May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we meditate on 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 haught 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. These days in the history of
Israel were really very sad days. When we think of the occasion
when this was written there had been no rain for three years
and the people were in a pretty desperate situation and we would
think that faced with that kind of difficulty that the people
would be constantly seeking unto the Lord God for a wonderful
deliverance and that rain might be sent. And we would automatically
think that in these times of need, the Lord does bring times
of need, they're often in that way that the Lord then causes
the Church of God to come praying unto their God. Well, we see
here that Israel then, for the most part, appeared not to be
amongst those who desire to worship the true God. And therefore,
Elijah comes to this occasion and asks this question, really,
to the people. And the question is, how long
hold she between two opinions? And opinions can be translated
as thoughts. So how long hold she between
two thoughts, two opinions, two thoughts. And then he says, if
the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.
What was the reaction? The people answered him not a
word. There was no agreement on either statement. The people
were silent. And that's an amazing truth,
isn't it? When you think of the history of Israel and the wonderful
blessings, the amazing deliverances they'd had, we would automatically
think, well, they would indeed naturally confirm, no, we are
worshipping the true God, we're not worshipping Baal. But it
was clearly not so. And you know, we live in a day-to-day,
don't we? In a not dissimilar time. Because
our country and many nations have been wonderfully blessed
over the last few centuries with the Spirit of God and many people
have been converted, many people have been turned to the Lord
and now we find ourselves in our country and many of the European
countries really just living in a condition where they don't
want anything to do with God. They just want to carry on and
to work their own work, satisfy themselves. They have no intention
of acknowledging that there is a God. And yet, my friends, there
is. Indeed, as Daniel said in his
day, there is a God in Israel, and there is a God in Israel
still, that God before who you and I stand. Indeed, everybody
in this whole world stands before that great God. How little we
realise the power of Almighty God. How little we realise, how
little people realise that we come before a God or we stand
before a God whose all-seeing eye looks into the deepest recesses
of every single heart. No thought can be kept from Almighty
God. Every single thought we have
is known to our God, and everybody's thought is known unto this great,
great God. We just fail, do we not, in recognising
the greatness of God. We tend to put Almighty God as
a little God, and we don't treat the Lord God as the great God,
do we? How little time we spend each
day in communion and prayer with Almighty God. How often we fit
God in to our programme if there's time. You see this is not right,
is it? God will be first. In the lives of his people, God
will have the preeminence. And it's a wonderful favour when
we realise that our favour Our blessing is to give our best
time to Almighty God, not our worst time, not our worst time,
our best time. When we're fresh, when we're
alert, not when we're tired and not able to concentrate on the
things of God. You see, really, we've relegated
God to second place. We've allowed materialism to
come in and to occupy the preeminent position in our lives. Well,
that does not bring honour and glory to God. And let us never
forget God is a jealous God. And my friends, how can we expect
a blessing? How can we expect the favour
of God when God is not the pre-eminent person in our lives? Well, we
see then, do we not, that we are really not dissimilar to
the people that lived at this time in Elijah's day. And therefore, he comes to the
people. Remember, he's come and met Ahab. And Ahab asks him that question,
art thou he that troubleth Israel? Well, of course he wasn't. But
Elijah 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.' Well, how true in our day and
age it is that people have forsaken the commandments of the Lord.
They've ignored them, and they've thought them of little value.
And that doesn't just concern those who are against God. My friends, it also is attributable
to those who profess to be Christians. How often we find that the blessed
commandments of Almighty God have been forsaken. And it's
good, you know, for each one of us to just consider our ways. We're encouraged to do that.
and to be able to look into our hearts and see whether any of
us have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. And we need to be
honest about that and not say, well, I'm not sure, my friends,
how we can easily prevaricate before a holy God. And yet we
should realize we stand before this great God, this God who
is the judge of the whole earth, this God who holds our breath
in his hand, and we should not even consider prevaricating or
making excuses. As we see this statement here,
these have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. Well, it's tragic,
you know, if the Church of God, and it's true, they have. Many
people today have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and
they made various excuses, perhaps not outwardly, but inwardly.
