Elijah's prayer on Mount Carmel, following his victory over the prophets of Baal, demonstrates the power of prevailing prayer based on God's promises. Despite the drought and Ahab's focus on feasting, Elijah's earnest, humble, and expectant prayer, characterized by persistent petitioning, led to the arrival of rain. This event underscores that God answers prayer when it aligns with His will and word, even after long periods of waiting, as illustrated by the story of Jack Flanagan, whose salvation was secured through years of a mother's intercession. The sermon concludes by urging believers to engage in similar persistent and humble prayer, trusting in God's faithfulness to answer.
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Would you let me just apologize? Oh, that's fine. How many of you remember Edward R. McHugh? Anybody? A few. Yeah. That was his theme song, Don't Forget to Pray. He was known as the gospel singer on a network program. Not much of that anymore. Well... Dear friends, you have been such an encouragement to God's servant. And the gratitude of my heart flows first to the Lord this morning and then to you for the privilege that has been mine in these days.
Guess what? We're not going to the scene on Mount Carmel. That's the point at which we've arrived just about now. But I believe that the Lord would have us look to a portion of First Kings a little past that this morning. First Kings chapter eighteen, and I'm going to begin reading at verse forty-one. This is following the confrontation of Elijah with the prophets of Baal and of the grove.
God has answered by fire from heaven. And in verse forty-one you read, Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. Then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, Go up now and look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, There is nothing. And seven times he said, Go again. Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, There is a cloud, as small as a man's hand, rising out of the sea.
So he said, Go up, say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you. Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab, to the entrance of Jezreel. Some of you have stood on Carmel. I've had that privilege to look down the plain of Jezreel and the valley of Megiddo and see that vast expanse of land.
A beautiful valley, very fruitful valley. Unlike the wilderness of Judea, which is barren, terrible. But the plain of Jezreel, the valley of Megiddo, it's green, beautiful. But that whole land had become a parched, barren land. Why? Because of idolatry? Look with me please, the twenty-eight chapter of Deuteronomy. You recall what Jehovah said through Moses just before Moses was to leave the children of Israel was to die.
Verse twenty-three, and your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. Why? Well, verse fifteen tells why, but it shall come to pass. If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And then you read that series of curses. And among them was this, that there would be drought upon the land.
their iniquities had separated them from their God. And so there came that confrontation where Elijah said, How long will you halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him. And in verse twenty-one of chapter eighteen, you read this significant statement. After Elijah hurls that challenge. But the people answered him not a word. No response to it. And then Elijah meets the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asheran or the grove upon that mountain.
They plead and cry to their false God and cut themselves, no answer. And then Elijah, the prophet of God, prepares the altar with twelve stones and a sacrifice upon that altar. And four times they pour water over that sacrifice and over the altar and in the trough around the altar. Then Elijah calls on the Lord God of Israel, the true and living God, and he answers by fire. Immediately following that, there is the execution of the priests of Baal and of the grove.
The very ringleaders in this revolt against God, and their bodies lay now in the brook Kishon. I believe that King Ahab stood by Elijah and witnessed that execution. No doubt he saw it. And when the last priest of Baal had been slain, It's then that Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat, and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.
And Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and assumed a position of prayer. And what a contrast you have here. Now Elijah knew the character of Ahab. And he said, go up, eat and drink. He knew Ahab was going to do that. That was the kind of man Ahab was. He went up to eat and to drink. In this crucial time in the history of Israel, it was Ahab's concern. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and cast himself down on the earth and put his head, his face between his knees.
This was characteristic of Ahab. Why, when the people of Israel were suffering from famine, you know what Ahab was doing. He was out looking for grass for his asses. Not food for the people, but grass for his animals. That's the kind of man he was. And here they go up caramel together, with nothing in common at all. The king turned aside into his tent to feast, to eat, and to drink. And Elijah climbs on up the mountain to the highest point on the mountain to be alone with God.
