And there is a word which says in
the Bible, and a little child shall lead
them.
Shall we turn to our text this evening,
which you will find in the 18th chapter
of the first book of Kings, and verse
21.
Elijah came unto all the people and said,
How long hold 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.
And don't forget too that Elijah was a
good Calvinist, but he imposed this great challenge
upon his hearers.
And there was a great crowd there too.
I don't know how many there were, there
might have been thousands there.
We do know there were 850 sinners there
who could badly do with the work of
salvation.
It was greatly to be feared that they
were past caring or being interested in anything
at all that had to do with divine
things and truth and righteousness.
They were the 400 prophets of Baal and
the 450 prophets of the grove.
Or in reverse, 450 belonged to Baal.
That was a masculine God.
And 400 belonged to the prophets of the
grove.
That was a feminine God.
The one represented the sun and the other
represented the moon, we believe.
But both together represented the vilest, most abominable,
cruel, filthy, polluted, contaminated form of religion that
the world ever knew.
And to have to call upon a crowd
of people to choose between that and the
eternal living God is an appalling thought, isn't
it, brethren and sisters?
Terrible thing that you should even have to
ask people to make a choice between extremes
like that.
How long holds she between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow Him.
If Baal, then follow Him.
And the people answered, another word.
It's surprising, you know, what people's substitutes for
the name and the glory of the great
God and Saviour and Redeemer whom we worship
here.
People are ready to worship anything but the
true God.
And I'll tell you for why.
Because they have an appetite for sin.
And they love darkness rather than light because
their deeds are evil.
It's a good thing that our good Calvinistic
prophet Elijah put it this way because it
proved all the onus of responsibility for their
sins upon themselves and that's where it belongs
and nowhere else.
The Lord doesn't manufacture sin and put it
as a burden upon the souls and consciences
of men.
They're sinners because they want to be sinners.
Oh, what about Father Adam?
Aren't we sinners because he was a sinner?
No!
You began that way but there's no reason
why you should continue.
You're sinners now because of your own sin.
Not because of Adam's sin.
There's a way out.
There's a way through.
There's a way up.
There's a way beyond.
He's been proclaimed in this country for 15
centuries and more.
And still he's being proclaimed.
And his terms are always the same.
How long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him.
If Baal, then follow him.
Well, Baal may usually have it as far
as numbers are concerned.
But God never was with the big battalions
you know.
Be he to go along with a crowd.
There was Elijah.
He says, Here am I.
I am only one witness for God in
this place.
And look at the crowd on the other
side.
You see them, don't you?
850 of them.
The prophets of Baal and the prophets of
Ashtoreth.
The abomination of the Sidonians.
Look at them all there.
Would you imagine that God was on their
side merely because there was a crowd of
them?
Some people still judge that way.
They say, oh, look how weak the churches
are today.
Look how few people go to church.
There's nothing in it, you see.
People are rather sensible in these days.
We're better educated, more intelligent.
Come with us.
There's many fine ships.
There are probably more ships wrecked in the
space of Dover in a year than anywhere
else on the face of the earth.
Straight is the gate.
Difficult.
Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life.
And few there be that find it.
No, God was never on the side of
the big battalions.
Nor were the big battalions ever on the
side of God.
On the one hand, many, because it's easy
to go downhill.
On the other hand, few.
They say, well, it's only by the grace
of God that there are even a few.
How much we know it.
You wouldn't be in this public tonight if
it hadn't been for a remarkable act of
sovereign grace and mercy.
I was only thinking last night, why me,
why me?
No different, no better than anybody else, but
grace of God somehow or other found me.
Grace of God.
Yes, indeed.
But the grace of God in its working
brought me just to this place.
As it may have brought some young fellow
or some older person to the same place
this evening.
How long halts ye between two opinions?
How long is this going to go on?
When is there going to be an end
to it?
Time is marching on rapidly, it's racing on.
Running away with your life and with your
precious time.
And some of us may not have very
much time left.
How long, how long is it going on?
If you halt between two opinions, isn't it
time you gave serious thought to the end?
Not just to the way that leads to
the end.
Some say, well, I don't feel, I'm not
one of these people who are morbid.
No, neither am I, I never was.
I can say many things to my own
discredit, but I don't plead guilty to that.
I always was an optimist.
I always was full of expectation regarding the
future and eagerly stretched forward to the day
after tomorrow and its achievements and what awaited.
No, no.
The term morbid, you know, often used, very
few people can give you the dictionary meaning.
Really means disease, disease.
The doctors use it when they say a
patient's condition is morbid.
You ever say that about you, then you'd
better get alarmed and send for the police.
And quick.
