Our message for you today will center around another of the great texts of the Christian faith. Taken from the Old Testament, from the first book of Kings, chapter eighteen, and reading at verse twenty-one, 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 they'll, then follow Him. Now I'm sure the Lord will bless to us the reading of that verse. Now remember, while this text is taken from the Old Testament, it brings to our attention certain basic principles that are applicable to us At the present time, that's why we claim that it's one of the great texts of the Christian faith. How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Let us bow for a moment of prayer. Our Father. With our hearts and thy holy presence, we thank thee we can come to thee and spread before thee our prayers and can do so with thanksgiving. There are so many things for which we ought to give thanks. And so we thank thee, our God, for all thy grace and for all thy mercies. For thou art the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness nor any shadow ever cast by turning, who we acknowledge thee as the giver of every good and every perfect gift. May thy blessings rest upon all who are listening now, and upon thy children everywhere, for the Lord Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. Now, as we come to consider our text, remember the words, How long halt ye between two opinions? If God be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Now it is obvious that this comes as a challenge. Might I suggest there is certain basic reasons here for this challenge being given. And then as you come to the details of the challenge, I suggest there's a reasonableness about the challenge. Then last of all we must look at the results of the challenge. This was Elijah's great day, was Elijah's great triumph. You know, Elijah was an outstanding man, and yet it is obvious that Elijah was a man of like passion such as we are, the Bible tells us so. Yet in spite of the fact that he was a man of like passion such as we are, he was a man who knew how to pray and lay hold on God. Elijah was a man of prayer. Again we learn from First Kings Seventeen and also from Second Kings Chapter Two that Elijah was a man of power. But I also learn from the reading of Chapter Seventeen of First Kings that Elijah was a man of patience. He knew how to wait God's time. And then in chapter eighteen, the chapter from which we have taken our text today, we learn that Elijah was a man who was protected by God. Elijah's name simply means, my God is Jehovah. Now, that was a tremendous testimony that he bore, even in his name. When people mentioned his name, They were faced with the fact that he was one man who said, My God is Jehovah. We also learn from this chapter that man had reached an extremity. You know, man's extremity is always God's opportunity. And in the time of the nation's extremity, Elijah was the man that God chose. and he chose Elijah in order to use him at the critical time in the history of his nation. When nations reach a crisis, there is always a need for good leadership. In the time of an emergency, in the time of a crisis, there is a need for someone to give the correct direction to a nation. That's exactly what Elijah did at this time. Remember, Elijah's day was cast, as it were, in perilous times. For example, he grew up in the midst of a nation that was characterized by departure from the living God, and there was also the spread of idolatry in Elijah's day. Any nation that departs from God will bring upon itself a time of crisis. He was a nation that knew God. They knew something of the power of God. They knew quite a lot about the blessings of God. Yet in spite of that, they reached the stage where they departed from the living God. Not only so, you learn that Elijah grew up at a time when there was division amongst the people. There had been division in the kingdom. You had the northern section called Israel and the southern section called Judah. A nation that was supposed to be one nation under God. A nation of twelve tribes. But certainly a whole nation, one nation under God. You know, it's so easy to make that claim and to be able to recite it like some kind of poem and say, one nation under God. But are we? He was a nation. They claimed to be one nation, but they were divided. There had been civil war and the northern section divided from the south. Then again we learn there was demoralization. among the leaders of the nation. Not only had they departed from the living God and divided from one another, they were demoralized with sin and idolatry and iniquity. And then you learn that there was disobedience to God's marriage laws. And even the leaders had entered into unequal yokes. And this led them into a state of defiance. They were defying the very word of God. So therefore you see that Elijah grew up in difficult times. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He didn't have everything laid on to him. He was raised in difficult times, perilous times. You know it's a strange thing. There seems to be a parallel between the days of Elijah and our own days. Here in our own nation we seem to have followed the pattern of Elijah's nation. We also have witnessed in our day a strong departure from the living God. Why in the last fifty years it is deplorable. How that people have turned away from the standards of the living God and have turned away from God himself. No longer are we showing reverence and fear for the God of our fathers. And then again there was division among the people, and we're seeing that today. We're seeing the people divide it. Why, of course, there are those who are taking mean advantage of this, and seeking to put the wedge in between us as a people, making distinctions between one section of the people and another. And so we seem to be divided not only into two sections but into many sections. We also see a rising generation that has been demoralized. And remember this, do not blame them entirely. They are only following the pattern of the elders, following the pattern of their fathers and mothers, and following the pattern of the leader. There has also been disobedience in connection with God's laws regarding marriage and moral standards. So we have a parallel today as to the days in which Elijah lived. That's the reason I said at the very beginning that this challenge that comes before the people then is relevant to the present day and should come to us with great force. How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal then follow him. Now I want you to get the right meaning of the challenge. I've tried to set before you the reason for the challenge, because things had gone wrong. But now let us think of the reasonableness of the challenge. It was not a matter of them being hesitant when it says, How long halt ye between two opinions. The thought is this, that they were halting in the sense of limping between one and another. Plain words, they were not balanced. They were not steady in their walk. They were professing one thing the one day and practicing another thing the next day. In plain words, on the Sabbath day, they might profess to be worshipping the Lord Jehovah. And the next day they'll be going to the Feast of Baal and indulging in the immorality and the iniquity that was associated with such idolatry. So there were one thing on the Sabbath day and another thing on the other six days of the week. Isn't that exactly what we're seeing today? We're seeing men and women who are halting between two opinions. They want to be Christians on a Sunday. They want to be Christians on the day they get married. They want to get married in some church building. They want to be recognized as Christians when they die and be given what they call a Christian burial. And so