Crises reveal the secrets of men's hearts. They don't cause them. They simply reveal what is already there. And you see this in both Ahab and Elijah. Belshazzar feasted while the foe was at the gates of Babylon, while the Medes and the Persians were there ready to take over that kingdom. He feasted with his lords, his nobles. Woe to the land. when such men as that rule.
Now, I believe that in this passage, beloved, you have a marvelous glimpse of prevailing prayer. You say, but it's not stated here especially that Elijah prayed. Well, let me call your attention once again to the fifth chapter of James. Elijah was a man of like passion such as we, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again. And there it is.
And the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. And he prayed again. I believe that's a reference to this scene on the mountain. Ahab stops on the tent, eats and drinks. Elijah goes on up to the top of the mountain, bows his face to the ground to engage in prevailing prayer. Oh, Elijah had prayed in public prior to this. Look in verse thirty-six. Came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Let me suggest just this in passing, that the time of this is significant on Carmel.
It was the time of the evening sacrifice. And this is what Elijah prayed. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God. And that was a public prayer. But here he prays in private. I want to suggest to you this morning very simply, and this is not new truth to any of you.
I'm certain of that. that first of all Elijah's prayer was based on the promise of God. Verse one of chapter eighteen. And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, Go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. That was the promise of God. And Elijah now bows on Mount Carmel to pray, and he bases his prayer on the promise of God.
Why, you would have thought that since he had that promise, prayer would have been unnecessary. God said, I'm going to send rain. Look with me, please. to the prophecy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter thirty-six. And in this chapter, Jehovah makes a number of promises, what he's going to do.
Verse twenty-six, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. You understand this is spoken to Israel. Verse twenty seven, I will put my spirit within you. Verse twenty nine, I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. Verse thirty, and I will multiply the fruit of your trees. Verse thirty three, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities and the ruins shall be rebuilt. Here's the promise of Jehovah to Israel for a time yet future. But look at verse thirty-seven. Thus says the Lord God, I also, I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them.
Jehovah had already promised them what he was going to do for them. But he said, I'm going to allow the house of Israel. to inquire of me to do this for them. And this morning the Bible is crowded with golden promises for us. But those promises become operative when you and I turn to God in prayer and plead those promises before him. Ask. you shall receive.
Knock, it shall be opened unto you. Seek, you shall find. And beloved, as you and I know more of God through His promises, then we're kept from asking that which God will not give, asking that which is not His will. As we become better acquainted with him through his promises, then we are enabled to ask that which pleases him. It was A.W. Pink who said, God's promises become the mold in which our petitions are cast.
Not only was that prayer based on the promises of God. That prayer was definite. Zechariah in his prophecy gives the words of Jehovah in verse ten, chapter ten, verse one, Ask ye of the Lord reign. And that's exactly what the prophet Elijah did here. No, I'll not speak for you this morning. I'll speak for myself. and say that so often I generalize in prayer. I know that you never do that, but I do.
We say, Lord, bless the missionaries. Oh, I believe he answers that prayer. How much more pleasing to the Lord. when we become specific in our requests, when we become definite in our petitions, rather than like shooting arrows into the air with no aim. You've seen on the television in recent days, Kuwaitis particularly.
celebrating, shooting the gut, just shooting up in the air, not hitting anything, fortunately there. But sometimes our prayers are like that, that they're not definite. Our Lord's example is given to us in the eleventh chapter of Luke when he said, which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves and our prayer. should be definite like that. Not only was the prayer definite, but Elijah's prayer was earnest. Oh, you see this in the very attitude of his body.
Elijah prayed earnestly, you read in James five. I reminded you that there was a noun and a verb there that in prayer he prayed. God honors the effectual fervent prayer. of a righteous man. Jacob wrestled with God. David panted after Jehovah. We have the importunity of the blind beggar. And in Hebrews chapter five, verse seven, it is recorded that our Lord Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying.
