten by the animals.
So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it.
Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself.
And as Obadiah was in the way, Behold Elijah met him and he knew him, meaning he recognized him,
and fell on his face and said, Aren't thou that my Lord Elijah?
And he answered him, I am. Go tell thy Lord, Behold Elijah is here.
He said, What have I sinned that thou wouldest deliver thy servant in the hand of Ahab to slay me?
Now let me explain to you what's going on in the story here.
So Obadiah is a godly man, but he doesn't exactly seem to be very public about his faith.
So he's sort of a secret Christian. He's hiding these prophets of the Lord in a cave,
but he doesn't necessarily openly support a man of God like Elijah.
Now when Elijah shows up, he goes to Obadiah, who is a friend of his, somebody that he knows.
Obadiah looks up to this guy. And so he goes to him and says,
Go tell Ahab to come and meet me. And Obadiah just says, Hey, if you're mad at me, just say so.
But how about you not get me killed by sending me to Obadiah, or sending me to Ahab,
to tell him that Elijah is here. Because Ahab has been frantically looking for Elijah.
That's what's explained in the next few verses here.
That basically he's been sending into foreign countries and trying to get them to extradite Elijah.
He's been searching and searching because he remembers that Elijah is the one who prophesied in verse 1 of chapter 17.
If you remember when we were introduced to him, it said,
As the Lord God liveth before my sand, there should not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
So not only did he promise that there was going to be no rain during that time,
he also mentioned that he had the power to end it.
So he says there's not going to be rain or dew but by my word, meaning,
I have prayed to start this drought, and I am the one who can end it.
So therefore, they're searching for Elijah and trying to find him because they want this to end.
And so Obadiah is scared to death to go tell Ahab, Elijah's ready to meet you, Elijah wants to talk to you,
and then he goes back and Elijah's gone.
And then it's going to be like, why didn't you arrest him right then and there?
Why didn't you, Obadiah, arrest Elijah? Why did you let him go? Are you his buddy or something?
And he is his buddy, but you know, he doesn't necessarily want that to be known
because Elijah is literally public enemy number one right now in Israel.
And so Obadiah is scared to death to have to face Ahab and bring this message from Elijah.
And he explains all this to him, and it says in verse number 13,
this is where Obadiah is kind of telling Elijah his credentials and how godly he is.
And it came to pass as soon as, or excuse me, verse 13,
Was it not told my Lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord,
how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water?
This is basically saying, you know, I've done something for the cause here.
I've done something for the Lord.
I hid a hundred preachers in a cave and fed them with bread and water,
so don't act like I'm not doing enough or that I need to do something else.
I've already done something here, so don't get me killed.
What you're asking me to do right now is too much. It's going to get me killed.
I don't want to do it.
And now thou sayest, verse 14,
Go tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah's here, and he shall slay me.
And Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before my sin I will surely show myself unto him today.
So he convinces him that his fear isn't going to come to pass.
Which, it's kind of an irrational fear if you think about it, isn't it?
Like Elijah shows up and says, hey, go tell Ahab I want to talk to him.
Yeah, but what if I tell him that and then you don't show up and then I'm going to get killed.
Isn't that kind of a silly scenario?
I mean, clearly Elijah's showing up because he wants to meet with Ahab.
He's there to meet with Ahab.
Why is Obadiah coming up with this scenario of like, yeah, but what if you don't show up?
Seems like Obadiah's a little bit scared of his own shadow.
But then again, this is a guy who hides his faith.
And you know, the Bible says that we as Christians should be unashamed of our faith.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
And so there's no reason for us to hide under, hide it under a bushel.
We need to be open about the fact that we're a Christian.
We don't want to be like Peter denying that we know Christ.
And so Obadiah, although he is a man who fears the Lord greatly, he's got some problems too.
Because of the fact that he's just scared of this phantom and he's not being open about what he believes.
Then in verse 17 it says, it came to pass when, or verse 16, sorry.
So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
And he answered, I've not troubled Israel, but thou in thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam.
Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred which eat at Jezebel's table.
So he says, you're the one who troubled Israel, and we need to have a meeting, we're going to have a showdown.
I want you to gather all Israel, I have the power to end this drought, but you have to gather all Israel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred.
So I was kind of thinking about this story in terms of modern day, like who represents who in the story?
So Elijah represents the spirit-filled preacher, preaching hard, unashamed, right?
The actual man of God, and that's who all of us as pastors would aspire to be.
That's what we want to be, that's what we strive to be, we want to be like Elijah, right?
But then there's Obadiah in the story, who does he represent?
Well Obadiah and the hundred guys that are in the cave, they represent other Christian pastors whose doctrine is correct, but they lack boldness.
They lack the fire in their preaching, they're not going to get up and really take it to the enemy.
They're not going to go on the offensive, they're on the defensive.
You know, Elijah's going on the offensive, God is leading him to go on the offensive, whereas Obadiah and his hundred guys are defensive.
You know, they're all so cozy with government, right?
Obadiah works for Ahab, no problem.
You know, it kind of reminds me of a lot of guys in the old IFB, where they're really into being buddies with the police chief, and the mayor, and the governor,
and they believe right, and they've got the right doctrine, but they just don't want to get up and take the public stand, and really preach hard on sin, and really take the wicked of this world's task.
They'd rather be a little bit more low-key about it, and just be on the defense.
And then you've got all Israel, right? Gather unto me, all Israel.
And that just basically represents just the people of this world who can still kind of go either way at this point.
