LBC Sermons & Messages

I Kings 18:23-29

Elijah has challenged the people “to get off the fence”, either serve Jehovah or Baal, not both, there can be no middle ground.

In this portion of scripture, Elijah proposes a test to prove who is God. Each would build an altar, sacrifice a bull as the offering, put “no fire” under the altar and then pray to your god and see which one answers with fire.

Fire was at that time an accepted means of communication. Pagan religion accepted it and Jehovah in the past has used fire to exhibit His divine presence and leading of the nation of Israel. The answer of fire would be immediate, decisive, and clear to all and would remove all doubts as to who was God.

All morning the priest of Baal call out to their god, Elijah sarcastically mocks Baal refusing to acknowledge Ball as anything. The prophets of Baal work them selves up a frenzied stated total loss of self-control and emotional abandonment.

The result at end of day was “no voice, no one answered, no one paid any attention” (v29).

The prayers to a false god are futile, they cannot give access to Jehovah but they do open up the way to demonic influence and they cannot meet man’s greatest need. It cannot save them from penalty of sin, cannot give the Holy Spirit, and cannot give the peace of God.

We can recognize the basic belief practices of any false religion. The people are doing something to become spiritual. It will always reject the person and work of Christ as the only way of salvation and false religions tend to be ecumenical ready to accept any belief and eventually will become hostile to those of faith in Christ.

We as God people need to alert to the influences of false religion in our society today, humanism being the primary one that is invading into our culture.