I please Almighty God to bless
us together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us
turn to the first book of the Kings, chapter 18, and we'll
read verse 21. The first book of the Kings,
chapter 18, and reading verse 21. 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. This account of Elijah and Mount
Carmel is a very remarkable and very wonderful account. It's one of the outstanding accounts,
I suppose, that we have in the Bible to strengthen us and to
encourage us and to show us that indeed there is a God in heaven. Again and again we prove in the
accounts in the Word of God that great truth and how Today we
should be encouraged, especially as we must appreciate that the
Bible is the true Word of God and everything it contains is
true and there's nothing false in the Word of God. And so, as
we have this account here, this, we might term, historical account
of Elijah in the days of Ahab, how amazing they were. And if
we look at the position which existed, of course, there had
been three years of famine, three years of no rain. You young people,
just imagine that. We've had now about a month,
I think, of no rain here in our country, at least in this area.
And the ground's getting pretty dry. And perhaps some of us can
remember years ago, back in 1976, when we had A good few months
when there was absolutely no rain and the ground became really
parched and everything was drying up and trees dying. Well, just
try and imagine what it was like for three years. You see, there
had been that evil, that bad condition and Elijah had prayed
to God that it might not rain. And God had heard his prayer
and therefore it hadn't rained for these three years. Well,
it must have been a very desolate landscape, especially as we think
that the weather in this area was, of course, much hotter naturally
than we have in our country. So it was a very desperate scene. They so needed rain. And we know
then that we read in this account that Elijah was sent and Ahab
had been looking for Elijah and he couldn't find him. He didn't
know where he was. And eventually Elijah did show
himself to Ahab. And it was a wonderful thing
that that was so. And when they met, and you remember
that The servant said, and now thou sayest, well this is Obediah,
now thou sayest, go and tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here,
and it shall come to pass as soon as I am gone from thee,
that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not.
And so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find me, he shall
slay me. But I thy servant fear the Lord
from my youth. Well, then he goes on to say,
And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy Lord, Behold, Elijah is here,
and he shall slay me. And Elijah said, As the Lord
of hosts liveth, but for whom I stand, I will surely show myself
unto him today. So Elijah 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 have
not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that
ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed
Balaam. They departed from God. That was the reason why this
had occurred. But now Elijah says, Now therefore
send and gather to me all Israel unto Carmel, and the prophets
of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat
at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children
of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. So
there was a very great gathering of the people of Israel and all
the prophets came to Mount Carmel. And this is what Elijah said. He addressed them all and he
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." He had addressed
them, and they would have known. You think that he was addressing
here Israel, who had had such a wonderful history. God had
so gloriously been with them. and had brought them out of Egypt
and had brought them into Canaan and granted many, many victories
and blessed them with wonderful favours. And now we find that
they had turned their back upon God. They had forsaken the commandments
of the Lord and they followed Balaam. Well, it was true then,
and of course it's true today, isn't it? is true in our nation. As we look around we can see
that our fellow countrymen have forsaken the commandments of
the Lord and have followed false ways. They've followed evil ways.
Balaam was an evil man. You see men and women and boys
and girls today follow evil. They don't follow good. And it's
a very sad and solemn day in which we find ourselves living.
And so we have here then, Elijah now standing before these people
and asking the question, how long halt ye between two opinions? No doubt, in their conscience,
they realise they departed from Almighty God and they followed
the wrong way, they'd followed Baal. Because, you see, Baal
was who they thought was an easy person to follow, an easy idol,
he wouldn't do anything against them really, and therefore it
was a very comfortable religion to follow. We find that today,
don't we, people ignoring the true God, ignoring the wonderful
blessings that Almighty God has granted to us. And of course
it doesn't just stop at what we might term our nation, it
also affects the Church of God. It also affects those who pretend,
we might say, to be Christians, but who are not really. You see,
it's very easy today to pretend to be a Christian. People don't
ask very many questions, do they? It's perhaps much better if people
do ask questions. I remember you may have, or some
of you may have known, I knew when I was young, Mr. Rose, who was pastor at a number
of chapels, including Tamworth Road in Croydon. And he was a
wonderful man, a wonderfully blessed man, a godly man. And somebody came to him and
said, oh, sir, are you saved? Well, George Rose, he knew, he
was saved. And he said, yes, I am saved.