they're quite happy to go on with this idea. But on the other days, they want to live like heathen. They want to indulge in all the sin and the iniquity and the immorality of our day and generation. In plain words, they're halting between two opinions. My friend, there's no grey matter when it comes to the things of God. It's either black or white. It's either right or wrong. And so, therefore, we've got to face up to this. You know what you call a person who halts backwards and forwards and professes to be one thing one day and practices another the next day. You call them a hypocrite. And so that's what was prevalent there in the days of Elijah. The people of his nation were acting in a hypocritical way. So says Elijah, the time has come. You must make up your mind. Either you should follow the Lord and let him be God, or you should follow Baal. Who is the true God? You cannot have two gods, either one or the other. So therefore, there's the reasonableness of the challenge. Don't put any idol on a level with the living God. Now remember, Elijah was a man who knew how to trust his God. He was a man of prayer. He was a man of power. He was a man of patience. He had proved his God in private, and the man who could prove his God in private was the man who could testify for his God in public. He stands out and challenges all the prophets of Baal, and he challenges the people. Now here's the reasonableness of his challenge. If the Lord be God, then let him be God. And if Baal, then Paul of Baal. Have either one or the other. Now he said, let us put it to the test. In plain words, we'll have a sacrifice. You'll make your sacrifice to Baal, and I'll make a sacrifice to God. And the God that answers by fire, let him be God. Now to get the true understanding of this, you must see how reasonable this man Elijah was and how confident he was in his God. He said the God answers by fire. Now these idolaters were worshipping the idol or the God called Baal. And Baal was supposed to be the sun god or the god of fire. Now if he was the god of fire, he ought to be able to answer with fire. If he couldn't, then surely he was no God at all. And so says Elijah, the man who said, My God is Jehovah. He said, A God that answers by fire, let him be God. And so when he said this, the people answered and said it is well spoken. And so there was reasonableness for the challenge. The God that can answer by fire, let him be God. Now here then was faith's challenge. Surely he presented a fair challenge. Not only so, here was faith's confidence. Elijah was certain his God would act. So therefore the sacrifices are prepared. And those who made their sacrifice to the idol God to Baal, they cried. They jumped upon their sacrifice. They cut themselves where the knives of these idolaters would do. And as they were leaping upon their altars and crying to their God, there was no answer. And you know, Elijah mocked them. He said, now cry aloud. If your God is a God, perhaps he's talking to someone or he's pursuing. He may be in a journey, a peradventuary sleeper. Must be awake. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. It came to pass when midday was passed, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. There was neither voice nor any to answer, nor any that regarded their God was a dead idol. Their ears couldn't hear, eyes that couldn't see, a mouth that couldn't speak, and Elijah knew it. But Elijah prepared this sacrifice. And I like this. After the sacrifice was prepared, when he built the altar, he built the altar with twelve stones to represent the United Nations, the whole nation, twelve tribes. He poured all the water onto the altar, and on the sacrifice, and on the wood. And then I like this. It came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known that thou art God in Israel, that I am thy servant, that I have done all these things at thy word. You see, Elijah was a man who not only issued a challenge, not only did he have confidence in his God, but he was faith's communion. He drew near to God. He knew how to speak to God. And as he drew near to God, he said, Let it be known that thou art God. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, that thou hast turned their heart back again. He was a man then who knew how to commune with his God. And then there is the great conquest. Faith triumph this day. This was Elijah's great day. The greatest day, perhaps, in all his career. And Elijah had his prayer answered. God answered Elijah's prayer by fire. He was the vindication of the true God. And at the same time, there was the destruction of the false prophets. God answered. 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. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. The result of this great challenge, the result of that day when Elijah faced the people, when Elijah challenged them to follow God or to follow Baal. one or the other. Now might I suggest, just as Elijah challenged the people that day, we need to be challenged at the present time. There's been too much of a mixture trying to mix truth with error, trying to mix the worship of God with the pleasures of the world. We're making, as it were, compromises today. And yet we're professing to know God. I want to ask every listener today, everyone under the sound of my voice now, do you know the God of Elijah? Do you, my friend? Is Elijah's God your God? Elijah, you see, his very name meant that my God is Jehovah. Elijah was a man who saw the error and the evil amongst his nation in his day. He gave himself to prayer, and he prayed that God would deal with his nation, and would deal with them in such a way that they returned back again to God. And so Elijah's prayer was answered, and for three and a half years the blessings of God were withheld. There was no rain and no dew. And so the crops were failing, the famine was coming, and Elijah, after three and a half years, went out from hiding and faced the representatives of his nation, and he says, now the crisis has come. And he told the king, he says, you have troubled the nation. It's not me, but you. And you've been doing the wrong thing. You've been troubling the nation. Now the time has come for a confrontation. Let us have that confrontation, and let us be through with it, and let us see whether we'll follow the living God, the mighty Jehovah, or whether we'll turn to our idols. That day was a turning point in the history of the nation. There was a sense of revival that day when they turned back to God. I asked you, my friend, as an individual, Are you following the path that leads away from God? Have you turned into the ways of the world? Have you neglected the things of God? Will you do what the people did that day? Will you fall in your face before the Lord even now and say the Lord, He is God? Remember this, wherever there is repentance towards God, it should be followed by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me remind every listener today that while on that occasion it was a kind of revival in connection with the whole nation, nevertheless revival starts with the individual and it's as individuals that we get right with God. Now if the message today has reached the heart of some listener, May I suggest to you, my friend, you do not require to wait until there is some big revival going on, or a so-called revival. You don't require to wait until you get to some special service where an appeal is made. You can put matters right between your soul and your God right where you are now, in the privacy of your own home. Or if you're in your car, you can stop at the side as it were. Bow your heart before God. Whatever you do, get right with God and do it now. Get right with God, he tells you how. Oh, come to Christ who shed his blood, and at the cross get right with God.