You know, are they going to worship the Lord, are they going to worship Baal, are they going to get saved, are they not going to get saved, right?
So we've got Elijah, which is, and again, we don't have to represent these as pastors, they can just be represented as Christians.
Elijah is the bold Christian. Man, woman, boy, or girl, the bold Christian who's serving God openly.
Obadiah and the hundred are the kind of closet Christian who, at school and at work, it's pretty hard to tell they're a Christian.
They never bring it up. They don't talk about it. They don't necessarily make a big deal out of it.
They're on the defense a lot. They're scared of persecution sometimes that's irrational, that doesn't exist.
And that holds them back from obeying the voice of the Lord in all things.
Then you've got all Israel that could just represent just basically just unsaved people, just people in America that could kind of go either way.
You know, are they going to get saved, are they not going to get saved, they don't know, is it God, is it Baal, we don't know.
Then you've got the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves which represent the false prophets and the reprobates, right?
So these are people who are just super evil, they're demonic, they're reprobate, they're haters of God, they're false prophets and false teachers.
These are the people that are doomed.
And so just like we've got these four groups in the story here, that's kind of the four groups that we have in America today.
You know, the zealous, sold out, bold Christians. We've got the more watered down, defensive Christians.
They still love the Lord, but they're just, they don't have the faith and the boldness that Elijah has.
And then you've got the people that we're trying to reach with our message, we're trying to get them over to the Lord's side, that's all Israel.
And then we've got the prophets of Baal, the people for whom it is too late, the reprobates, false teachers, false prophets, etc.
So that's sort of the background here of the story.
And so we're going to have this face-off where all of these four groups are going to be gathered together in a sense.
Although I don't know if the hundred prophets show up, of course, but they're kind of in the story on the periphery.
But Obadiah's there, I'm sure, so he can be their representative.
And so Ahab accuses Elijah of kind of troubling Israel, being a curse unto Israel, but really, he's just the messenger.
You know, it's not that Elijah is just not very patriotic, so he just wants to see his nation suffer.
Obviously, it's through the Lord's leading that he has called for this drought upon the land.
I don't think Elijah just sat down and dreamed this up, like, you know, what this country needs is a famine.
Obviously, the Lord is revealing this to him, and he's just participating in the Lord's plan.
And so it's Elijah that's actually helping Israel come back to God.
It's Ahab that has brought the judgment and the punishment for God to raise up a guy like Elijah to say these things, and preach these things, and pray these things.
And so today, people want to blame fundamentalist preachers for, you know, just, I don't know, disturbing the peace.
This is why we can't get along because of these religious nuts or whatever.
But you know, our country is going to have serious problems due to all the sin in the country.
That's where the judgment comes from. That's where the natural disasters and the curse of God and the bad economy comes from.
It comes from turning away from the Lord and disobeying God.
So don't kill the messenger. Don't get mad at the preacher who gets up and points out all the wicked sin and says, this is why judgment's coming, this is why we're doomed.
Get mad at the people like Ahab who are actually bringing in the sin and the wickedness.
And so a lot of this story, you can see how it'd be relevant today in 2022 because there's no new thing under the sun.
And it's the same type of world that we live in today where people blame Christians and blame preachers for why we can't get along.
And it's always so funny, you know, you're the reason why people don't go to church and, you know, you fundamental Baptist or, you know, you're turning people away from God.
But you know what, if preaching the Word of God turns people away from God, it sounds like the people just don't like God.
You know, now if I'm getting up and preaching stuff that isn't in the Bible and I'm turning people away from God, then shame on me.
But you know what, if I'm getting up and preaching things that are directly found in the Bible, then it sounds like it's the Bible that's turning people away from God.
And that's exactly what the Bible's designed to do.
The Bible is not designed to be a book that everyone likes.
God could have written a book that would just appeal to everyone.
And everyone who picked it up would just have tears in their eyes and just, it's so beautiful, it's so wonderful, it's so inspiring.
It's just so life-changing, I absolutely love it.
But it's interesting that the way the Bible is in reality is that saved Christians pick up the Bible and they have tears in their eyes and it's so wonderful, it's so inspiring, it's so life-changing.
And then other people pick it up and it makes them angry, makes them upset.
This book can literally drive people further from God.
I mean, you take somebody who hates the Lord and you give them the Bible and have them read it, they're going to hate the Lord even more than they did before they started reading it.
You see, the Bible is a rock.
And here's the thing about this rock, I was just reading this in my Bible this afternoon, I don't remember where, but I was reading a bunch of different places this afternoon.
I was reading how the Bible is a rock where basically if you try to attack this rock, you get smashed on those rocks.
Like a ship being crashed into the rocks.
Or if this rock lands on you, it's going to just crush you.
It's going to grind you to powder.
But you can also build your life on this rock.
It can also be an anchor.
It can also be a foundation.
The Bible is a rock.
It will either make you or break you.
And make no mistake about it, the Bible is designed to break people.
It's not only designed to be helpful.
It's not only designed to be a blessing, it's also designed to be a stumbling block.
It's also designed to grind the wicked to powder.
It's also designed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
It's designed to separate the sheep from the goats.
And it causes division.
And that's what it's designed to do.
And so, oh, you're troubling Israel.
Well, God's word ought to trouble you if you're wicked because you're doomed.
But thankfully, the vast majority of people are in that situation where they could still go either way.
You know, it's getting more and more that Americans are reprobates.
