Beginning in verse 17 of 1 Kings
chapter 18, Now you remember it was Elijah that said, it's
not going to rain until I say it's going to rain. And so he
says, are you the one troubling Israel? And he answered and said, I've
not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, and that
you forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou has followed
Balaam. Now, therefore, send and gather
to me all Israel into Mount 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 into Mount Carmel. And
Elijah came unto all the people and said, how long halt ye between two
opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. and the people answered him not
a word. Let's pray. Lord, how thankful we are that
you're God. How thankful we are that you
are who you are glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. We give thanks for your gospel. We give thanks for the revelation
of your person and your son. Oh, how we thank you for the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and his accomplishments. How
we thank you for the forgiveness of sins. How we thank you for
ears to hear your gospel. Lord, we know only you can grant
those ears. Lord, we confess that by your
grace, we love you for who you are. And it's only by your grace
and we give thanks to you for the love that we even have to
you. Lord, we confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing.
Be with all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Now let's read verse 21 again. I'm not going to get into the
story yet. This is enough for us to consider.
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. They did not respond to this
statement. Now the issue of Elijah's day
is the issue of this present day. There's no difference. Now the people were trying to
worship Baal and trying to worship Jehovah together. They were trying
to blend two things that are mutually exclusive. That's what
was going on. They were trying to bring together
and to blend two things that were mutually exclusive. And
Elijah says, it cannot be done. If the Lord be God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him. But don't try to do both. One excludes the other. Now, I'm not going to get past
that thought. The Bible is either the inspired
word of God, this book we're looking at right now, it's either
the inspired, inerrant word of God, or it's just a piece of
human literature. No more relevant than Shakespeare,
or Milton, or any contemporary author. You can't look at it as both.
You can't say, well, it contains God's word. It contains things
that are important. Now, if it's God's word, it is
our only rule of faith and practice. Not man-made traditions, not
man's thoughts, not man's religion. It's our only rule of faith and
practice. We don't go to the Bible to prove
what we believe, we go to God's Word to find out what to believe. Now, I realize some people think,
well, how do you expect me to believe that this book is inspired
by God and without error? It's been copied so many different
times by men. There's so many different documents
from the past. How do you expect me to believe
something like this? I do expect you to believe that
God created the universe. Anything else is irrational,
illogical, intellectually indefensible. Atheism is not even a choice. I do expect you to believe that.
Now, if you believe that God has the power to create the universe,
you can believe that he has the power to inspire men to write
a word, the Bible, and to preserve it all the way to the end. That's
not hard to believe. Now, if we don't have that, it's just
my opinion or somebody else's opinion. How long, halt, E, between
two opinions? Now, in this book, we call the
Bible Either Christ is the only subject or it's a big instruction
book on how to live. I want you to think about that.
Christ Jesus is either the only subject or it's a big long instructional
rule book about how to live. You know the Lord said himself,
you search the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal
life. They thought it was an instructional book on how to
live. In them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me." Every single scripture. How long halt ye between
two opinions? Salvation Well, that's a big
word, isn't it? Salvation, to be saved. Salvation is either all of grace,
all of grace, or all of works. There's no mixing them. One excludes
the other. Turn with me, hold your finger
there and turn with me to Romans 11. And this is a familiar scripture
but it's not familiar enough. Verse 5, Even so then at this
present time there is a rendement according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, if election's
by grace, if salvation's by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, don't
call it grace. It's no more grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. Now, these two views exclude
one another. They're mutually exclusive, either
all of grace, all of works. But don't try to blend them. Can't do it. Men, according to the scriptures,
men are either dead in sins, completely unable to do anything
to save themselves, or they have the ability to do what's necessary
to be saved. Now, those two views exclude
one another. You know, if men are dead in
sins, that means we're totally dependent upon what Christ does
for us. Completely, totally dependent.
Let me underline that. Totally. You can't do anything.