And my friends, you must realize excuses do not stack up with
God. You and I cannot make an excuse
to God because we have his gracious and blessed word to instruct
us in that which is right and also in that which we should
do. And we are therefore without
excuse. Is it any surprise then that
many in the Church of God today are lukewarm hard-hearted, you
might say carnally minded, fleshly minded. But what a blessing it
is if we realise the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon us,
coming upon our conscience as an arrow, as it were, which penetrates
into our heart. And we come like, indeed, David
when he came before Nathan the prophet, when he was making excuses
and Nathan told him very directly, thou art the man. Don't look
elsewhere David, you're the problem, you're the guilty one. Well we know that David was indeed
under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God and did come and
confessed his shortcomings and confessed his sin. It's a blessed
privilege, a wonderful favour to come and to confess our sin. If we have then been left to
forsake the commandments of our God, it's a wonderful blessing
if God gives us that grace to fall down and confess that we
have failed, we have been foolish, we have been sinful, and pray
indeed that Lord will forgive. Well, my friends, there is forgiveness
with God. that he may be feared. And surely
that's very comforting to the Church of God, to realise that
we have such a kind and such a gracious God. Well, Elijah
then comes to these people and he asks them this important question. How long halt ye between two
opinions? And this word, halt, again really
means changing sides. The actual fact is that it really
is the illustration of a bird hopping from one twig to another,
backwards and forwards. And how often that is true. People hop backwards and forwards,
don't they? Between two opinions, between
two thoughts. And the thing is, well, shall
we obey that command? Shall we do that? or shall we
not? Can we find an excuse? Can we
find a reason? See, we're just like this, aren't
we? Just like these people on this
great day. They were just hopping from one
thing to another. How long says, Elijah, how long? Well, perhaps we can ask the
question, how long have you been in that position? Hopping from
one place to another, keep changing. One day you think, yes, I will
obey the Lord's command. The next day you think, well,
perhaps not just yet, I'll just walk on in my own way for a bit
longer. So there's this statement, isn't
it? How long? Are you going to halt
between these two thoughts or these two opinions? And the God-Servant
says, if the Lord be God, if the Lord be God, having asked
the question, how long halts you between two opinions? He
says, if the Lord be God, what is to be done? If the Lord be
God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him. And really the truth is that
there's the picture here of God and Baal, but really we could
consider it as being God on one side and on the other side. All
the other idols, all the other things which come into our lives,
and not forget our own pride. Often we are willing to follow
our own pride. bow down before our own prime.
We don't want to, putting it very simply, submit ourselves
unto the gracious Word of God. What are we doing? Just like
these Israelites, rebelling against God. And do you know what the
Word of God tells us? The rebellious dwell in a dry
land. Those people who are disobedient,
dwell in a dry land because they're walking contrary to God. And
the Lord says this, if you walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary
to you. Now what a blessing it is if
God gives you and me that grace to look into our hearts and to
examine ourselves and to see whether we are walking in such
a way You know, the devil would come and try and stop us ever
thinking about those things. The devil wants you to just sail
on, on a nice smooth ocean, nothing to trouble you, and to ignore
anything that might bring any problems. He wants you to just
ignore such things. My friends, how successful he
is today. You only have to look around the church of God and
see the sad state the church is in. Well, here was this statement,
how long? Haughty between two opinions.
If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him. It's really just the two choices.