Where you see the percentage of reprobates is going up.
Even the percentage of like open sodomites and people who just openly hate the Lord.
You know, it's like it used to be like two or three percent or something.
When I first started Faithful Word Baptist Church, not even that long ago.
Now you're starting to see figures like five percent, six percent.
It's just going up.
But still, that means ninety-some percent of people are still in a position where they could go either way.
You know, I mean obviously you've got a high percentage of people that are saved.
I don't dare put a percent on how many people are saved in America.
You know, let's hope that it's like, I don't know, ten percent of people or something, hopefully.
I don't know how many people, but we run into a lot of people out-sold that are already saved.
And so, you know, whatever percent of people that are already saved.
And then you've got the people that are reprobates.
So you've got the Elijah's and the Obadiah's and the people worshiping the Lord.
And then you've got, over here, the reprobates, the prophets of Baal.
But then you've got this huge group of people, eighty percent of people or something, that's in the middle.
And they could still go either way.
That's who we're trying to reach, right? We want to bring them over to the Lord's side.
And by preaching the Word of God, we're not driving people away.
And anybody who's driven away by the Word of God is the wrong person.
That's their problem. They were doomed anyway.
Instead of going to hell number one, now they're going to go to hell number two.
Because we drove them away. Folks, they're not saved.
And if the Word of God drives them away, they're not receptive to getting saved.
That's their problem.
What does the Bible say about the Word of God? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
So if I'm preaching the Word of God, the people that are driven away by it,
they're supposed to get driven away by it because it's designed to infuriate the wicked.
It's designed to be a stumbling block to the wicked. It's designed to separate.
But it's also going to bring people in because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
And so God's Word being preached is always a win.
It's a win because if it makes some reprobate, it could even matter. Win.
If it brings someone to Christ, even better win.
But you never go wrong just preaching the Gospel, preaching the Bible, preaching the Word of God.
It does its job. It does not return void. It accomplishes the purpose for which it is sent forth.
And so we see this showdown that's coming between Elijah, the hateful Christian that's troubling Israel,
and he's such a bad person, and the wonderful prophets of Baal.
So they're all gathered together and it says in verse 19,
Now therefore sent and gathered to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty,
and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table.
So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
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.
And see, this is our job as Christians, is to basically get people to a place where we can preach the Word of God to them,
and then ask them to make a decision.
Now Elijah's asking people to make a decision here.
And people don't necessarily make a decision, do they?
But when we go out soul winning, we should still try to bring them to that decision.
They might not be ready to make that decision, but what do we do?
We knock on their door, we're friendly, we invite them to church, we ask them if they know for sure they're going to heaven,
we present the Gospel to them if they'll let us, we go through the verses and we show them the Word of God,
and we explain to them what the plan of salvation is, how to be saved, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But then we ask them to make a decision, don't we?
We say, look, do you believe this, right? If you believe this, then let me help you right now to pray and be saved right now.
Let me just help you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and since you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved, right?
Let me just help you call upon the name of the Lord right now, and let's do this right now.
We don't want them to be halting between two opinions, like the vast majority of people in this world.
It's like, oh, maybe there's a God, maybe there's not, maybe it's Jesus, maybe it's not, maybe it's the Bible, maybe it's not, maybe it's Christianity, maybe not.
We want them to make that decision where they get all the way in and put all of their faith and trust in Christ.
All of their faith in the Lord, not halting between two opinions, not a, well, I don't know, maybe, we want to get them all the way in.
That's what Elijah is doing. That's what the bold preacher is doing. The bold preacher is going to the lost and trying to get them saved.
Trying to get them to believe on the Lord.
And of course, as Elijah is not successful in this moment, you know, we're not always going to get people to make that decision right away either.
But hopefully they'll make that decision down the road, and some people are ready to get saved today, and that's why some people got saved today out on soul winning.
Now look what he says in verse 22, because the people answered him not a word. In verse 22, Elijah said,
unto the people, I, even I, only remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.
Now, this is not quite true, is it? Because Obadiah just finished telling him, I hid a hundred prophets of the Lord in a cave.
You say, well, they don't really count, you know. These guys are watered down or whatever.
But you know, they do count, because the Lord corrects Elijah when Elijah says this exact thing to God.
Because right now Elijah's saying this to Ahab and the people and nobody answers him.
I'm the only one left and there's 450 prophets of Baal. They're not going to argue with him.
You know, Obadiah's not going to be like, excuse me, I'm a prophet of God too, because remember, he's too weak to come out and say that.
And so, we need to make sure that we don't fall into this trap because Elijah is wrong here.
Because in chapter 19, Elijah says this exact thing to God, I'm the only one left, and God tells him,
no you're not, I've reserved unto myself 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
And there are other prophets out there, they might not be as great as Elijah, but they're out there.
And they're serving God. And the Bible says in Romans chapter 11 that Elijah makes this statement,
but what sayeth the answer of God unto him? I've reserved to myself 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
And in Romans chapter 11 it says, even so then at this present time also, there remaineth a remnant according to the election of grace.
So in Romans chapter 11, verse 7, he's saying, look, here we are, many hundreds of years later,
and it's just like it was in Elijah's day, there's a righteous remnant.
Well guess what, we can fast forward to 2022, there's still a righteous remnant.
No preacher can get up today and say, I'm the only one.
You know, no group of preachers can get up, you know, we can't get up at the Red Hot Preaching Office and say,
you know, the new IP, we're the only ones. That's baloney.
