Month: June 2020

” …How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God follow him: but if Baal, then follow him … ” (1 Kings 18:21).

It looked like a great day for the followers of Baal as they gathered on Mount Carmel. There was no doubt in their minds that they were right and Elijah was wrong. Were there not four hundred and fifty of them and only one Elijah? Was not the vast majority of people on their side? Did not Queen Jezebel support their work and worship at their altars? Had not King Ahab accused Elijah of being the troubler of Israel? Was not the worship of Baal the accepted, popular religion? They would silence that fanatical fellow, Elijah, who refused to accept their god.

So the great contest was on! Baal’s prophets appeared in heathenish pomp and splendor. Elijah, without friends or followers, dared to stand alone.

If ever a man had an excuse to compromise, Elijah was that man. If ever a man had a right to cut comers and hedge to avoid enmity, Elijah had. If ever a case looked hopeless, this one did. If ever a man could claim a legitimate reason for not raising his voice against evil, Elijah could. Fear, compromise, despair, and the dodging of issues, however, failed to move Elijah.

None of these Satanic darts should make a coward of the true Christian today. Elijah stood firm and determined to tum the nation back to God. His faith was anchored in God. God had found a man on whom He could depend. How much easier it should be for Christians to stand for God in this day of grace!

Notice the boldness of Elijah and how quickly he took the initiative. Knowing that he was right and that God was with him, he hurled a stunning challenge into the faces of his enemies, “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. Secondly, Elijah s challenge was an analysis of the cause of their troubles. Ahab had called Elijah the troublemaker, but Elijah reversed the order and bluntly stated that the cause of their troubles was their failure to serve God.

Firstly, observe that this challenge was an accusation that they were not following God. The worship of Baal being the popular religion attracted the masses. It required neither repentance from sin nor deeds of righteousness. It appealed to the vanity of the proud. Dead religion has always been popular, but it has only helped to fill the bottomless pit.

The worst thing the prophet could have done was to question their religion. Such a man is never popular with the crowd. Naturally, he would not gain the support of the multitudes. It is the same today. The greatest need of our nation is for men like Elijah; men full of the Holy Spirit to declare the whole counsel of God.

Happy is the individual, the church, the nation that will frankly and honestly face the cause of any problem. No lasting correction can ever be made unless we are willing to face the fact that disobedience to God is the root of every trouble. ” … How long halt ye between two opinions? … ” he asked. The very word implies hesitation; failure to go forward. They halted. They feared the Lord to a certain point, and they could not totally abandon Him; yet they also feared King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and would not abandon the religion of the state. Their conscience forbade them to do the former; their fear of man persuaded them to do the latter, but in neither were they heartily engaged.

So there they stood “halt,” making not progress. They had four hundred and fifty prophets but no prophecies; an altar but no fire; long prayers but no answers; people but no power; much trying but no triumph.

God save us from such a condition! We cannot serve two masters. We cannot ” … halt … between two opinions … ” and be happy. The only joy and the only victory comes by definitely taking sides with God and standing there, even if we must stand alone.

Thirdly, Elijah s challenge was an argument in favour of action. What he actually said was, “Since you are not serving God as you ought to, and since your failure to serve Him has caused you trouble, the only reasonable thing to do is to repent and return to God and serve Him.”

The failure of the Christian church today to stand for God has caused much trouble. The “halting between two opinions” on the part of God’s people has led to the development of ecumenical apostasy. 0 what compromise there has been! Failure to obey God has resulted in backsliding and worldliness. We have lost the glory of His presence. The desire to follow the crowd and be a part of popular religious movements has brought in false movements. God’s message has been so watered down that thousands upon thousands of regular church goers never hear the Gospel. Modernism and liberalism are stronger than ever before while ordained ministers of the Gospel grow weaker. Isaiah said, ” … darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people … ” (Isaiah 60:2). This is true today. People on every side are in almost total darkness as far as the Word of God is concerned. Only here and there do we find a pulpit where the Gospel is preached, the new birth emphasized, salvation made plain, an invitation given, and God’s people instructed and warned concerning the issues of the day.

May the Lord raise up Elijah’s today. He needs men who, realizing the responsibility of their Holy calling, will fearlessly proclaim the great fundamentals of the faith in these closing days of grace. No other message avails before the God of Elijah. Oh, for an awakening among the people of God. When are we going to get the burden and become conscious of our responsibilities? The Word of God challenges us to repentance and to take our stand for God in the old-fashioned way.

Like Ahab and the followers of Baal, religious leaders today cannot escape. We must either serve God or the devil. We are either right or wrong. We are either all out for God, or not out at all. There is no middle ground. There must be no compromise. No one can be neutral. We must choose. We must stand. Why” … halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him … “

Hudson Taylor was angered by the self-satisfied, hymn singing congregation in Brighton, England, in June 1865. He was so burdened for China that he could not tolerate the cold apathy among Christians. Biographer John Pollock wrote:

“Taylor looked around. Pew upon pew of prosperous, bearded merchants, shopkeepers, visitors, demure wives in bonnets and crinolines, and scrubbed children trained to hide their impatience; the atmosphere of smug sickened him. He seized his hat and left. ‘Unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing for their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony.

There on the beach Taylor prayed for “twenty-four willing, skilful labourers” that shared Christ’s burden for the lost in China.

After studying the underlying causes of revival for the past forty years, I have a strong conviction that tears flowing from the eyes of intercessors are the catalyst of revival.