Oh yes, it means things are getting rather
serious.
Morbid, disease, disease.
Death's cold fingers closing round your vital organs
perhaps.
No.
When it's applied to the mind, it means
a diseased mind.
It means always looking on the black side.
Always thinking that the worst is going to
happen to people.
It's all they say.
Oh, religion is the thing for morbid minds.
People who are concerned about their future.
But to be concerned about the future is
not the sign of morbidity.
There are some young fellows in this congregation
this evening, they're not concerned.
Or shall I put it the other way?
They are concerned about the future, but they're
not morbid.
They're eagerly looking forward to the future.
The life of usefulness.
I think too of cleanliness and godliness.
I'd like to say there are some young
women too, we've got many young women, haven't
we?
Ladies, you have to do something about it.
You can't have a crowd of handsome young
fellows sitting round in these comfortable chairs with
no young ladies to keep them company.
If you don't find them here, they'll find
them outside and they might be sorry afterward.
You know, we've got young men here.
I'd like to say we've got young ladies
here too, who are looking ahead and they're
concerned about the future.
They're thinking very seriously about it, but they're
not morbid.
No, no.
They want to be useful, they want to
achieve something, they want to get somewhere.
Why not?
The people who are really morbid, you know,
are those people who sit still and say,
oh, I don't really bother about religion or
anything else.
And the real reason is because they're not
capable of a serious thought.
You know, it takes a moment.
It takes some movement amongst the grey matter
to get really serious and earnest about anything,
especially if it's about your soul, a state
about your soul.
Some of us have got some hard thinking
to do, you know.
Some of us may have something behind, something
to be ashamed of.
How long halt ye between two opinions?
The Lord be God, follow him.
If Baal, then follow him.
Some say he's our Calvinistic prophet.
Because you see, with all his Calvinism, he
wasn't a hyper-Calvinist.
He was a true Calvinist.
That is, in case you don't know what
a Calvinist is, it's a term which has
been employed during this last four centuries or
more to describe those kind of Christian believers
who believe in a sovereign God who rules
and reigns.
You say, don't all Christians believe that?
No, not by a long way.
If you spoke to them like that, they
would say, oh yes, of course, I believe
that God is sovereign, whatever that means.
I believe he reigns in the heavens.
Ah, but it's a bit more than that,
isn't it?
It's a God who has his way.
I wouldn't like to live in a creation,
would you?
Where either there was no God or we
had a weak God who didn't know where
things were going and didn't have his way.
He sat back and just watched events and
opened a big day-to-day diary to
enter in what happens today in the universe,
what happens tomorrow, and looks it up from
time to time to see how things are
going.
Oh no, God is in every day, in
every breath we draw, in every petal of
yonder rose there.
Couldn't get like that unless there was a
star.
That flew down yonder.
Yes, he knows what he's doing.
All times are in his hand.
Your times are in his hand too.
And I don't know how God works his
sovereign will.
I don't know how he gets his way.
I'm one of those who believe that he
does.
I'm also one of those who feels rather
modest about it and says, well, that's what
I believe.
But I don't know how.
I don't know how he retains in his
vast wisdom that element of responsibility which belongs
to you and to me with all our
decisions, whether for time or for eternity.
I don't know how that works in.
But I do know that he sent his
servant on this day and he cried to
all and sundry to the 850 false prophets
who were there with their false religion and
to all the vast crowd of people and
to the king Ahab sitting there in all
his robes and all his glory and said
to them all, one and all, they were
all the same size and shape in the
sight of God.
How long halts ye between two opinions?
Make up your minds what you're going to
do.
And make up your minds now, make it
up today.
If the Lord be God, follow him.
If Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him, not a word.
My very belief that in some form or
another that day, like that day at Mount
Carmel, that never to be forgotten day in
the history of the world, that day comes
to you and to me.
It might be your day now.
Who knows?
God alone knows tomorrow.
Tomorrow doesn't belong to you.
You've got today.
You've got now.
You haven't got anything else.
You've lost the past.
The future doesn't belong.
It's now that's your present possession.
You may never see tomorrow.
You may never survive tomorrow.
A thousand people have died.
No, what is it?
A hundred thousand of people have died or
will die since you came to this meeting
tonight and before you pass out when the
service is ended.
It happens like that in the world.
A hundred thousand an hour are passing into
eternity.
And there are all people like that.
Some of them are very old.
Some of them are very, very young and
tender.
Others of them are depicted in between.
You haven't got tomorrow.
Only today belongs to you and all its
decisions.
And time is precious.
It's golden.
It's more precious than money.
Money changes its value but time is always
precious.
Money is slipping away because of the follies
of governments.
