How Long Will You Limp Between Two Opinions?

Today’s Scripture lesson is taken from one of the most colorful passages in Scripture, Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It is a lengthy passage and I encourage you to read it in it’s entirety, but for now I will just read from verses seventeen to twenty-one.

1 Kings 18:17–21 ESV

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

In this brief passage, we find one of life’s most important questions, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?” It is a question every generation of believers has had to deal with. The issue then, as it is now, is religious syncretism. Religious syncretism is the mixing of two religions. In the case of Israel at the time of Elijah, it was the mixing of the worship of Yahweh with the worship of Baal, but what is it in our day? Few, if any, Christians are tempted to mix Islam or Hinduism into Christianity. The false religion that tempts most Christians today is Materialism.

Materialism

Few of you would be surprised that I would identify the idol of our day as Materialism. Many a preacher has spoken about the evils of materialism, but in their messages, they have limited it only to an excessive love of material things. Materialism is this, but it is so much more. According the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary:

Materialism is a theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that all being and processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results of matter.

As you can see, Materialism is a world-view that encompasses all of life. It excludes the God of the Bible from any meaningful activity and it is inherently anti-supernatural. It is easy to see that it is the dominate world-view of our society. For example, who today is prepared to argue that faith in the Biblical God is necessary for the proper understanding of science, history or politics? Again and again we are told we MUST keep God out of all three! What is behind this push to push God out of everything? Materialism!

To help you see the idolatrous nature of Materialism, let us turn to Romans 1:18-23:

Romans 1:18–23 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Notice that Paul says that fallen man has replaced God with material things. The modern secularists does not carve an idol to replace God, but he or she replaces the Creator God with the material world!

The Materialistic Scientist replaces the Creator with Evolution.

The Materialistic Sociologist replaces the Doctrine of Sin with Marxist Critical Theory.

The Materialistic Politician replaces the Doctrine of Redemption with Socialism.

The Materialistic Ethicist replaces the Law of God with Self-Fulfillment.

As I read this short list, I hope you see the problem. There are many Christians today who would claim to believe in evolution, socialism and the sexual revolution; in doing so, they are mixing Christianity with Materialism. On one hand this is understandable, just as Baalism was in the cultural air the ancient Israelites breathed, so Materialism in in the cultural air we breath. We pick up these ideas without even knowing it. On the other hand, it is inexcusable, God has told us plainly in His Word that He is the Creator of all things. He has told us plainly in His Word that the cause of evil in this world is not “white privilege” but sin. He has told us plainly in His Word that freedom is found in His Law not in our desires.

What is really going on here? Why are so many Christians today compromising their faith like the Israelites before them? Our text gives us the answer.

You Troubler of Israel

When King Ahab met Elijah, he was immediately labeled as the “troubler of Israel”! To insist upon the exclusive worship and service to the one true God is to make yourself a troublemaker and ultimately to make oneself a target.

As we read the story of Elijah, we discover his preaching made him a target. John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was the “coming Elijah”, became a target because he challenged the system. Jesus, whom John pointed to, was a target because He too challenged the system. Christians today who preach the truth are targets.

No one wants to be thought of as an outsider or ignorant and most certainly, no one wants to be a target. This is what is behind so many Christians caving into the false religion of Materialism. Do you want to be counter-cultural? Then do not attempt to burn down the Federal Building in Portland, be a Bible believing Christian!

Be warned, you must be prepared to be “canceled”! We are hearing much about the “cancel culture” today, many are wondering what is going on. What is going on is an attempt to erase Christianity; first our Christian heritage and then Christianity itself. The reason for this is the fact that Biblical Christianity stands against everything our popular culture promotes. To consistently practice Biblical Christianity is to undermine the agenda of Secular Materialism.

Sadly, most people who call themselves Christians are not much of a threat, just like the Israelites before them, they have compromised their faith. As a result, they are limping along .

How Long Will You Limp?

Elijah’s question to the people, “How long will you limp between two different opinions?” was a thinly vailed mockery of the way the priests of Baal danced around their offerings. In the same way, we hobble ourselves when we attempt to combine the pure religion of Scripture with the religion of our culture.

Christianity offers us REAL solutions to REAL problems, but when we mix the wisdom of God with the wisdom of man we empty the Gospel of its power.

We must not confuse sincerity with truth; a person can be sincere and be sincerely wrong! Earlier I said Baalism was the cultural air the ancient Israelites breathed. Baalism taught that Baal was the god who brought the rains for crops and his consort Asherah was the goddess who brought fertility to their livestock and wives. We may mock at what we see as primitive beliefs, but they sincerely believed that by worshiping Baal they would not only help themselves but their neighbors as well.

Today many who call themselves Christian have the same sincerity and concern for their neighbors, but the solutions they are offering are those found in Materialism, not in the Word of God. Over one hundred years ago, Charles Spurgeon, lived and preached in London. It was at this time the ideas of Materialism were first sweeping over Europe. The churches and pulpits of England were not immune; in a sermon entitled, “The Dirge of the Down-Grade and a Song for Faith,” he said:

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXXV A Dirge for the Down-Grade and a Song for Faith (No. 2,085)

For many a year, by the grand old truths of the gospel, sinners were converted, and saints were edified, and the world was made to know that there is a God in Israel; but these are too antiquated for the present cultured race of superior beings. They are going to regenerate the world by Democratic Socialism, and set up a kingdom for Christ without the new birth or the pardon of sin. Truly, the Lord has not taken away the seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal, but they are, in most cases, hidden away, even as Obadiah hid the prophets in a cave.

I am no Elijah, nor Spurgeon, but I share their heart and my heart is both alarmed and broken by what I see in the churches and pews of our land; too many are mixing the doctrines of Materialism with the doctrines of God. By doing so, they are hobbling the Gospel. They are “limping along” like the compromising Israelites of Elijah’s day!

Therefore, I stand before you today as Elijah stood before the people of Israel and I ask one of life’s most important questions:

How Long Will You Limp Between Two Opinions?

After Elijah asked that question, we are told the people did not answer him. How sad!

At the beginning of this message, I suggested that you go home and read the rest of this great story. Let me give you a preview of what you will discover. You will read of a great miracle, but you will NOT read of a great revival. Many wrongly believe that it will take a mighty miracle for a revival to happen in America, they are wrong. A revival will not happen until we answer the question before correctly: “If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” What is your answer?