He must do it all. Or men have the ability to do
whatever needs to be done for God to save them. Those two views
are mutually exclusive. You can't really hold to both. And that's what Elijah was accusing
Israel of doing. You're trying to do both. You're
trying to serve two masters. You're on the fence. You're serving
neither. Now, if men are dead in sins,
this is important, infinitely important. This lets us know
that God must put life there that was not there before, and
that every believer has two separate natures. The nature that's always
been there, and you're painfully aware of that even as I speak,
that old nature, but a new nature that loves Christ, that believes
Christ, that belongs to God. How long halt ye between two
opinions? I love this. God's will is sovereign
or man's will is sovereign. You can't have two sovereigns.
You can't have two sovereigns. There can only be one sovereign.
Anything else is just It's irrational. It's unscriptural. It's illogical.
It's a lie. It's a lie. Now, if man has a
free will, that means man's will is sovereign over God's will.
I can do what I want to do. But if God's will is sovereign,
that means he is completely sovereign over the will of man. I like
it that way, don't you? Now, men do what they want to
do. This is not talking about the fact that, well, God's causing
me to do this. No, you do exactly what you want
to do. I do exactly what I want to do, and God is completely
sovereign over the free and uncoerced actions of men. He controls everything. That's who he is. And you can't
blend those two things together. God's either sovereign or man-sovereign. It can't be both. How long halt ye between two
opinions? Christ, when he died on Calvary's
tree, he either redeemed or he did not redeem. Now think about
that. He either redeemed or he did
not redeem. To say that he made redemption
possible If we do our part is to say that he did not redeem. And it really is that simple.
If there's anybody in hell for whom Christ died, Jesus Christ
is a failure. He did not do what he intended
to do. Now, I suppose that 90, 95, 99% of, quote, Christendom believes
that Jesus Christ shed his blood for every man. Now, strident offense. Christ is either
all in salvation or he's nothing. You can't try to blend this together. Well, he died for you, but you
need to do something to make what he did work for you. I think
of that scripture, Romans 8, verse 32, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not? What could possibly prevent him
from freely, note that word freely, freely giving us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies, who
is he that condemns? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again. who's even at the right hand
of God, who also makes intercession for us. Now, how long halt ye
between two opinions? The grace of God the Holy Spirit
is either irresistible and invincible, or it can be resisted and stayed
off. Lazarus, according to this view,
could have said when Christ said, Lazarus, come forth, no. How long halt ye between two
opinions? God's salvation, and this is
so important, God's salvation is either something he accomplished
or it's something he offers to you. Now this thing of offering, God
offering to you, here's the free, it's called the free offer of
the gospel. Can you imagine a judge standing before the one convicted
and saying, I'm going to offer you justification or condemnation? Which one do you select? Well,
you say, that's foolishness. That's ridiculous. No more ridiculous
than talking about salvation being an offer. Now, when we
preach the gospel, I'm preaching to all men, you're preaching
to all men, we're calling upon all men to believe, to come to
Christ, to repent. This is not blurring that issue. I mean, there's an urgency in
preaching. We're preaching the gospel to all men and calling
upon all men to come to Christ, to believe. But to say that salvation
is something God offers, it's something He accomplished. It's
something that he did. It can't be both. How long halt
ye between two opinions? I love the scripture in Colossians
3.11. This is one of my favorite. I love to remember this one.
It does my soul good. Christ is all. In all. I love that I'm a poor sinner. And I believe that I'm a poor
sinner and nothing at all. I believe that about myself.
But Jesus Christ is my all in all. Now, Christ is either all
or he's nothing at all. Amen. He's all to God. Oh, how the I say this reverently,
but the father worships the son as his equal. To the Son, He saith, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. That's what the Father says to
the Son. Oh, how the Father glorifies the Son. They're equal. He's
all in the Bible. He's the only message of this
book. He's certainly all in my salvation. I mean, everything
God requires of me, He looks to Christ for. He's all to every believer. Now,
He's either all or He's nothing at all. How long halt ye between
two opinions? We're either complete in Christ
or there's something lacking that we need to provide to make
ourselves acceptable. Now you think of this scripture.