There are thousands and thousands of preachers who've not bowed the knee to Baal.
Some of them are more like an Elijah, some of them are more like an Obadiah,
but we don't want to fall into the trap of Elijah feeling like he's the only one.
Now, this is a glorious moment for Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 18, when he's having this face-off with the prophets of Baal,
but here's the problem with this attitude. It sounds cool when you're up there on Mount Carmel,
I'm the only one left! It's 450 prophets of Baal, I'll take all of them on myself, one guy.
Sounds cool, but in the next chapter, this attitude is going to come back and bite him,
because in the next chapter, he gets super depressed and thinks like, I'm the only one, I'm alone.
And he starts thinking that he wants to die, and he's asking God to kill him,
and he goes out in the wilderness, and you know, guess what? He ends up in a cave.
You know, he's not into these preachers that are in a cave, but he ends up going to a cave,
and hiding, and feeling sorry for himself, and getting depressed.
And so, we don't want to get this attitude that says, we're the only ones,
because maybe in the short term, we can have all that bravado of being, you know,
we're the only church, and you know, we're the only ones, we're the only movement,
but in the long run, that's a destructive mentality, though, to think that way.
This country is filled with saved Christians. Now, other people in other countries?
That's not so true, is it? If we were in parts of Europe, Asia, South America,
there could be places where there aren't a lot of saved people.
But thankfully, in America, there are a lot of people that are saved in America, a lot.
Virtually every single time I go out soul-winning, I run into at least one person.
In an hour of soul-winning, I virtually always run into somebody who says all the right answers,
because they know they're saved, they're a believer.
There's tons of people out there that are saved. Like I said, I don't know the percentage,
only God knows that. But there are, I mean, I know there are 50 million people claiming to be Baptist.
So, think about that, let that sink in. You know, there are a lot of people out there that are saved, okay.
And obviously, not all Baptists are saved, but a lot of people are saved that aren't Baptists.
And so, there are a lot of saved people that are out there.
Okay, we don't want to get this attitude that we're the only ones.
And not only when it comes to salvation, we don't want to get this attitude,
oh, everybody's unsaved. No, they're not, okay.
If you work at a job with a whole bunch of people there, there are probably people there that are saved.
They just may not be as open about their faith or whatever, but they're saved.
You also don't want to get this attitude of everybody's fornicating.
That's not true.
There are millions and millions of young people that are not fornicating in America.
You know, the last time I looked at the statistic, it was like, you know, even just coming out of Tempe High School,
which I've ridden my bike by Tempe High School when they were letting out, and it was kind of a jungle out there.
It was kind of, you know what I mean, there were some rough kids coming out of that school.
I don't know how it compares to other schools, but I mean it, you know, it was kind of a rough clientele
some of the times that I passed by.
But you know a huge percentage of them are still a virgin when they graduate from that high school?
Look it up. Look up the stats on it.
Why? Because not everybody's fornicating.
Not everybody's a drunk. Not everybody's on drugs.
Maybe TV makes it look like everybody's drinking, everybody's smoking, everybody's doing drugs.
Everybody is, you know, a sodomite or best friends with a sodomite.
That's the way TV and movies, what? Because the devil wants you to think that you're all alone,
and that it's just you, and it's just Elijah, and it's just this one crazy preacher.
No it isn't. There are lots of saved Christians.
There are lots of people reading their Bible.
There are lots of people who don't fornicate, who don't drink, who don't do drugs.
There are lots of normal, God-fearing Christian Americans left.
What we want to do is we want to get them fired up and doing more for God.
We want to get unsaved people saved, and we want to get the Christians that are already saved,
we want to get them doing more for God.
We want to get them fired up and motivated, get them out of the cave,
get them out there preaching hard, and winning souls, and evangelizing,
giving the gospel to their friends at school, work, wherever they be.
And so he makes this statement, I only I remain a prophet of the Lord.
This is not true. God corrects him in the next chapter.
God's not going to correct him in front of everybody, you know, because this is a cool moment.
He doesn't want to spoil it.
But we know that that isn't quite accurate.
But guess what? Preachers aren't perfect.
Elijah's a great man of God, but he's not perfect.
He has this flaw where he has this attitude of, I'm the only guy that's really serving God,
and that comes back to haunt him, and he has to get past that.
So let's keep reading here.
It says in verse 23,
Now why do all the people like this so much?
Because the people lack faith in God, that's why.
See, God's word should be enough.
God's word should be enough.
It should be, the Bible says, and that's enough.
And what does the Bible say?
The Jews require a sign.
The Greeks require wisdom.
But you know what? We preach neither.
We preach Christ crucified.
And it's the foolishness of preaching, foolish in the world's eyes,
the foolishness of preaching that God has chosen to save them to believe.
So God's word isn't enough for these people.
Elijah getting up and preaching the word of God should be enough, but it's not enough.
They're like, hey, I like this idea.
I want to see fire come down from the sky and see the miracle.
And so they like this idea.
So this is what they do, you know, they cut up the bullock for the sacrifice,
they build the altar, and they dress it, they put it on wood, they put no fire under it,
and then the prophets of Baal, from morning even until noon,
they're saying, oh Baal, hear us, verse 26.
But there was no voice nor any that answered.
And they leaped upon the altar which was made, they're like,
you know, they're just doing all kinds of wild, pagan dances or whatever.
And it came fast at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, verse 27,
for he's a god, either he's talking or he's pursuing or he's in a journey.