And he told the inquirer why he was saved. He said, isn't
that good? Isn't that good, you see, if
we're able to not be afraid of telling people why we are saved? You know, it's good today, isn't
it, if you and I think of that ourselves, if we're asked the
question, are we saved? We don't duck the issue and kind
of change the subject. So often you get people doing
that, don't you? They say, oh, it's a nice day today and everything
else. And they don't want to actually be pinned down to answer
that question. But it is a good question. And
it's a good question to answer. And it's a good question that
all of us should be prepared and ready to answer. If you asked
the question today, are you saved? What would you say? What would
you say? Would you bluff your way out
of it? I remember a question was asked to someone once and
it was an important question and he was asked, can you tell
us what God has done for you? Of course, I've always gone to
chapel and I've believed the things that my father and mother
brought me up to believe, but there was no testimony, there
was no evidence of any work of grace in his soul. He was just
relying on his parents' religion. That will never get you and me
to heaven, and it will never take us to heaven. We must have
a personal knowledge of God in our hearts. And so to be found
not those who indeed follow Baal, a false religion, but those who
truly follow the living God. And so he says, how long halts
ye between two opinions? We know, of course, that to be
a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is costly. You should never think it's not. Because what we've done, using
a worldly phrase, we nail our colours to the mast. That means
that people can see and observe what and who we believe in. It's not ducking and diving.
It's a real confession. And it's really good if you and
I are willing to do just that, to confess whose we are and whom
we serve as a true believer and not someone who is a follower
of Baal, someone who pretends to be a Christian but is not. And so there were all those in
this time, as the Prophet says, how long halts ye between two
opinions? Well, there may be people today
here. You know, you stand before God, I don't know, I don't look
at your hearts, do I? Only so you're outside, but you
know before God whether you are halting, not prepared really
to confess that you are a true believer, not really prepared
to confess that your hope is built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness, whether it will be a great blessing if
the Holy Spirit confirms in your heart that you are a true believer
and that you are not therefore ashamed to confess the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, as the Prophet says, how
long haughtily between two opinions? If the Lord be God, well, do
you believe the Lord is God? Do you believe he is God, or
are you halting between two opinions? Many people today, they want
to have a foot in God's camp and a foot in the world's camp,
so that if they're with the people of God, they can nod the right
way and indicate the right way, so people think, oh, well, that's
a person, perhaps a godly person. And yet, in the other way, if
they're then in the world, they have their foot there and they
nod then to the world, and they agree with the world, and therefore
they're trying to wear both hats. Well, of course, you and I will
never truly be able to do that. We'll either be a true believer
or we'll be a false believer. would either be a follower of
the Lord or we'd be a follower of Baal. And so Elijah here puts
the question so clearly. How long halt ye between two
opinions? If the Lord be God, if you believe as the Lord is
God, what's the answer? Very clear. Follow him. But if it's not, If you believe
in Baal, if you believe in the world, then follow that way. You can't follow both. You may
pretend to. You may seem to think you can.
The reality is you can't. And the people were silent. They
were condemned, weren't they? In their heart they knew that
what Elijah was saying was true. And therefore they didn't want
to commit themselves. Isn't that true today? How many
people today, sadly, don't want to commit themselves? They just
want to sit on the fence. They don't want to confess who
they believe. And yet, you see, if you think
about it, if you think about it, we've all got to stand before
the judgment seat of Christ, haven't we? And we don't want
to come to that place, and before that judge of all the earth,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't be able to pretend
then. You won't be able to waffle then. You won't be able to think,
well, hopefully God will look alright upon me. Because the
question will be, well, have you been a follower? Have you
followed me? What are you going to say? Are you going to say, yes, by
the grace of God I have? Or are you going to look down
at the ground and confess you haven't, well, at that time,
the day of grace, the day of favour is past. And you will
be condemned forever into a lost eternity. Terrible, terrible
thought, isn't it? Well, here we have this statement
then by Elijah. If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him,
not a word. Well, if you've been silent,
perhaps you have. Perhaps the time has come you
can't be silent because the word of the Lord comes with power
from on high, and it does. The Lord's word does come with
power, and it does convince, and it does move, and it does
change, and it does strengthen us, and it does encourage us.
