1Kings 18:21-29
Where Is America?
That is a good question. I have said it many times before. America is
where Israel was. These two nations have such a similar history,
although America is NOT God’s nation. Israel and Israel alone is
God’s nation. Yet, if you know history, you know these two nations
have shared a supernatural founding, miraculous blessing, and divine
protection. Yet, as there is no one more blessed than a nation that
follows God so there is no one more cursed than a nation that turns
from God.
"Where Is America?" Three Thoughts.
I. A Nation Turned
A. Much of Israel had turned from God to Baal worship.
1Kings 18:21 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.
1. Elijah made it sound like the people were about half-and-
half, with half worshipping God and half worshipping
Baal.
2. However, Elijah’s count for that day showed the false
prophets far outnumbered God’s preachers.
1Kings 18:22 Then said Elijah unto the people,
I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but
Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
a. Baal - 450 priests
b. \\#19\\ That was not counting the 400 prophets of the
grove!
c. And that would not be all, just those King Ahab had
invited to his pagan party.
d. Jehovah - 1 prophet
3. God would later update Elijah’s figures, giving him the
total number of God-followers.
1Kings 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand
in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed
unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed
him.
a. While 7,000 God-followers sounds much better than 1,
it appears God was saying He had 7,000 followers in
the entire nation.
b. That is not very many in a nation that Jehovah God
Himself founded, blessed, and protected.
c. The remainder of the nation either followed Baal or
some other god.
4. Who was Baal?
a. Baal was a make-believe god, originally worshipped by
the Canaanites.
(1) By the way, the Canaanites are the people that
Israel took their land FROM.
(2) You are either very foolish or very desperate to
worship a god of the people you DEFEATED.
(3) With Israel, I am going with them being very
foolish.
b. Baal was the Canaanite god of the sky, including
thunder, lightning, and storms.
c. So worshipping this made-up god was not just something
done around Israel by the pagan nations, but it was
being done in Israel by God’s people also.
d. We know two other things.
(1) Worshipping any god other than the true God is
idolatry. (Anyone or anything that you love
more, reverence more, or serve more is an
idol.)
(2) When you worship any god other than the true God,
you are really worshipping the devil.
(a) The devil does not have to get you to bow to
him to win.
(b) All he has to do is to keep you from
following Jesus.
e. Baal worship was not just a passive religion in Israel.
(1) Israel would offer their children as sacrifices
to Baal.
Jer 19:5 They have built also the high places of
Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt
offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor
spake it, neither came it into my mind:
(2) So Israel, the nation that was founded, blessed,
and protected by Jehovah God, was worshipping
the devil by slaying and offering their children
to him.
B. In seemingly unrelated news: On January 22, 1973, in what
is referred to as a "landmark decision," the Supreme Court
ruled AGAINST the unborn’s rights to protection, to be born,
or to live.
1. On that day, the High Court ruled it was the
Constitutional right of a mother to kill her unborn baby
if she chose to do so.
a. I add the word "unborn" baby because today if the
abortion fails and through some miraculous event,
the baby survives the abortion attempt, he will be
left to die by the doctors and nurses.
https://www.lifenews.com/2019/01/25/new-york-law-legalizing-abortions
-up-to-birth-revokes-medical-care-for-babies-born-alive-after-
abortions/
b. And some, like Virginia Governor Ralph Northam,
believe and suggested that a baby born might still be
murdered "if that’s what the mother… desired."
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2019/01/30/virginia-gov-suggests-baby-
can-be-killed-right-after-birth-what-it-went-from-fetus-to-infant-
and-hardly-anyone-noticed-719235/
2. Since that time, an estimated 63 million children in this
country alone have been murdered.
3. Let me stop right here and say that if you have had an
abortion, repented of that sin, and turned to God, I have
no desire to hurt you.
a. That is the past not the present.
b. If it is under the blood, you are the only one who is
remembering it because God forgave you of it and then
forgot it.
c. That is what mercy and forgiveness does.
4. However, the awful truth of abortion is that it is murder,
plain and simple.
5. God is both the Giver and Reclaimer of life.
a. God is the ONLY ONE who can give life.
(1) Man’s intellect can tell us the chemicals and
elements that make up the human body.
(2) They can tell you the body’s ratios and amounts.
(3) they can tell you our composition and the make
up.
(4) They know the body parts and what they do. but
no one anywhere can create life but God Himself.
b. And God is the ONLY ONE who can reclaim life. (God
commanded the death penalty as well.)
C. Someone might say, "Preacher, that is tragic but it has
nothing to do with Baal worship."
1. The two events have more in common than most realize, and
it is coming out more each day.