Peradventure, he sleepeth and must be awake.
You know, you guys aren't loud enough.
Jump higher, get louder.
And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner,
which means that cutting themselves was normal for them.
After their manner means, you know, the way the prophets of Baal cut themselves.
Why? Because people that are demon-possessed cut themselves.
The demoniac in the New Testament cut himself with stones.
And we see today the Gothic crowd and the Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson crowd.
I know that's not a thing anymore.
But, you know, those crowd would be cutting themselves back in the 90s.
I don't know what's going on now.
But I suspect that somebody's cutting themselves right now as we speak.
And it's demonic.
And the people who are cutting themselves, they're either demon-possessed themselves
or they are copying or mimicking or imitating someone who is demon-possessed.
And they're trying to be like this demoniac poser.
Okay.
If you can imagine that.
So they're cutting themselves, blood gushed out upon them,
they're covered in blood, they're screaming, they're dancing around,
and Baal is just like saying nothing.
Okay.
Because Baal isn't really real.
I mean the devil's real.
But the devil can really only do what God allows him to do.
So apparently God is telling the devil, you're going to sit this one out, you know.
And it came to pass when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
So basically the prophets of Baal are literally, they're preaching too, they're prophesying.
Which means, you know, speaking forth.
So they're preaching, they're prophesying, they're chanting, they're dancing, they're yelling, they're cutting themselves.
I mean they have the whole day.
And around the time of the evening sacrifice, nothing has happened.
And Elijah said to all people, come near unto me.
And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob,
unto whom the word of the Lord came saying, Israel shall be thy name.
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.
And he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed.
So he puts the wood in order, he puts the meat on the altar, he digs a trench around it.
And then he wants to up the ante, so he says, pour buckets of water on this altar.
You know, just to make it even harder for this thing to burn, let's just dump water all over it, okay.
So he says, fill four barrels with water, and he says, do it second time, do it third time.
So they end up pouring twelve buckets of water so that there's water all over the offering,
the wood is all waterlogged, and it fills the trench around the altar.
There's like a little moat of water around the thing.
It's just soaked in every possible way.
And then he prays in verse 36 and said, Lord God of Abraham, halfway through verse 36,
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've done all these things at thy word.
Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God
and that thou hast turned their heart back again.
So no dancing, no cutting, no screaming, no long thing.
He prays this short prayer of like less than 70 words.
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.
And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape.
And they took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Chishon and slew them there.
So he killed all these prophets of Baal.
And Elijah said unto them, get thee up, eat, drink, for there's a sound of abundance of rain.
Remember, it hasn't rained in three and a half years.
He's saying, you know what, I know you've been saving your food and rationing your drink,
but you know what, eat up, drink up, because it's about to rain and everything's going to be fine
and the famine's over, it's all fixed now.
But here's what's interesting is that the aftermath of this story isn't what you would expect
because you would expect this to be a national revival.
I mean, all of Israel is there and they see the fire of God come down.
They fall on their faces and say, the Lord, he is the God.
They kill the prophets of Baal.
I mean, wouldn't you think like Baal worship's over?
I mean, it's national revival now.
Israel's going to be worshiping the Lord.
We're following the Lord now.
But what do you see in the next chapters?
You see that Jezebel has got a warrant out for Elijah's arrest.
Elijah has to flee into another country.
Now, if these people had really come all the way over to the Lord's side,
wouldn't they be able to protect Elijah?
Wouldn't they overthrow this wicked government if the whole nation is now saying,
we're God's people, we're following the Lord now, we're not messing with Baal anymore?
But, you know, you don't see any evidence of this revival that happens on Mount Carmel.
You don't really see evidence as you continue reading that this actually took
or that this actually created a meaningful, long-term change in the nation.
Isn't that interesting?
Because you'd expect like this is a turnaround.
I mean, the northern kingdom worships the Lord now.
In fact, why didn't God do this earlier?
I mean, why didn't God do this sooner?
Why didn't God just do this a hundred years earlier?
Thirty years earlier.
Twenty years earlier.
You know, there have always been prophets of God.
You know, why didn't He just grab some other prophet, you know,
back earlier in the book of 1 Kings or something and just,
just do a cool miracle like this and just turn the nation to God.
We could have saved all of the, you know,
all those decades of worshipping Baal and whatever.
But, you know, what you notice is that this doesn't really create a meaningful,
long-term revival.
It just doesn't.
I mean, you read on.
It's still Ahab.
It's still Jezebel.
You know, it's still worshipping false gods.
I mean, everything is just still messed up.
They're not rallying to Elijah.
Elijah's by himself in the next chapter.
Elijah's on the lamb.
Elijah's got a warrant for his arrest.
He's fleeing.
What, all Israel can't back him up?
I'll tell you why.
It's because true, meaningful, lasting revival must be built on personal faith
in the Word of God.
Not because you saw a miracle.
Seeing fire come out of the sky isn't the answer.
Now, it momentarily gets people to just,
oh, man, it's go, oh, this is, ah, and then let's kill the prophets of Baal, yeah.
But then the next day, it's like, well, you know.
Why?
Because it didn't have the right, their faith didn't have the right foundation.
Our faith needs to be founded on the Word of God, not on signs and wonders.
An evil and adulterous generation that seeks after a sign.
You know, Jesus did all kinds of signs and miracles.
A lot of people followed him until they didn't.
