I Kings 18:17-24

Serving the Wrong God

Introduction

1. Are you bowing before another god? Is there any other way to God?

2. In I Kings 18:17-24 Ahab and Jezebel worshiped Baal. Jehovah has been set aside. Elijah

confronts any other way to God.

Are you bowing before another god? Is there any other way to God?

I. GOD’S CONDEMNATION TO ANY OTHER WAY 18:17-19

A. The Situation Is Falsified 17

To serve other gods we must shift the blame. We can’t see things as they really are. Art

thou he who troubles Israel?

1. Elijah, the drought and the famine are your fault. His lips betray his heart. He had seen what God could do but he wasn’t willed to be convinced. It hadn’t rained for 3½ years!!

*He was too intellectual to believe God did it. HIS INTELLECT COULDN’T BUY IT!

*He was too prejudiced to believe God did it. HIS PREJUDICE COULDN’T BUY IT!

*His will can’t buy it. “I won’t believe!”

2. So it is today. There are thousands of preachers and millions of Americans who can’t buy

that Jesus Christ is the way…the only way to God even though there are hundreds of

demonstrations all around them!

*Since God doesn’t measure up to their standards they form their own standards, and

those who believe the Bible as God’s Word and Jesus Christ is the only way to God are

belittled.

*It has been the custom of the liberal to blame any trouble on the conservative Bible

believing Christian. The liberal is never to blame!!

3. Ahab accused Elijah of stirring things up. God’s word has a way of stirring things up!!

4.Elijah sets the record straight. (18a) He doesn’t stutter: “It’s you!” God’s finger points at the guilty party. They had followed other gods. They had departed from the revealed word of God. That’s our problem today!

B. The Standard Is Forsaken 18b

You have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. You no longer listen to me.

1. That is always the problem when we turn to other gods. Do away with the standard and all we have is opinions.

*Opinion: One way is as good as another to get to God. Standard: Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. (John 14:6) He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, to them that believe on His name: (John 1:11, 12)

*Ahab had done away with the standard.

*What’s right or wrong…Opinion: It’s all how you look at it…Homosexuality…LBGTQ…Abortion…Premarital and extramarital sex… Lying… Cheating…Stealing…It’s all o.k. What does the word of God say??

*Is there a heaven? Standard (Rev. 21) Is there a hell? Standard: (Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus) (Rev. 20:11-15) Whosoever name was not written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

2. Ahab’s opinions were wrong!

C. The Substitute Is Followed 18c

Other things have taken My place…And has followed Baalim.

1. Bypass God’s way and you have to have your own approach. False gods will take His place. You will worship something!

2.Notice the plural: Worshiped many deities, gods…They worshiped many gods, but they were all the wrong God! It was a god who demands all, but makes no demands. I can live as I please!

3.How is a person saved? Most believe: “My good will outweigh my bad.” He is so sincere. He goes to church. What substitute are you following? Why should God let you into His heaven?

4.It was 450 to 1, plus 400 prophets who eat at Jezebel’s table. (v. 19). It is God vs. Baal.

*Let’s check out that to which you are giving allegiance.

*One day your god will be tested: In a fox hole…at the death bed of a loved one… “It’s cancer.” “Your child may not live.”

Are you bowing before another god? Is there any other way to God?

II. GOD’S CHALLENGE TO ANY OTHER WAY 18:20, 21

A. The Place 20

1. Mt. Carmel was a mountain range extending 13 miles in a SE direction. At the west end it drops off into the Mediterranean Sea.

2.What a place for a challenge right in the midst of God’s handiwork.

3.There was a religious significance. The Canaanites believed the mountain was a special dwelling place of the gods. Baal was the Lord of the sun…a fire god!

4.This is the place God wants to show Himself. It’s not a religion. It’s a reality. It’s a relationship!

B. The Proposal 21

1. Stand Up…God’s people cannot ride the fence between truth and error. God’s people cannot ride the fence between right and wrong.

*“How long will you halt (hobble) between two forks in the road?”

*A clear decision: If God be God…follow Him. If Baal be God…follow him. Both can’t be right!

*If that which is truth be truth, quit playing games…go for it!! Live for it! Devote your life to it! If necessary, be willing to die for it!

*Look at Jesus. If He was who He said…totally surrender to Him…follow Him!

*If not, go your own way and serve Satan to the fullest. IT’S THE HOUR OF DECISION!! One demands denying SELF. The other live for yourself. THEY BOTH CAN’T BE RIGHT! One says receive a Person. The other says become more religious! One says, “Repent” Turn around. The other says, ‘Don’t worry about sin.’ There is no such thing as sin.

*Choose: But your decision will affect you for the rest of your life and for all eternity!

2. Speak Up…The people said not a word.

*Convicted, they said nothing. Some will be like that.

*They knew what they should do. V. 22 (19:10, 14, 18) mistaken, misunderstood, and

definitely in the minority…God’s people are always in the minority. It is never

popular to follow God!

Are you bowing before another god? Is there any other way to God?

III. THE CONDITIONS TO ANOTHER WAY 18:22-24

What the majority thinks doesn’t matter. They are usually wrong!

A. Sacrifice 23

Israel had sinned. God back to the cross!

1. There can be no peace treaty between a holy God and sinful man without the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

2.It is so with us: those are God’s conditions not mine. Jesus died so we could live. Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree that we might become the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

B. Satisfaction 24

Put your gods to the test!!

1. Let the fire fall. The fire of God’s wrath must fall! The wrath will either fall on the guilty of Israel or on the substitute sacrifice.

2.Something that no one can explain…except God did it!

3.Sin must be paid for…either God’s wrath will fall on you or Jesus has already paid the price.

People wanted an outward show, but were deaf to the call to repentance.

CHOOSE: If there is only one God there is only one way to that God!

JESUS IS THAT WAY!