Well then, we have this account now, and what a wonderful account
it was, wasn't it? And it's very significant. If
we just follow through this account, what occurred? Well, Elijah said,
well, take two books, and you can have one and I'll have one,
and there'll be an offering, an offering. This wasn't a haphazard
decision, it was a decision moved by Almighty God. to instruct
Elijah to make this statement. And so we see, all the prophets
of Baal, all the prophets of Baal, they cut up their bullet,
they put it on an altar, they put the wood underneath it, and
then they prayed to their God. But of course, their God wasn't
the God, so their God could never perform, could he? And they did
all that they could. They even cut themselves with
lancets, all the blood gushed out. Elijah, of course, mocked
them and told them, cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is
talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or perhaps
he sleeps and must be awakened. So they battled on to this dead
god. And of course, it never happened. Nothing ever happened. There
was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. Well, my friends, let us never
trust a false god. Let us never look and think that
somehow something is going to appear, that somehow something
is going to occur before I die. It's not a question of just putting
things into the background. The things of God are important
and the things of God are urgent. And so then Elijah came and said
to the people, come near unto me. He wanted them to all come
and hear and to see what was going to occur. And it's lovely
to see that the faith, Elijah have, and we have many cases,
don't be in the Word of God, where God gave faith to believe. Bless God today, if He gives
you and me faith to believe. Believe what? To believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that He can save my soul. That's what it
comes down to, isn't it, really? So here we have then, Elijah
inviting the people to come near. And all the people came near
unto him. And he repaired the altar. You see, in those days,
there'd been the altars put in the high places, but they seemed
to have reached a time now, a terrible time, where there were no sacrifices,
there were no offerings. All the altars had become disused. All the people were following
Baal. at least for the most part, it would seem, it was a tragic
day. Well, we live in a tragic day
today, don't we? And so it was in that case. And so Elijah took
12 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. 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. And remember,
it was a time of drought, there wasn't any rain, and you may
wonder, well, how did he, how would he dare to get water and
pour it on the sacrifice? Well, they were quite near to
the sea, actually, and therefore it would have been very likely
that they went and got some water from the sea, there was plenty
of sea water, and to come and to pour that on the sacrifice. And so we were told, and he put
the wood in order and cut the bullock in pieces and laid it
on the wood and said, fill four barrels of water and pour it
on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, do it
the second time. Did it the second time. Do it a third time. They
did it a third time. The water ran round about the
altar and he filled the trench also with water. And it came
to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. Now
I believe this is amazingly significant. In God's providence, it occurred
that this was the time of the evening sacrifice. And you may
remember that one of the things which was instituted in the history
of Israel when they came out of Egypt and with the tabernacle
erected was that there had to be amongst other sacrifices the
morning and the evening sacrifice. There was the slaying of a lamb
or a goat in the morning and the same in the evening. And
there was, therefore, a sacrifice to God. And what occurred then?
The animal was slain, the blood was shed, and the offering ascended
up to God. A continual offering, really,
before Almighty God, morning and evening. And just for the
benefit, perhaps, of you children and young people, to realise
that the morning and the evening sacrifice, which were so symbolic
of coming to God is really superseded today as we read the Bible and
pray in the morning when we get up and in the evening before
we go to bed. And that really is the current
morning and evening sacrifice. And it really means that we commit
ourselves to the Lord in the morning with the day before us,
And as we come to the evening, we thank God for the help which
he's given us through the day and to watch over us through
the night. So really that has continued
in the Christian church, the morning and the evening sacrifice. So here we have, on this occasion,
that it was the time of the evening sacrifice, a time to specifically
remember Almighty God. And so it didn't just happen
by chance. I believe it was ordained by
Almighty God. At this very time, the prophets
of Baal had spent all their time trying to get a false god to
hear, who was of course no god. And then by the time Elijah had
erected the altar and slain the bullock and put it on the wood
and poured all the water about, it had come to the time of the
evening sacrifice. So now, what did he do? What did he do? What do you think
he would do? He prayed to God. He prayed to
God. And that's a good thing for us
today. to pray to God. And so he comes and says, Lord
God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel. This wasn't the unknown
God. This was the God that Israel
were aware of. They knew the history of Abraham.