And so what we see is that this revival is quite short-lived
because of the fact that it's not based on the Word of God.
Because when the Word of God was preached, what did they say?
Nothing.
Well, we don't know.
Oh, fire comes out of the sky, oh, he's God.
It's not from the heart.
It's not real.
It's not the right basis for our faith.
And so, therefore, it doesn't have a lasting effect
and it has a rough aftermath in chapter 19.
Now, what's interesting, too, is when you look at chapter 18,
you could look at this also as symbolic of the end times
because in the end times, we're going to have a period
that's known as Daniel's 70th week.
And I do realize that Daniel's 70th week already happened,
but there's more than one fulfillment of that prophecy.
There's a dual fulfillment, a triple fulfillment of that
because of the fact that in 70 AD, yeah, there were elements
of Daniel's 70th week there being carried out,
but Jesus Christ did not return in 70 AD.
Jesus Christ's still coming.
There's still going to be the Antichrist.
You know, the things in the Book of Revelation
are still coming in the future.
The events found in Revelation did not happen
in the first century AD.
Okay, so there is another future fulfillment
of Daniel's 70th week that's going to be worldwide.
You see, the Daniel 70th week events that happened
in the seven years surrounding 70 AD in the first century,
those were local to Israel only.
The Jewish-Roman war and the destruction of the temple
in AD 70 was a local event.
People in Africa and Asia, Europe, they didn't really care.
It was just a little blip on their radar.
Whereas when we read the Book of Revelation,
what is brought up over and again, over and over again?
Every tongue, every nation, the whole world,
all kindreds, all people.
So don't even begin to tell me that that stuff happened
in the first century because it didn't.
It's worldwide events that we see in Revelation
that are still coming.
Well, we know, of course, that in these events
that are still coming, according to the Book of Revelation,
we have these three and a half year periods, don't we?
And guess what three and a half plus three and a half is?
Seven, and there's your Daniel 70th week.
It's a week of years, not a week of days.
It's seven years.
Well, if you think about it,
during the second half of Daniel's 70th week,
there's going to be approximately three and a half years
where God is actually plaguing the earth
and one of the plagues that he sends is drought,
where he caused it not to rain upon the earth.
But of course, there are lots of other plagues
and all kinds of horrific natural disasters
that are happening in that second half
of Daniel's 70th week, but also including drought.
And so this drought that they went through here
for three and a half years is sort of a picture
of that time of natural disasters
and plague that's coming.
You could think of it that way, three and a half years.
And then at the end of the three and a half years,
a lot of people get slain, a lot of reprobates get slain
because when Jesus Christ actually sets up his kingdom
on this earth in the millennium, he's going to say,
you know, bring all those people that didn't want me
to rule over them and slay them before me.
So the haters of the Lord get smoked
at the beginning of the millennium
when Jesus begins to reign with a rod of iron.
And so you can see the symbolism here.
You know, Jesus Christ returns in a blaze of glory.
Armageddon sets up his millennial kingdom.
Every knee is bowing at that point.
The reprobates are killed.
We move into the millennial reign of Christ.
So there's a little bit of end times symbolism here
that you can see.
That's not the primary application,
but it's there nonetheless.
And beyond that, there's going to be a time coming
at the great white throne.
You know, beyond the second coming of Christ,
I'm talking way off in the future after the millennium,
the great white throne judgment of Revelation chapter 20
when all of the dead, small and great,
stand before God someday.
The Bible says that every knee shall bow,
things in heaven, things on earth,
things under the earth, every knee shall bow.
We're talking safe people, unsafe people,
atheists, Hindus, everybody.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord and the glory of God the Father.
That doesn't mean they're going to heaven, does it?
I mean, is God just going to pull everybody out of hell?
Because the Bible says in Revelation 20,
death and hell give up the dead which are in them.
And the grave and hell and everybody and put them there,
and then they all get on their knees
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
They say, all right, you're all saved now.
We could have done this an easier way,
but hey, I'm glad you're finally confessing.
Come on in.
No, they get thrown back into hell at the end of the chapter
because death and hell are cast into the lake of fire,
which is the second death, and whosoever is not found
written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire.
And the Bible says that they are tormented day and night
forever and ever.
And so every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
but that doesn't mean they're going to heaven.
And, you know, it's the same thing here.
Like these people, yeah, they're confessing that the Lord is God
when they just are seeing in front of them
fire come down from heaven and burn up this altar of the Lord.
They drop to their faces just out of sheer awe and wonder
like, whoa, man!
They're just kind of willing to say anything at that point
because they're scared.
When fire is pouring out of the sky,
you're going to, you know, you're scared at that point.
And so they're just on their faces like,
no, okay, the Lord's God!
We're done halting between two opinions.
But yet are these people all really saved?
Well, you know what, if they all are really saved,
it doesn't really make any sense what happens in chapter 19
and chapter 20 and chapter 21 and chapter 22, does it?
Because this isn't necessarily conversion,
faith in the Word of God.
It's more just an emotional response of just shock and awe
dropping to their faces and declaring the Lord to be God.
It's not like, you know, God's up in heaven just telling the angel,
hey, are you writing all these salvations down?
I mean, you know, look at all these salvations
that are happening right now, you know.
I mean, if in the middle of Phoenix, Arizona,
you know, a bunch of Phoenicians are there and they're saved,
you know, and then some preacher calls down fire
and, you know, people are going to be confessing a lot of things,
but it doesn't really mean that they actually put their faith
and trust in the Lord, in their heart,
that they have faith in the Word of God.