Of course, it's not necessary for us to shout and scream in order to show earnestness in prayer. But this is an attitude of the heart that when we come to God in prayer, there is that tolom, strong, earnest, seeking of the soul after him and his will. God deliver us from anemic praying. That prayer of Elijah was not only definite and earnest, and according to the promises of God, it was humble.
He cast himself down on the ground and put his face between his knees. Why, you scarcely recognize this man from a few hours before. As he stood in fiery boldness before that altar. Stood there confronting the prophets of priests and the priests of Baal and of the grove. And here he is. down on his face before the Lord. Previously he had been God's ambassador to plead with Israel to be on the side of Jehovah.
And now he becomes Israel's intercessor. And he pleads with Jehovah, with the Almighty on behalf of Israel. And an intercessor is one who takes the place of another. That's what Elijah became in his prayer. Oh, dear children of God, certainly this is our opportunity, our privilege. We are subjects indeed, but we have the privilege of becoming intercessors for others before Jehovah. I stress again that I'm distressed in my heart about the blatant irreverence that I see among those who profess to know the Lord and to believe the book.
Certainly there is to be boldness as we go before Jehovah, but I remember the words of Abram in Genesis as he said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Would you look at the order, the sequence in First Peter chapter five? Quite often we quote verse seven. casting all your care upon him for he cares for you.
First Peter five, seven. That's a great promise, isn't it? But do you notice the progression preceding that? Verse five. Likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.
And God honors humility. Redeemed, indeed we are. to come with boldness, certainly. But let us never forget that we bow before the might and the majesty and the power of God, that we're on holy ground. Our only plea this morning is that we can come in the merit and in the blood of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. It becomes us, brethren, to be humble. Verse forty-three.
That prayer was full of expectant faith. He said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. So he went and looked and said, There is nothing. And seven times he said, Go again. He sent the lad to see if there was that cloud. That cloud bringing rain. Don't press me for chapter and verse on this. But I think possibly this lad was the widow's son that had been restored to life. If you come up to me after the service this morning and say, where did you get that?
I'm going to ignore you and talk to somebody else. But he may have been. And he sent him to see if there was the cloud appearing. And how often, dear friends, that we pray and then fail to look for the blessing. That we speak our petition and then fail to expect the answer. Someone said, like ships that are laden with our blessings. But we've not been there to unload them. And they set out to sea again.
A dear man who's in glory today, man of greatest prayer that I've ever known. It's a man by the name of Cam Thompson. Some of you have read the little booklet put out by Back to the Bible entitled Master Secrets of Prayer. Are any of you familiar with that? I know a couple here are, maybe a few more. Cam Thompson always led the prayer hour in our Bible and missionary conference. And we always started out in a classroom, and by the second morning we had to move to a larger room And by about the third morning, we had to move in the auditorium for the prayer hour.
And Cam Thompson would give in those prayer periods just a few words concerning the secrets of prevailing prayer. G. Christian Weiss from back to the Bible was there speaking in the conference, and he heard some of this in the prayer hour, and he said, Brother Thompson, you need to prepare a manuscript, and we'll print that. if you'll send it to us. And that's what they did. As I say, I believe that Cam Thompson is the greatest man of prayer I ever knew. If the history of his life could be written, it would approximate that of praying hide.
Let me read something to you that Cam Thompson wrote. He said, if I do nothing else before I leave this earth, I wish to bear solemn witness to the fact that there is a backlog of blessings in heaven, a damned up lake of glorious favors waiting in the cries of feeble prayer warriors. As the crack of a bottle across the bow of the atomic monster Nautilus will send its multi-toned hull slithering down into the deep, so will the sobbing cries of a helpless heart, the half-articulated groans of a soul trapped in the quicksand of his immense necessities bring down from the tender right hand of Christ Jesus a plentitude of response, a surge of love like the surge of spring against the snowbanks of the world, far more intense than the activities of flying saucers, are the glances of God which seek for the soul who will cry, I deserve it not, but
send it for thy son's sake. This cry is the trigger that sets the hydraulic engines of the universe working on our behalf, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. Oh, beloved, the reservoir of God's blessing this morning, and how much of it is untapped because we do not pray.