To either be found following the Lord God, or to be following
other gods. Well, the people here, they were
not able to answer. They knew they were guilty. And
what a good thing it is, even in this kind of situation, to
not again stand up and start arguing and start trying to produce
excuses before God. They answered, not a word. Why? Because they were guilty. Because they were guilty and
they knew they'd been following false gods. hadn't been following
the true God. And so on this occasion that
we have here before us in this wonderful account, we see how
the Lord wonderfully gave Elijah that wisdom to bring about or
to produce this willingness for a solution to be produced which
would settle who was the true God. And so this question was,
then said Elijah, Elijah thought he was the only person that remained,
of course he wasn't actually, there were several thousand of
believers that were still there, but nonetheless it appeared as
though he was the only one. And so he made this suggestion,
that the servants, the prophets of Baal, should therefore endeavour
to bring fire down to eat up the bullet which they were put
as an offering, and on the other case that God, or at least Elijah
rather, would also produce a sacrifice. And the agreement was that the
God who answered by fire should be the God. And the people answered
and said, it is well spoken. And so as we read this account
together this evening, we know what the outcome was. We know
how Baal's prophets did all they could to produce a solution. But of course, There was no life. Baal was just a dead god. No
life at all. And then we see how Elijah came,
called the people near. And what did he do? He repaired
the altar. The altar of the Lord, which
was broken down, hadn't been used. Hadn't been used. Well, you know, we could think
of that in our current day as not physical altars being broken
down, but perhaps a lack of reading the Bible, the Word of God. It's
perhaps remained on a shelf, or perhaps if it hasn't remained
on a shelf, we may have just gone through the motion of reading
the Word of God. just carried out some duty that
we thought we should have done. But in actual fact, the reality
was the true worship of God was not there. Was not there. What had happened? The altar
of the Lord was broken down. Yes, what a sad situation it
was. So what did we find Elijah doing?
Repairing it. He's putting things right. He's
taking the 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of
Israel, and building the altar. Well, my friends, may you and
I, if we have found we haven't been following the Lord, and
if perhaps we found that our altar, as it were, has been broken
down, The things of God have taken a back place. And in our
times of private and public worship, we haven't really worshipped
the Lord. We've just gone through a form of service. And really,
what's it been? It's really been a mockery, hasn't
it? Hasn't been any truth in it. We've just pretended to go
through a very formal situation, no better really than these people. Well, Elijah then saw the need
to repair the altar. My friends, what a blessing in
our lives if we see the need to bring about the repairing
in our Christian life, to put first things first, to see earnestly
the kingdom of God, to truly desire the word of God Maybe
a living word to ourselves, not just an historical account. Not
just something that we read to tick a box in our calendar and
say, well, I've done that today. My friends, you see, real religion
is far, far deeper than that. It's not just something which
is superficial, something which we can think we can please God
when our heart doesn't go with the things we say. No, there's
that difference. Well, we find here Elijah then
rebuilding the altar, taking these 12 stones, and then slaying
the animal and putting the bullock on the altar, and to just make
absolutely sure that that which was to occur would prove without
any doubt that it was God who was doing it. He commanded a
trench be dug around the altar, and water poured on the altar,
poured on the bullock so that they were all saturated in water
and the water about the trench so that naturally speaking there
was no possibility of fire catching hold of the altar. But then we
see that Elijah came and what did he do and how important this
is. He prayed to the God of heaven. And you know, if you and I desire
that our alters might be repaired, that we might be found amongst
those who are not forsaking the commandments of God, what is
needed? Prayer. Confession. What a blessing it is to come
and to confess our sins before our God. Well, you know, here
we have Elijah. He came near and he prayed. Lord
God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel. He came to the great
God. He came to the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and Israel. He believed in the great God.
If you and I are to come rightly, we have to come believing in
the great God, trusting in the great God. And so he comes and
says, 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. 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." What a blessing to have
hearts turned back to God. What a need there is today for
hearts to be turned back to God. Hearts have wandered away, hearts
have been turned, and the things of the world, in this material
age in which we live, with so many, many temptations all around
us, to come and tempt us to take us away from the things of God,
so that the altar's broken down, so there's not that true worship,
there's the forsaking of the commandments of the Lord, they're
put in the background. But to come and pray that our
hearts might be turned back again, back to the Lord. Oh, what a
need there is, isn't there, today, to have our hearts, our hearts
moved by the Spirit of God. My friends, not just to say,
well, I've done that today. You know, to be really moved
by God's Spirit so that we don't do things half-heartedly. We
do things wholeheartedly because we desire The name of our God
will be honoured and glorified, that we might be found walking
in that right way, that narrow way which leads to eternal life,
and not left to wander off in some broad way which is pleasing
to the flesh. There will always be the battle
between our flesh and the Spirit, and how easy it is to succumb
to the easy way of the flesh, but that only brings barrenness.