These are two different things, aren't they?
And so, think about it this way.
Just as someday every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
but for many people it's too late for them.
They already died without Jesus Christ,
so yeah, after roasting in hell for a while,
yeah, they're ready to say anything,
but it's too late to get saved at the great white throne.
You can't get saved, oh, I'm going to change now,
I'm going to get saved now.
It's too late.
You have to get saved while you're still alive
and breathing on this earth,
because once you die without Jesus Christ,
it's over for you.
You've got to get saved before it's eternally too late.
Now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation.
Just as for these people,
yeah, they declared that the Lord's God,
but they did it too late.
They should have already believed that
from the preaching of Elijah, from the Word of God.
Then their faith would have had the right foundation.
They would have actually understood the gospel
and the Word of God that Elijah preached,
and they would have actually been saved.
This isn't salvation that we see here.
This is God showing his power, his magnificent glory.
This is God killing 850 prophets that are wicked,
prophets of the groves and prophets of Baal,
but it's not a mass salvation of every Israelite present,
just because they say, oh, the Lord's the God.
By the way, there are a lot of people
who say that Jesus Christ is Lord that aren't actually saved,
because they're trusting in their works to save them.
That's why Jesus said,
not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven,
many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name,
and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works.
Notice what they're trusting in.
We did this, we did this, we did this,
and then while I profess to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
They have to do the will of the Father,
and the Bible says that the will of the Father
is that everyone who seeth the Son believeth on him.
The will of the Father is that everyone
would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and consequently have eternal life.
That's what Jesus said is the will of his Father in heaven.
That's what you have to do to be saved,
not, oh, we did a bunch of wonderful works.
You know, there are a lot of people ladling soup
into some poor person's bowl in the name of Jesus somewhere,
but they're not trusting Christ as their Savior.
They're not going to go to heaven.
It doesn't matter how many good works they do,
even if they're nice, even if they're helping people.
Okay?
They could be spooning malt-o-meal
into some African kid's mouth right now
in the name of Jesus.
But if they don't trust Jesus Christ as their Savior,
they're not saved because we're not saved by works,
we're saved by faith.
And the Bible's clear on that.
And so what we see here with Elijah and Obadiah
and the hundred prophets and the Israelites
and the prophets of Baal, you know,
it's sort of like the world we live in right now.
You know, there are a lot of people out there
that are on the fence.
And we might think it's going to take something dramatic
for them to get saved.
You know, they need to see a miracle.
Or maybe we could get on TV or something.
Maybe a Christian movie is going to get them all saved.
You know, maybe if the right athlete gets saved,
if the right rock star gets saved,
if the right actor or actress gets saved.
You know, there have been, over the years,
a lot of Hollywood actors, actresses,
rock and roll singers, athletes,
who I believe have legitimately gotten saved.
You know, you'll listen to some of their testimonies
and some of them check out.
Now obviously there's a lot of bogus, you know,
fake conversions and just,
they're just looking for something new in life
and they're just going from one form of confusion to another.
But I'm telling you, there are some of these testimonies
that really do pan out.
And they really do check out.
And I'm sure some of these people really do get saved
when they find the emptiness and the meaninglessness
of all their fame and fortune.
And you know, you can find,
I'm sure you can find on YouTube,
you can find some interview that some musician did.
And I don't, don't quote me on this one
because I'm just throwing this out there.
But I, you know, because I don't know if it's legit or not,
I thought I heard somebody say that Bob Dylan,
you know, supposedly got saved
and had a pretty good born again testimony or whatever.
I don't know.
But let's just say that that's true for a minute, okay?
Bob Dylan's a pretty big musician.
I mean, wouldn't you agree that that's like a superstar?
I mean, I know you young people have no clue
what I'm talking about right now.
But I'm saying like in his day, am I right, old people?
He was huge.
Bob Dylan was massive.
I mean, still.
Even the young people are still into him.
But I'm saying like Bob Dylan is like a big, big name.
And you know, somebody was saying there's some interview
or whatever where he's talking about being saved.
And again, I'm not vouching for it
because I haven't seen it myself.
But I guarantee you that if we looked long enough,
we'd find some that are for sure legit
if that one doesn't pan out.
So you know, let's say Bob Dylan went on TV or something
and said, yeah, you know, I'm trusting Christ.
As my personal say, I'm saved.
I believe in Jesus Christ.
You know, did that just lead to some nationwide revival
or something and just every, no.
People are just like, okay, whatever.
Folks, the answer for the people that are out there
that are not saved is personal soul winning
with a Bible in hand and the word of God
coming out of your mouth.
Okay, I know it's not as glamorous as gigantic crusades
and celebrity speakers and, you know, fire from the sky.
But yet what actually produces the meaningful change
in where somebody actually believes on Christ
and actually gets salvation?
You know, there's an emotional experience
and then there's having someone actually show you
from the Bible and you actually comprehend it
and you actually get it and you actually believe it
in your heart and you understand.
I mean, think about it.
When we talk to people about the gospel, you know,
we typically would spend maybe 10 to 25 minutes or something,
depending on the person.
If somebody's real receptive and getting it real quick,
it might take 10 minutes, you know,
and then some people we might take 20, 25 minutes,
you know, going through this at the door.
We're getting feedback and obviously there are
really hard cases that can take hours or whatever,
but I'm just saying like typically, you know,
10 to 20 minutes or something, but we're going through it.
