ELIJAH—A MAN OF LIKE PASSIONS
08 The Real Keys to Revival
TEXT: 1 Kings 18:21-40
1 Kings 18:21-40 (KJV) 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. [22] Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. [23] Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: [24] And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. [25] And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. [26] And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. [27] And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. [28] And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. [29] And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. [30] And Elijah said unto all the 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. [31] 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: [32] 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. [33] And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. [34] And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. [35] And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. [36] And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. [37] 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. [38] 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. [39] 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. [40] 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 Kishon, and slew them there.
I. INTRODUCTION—THE CONSTANT NEED FOR REVIVAL
A. General Quotes on Revival
Billy Sunday—They tell me a revival is temporary; so is a bath, but it does you good.
Vance Havner—When I was a boy, preachers used to talk about “holding a revival.” What we really need is somebody who will turn a revival loose.
-Throughout the Bible there have been records of revival that took place:
• Under King Jehoash—2 Kings 11-12
• Under King Hezekiah—2 Kings 18
• Under King Asa—2 Chronicles 15
• In the time of Zerubbabel—Ezra 5-6
• In the time of Nehemiah—Nehemiah 8-9, 13
• At Pentecost—Acts 2-3
• At Samaria—Acts 8
• In Cornelius’s household—Acts 10
• In Ephesus—Acts 19
-There are more than these that took place as well.
-I would suppose that any preacher who is worth his salt has a great desire for a revival to take place in his own personal life and in the church that he may be called to pastor.
B. Christian History Magazine, Issue 23: Spiritual Awakenings In North America (1989)
-Years ago, my wife gave me a gift subscription to Discipleship Magazine and for some reason we also received a subscription to Christian History Magazine as well. One of those issues, Issue 23: Spiritual Awakenings in North America, summed up the great spiritual awakenings that took place in North America in the 1700’s with Jonathon Edwards and in the 1800’s with Charles Finney.
-Here some excerpts from that issue:
During a renewal, or awakening, there will be not only a great reviving of Christians, but also a large impact on the problems of society. The period of God’s blessing may last for many years, as did the Second Great Awakening in America, or be rather brief, as was the Third Awakening of the late 1850s.
When the winds of a renewal have passed, the Church may enter a period of lethargy, possibly for many years. Such cycles have already been repeated many times during the 2,000 years of Church history. It is not that the Spirit of God cannot sustain the higher life for Christians; rather, the Spirit allows times of decline to cause His people to pray for growth and for power.
-The whole issue was a very provoking experience to read. When you read accounts of revivals it causes deep stirrings in your own heart toward God and your own personal walk. Revival fires cause us to become the kind of individual saints and the kind of church bodies that make a real difference in their communities.
-One last thought from that issue addressed “Revival Patterns.”
1) Awakenings are usually preceded by a time of spiritual depression, apathy and gross sin, in which a majority of nominal Christians are hardly different from the members of secular society, and the churches seem to be asleep.
The causes of each decline differ widely, but when the prophetic voice and moral leadership of the Church has been stilled for some time, social evils are usually rampant. Eighteenth- century England is an excellent example. Alcoholism was at an all-time high, capital punishment was used routinely for trivial crimes, slavery was practiced throughout the British Empire, and the churches were out of touch. The Evangelical Awakening led by John Wesley and George Whitefield aroused the English conscience and by direct political pressure and action, cured these and many other ills.
2) An individual or small group of God’s people becomes conscious of their sins and backslidden condition, and vows to forsake all that is displeasing to God.
Christians recall past outpourings of God’s grace and power, and long to see them again. When histories of awakenings have been written in later years, it has been occasionally discovered that individuals at great distances and completely unknown to each other had, prior to the awakening, been praying simultaneously to the same end!
3) As some Christians begin to yearn for a manifestation of God’s power, a leader or leaders arise with prophetic insights into the causes and remedies of the problems, and a new awareness of the holy and pure character of the Lord is present.
This standard of holiness exposes the degeneracy of the age and stimulates a striving after holiness by God’s people. The leaders find that their eagerness for God’s moving is shared by many who have been waiting for God to act, and who will rise to follow.
4) The awakening of Christians occurs: many understand and take part in a higher spiritual life.