Clever fellows who call themselves economists who've had
it their own way for years and years
and years and have encouraged governments and they
didn't need much encouragement either to spend more
money than they had and that the easiest
way of spending money that you haven't got
is to forge money.
Nobody forges money in this country hardly except
the government.
Not just this government, the past government and
the one before that and going right back
into the dim shadows of the early part
of this century.
The government is the greatest forger of money
that this country knows because when it's short
of cash it sends a note down to
the printer and says print more pound notes.
Print 5 pound notes, print 20 pound notes
print 100 pound notes then there are thousands
upon thousands more in order we may balance
our budgets.
At the end of the day there's a
day of reckoning because as I've told you
again and again the more money you print
the less it is worth.
We used to laugh at the people out
in Papua who were still in the stone
age culture.
The only currency they know are stones what
the Scots called chuckie stones you know.
We used to call them in Liverpool duck
stones you know what they are, cobbles.
And they pass these from hand to hand
that's their currency.
That's their cash.
I don't know how they do it I
don't know how they make that a denomination
or a sign of what but we laugh
at them using duck stones, cobble stones for
money can't tell you something that's more ludicrous
than that and not using pieces of paper
for money and that's what we do.
And we're supposed to be wise aren't we?
Supposed to be wise.
We need to become fools that we might
be wise we might learn sense.
Oh what fools men are all these grand
economists London School of Economics and all the
rest of it all learning the same alphabet
all learning the same tomfoolery about how to
manage the finances of a country.
It's catching up on us isn't it?
The follies of mankind.
I have no faith in them I don't
know whether you have but I don't.
Not the slightest.
Not any of them.
No not of any party.
I'm one of those men that's getting a
wee bit cynical about political parties and all
that kind of thing.
I've seen too much of it in my
lifetime.
All they're posting, all they're going to do
and this is what it is, this is
it.
With any money in your pocket turning into
dust getting more and more worthless.
Well I don't know how God manages his
affairs.
I don't know how he holds men responsible
for their decisions.
But I know that he is sovereign.
And I know that if it wasn't that
he was sovereign there would be no way
out and there would be no way through
at all.
But he has made a way.
Made a way but you've got to make
up your mind.
You've got to decide.
Yes you have.
Elijah says so, in Good Calvary he says
make up your mind.
Don't part any longer between two opinions.
You've got this choice, you've got that choice.
You've either got Baal or you've got God.
You can't have both and you can't have
neither.
You've got to choose between one or the
other.
It's just as essential as the breath you
draw.
Because that's the kind of world we live
in.
And you cannot excuse yourself for making a
choice.
You cannot say, well I don't feel obliged
to make any choice I'm just going on
as I am.
You can't, you see.
You can't go on as you're doing.
You'll be arrested by events over which you've
no control.
It may be very, very disastrous too.
You cannot escape by any manner of means
or argument at all you cannot escape this
all essential choice between two opinions.
You've got to make up your mind.
You've got to give an answer to God
or to God's prophets.
Some people try to get out of it
by saying oh well, it didn't really happen,
you know this is only a story.
But then who believes that fire comes down
from heaven burns up the sacrifices and just
when a man starts praying fire from heaven
who ever heard of it?
Well I've not only heard of it but
I've seen it, dear friend.
I was on the shores of a Scottish
loch all by myself, all by my little
self in a very uncomfortable back seat of
a car my own car wrapping myself round
with blankets and cushions and trying to keep
warm and comfortable because I was there for
the night and the heavens opened and the
fire came down and the water came down
too, never mind the fire I never saw
water come down like it.
And it came down for about the best
part of an hour I never saw such
a, or heard or experienced such a thunderstorm
as that was.
By the car in which I was was
rocking through and through and there was a
tremendous wind got up and it was sweeping
over the loch and you couldn't see 20
yards ahead for the solid downpour of rain
illuminated by tremendous flashes of lightning Oh yes,
I've seen the fire fall from heaven it
often happens.
Oh, it was just a wee bit afraid
it might hit me, you know on its
way down.