They knew that God had brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
They knew how he blessed him. They knew he'd had Isaac and
Jacob and the patriarchs. They knew how they'd been brought
out of Egypt. They knew how they'd come across
the Red Sea. They knew how they'd come into
across Jordan and into Canaan. They knew how God had appeared
for them. So how appropriate it was that
Elijah should come and address God in this very great and glorious
way. Lord, let it be known the Lord
God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this
day that thou art God in Israel." That was the whole purpose, wasn't
it? For this demonstration. That Israel might know there
was a God in Israel, still. Just like Daniel. often refer
to that as Daniel says in his account they might know there
is a God in Israel and it's good for us today in our lives to
know there is a God in Israel there is an almighty God a God who still rules and reigns
a God who still does great things God hasn't changed. God hasn't
diminished. God hasn't become small. God
hasn't become old. God's the same today as he was
when he created the earth. He is the eternal God. So says
Elijah. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and
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. Moved, wasn't he, by the Spirit
of God to do these things, to say these things? This wasn't
just a chance occurrence. This was ordained by God. ordained
by God from eternity past. Everything in our lives is ordained
by Almighty God. And so what a blessing we have
this, that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things
at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. He wasn't praying to the unknown
God like the Athenians was. He was praying to the true God,
and therefore his great prayer was, hear me, O Lord, hear me,
for this reason, that this people may know that thou art the Lord
God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. So the people's hearts had gone
astray, had gone after the false God of Baal. They'd gone after
the things of the world. And so here was this cry, this
cry by Elijah in this prayer, that thou has turned their heart
back again. Well, it wasn't a long prayer,
was it? It wasn't a prayer with a lot
of vain repetition. It was a very simple and very
direct prayer. And yet it came from the heart,
and it came to Almighty God. And Almighty God, did He turn
away? Did He say, I'm not going to
hear that prayer? What are we told? 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,
there was no possibility of doubting that this emanated from Almighty
God, because it was such a powerful fire from heaven that it consumed
everything, everything. And then we have this wonderful
reaction from the people, when all the people saw it, They fell
on their faces. They bowed down before God. That's a great blessing, you
know, when you and I bow down before Almighty God. We don't
just stay as we were. We're not unaffected. These people
were affected by this great and glorious provision that God had
provided by this fire. And 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. No doubt, was there? What was
the question? The question was, how long halt
ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered, not
a word. But now, there was a demonstration of
the power of God. There was no dispute. And Elijah didn't have to ask
them, what do you think now? He didn't have to reiterate His
question. They answered from their heart. They answered from
their heart and had the wonderful evidence that Almighty God had
appeared and Almighty God had answered. And therefore He had
said, they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the
God. Well, my friends, today, every
one of us needs to be able to say before God and before men you
see this wasn't something they whispered it wasn't something
which nobody heard the Lord he is the God and it was repeated
the Lord he is the God declared wasn't it who was the true God
what had God done turn their hearts. He moved them by the
Holy Spirit. Yes, what a blessing it was,
and my friends today, how thankful we should be that we still have
this same great Almighty God. And as it occurred on this occasion,
the evening sacrifice, that's when it occurred, and it set
forth, of course, the suffering Saviour. It set forth the shedding
of His most precious blood. What a mercy today if the Holy
Spirit directs us by faith to view this great and wonderful
sacrifice of the Saviour which He has done on our behalf to
take away our sins, every sin, to cleanse us from all our sins,
to make us clean, to make us pure, to deliver us from the
evil of our hearts. We know of course that this side
of glory we shall still possess, the natural evil of our flesh,
but to realise that God has given us that new nature which cleaves
after God and longs after God and cries out unto God. He is
the God, the Lord, the Lord. He is the God. What a blessing for us today
then. If by faith we may have wandered off, we may have been
cold and hard-hearted and rebellious We may have said, I'm not going
to have this man to reign over me. I'm going to reign in my
life. I'm going to do what I want to
do. I'm going to follow my path. I'm going to please myself. I'm
not going to follow that way. I'm not going to follow the way
of God. Well, when the Lord speaks, you see, it was done, wasn't
it? There was no doubt, was there?