The evangelism of the unsaved may or may not accompany this renewal of Christians. (In the great revival of the Reformation, the bringing of salvation to those outside the Church was not a primary issue, whereas the spreading of scriptural doctrine was.) This is a good reason why it is wrong to make the term “revivalism” synonymous with “evangelism.” Revival and mass evangelism are NOT the same thing.
Certainly in all genuine movements of God’s Spirit, people are converted. But if a society has been bathed in the teachings of the gospel for a long period, evangelism may not be the central thrust. This was the case in the Welsh revival of 1905.
In examining the example of Pentecost in Acts 2, we see that the awakening of Christ’s redeemed people and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at the “birthday” of the Church (2:1–4) was followed by evangelism of the unsaved (2:5–12, 37–41). This illustrates the two aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work in the awakening of the Church, but keeps them separate. We could say that an awakening is a widespread renewal that includes the simultaneous conversion of many people to Christ.
5) An awakening may be God’s means of preparing and strengthening His people for future challenges or trials.
Throughout history, renewal has often come before persecutions and severe trials that God sent to test and teach His people.
-That same kind of hunger for revival should permeate every believer!
II. THE REAL KEYS TO REVIVAL
-All through this narrative that is told in 1 Kings 18, there is a movement toward a revival that would attempt to turn Israel back to Jehovah.
A. Confrontation—1 Kings 18:21-29
-Elijah’s action shows us that one of the most important keys to having a real revival is confrontation. Confrontation is necessary because it forces a change of heart and mind.
-Revival moves us beyond a “live and let live” mentality and Elijah came along and began to stir things in the soul of Israel that really had been a long time coming.
1 Kings 18:24 (KJV) And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
-Elijah confronted the error of the false prophets of Baal. We find ourselves living in a world that maintains that tolerance is to be exalted to such a radical degree that it removes every single voice that would attempt to go against the trends and morality stances of our times.
-Elijah sets forth a great truth for the prophets of Baal, “I will call on the name of the Lord!”
-There are times that we have to examine things very carefully. The greatest reference point that we will ever find is that which is established in Scripture. The devil and his crowd operate on a system of lies. The only way to see through a lie is to examine the truth and then stand the truth up beside the lie.
-Deception follows those who do not examine the lies of a false prophet. There was so much heartache that could have been prevented if Jacob would have examined Joseph’s coat. He would have discovered that the story that his sons were telling him did not match the evidence on the coat.
-Anything that exposes a lie will honor God and His Truth. We should thank God for the scrutiny the Truth brings to our lives. God is not honored when Truth is not honored.
-Elijah allowed the prophets of Baal to go first. He was not afraid to allow their attack on the altar.
-Truth never needs a special privilege to prove it is valid. Error always needs special privileges like manipulation, cheating, and unfair advantages. Elijah was very clear in his directions to the Baal priests. . . Don’t put any fire under the sacrifice (v. 23, v. 25). The false prophets were very keen to put fire under their altars to make it look like there was a supernatural fire being kindled.
-Truth stands alone and needs none of these things at all. Elijah did not need a fake fire to deceive the people, he had a prayer life that could bring results!
-“The God who answers with fire!” is what Elijah declared. Should he not have rather said, “The God who answers with rain!”? Elijah was right on in his assessment because fire speaks of judgment and Elijah knew that judgment always has to preceded blessing.
-He knew that if the fire fell, the rain would soon follow.
-The prophets of Baal started trying to get Baal to make the fire fall:
• They cut themselves.
• They shouted until they were hoarse.
• They leaped on the altar.
• They make general fools of themselves.
-And nothing happened . . . The blindness of false religion can be seen when the prophets of Baal did not take offense to Elijah’s mocking’s. Then did not realize that he was being sarcastic, they instead thought what he was offering was good advice.
-Error always blinds people and the longer you embrace it the more blind you become. That is why it is dangerous to even entertain small compromises, easy concessions, and smoothly justifying things we know are not spiritually helpful to us. The longer you do it, the more accustomed you can become to having dull senses to the voice of God.
B. Repairing—1 Kings 18:30-35
-If one of the keys to revival is found with confrontation, then another key to revival comes with rebuilding. We find that after the false priests had been confronted and had literally destroyed the altar with their antics, Elijah determined he had to repair the altar.