Pray in expectant faith. And there is a faith which God cannot and does not refuse. A faith to which all things are possible. This was Elijah's. It was a persevering faith. Servant, the lad, came back and said, there's nothing. And he said, go again. He came back, nothing. And seven times he did that. Psalm twenty-five, three. But none of them that wait on him shall be ashamed.
Psalm forty, verse one. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He waits that he may be gracious unto us. some of you here this morning who've been praying earnestly for months, perhaps years. You've not received the answer yet. Persevere. Nothing in the sky yet.
Go again. Nothing. Go again. Seven times, he went. My earliest recollections are of a praying mother and father. We lived in Butler, Pennsylvania, next door to us. There was a husband and wife by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Flanagan. Scotch, of course. and Jack Flanagan was a strapping Irishman. His wife belonged to the Watchtower Society.
Mother and Dad witnessed to her many times. It was as if you cast pearl before swine. No response. Jack Flanagan was a profane, godless man, a wonderful neighbor, but he had no interest at all in anything spiritual. He had made no profession, would not attend the gospel service, and yet the communications had been kept open. And shortly before mother and dad left Butler to move to another area in the South as my father went into conference work.
They made one last contact, particularly with Mr. Flanagan, but there are no response. I never heard my mother pray that she did not pray, oh God, save Jack Flanagan. Every family worship, other times of prayer. I always, always she prayed, oh God, save Jack Flanagan. In nineteen forty-one, mother and dad went to glory. Six weeks apart. Dad first and six weeks later, mother joined.
Twenty-five years. I beg your pardon. Nineteen. I'm off. We left Butler in forty-one. Nineteen sixty-one. Mother went to glory. Twenty-five years after we left Butler, I returned to preach in the church where my father had pastored. I said to a friend, I need to borrow your car. I had previously asked someone, do you know if Jack Flanagan is still living? And they said, yes. He's in a retirement center just outside of town. They told me where it was. I borrowed the car. I drove out to the retirement center. got his room number, went to his room, knocked on the door, and I heard a voice, come in, and I walked in.
I said, hello, Jack. And he looked at me for a while, and he said, you're Paul. And I said, that's right. I said, Jack, I haven't been back to Butler in twenty-five years, and I just had to come by to see you. We talked for a few minutes, and I said, Jack, the reason I've come is to ask you if you have trusted Christ. I said, whenever my mother prayed, she always prayed, oh God, save Jack Flanagan. A smile of glory read his face, and he said, Paul, four months ago, at a little chapel down the road here, I trusted the Lord Jesus.
My mother had been in glory twenty-five years. I'm still mixed up on my time and days, aren't I? She had been in glory a good many years. But after all of those years, God had answered her prayer. Save Jack Flanagan. Sometimes, folks, the Heavenly Father labels the answer and puts it on the shelf for later delivery. But he's faithful. He sends it finally when we've outdone ourselves, when there seems no human possibility of the answer, as we continue to persevere in prayer.
God answers prayer. And that prayer of Elijah was abundantly answered for weeks and months. The sun had been storing up the vapors, the moisture. And now came that little cloud, the size of a man's hand, and it began to rain. And Elijah said, Word to Ahab, you better get down. You better head out in front of the rain or you get caught. what had happened in Israel, just this. I'm way past the time this morning. The land had been purged of heathen religion. The false gods had been destroyed.
The purveyors of that religion had been slain. The altar had been erected. And now God could answer prayer. May I make a personal application to my heart and yours that when the Holy Spirit dwells ungrieved, unquenched within, then we can pray in the Spirit and the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings unutterable.
God can answer prayer because it's according to his will and his word. Brethren, let's pray. Father, make us men and women of prayer. Deliver us from our own planning and schemes and programs. Pray that we may rest on your promises and pray according to your will so that our petitions may be acceptable to you and you can answer in your time and in your way.
May it be so today in our lives we ask in the Savior's name and for his glory. Amen.