Both the Old and New Testaments record significant incidents where the tears of praying people preceded outpourings of God’s grace and power in bringing about revival blessings.

The great spiritual awakening that took place under Ezra followed the tear-soaked intercession of the godly scribe. In Ezra 10:1 the record states, “Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and woman and children: for the people wept very sore.”

A revival of life-changing, transforming power followed the tears of Ezra.

The intercession of our Saviour is referred to in Hebrews 5:7, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.”

There are those who scorn at the thought of a man weeping. They see it as a sign of weakness. Yet the strong Son of God wept as He prayed. God heard and sent His Holy Spirit in great power on the day of Pentecost.

The ministry of brokenness preceding revival is evident since Bible days as well.

D. L. Moody would weep in private prayer before standing to minister the Word with great soul-winning effectiveness.

General Booth admonished a young Salvation Army worker, whose work seemed doomed to failure, “Try tears.”

These wept because they loved, and their tears were expressed in their lives.

Is the same depth of love and passion to be found in our pews? We take our altar flowers to the sick following a service of worship, but there are no tear stains on the card. Is it enough to share the beauty of the flowers? Not if we love as our dear Lord loved. We must indeed share the beauty of our Christian experience. Dare we allow our compassion to become submerged in a whirling mechanics of organization?

Many of us can remember when our churches wept over the lost. Many of the finer, bigger churches of today have their roots watered in the tears of Spirit-filled people who “carried a burden” for unsaved society. (Some churches still carry that burden, Praise the Lord!)

Many a triumphant believer’s testimony might well end in the words of David, ” … the LORD hath heard … my weeping” (Psalm 6:8). The Lord hadn’t seen his weeping; He had heard it. David must have been weeping out loud!

Have you shed tears – tears for others? It is time you did. David wrote often of his tears, and David was not a weak man. In Psalm 42:3, David wrote, “My tears have been my meat day and night … ” In Psalm 126:5-6, we read that “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Paul was not ashamed of his tears. He mentioned them again and again in his epistles. In his last talk with the Ephesian elders, he reminded them how he had served the Lord with ” … all humility of mind, and with many tears … ” (Acts 20: 19).

Pastors, evangelists, missionaries, Christian workers, if we are not shedding tears today, may God have pity on our dry eyes! How can we say we are followers of Jesus if we do not weep for others? “GOD, GIVE US TEARS!”

Andrew Murray says of the precious blood, “I know of no word in the Bible or in human speech that contains such mysteries! In it are concentrated the mysteries of the incarnation, in which our God took flesh and blood; of the obedience unto death, in which the blood was shed: of the love that passeth knowledge that purchased us with His own blood; of the victory over every enemy and the everlasting redemption; of the resurrection and the entrance into Heaven; of the atonement and the reconciliation and the justification that came through it; of the cleansing and perfecting of the conscience; of the sprinkling of the heart and the sanctifying of the people.”

There is no limit to the power of the blood of the Lamb. The church has a right to claim all the fruits of’ the victory which Christ has won for her on Calvary. Is there any limit His victory? If there is, it is altogether on our side and is due to unbelief and to our unwillingness to ” … follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth… ” (Revelation 14:4).

The great enemy of the church has so paralyzed her will and deadened her sense of responsibility, that ripening harvest fields are still waiting for labourers and funds, and the means required for the ingathering of precious souls are refused by the members of the church. Such is the work the devil is accomplishing, and yet the eyes of many are closed to the fact.

If the church will enter into possession of what the Lord Jesus has won through His sacrifice on the cross, she will be able to claim that all the powers of the enemy directed against her shall be utterly broken. Also, by virtue of the precious blood, there shall be loosed, for the glory of God and the need of the world, men and money and all else that is required for the prosecution of victorious missionary enterprise. Calvary is the Lord’s call to the church to be loosed from her graveclothes and to enter into the most aggressive warfare possible against the strongholds of evil. Calvary is II is cull to her to receive the fullest supply of the Holy Spirit and to put on her beautiful garments in anticipation of the coming of her Lord and the dawning of the day of victory.

PURCHASED BY THE BLOOD

” … thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9). This will be the song of the translated church as she looks back on her earthly journey. It is now the song of every believer who knows his debt of sin is paid.

CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD

” … they … have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7: 14). What the blood purchases, it possesses in order to keep it safe. ” … the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Thank God the cleansing is a continuous act, for that is what we need. ” … Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments … ” (Revelation 16:15).

CONQUERING THROUGH THE BLOOD

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb … ” (Revelation 12:11). The Greek word for overcome means to conquer. In a court of law, it is to win the case; in conflict, to knock the weapon out of the adversary’s hand.

By that blood the accuser is silenced and put out of court (Revelation 12:10). Victory over him, at every point, is grounded on and is a consequence of the blood which has been shed.

The Holy Spirit has come to teach us all that it means and to lead us into personal experience of its powers, so that in every conflict with evil it is the weapon with which we meet the enemy and find victory and perfect peace. The Holy Spirit has an ample supply for us in the struggle. What He requires is that we shall be yielded to Him, receptive of what He offers, obedient to His orders, and active in daily service for the hour of the Victor of Calvary, to the glory of God the Father.

A MAN AND HIS SOUL

“I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” (Isaiah 13: 12).

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

THE REDEEMING BLOOD OF CHRIST

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD

” … the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold … ” (Psalm 19:9-10).

WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING

“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold” (Proverbs 3: 13-14).

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

“Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold” (Proverbs 8: 10).

A GOOD NAME

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1).