Greetings my family in Christ. As always, it is a joy to be with you on this communion day, the first of the month that we do a little extra to remember the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for you and me.
We gather this and every Sunday to offer our praise and worship to the God of all creation, and to receive and meditate on the word of God given the message of the day. Although Jesus loves you, regardless of your state of mind and heart towards Him, He gives you the choice of whether you will love Him in return. Hopefully, this message will help you to make the choice to believe on Jesus and start that love relationship with Him, and remember it is your choice and no one is forcing you one way or another. So, let’s visit our opening text which will help us start that decision-making process.
So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”
But the people answered him not a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it;
and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
1 Kings 18:20-24
G. K. Chesterton once said that it is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing. Alas, it is worse than that. When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything.
In our scripture we find the prophet Elijah going up against Ahab, the king of Israel, 450 prophets of Baal, along with the children of Israel who worshipped Baal. Here is a case where a group of people had stopped believing in the One true God and started believing in anything. This is not new, as the Children of Israel worshipped a golden calf shortly after God rescued them from Egypt, opened a path through the Red Sea, and then appeared to them in Sinai. Now they go through this foolishness after they had been witnessed to, and were told stories of God’s ability to deliver, as He did with their forefathers being delivered out of Egypt. Now in our scripture we read that Elijah asks the Baal prophets to bring the meat to the barbeque; one for themselves and one for him, upon which they were to put the cut-up bulls. And he says to not put any fire to it, as the true God would answer by fire. At this point we need to ask ourselves, who is my god? And can he deliver the goods?
• Is your car your Baal? Are you one of those that spend more time shining and detailing your car then reading the bible and worshipping the Lord? I have often said that on my way to church on Sunday I see more people waiting in line at the car wash than I do sitting in the pews.
• Is television your Baal? Do you spend more watching it than you do giving the Lord praise? I know some folks who go to church and who can tell you everything that went down on the Oprah show but ask them about some scriptures and they don’t know a thing.
• Is family and friends your Baal? I personally have family and friends that continue to schedule events on Sunday, during the time that I need to be in church. Now I am left with the choice to gather with my family and friends or come to church. Well, you can see what choice I made.
• Is smoking or drinking your Baal? Are you giving more time, effort, and money to it than you do the church?
Now I only mention four things, there are more, but you get the point, Amen! Believe it or not, the Israelites had many god options as well. Along with Baal they worshiped two other gods: Ashtoreth and Molek, but I concentrate on Baal here because no matter which god they worshipped they in the same manner, and because Baal was a god that resembled a bull, which was the first thing they worshipped after leaving Egypt.
As Elijah says: “if the LORD be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.” So, if you are sitting on the fence or as Elijah puts it “having two opinions” trying to serve God and the material things of this world, then you need to choose this day whom you will serve. Scripture tells us that we serve a jealous God, and He does not want anything to come between you and Him. In God’s jealousy He wants you to be faithful…either faithful to Him or faithful to the god you desire to serve. Jesus puts it this way.
And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Revelations 3:14-16
That is one thing that God respects, that you take a stand one way or another. Even though the consequences of not accepting God is eternal damnation…He still respects your choice. So, choose this day whom you will serve.
I mentioned a few idols that we may place before God: cars, TV, video games, etc. But would you be surprised to know that Baal worship is alive and well currently? First, let me explain what Baal worship was like back in ancient times, after that I will show you how it has been polished up, given a fresh coat of paint, and presented to us in a less disturbing way. Yet it is just as destructive today as it was in ancient times.
Ritualistic Baal worship, in short, looked a little like this: Adults would gather around the altar of Baal, which was a god of fertility and nature. Infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity. Amid horrific screams and the stench of charred human flesh, congregants – men and women alike – would engage in bisexual orgies. The ritual of convenience was intended to produce economic prosperity by prompting Baal to bring rain for the fertility of “mother earth.” Ironically, they worshipped this god for the fertility of the women, who in turn would sacrifice the child they were just blessed with.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But He loves him who follows righteousness.
Proverbs 15:8-9
One of the most difficult truths for people to believe is that God can reject worship. Billions of people on earth pray, fast, beat their bodies, cry real tears and yet God rejects all of it. I know it sounds harsh to our sin-minimizing ears, but it is an important truth for us to grasp.