1 Kings 18:30 (KJV) And Elijah said unto all the 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.
-False religion and false profession is always destructive in the sense that it will break down the altar of God.
-Altars promote:
• Communion with God
• Fellowship with the saints
• Direction from the will of God
• Devotion to God
• The leading of the Holy Ghost
• An opening for service to the Lord
• Does not drive us away from God but draws us to God
-The great question that we all need to address is whether or not if we have an altar of God in our life. What is the condition of that altar in my life?
-In the Old Testament we find Noah who built an altar after he came off the Ark. That altar was crucial because it was God’s response to that sacrifice that made room for the rainbow (Gen. 8:20-9:29).
-When Noah left his altar, he planted a vineyard. His vineyard started getting more attention than his altar did and he got drunk from the excess of his vineyard. When he got drunk, he defiled himself in front of his grown sons and it caused a curse to come to Ham (Gen. 9:22).
-Altars need to have great priorities in our lives!
C. Prayer—1 Kings 18:36-39
-Revivals require confrontation, repair, and prayer. Elijah’s prayer is very different from the prophets of Baal. It is a very short prayer of around 65 words or so. It is quiet, calm, collected, and confident. He did not need to cut himself, plead, jump, shout, or run, he simply was a man who was willing to pray!
-Elijah’s prayer had some things in it that we should put into our own prayers.
• The Glory of God—You are the God of Israel!
• The Testimony of Elijah’s Life—I am Your servant!
• The Mark of Obedience—This is done at Your Word!
• The Prayer for Revival—I know You are God! You have turned Israel’s heart back to You!
-Elijah prayed for revival, he never prayed for fire! He did not pray for rain! Far too often, the prayers of the church is backwards. We want rain first and then revival. But one of the greatest lessons to learn is that physical, social, and material needs are not the real needs of the church. . . It is a God-sent, Heaven-breathed revival!
John G. Butler (in his volume on Elijah, The Prophet of Confrontation, p. 135)—That which reveals much decay in fundamental circles is an increased emphasis on the social, physical, and material in the church program. Recreation is getting more attention than consecration. More emphasis is being placed on suppers than sermons. We have fewer Bible classes and preaching times at our church camps so we can have more time for socializing and playing games. It has been a subtle change over the last couple of decades, but it has been a bad one.
-How we need to take a great assessment of our own personal life, our church, our youth functions, our social times, and every other area that needs spiritual life.
D. Exaltation—1 Kings 18:39-40
-The real keys to revival are confrontation, repair, prayer, and now when it does come, exaltation. When the fire fell from heaven, the people fell on their faces. . . They cried out. . . The Lord, he is the God. . . The Lord, he is the God!
-When you literally see the manifested power of God to break out in a place you cannot help but to begin to worship the Lord with every fiber of your being! This Jehovah had shown himself to be powerful among the nation.
-The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament!
-Mount Carmel was sort of home field for the prophets of Baal. They had offered sacrifices there before and they never expected this kind of victorious outcome to take place in a place they saw as a place of strength for them.
-In fact in some of the historical annals of the Assyrian king, Shalmanessar III (841 B.C.), Mount Carmel is called ‘the mountain of Baal.’
-But even more than the worship that poured out of these people, there was something else very powerful that took place. Elijah was outnumbered 850 to 1 until God rained fire down from heaven.
-In that moment of victory, that prophet urged the children of Israel to destroy the imposters in this mountain. Here is something worth remembering: What we want to survive reveals the whole allegiance of our heart. These prophets of Baal are responsible for Israel’s backsliding, for the famine in the land, and for thousands of those who died during the famine. It would have been a great crime not to deal with them urgently and violently.
-There are enemies of the soul and the church that have to be dealt with what some might think are extreme measures but the literal existence of spiritual life and energy depend on dealing with these treacherous prophets.
-When revival finally does breakthrough. . . you enjoy the presence of the Lord but you are not removed from the responsibility to do your work!
III. CONCLUSION—WHERE TO FROM HERE?
-Every revival has its blessings that are on the way. . . there will be an amazing foot race to Jezreel, the rain will finally come and there will be another prophet waiting in the wings to be anointed.
-But hell will be stirred up as well and Elijah will learn some of the most severe lessons of his life but God will still be in charge when all the dust settles.
Philip Harrelson
January 15, 2016
