Elijah's Confrontation Series

People go to church for all kinds of strange reasons. I had a friend who pastored a little church in Tennessee while he went to Bible College. During the three years he was there two students from his school who were straight “A” types always attended. They not only went to every service he preached but they made up a form. They critiqued every message he gave. This form had several points including the quality of his exposition, whether or not his illustrations were effective and appropriate and the quality of his speaking. And they gave him a letter grade on every message. They handed him the forms on the way out the door. And he said they were brutal. I asked, “How could you stand it?” He said, “At first I couldn’t. Then I decided to do such a great job that they would have nothing to criticize. And slowly but surely I became better and so did the critiques.” It’s interesting that neither of those two guys ever went into the ministry. They’re probably helping some pastor somewhere become a better preacher.

There’s one more person who goes to church very regularly and is unsaved. He is the deceived. You know, there are some people in every church who will be part of the very fabric of the work who will not be saved. The scripture says they will be there. I know I used this passage last day to refer to the liberal crowd but it also fits the one who claims to be a fundamentalist. He is very active in the church but doesn’t know the Lord. Look with me at Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Now listen to what it says about this person. He preached, he cast out demons and he did many wonderful works. And he probably got awards from various Christian organizations for all he did. These people won’t know until the very end that they have been working for salvation that was provided for free. The bottom line, is they never saw themselves as sinners in the need of salvation.

So, some come for the wrong reason and others come with the wrong attitude. Thankfully, many come because they love the Lord and His word. I think if we’re here with a prayerful heart God will bless us even if the message is on the seven sneezes of the dead boy in II King 4 where Elisha raised him from the dead.

And so we ask why didn’t they say anything? I think the reason is simple. They realized Elijah’s challenge wasn’t to Baal, it was to the unbelief of Israel. And so he asked them how long? After all, you can’t wait forever.

2. In verse 22 he says, “I stand alone, I, even I remain a prophet of the Lord.” We wonder where the seven thousand believers were and why is it that none of them stood with Elijah. Edmund Burke once wrote, “Evil men triumph while good men stand by in silence.” There was a big crowd there and there might have been some believers but if there was they never said a word. I think the reason Baal worship spread so fast and so far was that no one objected.