only brings hardness, doesn't bring any glory to God. Well here was this prophet Elijah
then on this occasion pleading with God, hear me! And he was
in a desperate need wasn't he for God to hear him. You know
he'd come and all these people were gathered together to see
whether there was the true God. Well he was brought to this Position
and bless God if you and I are brought to a position where we
really cry to God It's not just a form of words. It comes from
our heart and we really cry hear me Lord I need my prayer to be
answered. I need to be given strength to
do thy will I Need to follow the commandments of my God I've
turned my back I've been a great great sinner and And Lord, I
deserve to be cut off. But oh Lord, hear me. Oh, hear
me. Hear me, Lord. Hear me. He repeats
it. It was so important. And my friends,
may it be so important in our lives. We're like that. We come and we say, hear me,
oh Lord, hear me. This people may know that thou
art the Lord God. and that thou has turned their
heart back again. And what was the result? Blessed be God, he heard and
answered Elijah's prayer. Yes, and it wasn't anything which
could be dismissed as an accident. It was very clear that God had
heard that prayer. And so we're told, and the fire
of the Lord, the fire of the Lord, God sent the fire down. and consumed the burnt sacrifice
and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water
that was in the trench. What a wonderful miracle that
was, wasn't it? And we see the glorious mercy
of God to Israel through causing Elijah to come and to meet Ahab
and to be brought to this situation to Inquire of the people of this
great and important question. How long halts ye between two
opinions? Well, tonight, my friends, where
are we? Are we halting between two opinions?
Are we saying, well, I don't think I'll do that and I'll carry
on this way because I think it's an easier way? Are we therefore disobedient
to our God? Well, the great question was,
how long? Perhaps you've been halting for
a long time? Perhaps you've been disobeying
God for a long time? There are two opinions. We could say simply like this,
God's opinion, the devil's opinion. You see, which one are you and
I following? Which one are we following? Which
one have we been following? Which one are we following today?
Are we following that one which brings honour and glory to the
great God? Now remember here, who was the
great God? Who was the great God? Well,
we're told. When all the people saw it, they
fell on their face and they said, the Lord, he is the God. The
Lord, He is the God. And my friends, today, it's exactly
the same. There's only one true God. The
God who answers prayer. Baal could not answer prayer.
Force gods do not answer prayer. The true God answers prayer.
And so, my friends, in our lives, if God has answered any prayer,
we put up to Him. Are we following our God? Are
we following the commandments of our God? Or are we halting
between two opinions? Are we serving the false God? Or are we serving the true God? What a wonderful favour if the
Lord moves our souls to desire to do that which is right and
God honouring. You know, in Joshua's day Just
shortly before Joshua was to die, he came to the people and
he asked the people, at the end of the 24th chapter in Joshua,
verse 14, now therefore, he tells them, fear the Lord and serve
him in sincerity and in truth. It's a good statement, isn't
it? In sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and
serve ye the Lord. And if it seemed evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve.