There was no doubt. Here they were then, before Almighty
God, this great assembly. It would seem there was that
one voice. It would seem really, well there
were of course the prophets of Baal that would never have agreed,
but there didn't seem to be any voice of dissension. Then of
course all those prophets were slain. Yes. Elijah said, take
the prophets of Baal, let one of them escape. And he came and he said to Ahab,
get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance
and rain. And of course, we know, as this
last part of the account tells us, really how beautifully the
Lord appeared. But again, you know, Elijah had
this wonderful experience, hadn't he? And you would think he would
just sit down and say, well, of course, it's going to all
happen now, I needn't worry. No, the Lord was still testing
Elijah. This great man of faith who just
prayed to God that fire would come down and it did. And Ahab went up to eat and drink
and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, cast himself down
upon the earth, put his face between his knees and said to
his servant, go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up
and looked and said, there's nothing, nothing. Where's the
rain? Nothing. Sometimes the Lord may
test our faith again. Yes, we might think, well, it's
all gonna be plain sailing now, I needn't worry anymore. No,
the Lord's still going to test our faith. Go up, look toward the sea, and
he went up and looked, and there's nothing. and the light again
seven times. Seven times. It came to pass
at the seventh time that he said, Behold, there rises a little
cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. Just a little sign that
God was going to appear again and send that which was so needful,
rain. the blessing of God, the favour
of God. And so he said, Go up, said Ahab,
prepare thy chariot, get thee down, that the rain stop thee
not. And it came to pass that the meanwhile The heaven was
black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab
rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And he girded up his loins and
ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel." Well, it's a wonderful
account this is, really, proving the greatness and power of Almighty
God. First of all, in confirming to
all those people There was the true God, He is the God, and
then sending that which was so needful, rain. What a blessed
time it was in the history of Israel, and so unworthy they
were. My friends, today God is still
gracious today. Unworthy as we are as a nation,
unworthy as we are as individuals, and yet to realize our God rains
today. in the same way that He did on
this occasion. Let us therefore never doubt
God. Let us not be today halting between
two opinions. Lord, may our minds be set upon
this blessed situation. If the Lord be God, follow Him,
and may every one of us be a true follower of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. However impossible the things
may appear, well it would almost have appeared impossible for
that to have occurred which did in Elijah's day. My friends,
remember this, the things which are impossible with men are possible
with God. we are told, he giveth more grace,
he gives us more unmerited favour. He will not leave us, nor forsake
us, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will
not fear what man shall say or do unto me. May we today be able
to bless God for his mercy, bless God for his love, towards such
unworthy sinners. These people, they've turned
their back upon God, haven't they? And so have we, perhaps.
God knows whether you've turned your back upon God. Well, bless
God, if He's loved you with everlasting love, He'll move you. He'll move
you, no doubt about that. Don't think He won't. Bless God,
He is the God who moves people. He does great things. He does
great things for one reason. Do you know what that is? His
honour and glory in your life and my life. It's not to please
ourselves, it's to please Almighty God. To bring honour and glory
to Him who is worthy. And don't forget His great sacrifice
for sinners. Don't forget the cost of your
salvation. He died that you might live. He shed His blood that you might
be washed, redeemed. in the precious blood of Christ. It's a glorious gospel. Rejoice
in it. Praise God for it. Go on your
way rejoicing and be very thankful for such an account. Elijah came
out to all the people and said, How long halt ye between two
opinions? If the Lord be God. If the Lord
be God. follow him. But if Baal, then
follow him. And the people answered him,
not a word, but all the people came, fell on their faces and
said, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God.