Here's another scripture that's so precious to us. In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are, what's the
next word? Complete. Right now, I, every
believer, I'm complete. There's nothing missing, there's
nothing lacking, there's nothing I need to get. I'm complete in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Either that or there's something
I need to do to make myself complete. How long halt ye between two
opinions? The truth of the gospel is either
necessary to be preached, and there's no salvation without
it, or it's inconsequential. As long as you had some kind
of religious experience, whether you believe the truth or not,
it doesn't matter. Now, this is what people call the utility
of the gospel. What's that mean? It's absolutely
necessary for the gospel of the scriptures to be declared. The
gospel that gives God all the glory, none to man, that exalts
the electing love of the Father, the redeeming work of the Son,
and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. If that's not
preached, there's no life. No life. Now, some people think,
well, I was saved, and then I came to learn some things. Well, that's
the problem. You learn some things, and God
never saved you. If you're saved, you're saved
through the hearing of the gospel of God's grace. Listen to this
scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we're bound to thank God, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because he hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through, don't miss this, through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. How long halt ye between two
opinions? Now here's a biggie. They're
all big, aren't they? They're all big, but this is
a biggie. The ground of a believer's assurance is either Christ alone
or his own conduct, life, and character. It's either or. Now I realize people will take
something like this and say, were you saying a believer's
life, character, and conduct is of no consequence? I'm not
saying that at all. I'm not saying that at all. You
can say I'm saying that if you want, but I'm not. But here's
the fact. The only ground of assurance
is Christ. If you can get any assurance
from your life, how holy you are, how you're doing with sin,
how you're able to suppress sin, and how you're able to do, while
that assurance is nothing but pure works, pure foolishness,
you're deceived. You're deceived. Now, like I
said, I fully expect people to, they'll take that and say, well,
you're saying sin's okay. No, I'm not. No, I'm not, I'm
never saying that. But the only ground of assurance
is that when Christ said it is finished, it was finished. Now,
how long halt ye between true opinions for assurance, Christ
or your works? Christ is either Lord of all
or He's not Lord at all. And when I'm talking about the
Lordship of Christ, there's a scripture in Romans chapter 14 verse 9
where it says, for to this end Christ both died and revived
that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Now when we talk about the Lordship
of Christ, that unbeliever, he's their Lord. They don't know it,
but they're in His hand. He's using them for His purposes
and for His glory and His one purpose, the glory of His Son.
And really, whatever trouble they cause you is for your good.
It's for you. The Lord sent that person for
you. He's their Lord because he is
Lord. And oh, how he is the Lord of
every believer. Oh, he's my Lord. He's the Lord. He's my Lord. I'm so happy about that. He's the Lord of my life. Somebody
says, won't you make him the Lord of your life? I can't do
that. That's so stupid. He is Lord, and we rejoice that
He is. Now, the message of the gospel
is either do or done. You do something or it's done. and those views are mutually
exclusive. How long halt ye between two
opinions? The gospel, if true, if what I'm saying is
true, this is of infinite importance, if it's false, It's of no importance. But you can't blend those two.
It can't be moderately important, can it? How long halt ye between two
opinions? You know, we could take this
in so many different directions, but truth is absolute. The Bible
is absolute. Grace is absolute. Christ's lordship
is absolute. God's sovereignty is absolute. Christ's effectual atonement
is absolute. It's an accomplishment. And trying
to blend two things. Why would men do that? Why would
men do that? Because they're on man's side.
That's why. I don't want to be on man's side.
I want to be on the Lord's side, don't you? I think of when Joshua came and
saw the Lord by Jericho, the man with the drawn sword. He
knew something about his power, but he said, whose side are you
on? Our side or our advertiser's side? He said, neither. I'm the captain of the Lord of
hosts. Get your shoes off your feet, you're on holy ground.
And then Joshua bowed and said, what sayest thou to thy servant? Not what do I need to do or what,
no, what do you say? And that, how long, how long
halt thee between two opinions? May the Lord deliver us from
that, okay.