Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word.Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people didn’t say a word.And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt 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 Elijah came near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limping between the two sides? if Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
4 sermons cite this verse
… And gathered 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 is God, follow him This is what God is saying to you If I am God, for real, follow me. If money is God, follow it. See how far that gets you. See how long that's going to sustain you. This is the thing where God is saying, for me to make my power known in your life, you've got to be connected to me. And so the people, look what it says, but the people answered him not a word. This is why God needs our church more than ever right now is because people are confused. They want god But they see what the world offers and they're confused. They're not saying a word They're waiting for god's power to be revealed through a regular person just like you so that they can say that's god Like like no no no no how he healed their marriage. That's god How he took them from that place of disparity? …
… on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and he said, and obviously you're going to see what the message for all of us is today right in the text. He said to the people, how long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, follow him. But the people said nothing. So before this gathering is over, we're going to be introducing the idea of God coming as fire. Not coming politely and saying, hi, I'm Yahweh. How are you today? But coming in all of his glory and consuming everything that's not God. This is how God moves. God does not move into situations that go, oh, okay, yeah, can I just get a little edge on the table there? Hey, how's everybody? No, he comes in in his glory. And he says, I'm not sharing my glory with anybody. it's all me all the time that's how i'd like to come does anybody still want god because we say god i want you but what we're really saying to god is i i have reserved a solid third of my table for you and i would love it if you would come to my table he's like get rid of your table I don't need a table I want to come fully in power and then all the people said what you say is good in other words we'll see who comes by fire and whoever comes by fire that's going to be how we'll know who's God Elijah said to the prophets of Baal …
1 Kings xviii. 21. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt 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. It is the manner of God, before he bestows any signal mercy on the people, first to prepare them for it; and before he removes any awful judgments which he hath brought upon them for their sins, first to cause them to forsake those sins which procured those judgments. We have an instance of this in the context.—It was a time of sore famine in Israel. There had been neither rain nor dew for the space of three years and six months. This famine was brought upon the land for their idolatry. But God was now about to remove this judgment; and therefore, to prepare them for it, sends Elijah to convince them of the folly of idolatry, and to bring them to repentance for it.—In order to this, Elijah, by the command of the Lord, goes and shows himself to Ahab, and directs him to send and gather all Israel to him at mount Carmel, and all the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves that ate at Jezebel’s table, four hundred, that they might determine the matter and bring the controversy to an issue, whether Jehovah or Baal were God. To this end, Elijah proposes, that each should take a bullock, that he should take one, and the prophets of Baal another, that each should cut his bullock to pieces, lay it on the wood, and put no fire under; and that the God who should answer by fire should be concluded to be God. …
Thirdly. They desire happiness with holiness. Wicked men have as earnest a desire of happiness as others. They are restlessly saying, “Who will show us any good?” And yet they are enemies to holiness. Here also they are inconsistent with themselves, for there is no such thing as happiness without holiness; the happiness of the creature consists in holiness. It is as great an inconsistency to suppose that a creature should be happy without being holy, as that a man should enjoy all the strength, and ease, and activity, and other comforts of health, in sore sickness; or that the notes of a tune should be harmonious that are disproportionate and discordant. So that they would be happy, and yet would not be happy: the thing they choose contains as great an inconsistency as if they should choose light or brightness, consisting in the blackness of darkness. 4. In things that do most nearly concern them they will neither choose nor refuse. The things of religion are things that concern them in the highest degree. It is no matter of indifference to them, whether they will betake themselves in good earnest to the business of religion or not, whether they will obtain heaven, or be content with a portion in this life. But yet many natural men seem to remain in suspense about these things all the days of their lives; they are always at a loss, always halting between two opinions, which Elijah reproves, 1 Kings xviii. 21. “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt 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.” No wonder that they had nothing to answer, for their unreasonableness and inconsistency too manifestly appeared in it. Many, who hear of these subjects from their infancy, never come to a thorough conclusion in their own minds, whether they will continue to go on in the way to hell, or whether they will do what must be done to escape it; they neither resolve that they will forsake all their sins, nor yet that they will retain them; they do not determine to hearken to the warnings and counsels given to them, nor yet do they fully reject them. They have life and death set before them, one or the other, but they never come to a determination which they will choose. …