Well I knew I was perfectly safe inside
the car there was no safer place than
a car and some of our scientific friends
will tell me why, I know somebody did
some time ago they described how the electricity
the spark, the fire which comes down from
heaven when it strikes the roof of your
car it spreads and goes down harmlessly into
the ground never gets inside somewhere other I
don't know how it is a scientist who
told me that I felt rather comforted ever
since safest place you can be that and
your own home well of course then we
feel a bit nervous and I assure you
that I don't like being outside in a
thunderstorm I like to be under cover because
you never know when it's going to strike
but if my faith was a little bit
stronger I would say well, what matters is
I will take such precautions as I can
but the Lord who controls the fire knows
where it's going to fall it fell right
at the very spot where it was most
needed in the days of Elijah it didn't
fall on the unburnt sacrifice that the prophets
of Baal had been trying to offer up
and had been crying to their God all
day long Oh Baal hear us, Oh Baal
hear us and Elijah gave them a theological
lesson about how to get on with false
gods because you see people have just precisely
this idea of God that the prophets of
Baal had and so Elijah came right down
to their level he says your God you
know that you believe in is just, you've
made him out of yourself you've made your
own God and he looks awfully like you
are like you're looking and so he says
cry aloud and he's talking with somebody or
he's pursuing so maybe he's watching a football
match or he's sailing a yacht or he's
playing crickets he's talking, he's pursuing he's on
a journey, he's had adventures he's fallen asleep
if you shout loud enough you'll waken up
your God Elijah you know was not just
being sarcastic there was every room for sarcasm
and every excuse for sarcasm in the situation
but he was not being merely sarcastic no
no he was saying I'm just taking your
God on the level on which you put
him and there are a good many people
in Christian England today and their God is
just like that oh yes they say they
believe in God all right he's just a
God of convenience he doesn't seem to be
at his post very long no I pray
and I don't get any answers no of
course not, there are some prayers that would
be beneath the dignity of deity to listen
to and to answer no no but if
your need is real if your desire is
for the will of God to be done
you will not cry in vain that's how
the Lord who was God taught us he
said this is one of our first petitions
thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven don't just give me this,
don't just give me that the first thing
that comes into my mind I'd like this,
I'd like that whether it's good for me
or not but give me this day my
daily bread that's good, you hear that because
that's necessity forgive my sins yes says the
Lord go on, go on, don't just stop
there oh I thought I had to stop
there oh no no no forgive me my
sins now there's something else says the Lord
oh yes I remember as I forgive those
who sin against me who do me wrong
oh that's hard Lord yes says the Lord
it was hard for me too to forgive
your sins very hard it cost me my
life and my glory on the cross of
shame it's hard to forgive sins you know
hard to forgive sins the Lord went that
way there was no other way because it's
a hard road some people have to revise
their views of who God is and what
he's like and Elijah wanted them to know
if the Lord is God follow him if
Baal then follow him but I'm telling you
what kind of a God he is it's
best that you should know fire coming down
from heaven did you know that God was
always sending fire down from heaven oh I
was going to tell you wasn't I it
hit the right place it always does, God's
fire never misses, always on the target singles
out out of a multitude just one man
if need be this time it was the
his own altar with a brick slain upon
it but no fire under it everything ready
for the kindling and soaked with water, twelve
barrels of them one barrel for every tribe
of the children of Israel and the altar
was constructed of twelve stones one for each
tribe of the children of Israel Elijah knew
what he was doing you know he knew
indeed and there was the bullock the type
of Christ upon the cross the slain man
oh Lord send fire from heaven and down
it came in one mighty blast and strain
and right upon the target it struck the
altar and the bullock everything was ablaze of
appalling fire the people cried out and shouted
the Lord he is the God the Lord
he is the God and the lightnings in
the throne of heaven the divine wrath against
Satan came on that day when outside the
city wall one hung and suffered upon the
tree and on fiery darts of the divine
indignation against sin found their target upon one
man hanging upon the cross and all heaven
shuddered at the sight of the very throne
of God's sheep for there was no other
way by which God could save my soul
and by enduring that blast from heaven from
his own throne directed by his own hand
towards his own Son who was God manifest
in the flesh have you made up your
mind yet?
young man or old person some of you
who are tumbling on the brink of the
grave in the shadows of autumn we're getting
very very long in your pathway how long
is it going to be?
before you make up your mind before you
make your choice before you make your decision
whether it is the Lord or whether it
is Baal look at the Lord make a
comparison between the God of this world and
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son I don't know
where the wound was so poignant when it
was on the one who hung and suffered
there in the heart of the Eternal Father
who thus had to turn his hand against
the victim who is his own Son that
there might be forgiveness of sin a hard
thing is forgiveness that you may have it
now it's yours, it's yours belongs to you
if now in your heart you will say
the Lord he is the God and I
am his from this moment and he is
mine forever and forever Amen we
close by saying 949
that's right 949 we give thee but thine
own whate'er the gift may be all
that we have is thine alone our trust,
O Lord, from thee and what a wonderful
tune we have to this again we are
in debt to the late Sir Arthur Sullivan
and again we notice he starts the last
chord in the same way and so many
of his tunes in four equal notes in
the first bar so here we give thee
but thine own Thank you