God doesn’t “appreciate the effort”.
God doesn’t give half-credit.
God doesn’t say try again you’re so close.
God utterly rejects it. In fact, He despises it.
From the beginning of the world God has rejected people’s worship. He rejected the first attempt to worship Him.
In the beginning of mankind, we have Adam and Eve as the first sinners of the world, and we have Caine, their son, as the first person whose worship was rejected by God. Caine went through all the motions, but his heart was not in it. It was not that God did not appreciate the type of offering he gave but was unhappy with the way it was given. That is the same issue with Baal worship today, as was in the past…people doing so for all the wrong reasons, even after they are told what they are doing is wrong. Yes, Caine was told that if he kept down the road he was traveling, that it would lead to sin, yet he decided that he knew better than God. Again, that is what is going on with our modern-day Baal worshippers. The sad thing is most of them do not know they are worshipping a pagan god, and the reason is, is that they believe it is all about themselves.
So, now let me tell you what modern-day Baal worship is…it is liberalism.
Modern-day liberals – or “progressives” as they more carefully prefer – labor under an awkward misconception; namely, that there is nothing remotely “progressive” about the fundamental canons of their blind, secular-humanist faith. In fact, today’s liberalism is largely a sanitized retread of an antiquated mythology, that of Baal worship – which you could not call progressive, because it followed the practices that were done while they were in Egypt. But if we look at it, we can see that biblical Christianity is the only truly progressive movement, as it is radically different. Amen!
Baal worship lives on in liberalism, although it has now assumed a more contemporary look, the fundamentals of Baal worship remain alive and well today within it. The principal pillars of Baalism were child sacrifice, sexual immorality; both heterosexual and homosexual, and pantheism; which is reverence of creation over the Creator. Modern liberalism deviates little from its ancient predecessor. While its macabre rituals have been sanitized with flowery and euphemistic terms of art and freedom, its core tenets and practices remain eerily similar. The worship of “fertility” has been replaced with worship of “reproductive freedom” or “choice.” Child sacrifice via burnt offering has been updated, ever so slightly, to become child sacrifice by way of abortion. The ritualistic promotion, practice and celebration of both heterosexual and homosexual immorality and promiscuity have been carefully whitewashed – yet wholeheartedly embraced – by the cults of radical feminism, militant “gay rights”, and “comprehensive sex education.” And the pantheistic worship of “mother earth” has been substituted – in name only – for radical environmentalism.
But it’s not just self-styled “progressives” or secular humanists who have adopted the fundamental pillars of Baalism. In these postmodern times, we’ve also been graced, regrettably, by the advent of counter-biblical “progressive Christianity” or “fake-Christianity,” as I prefer to call it. This is merely liberalism all dolled up and gratuitously stamped “Christian.” It’s a way for left-wing ideologues to have their “religion” cake and eat it too. Under the guise of “social justice,” its adherents often support – or at least rationalize – the same pro-homosexual, pro-abortion and radical environmental policies pushed by the modern-day Baal worshiper.
“I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
Zechariah 13:9
Our religion and worship will be tested by God, it will be tested by fire so to say. Just as fire causes the impurities of silver and gold to rise to the top where they can be scooped and thrown away, God wants us to be more pure than impure so that His refining process has enough for eternal life. So, going back to our opening scripture, the people put their god to the test, that he would answer with fire just as Elijah said the true God would. But where we read the rest of that passage, we find that their god did not answer with fire, no matter how much that danced and performed their sexual acts. Elijah even ridiculed them by saying that maybe their god is asleep or has gone on vacation, so they should shout louder. But when Elijah’s turn came, he told them to put even more water over the altar and offering, to show that even with the extra water the true God of creation will answer with fire. Elijah prayed and God answered by sending fire upon the altar in such that the altar, the bull, and all the water was burnt up. When the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”
Like I said earlier, God respects you when you choose a side, but He has not respect for those acting as if they are on one side, but as Elijah said, having two opinions. You can believe the truth, that we serve a living God, or you can believe the hype and follow the misguided ideals of modern-day Baal worshippers. Now I leave you with this.
"And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15