Whether the gods which your father served that were on the other
side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
you dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said,
God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord, our God, he it
is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt
from the house of bondage and which did those great signs in
our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went,
and among all the people through whom we passed." You see, they
acknowledged what God had done for them, and therefore Joshua
asked them this very important question. And my friends, they
were able to answer in this positive way that they would indeed serve
the Lord. The same question ought to be
asked to all of us, shouldn't it? As to whether we would be
like Joshua when he said, as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. Now this wasn't vain words. This was very true in Joshua's
case. He was serving the Lord and he
could say so. And therefore, he was asking
the rest of Israel whether they would serve the Lord. And on
this occasion, they said they would. We know, of course, that
after a short time, they very soon fell away for the most part. But nonetheless, it's a blessing
if you and I truly desire to be found serving the Lord. And
so tonight, if we had to answer before God, How would we answer? What would we say? If asked, are we halting between
two opinions or are we indeed serving the Lord? Are we serving
Almighty God or are we not? In Hosea's day, Hosea was A prophet in a difficult time,
and he makes this statement under the influence of the Spirit of
God. Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit unto
himself, no honour to God. According to the multitude of
his first fruit, he hath increased the altars according to the goodness
of his hand. They have made goodly images.
Their heart is divided. Is our heart divided? Are we
trying to keep up a pretense? On the one hand, and yet on the
other hand, we're effectively serving Baal. Our heart is divided. That's what the devil wants to
do. He wants to divide our hearts.
Well, my friends, may our hearts be set upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we ever consider what
he has done in that great work of salvation. My friends, the
Saviour's heart was not divided, was it? You think what he endured? You think what he suffered? In
order to deliver our souls from the wrath to come. What he went
through, my friends, was it any light difficulty,
any light trial, any light condemnation that he endured? My friends,
it bowed him right down. He was in total weakness as he
endured all that cross which his father gave him to bear so
that he might stand in our place, that by his glorious death he
might satisfy the demands of God's holy law. You see the Saviour
had not forsaken the commandments of his God. And my friends, how hard it was. If you wonder whether you should,
what way you should go, remember the Saviour. Remember what He
endured. Ponder the cost of your salvation.
And now think today, what our reaction is. Are we forsaking the commandments
of our God, those commandments which the blessed Saviour so
gloriously undertook for us. And what does the Lord say? Remember it in love to our souls.
He says this, do this in remembrance of me. The gracious command was
to keep the Lord's Supper, wasn't it? do this in remembrance of
me." That was a gracious command on that Passover night, as the
Saviour was to endure the cross and to shed his most precious
blood in order to atone for our sins. He instituted that on that
wonderful occasion in that upper room, do this in remembrance
of me. My friends, are we willing to
do this in remembrance of him? What a glorious scene it is to
see on that occasion when the Lord was to suffer so greatly,
his love was so glorious to his church that he instituted the
Lord's Supper, lest we forget. And so we're able to come to
that table of the Lord and to consider the cost of our salvation,
his broken body and his shed blood. What a cost. Are we halting tonight between
two opinions? Are we following our blessed
Lord? remembering what he's done, or
are we effectively following Baal? Baal who could not talk, Baal
who could not do anything, and yet our great and glorious God
has done so much to redeem our souls. Tonight, are we amongst those
who Can it concur with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord? Are you and I serving the Lord
tonight? Are we following him, that despised
and crucified man? Do we bless him for what he's
done in redeeming our souls? Then, my friends, may we be found
on the right side and be able to exclaim from our heart, because
of his love toward us, because of his mercy toward us, because
of his great grace toward us, to come and concur with the statement
of these people on that Mount Carmel, the Lord, he is the God,
the Lord, he is the God. Do you say that tonight? Do you
say that from your heart tonight? Can we all say it from our heart
tonight? And if so, my friends, I'll be walking in that way which
confirms this is true, confirms that we are not forsaking the
blessed commands of our God. We may have done, but my friends,
may it be from this day forward, we may be really concerned that
the Lord will give us grace and strength to do his will so that
his great name may be lifted up and honoured and glorified. I believe when the Blessed Spirit
touches our hearts, our real concern is that as we realise
what he's done for us, our desire is to have him lifted up and
to honour and glorify his great and holy name. Well, we must
each answer before God tonight, mustn't we? This is a familiar
account, but it's a very relevant account to the Church of God
down through the ages. And may we be amongst those who,
in answer to this question, how long will it be between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. And if we therefore do truly
believe our God to be the true God, that One who has given His
life to redeem our souls, may we ever be concerned to be found
following Him. Amen.