The following article entitled: Satanists Posted a Dallas Billboard
Advocating for Reproductive Rights: ‘Abortions Save Lives!’, was
published at DallasObserver.com by Simone Carter on December 22,
2020:
Just in time for Christmas, drivers cruising down Highway 80 in
Dallas can now catch a glimpse of a 10-by-40-foot bulletin from The
Satanic Temple declaring, “Abortions save lives!”
(The article went on to say…)
The temple unveiled two designs last week; both state, “Our religious
abortion ritual averts many state restrictions.” The Dallas billboard
goes on to say, “Pregnancy complications are the sixth most common
cause of death among women between the ages of 20 and 34.”
(The CDC say is it the 9th cause of death from women from 20 to 40.)
The second billboard depicts a woman telling her friend that
Satanists don’t have to endure state-mandated waiting periods for an
abortion.
Erected last week, Dallas’ billboard will stay up until mid-January,
Goodwin said. It seeks to notify local Satanists of the temple’s
abortion ritual, a process by which members reflect on Satanic tenets
and a personal affirmation while receiving an abortion.
2. So, some of the strongest advocates of abortion are
Satanists, and they before abortions as a Satanic
ritual.
In a collaborating article (and there are many) entitled "Satanic
Temple Challenges 18 States’ Abortion Laws With Religious Exemption
Claim," published at Newsweek.com by Daniel Villarreal on December
31, 2020:
The Satanic Temple, a national religious rights organization with
chapters in 21 states, has recently erected two billboards in Texas
and Florida encouraging followers to challenge state restrictions on
abortions conducted during the first trimester by claiming that the
restrictions violate their religious beliefs as Satanists. Over 18
states have such restrictions.
(The article then references the bill board in Dallas before
continuing to describe another one in Miami.)
Another billboard from the group outside of Miami features a vintage
black-and-white image of two smiling young women from the 1950s
drinking bottled sodas and wearing button-down shirts and skirts.
A word bubble over one of the women says, "Susan, you’re telling me,
I do not have to endure a waiting period when I have an abortion?"
The other woman replies, "That’s true if you’re a SATANIST!" The
words, "Our Religious Abortion Ritual Averts Many State Restrictions"
is printed on the right side of the billboard below the group’s logo
bearing a horned goat skull over a pentagram.
https://www.newsweek.com/satanic-temple-challenges-18-states-abortion
-laws-religious-exemption-claim-1558399
3. The sad truth is abortion has always been a sacrifice to
the idols of pleasure, promiscuity, and privilege.
a. Those three are the idols which are being worshipped.
b. But we remember. Anything that is offered to a false
god is actually being offered to the devil.
c. Every abortion clinic is as much a Satanic temple as
these being advertised!
4. Abortion has never been anything but modern man’s
medically approved sacrifice to the devil himself.
5. It doesn’t matter if the emblem on the wall is the medical
staff with swirling snakes around it (which itself is the
emblem of the made-up god of medicine) of the horned goat
skull over a pentagram.
https://www.medicinenet.com/medical_symbol/definition.htm
D. So as it turns out, two nations which were founded, blessed,
and protected by Jehovah God turned from Him to Baal worship
or some form of it.
II. A People Stood By - What kind of people do this? kill their
babies? offer them to idols? of even stand by and watch while
it is being done?
A. Counterfeit Preachers
1. That would be the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400
prophets of the grove.
2. The counterfeit preachers are those who proclaim there is:
a. another god,
b. another gospel,
c. another way to heaven,
d. another way to worship, or
e. another way to live.
another way to live than what the Word of God proclaims.
3. They are counterfeit, selling a bill of goods that, like a
counterfeit dollar, is not worth the ink it took to print
it.
a. Their message may be, "Bow down to my idol," or it
may be "Don’t worry it about. Everything will be
all right."
b. Either way their message takes everyone to same
miserable end, damnation.
4. Our land is filled with so many counterfeit preachers,
priests, and religions that some have just thrown their
hands up in confusion and walked away from all religions.
a. I understand their frustration, but that is also part
of Satan’s plan.
b. He doesn’t have to get you to bow to him to follow him
into hell.
c. All he has to do is to get you to do nothing at all,
and you will spend eternity in the same hell that he
does.
d. Before you walk away from everything, you better check
out Jehovah God because He is the real McCoy.
B. Corrupt Politicians
1. That would be King Ahab and his queen, Jezebel.
2. This whole event was at one of their pagan parties.
3. King Ahab is one of the most wicked kings in all of the
Bible. Listen to what God said about him.
1Kings 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had
been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife
Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the
Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and
worshipped him.
32 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the
house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
33 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to
provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all
the kings of Israel that were before him.