We're being thorough.
We're getting feedback.
We're having a dialogue with them.
We're talking to them.
You know, some Super Bowl halftime little two-minute thing
isn't going to do that for people.
Even if you stuck literally like my Bible Way to Heaven video,
which I can't even count how many people I've had walk up
to me over the years, literally hundreds of people
that have walked up to me and said,
I got saved watching that Bible Way to Heaven video.
Is anybody here tonight who got saved watching
the Bible Way to Heaven video?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Yeah, so a bunch of people, but here's a,
you could play that at halftime during the Super Bowl,
and you know, yeah, some people are going to get saved,
but probably not as many as you would think or expect.
Part of the reason why you seven,
and maybe I'm wrong about this, but this is my opinion.
I bet you seven, eight people that are here tonight
who got saved watching that Bible Way to Heaven video,
you are probably in a frame of mind
where you're seeking the truth, right?
And you're kind of looking for the truth,
you're receptive to the truth,
and you probably just got softened up
by like an hour and 45 minutes
of after the tribulation or something,
and that kind of softened you up for an hour and 45 minutes.
Then you rolled into the Bible Way to Heaven.
Who, who, okay, all of you people who got saved
watching the Bible Way to Heaven,
how many of it was at the end of a documentary?
Yeah, one, two, three, four, five, six.
See what I'm saying?
So that documentary was like softening you up.
Now you're ready for the Gospel at the end.
Why?
Because, you know, there's no quick fix
to the spiritual condition of the souls of man.
We need to be patient and go to each person one by one
and talk to them, and I'm thankful that people
are able to see these videos online and get saved,
but, but a lot of times people I talk to,
it's not like they just had never seen any preaching,
never watched a documentary, and just boom,
straight to the Bible Way to Heaven,
straight to salvation.
Some people are like, well, I listened to 20 of your sermons.
Then I clicked on the Bible Way to Heaven,
and then I got saved.
I watched five documentaries,
then I saw the Bible Way to Heaven,
and then I got saved.
Do you see what I'm saying?
When we go to the door,
it is way more effective than a YouTube video.
When you're actually there in person,
Bible in hand, talking to them.
And so, you know, you may dream of,
man, it'd be so cool to be Elijah,
show up and be like, man, I'm the only one that's left,
and I'm going to call down fire from God right now,
and we're going to kill 850 reprobates by the time I'm done.
You know, you might think like, man, that's awesome.
But you know what?
If you actually join an independent Baptist church
and spend your life soul winning and serving God,
you're probably going to get more people saved in your life
than Elijah did in his life.
I'm not even kidding.
If you spend like 50 years in an independent Baptist church
going soul winning every week,
you're going to get a lot of people saved,
and you're going to get way more people saved
than got saved on this day.
And I'm sure that there's some people
who legitimately got saved on this day
and actually, you know,
something changed in their heart,
and they actually responded to the word of God.
But I guarantee you that it's not as many as you would expect.
Otherwise, explain to me the next 20 chapters
as we roll into the book of 2 Kings
and just see the northern kingdom of Israel
continue to be wrong.
And so it's not necessarily going to be
the fire from the sky that reaches America.
It's going to be the one-on-one opening the Bible
and showing your coworker how to be saved,
showing your cousin how to be saved,
showing your brother and sister how to be saved,
showing your neighbor how to be saved,
showing that person how to be saved out on soul winning.
And so being Elijah, be open about your faith,
and you may not get to do the cool part that Elijah did
of calling down fire and slaying reprobates,
but you can still be greatly used by God
and you can be an Elijah.
Because I'm sure that Elijah got many people saved
on other days, you know,
because he continues to serve God for decades and so forth.
But we need to make sure that we are doing our part
to get people saved,
because there are so many people that are on the fence
and they can be reached, and if they hear the gospel,
many of them will get saved.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord,
and we thank you for this inspirational story
from your word, Lord, about Elijah and his great faith
and the mighty display of your power that you did here, Lord.
But help us understand that your word is fire.
We may not have literal fire coming out of the sky,
but your word is a fire,
and your word is actually more powerful
than literal fire coming out of the sky.
And, Lord, help us to use your word to see people saved
and to do great things for you, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Take your hymnos, please.
Let's go to hymn number 409.
409, the fight is on.
Hymn number 409. Let's sing it on that first.
409 on this verse together now.
And face to face and turn away.
The Lord be He, His colors streaming.
The right and wrong and name today.
The fight is on, but be not weary.
He's strong and in His might hold fast.
The God before us is better or us.
We'll sing the victor strong at last.
The fight is on, but proud He's only brave and true.
To hold the peace and victory we'll assure.
The love goes on.
The arbor God has given you.
And in His reign forever we'll adore.
The fight is on, but rich and sober.
And face to face and turn away.
With armor gleaming and colors streaming.
The right and wrong and name today.
The fight is on, but be not weary.
He's strong and in His might hold fast.
The God before us is better or us.
We'll sing the victor strong at last.
The fight is leaning on to certain victories.
The bow of prophets sets peace to sky.
The joyous sing and every light shall honor thee.
The Lord will break the God of peace and die.
The fight is on, oh rich and sober.
And face to face and turn away.
With armor gleaming and colors streaming.
The right and wrong and name today.
The fight is on, but be not weary.
He's strong and in His might hold fast.
The God before us is better or us.
We'll sing the victor strong at last.
Amen. Excellent singing tonight. You are dismissed.
.