4. He sinned against and blasphemed Jehovah God, setting up
false idols and building a pagan temple to Baal in
Samaria, then commanding the people to worship there.
a. If that man has anything like blood in his body today,
it’s boiling in the pits of hell.
b. I take no delight in saying that, but it’s true.
(1) The second hottest compartment of hell should be
corrupt politicians.
(2) The hottest compartment should be counterfeit
preachers.
c. Those who either in ignorance or willful rebellion
create a path that leads men and women away from the
one and only God THEN command people to follow it,
these are the corrupt politicians.
(1) If you want to see some of them, just turn on the
television set.
(2) Most every politician will be a demon walking in
a human body.
5. His wife, Jezebel, was from a pagan country.
a. She was an out-and-out murderer without a conscience.
b. Raised a pagan herself, she poured gasoline on Ahab’s
pagan tendencies.
c. Together they mocked, ridiculed, and persecuted the
prophets of Jehovah God.
C. Carnal Population
1. That would be those Elijah spoke to in verse 21, "How long
halt ye between two opinions?"
2. These people had no spiritual drive, no spiritual
understanding, and made no spiritual decisions.
3. As it was, so it is.
a. The majority of the people are unconcerned about
eternity, their souls, where they came from, and
where they are going to.
b. They will listen to the opinions of the few loud-
mouthed people and when they hear something they
like, like a dog to the dinner bowl, they will follow
them.
c. Let me tell you straight up, don’t you follow me.
(1) I don’t want your blind loyalty, your
unquestioning obedience, or your mindless
devotion.
(2) Don’t you dare hang the responsibility for your
soul on my preaching.
(3) I am not trying to get a following.
(4) I am just a man who found something in the Bible
that changed my life, my soul, and my eternity;
and all I want is for you to go to the Bible and
read it for yourself.
(a) Read the Bible as if your soul depends upon
it.
(b) Read the Bible as if the souls of your
family depend it.
(c) Read the Bible as if heaven or hell depends
upon it, because it does, my friend. It
does!
D. Confused Parishioner
1. They are not found in the verses we read this morning, but
earlier in this chapter \\#1Kings 18:1-16\\.
2. There was a good godly man by the name of Obadiah to whom
Elijah first showed himself.
a. 3 1/2 years earlier, Elijah first shows himself to
Ahab, telling him that it is not going to rain again
until he says for it rain.
b. And it didn’t for 3 1/2 years.
c. Now, Elijah revealed himself to Obadiah, who said, "Oh,
no. What have you done to me? King Ahab has spent
the last 3 1/2 years searching for you, not just in
Israel but all over the world. Whenever a nation
said you weren’t there, he made them swear it. Now
you appear to me, and I will go tell King Ahab, he
will want me to take him to you and the Lord will
snatch you away again, then King Ahab will kill me!
Why did you do this to me? Have you not heard how I
hid 100 of God’s preachers when Ahab and Jezebel were
killing them? How I fed them and took care of them?
Oh, why did you do this to me?"
3. Obadiah was a good, godly man.
a. Even though he worked for the king, he used his
position to safe and care for the 100 of God’s
preachers, at great peril to his own life; but he was
confused.
b. He did not know what God was doing.
c. He was afraid.
d. He was confused.
4. What are America’s Christians doing?
a. I think many are like Obadiah.
b. They are confused. They are scared. They don’t
understand.
c. "What does God want us to do?" is there question.
5. I can’t answer that question in detail now. I don’t have
enough time, but I will tell you:
a. God does not want us to be confused or frightened.
b. We do not have to know what is going on.
c. All we have to know is that God’s knows what is going
on!
III. A Prayer Was Sent
1Kings 18:36 And it came to pass at the time of
the offering of the evening sacrifice, that
Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God
of Abraham, Isaac, and of 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.
37 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.
A. Elijah was praying for the impossible.
1. He was praying that fire would fall from heaven and
consume a sacrifice that he had made.
2. To make it more difficult, he had dug a trench around the
altar, and 12 barrels of water poured on it.
3. Then he prayed but he never asked for fire.
4. He asked that the carnal and confused people of Israel
might know that God was alive, well, and speaking to him.
B. And before he got his closing "amen" out, the varoom of a holy
fire could be heard and the flame and heat from God’s
heavenly torch encompassed the soaked altar, the soused
sacrifice, and even sodden trench, sucking up even the wet
dirt on the ground.
C. And what was the effect?
1Kings 18:39 And when 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.
1. For at least a time, confusion and carnality were gone.
2. For at least a time, the people knew God was in charge and
they did not have to understand anything, just believe
and obey.
3. And, friend, that is where we are today.
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