O Solomon said, where the word of a king is, there is power. Amen. 1 Kings 18, when you find it, you can stand. We'll read a few verses of Scripture this morning. We've been preaching on thought. that is branched off to a couple other thoughts called searching for rain. And we find the rain in this chapter. Israel's been in a drought for three and a half years. And of course, you know, this is the old showdown at the O.K. Corral on Mount Carmel. And a lot of things happen here. But we're in searching for rain here. And let's begin reading. Follow along with me. Pick it up in verse 17. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou, and thy father's house, and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves, four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. 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. He must have been Baptist, amen? That's funny, you can laugh right there. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, let them choose one bollock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under, and I'll dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under, and call you on the name of your gods, and I'll call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answered by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose ye one bullock for yourself, and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered, and they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is talking or he is pursuing on Facebook. I'd put that in there. Or he's in a journey, but peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancet till the blood gushed out upon them. came to pass when midday was past and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice nor any to answer or any that regarded. Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and poured on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood, and he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. He said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. It came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God, Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant. and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal. Let not one of them escape. They took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there. Man, what a riot. I don't know what that Bible does to you, but sometimes it just moves me to tears. It's a little emotional, probably. Probably harm-wired. Sometimes I read that book and I tremble. There's a lot to be learned here as we're in search of rain here. Coach, would you ask the Lord's help in the preaching this morning? Amen. Thank you. And you may be seated. I'm so glad you came today. Sundays are very important part of my life. I have to blame my parents for part of it. You know, when I was young, I didn't have a choice. I just said, get up, get ready. And I had to wear certain clothes to go to church, you know what I mean? I said, you're going to look your best. Of course, when you're a little boy, looking your best is like whatever, right? And anyways, as the story goes, the older I got, the whole church thing kind of takes. You say, well, it's really not like that. It is like that. You see, as an individual, you're prone to be run by your flesh so many times. And I'm thankful for parents that said, hey, time to go to church. I didn't have a, what do you think, would you like to go to church this morning? Get up, go to church, amen, alright, alright, let's go. So by God's grace here we are and I believe we're the most important part of the week, the beginning of the week is where we get to share a meal together. That's why we're here today. I'm not here to change you, you're not here to change me, we're here to hear from the Lord and to get fed. And if the Lord knows the changing, praise the Lord. But most of your life consists of many different meals. Sometimes you eat good and sometimes not so good. Amen. Sometimes you get indigestion during the week from what you ate and sometimes spiritually speaking you can get indigestion. But man, we're just here for a meal this morning and as we get into 1 Kings chapter 18, Israel finally sees rain. It's going to see rain at the end of this chapter. Oh, what a blessing it is to get rain when you're a dry and weary land where there is no water. And it's been three and a half years, needless to say, they've been searching for rain. They've been going from pond to pond, from brook to brook, and from all their storehouses, the underground wells, and they've been drying up. And last week we said that in our Christian life we need rain. And we know that rain is a type of fellowship. Rain is a picture of getting satiated from the Word of God, the washing of water by the Word. Not only does it cleanse us, but it nourishes us, it revives us, it revitalizes us, it renews us, and we need the rain. And in the chapter, it seems like the pivotal point is when the fire falls, doesn't it? And I believe for a long time we have desired as Christians for the fire to fall. But there's only one problem. I know the fire has to fall. It really does. But there's one problem. If all we're here is for a firework show, then we'll have to come to the conclusion that the fire consumes and destroys everything in its path. And while the Lord might use the fire to purge out the dross in your life and my life, You're going to have to have the rain to once again grow. I see as a pastor I'm here not to destroy you with fire, but to help give you a drink and to help develop you with the Word of God. And as we began to preach a week and a half ago, we began preaching about searching for rain and we preached about the problem with nominal Christians. That's the first thing in the chapter is Elijah shows up and runs smack dab into Obadiah. And we're not talking about the one that wrote the book Obadiah through the power of the Holy Spirit. But we preached about avoiding nominal Christianity, that's being a Christian in name only. Why? We're searching for rain. Next we move forward once again that Wednesday facing off with Ahab in search of rain where the Holy Spirit showed us that we've got to stop blaming others for our bad weather. That's all it is. We're taking this thing and searching for rain and we're preaching thoughts through the text and we preach Wednesday about you've got to stop blaming others for your bad weather. And you saw that in verse number 17 and verse number 18. And as we continue on in pursuit of rain as a child of God in the text, the next thing we come to just happens to be the notorious message by the man of God in verse number 21. Look at it again with me this morning. The next thing we come to is you have a preacher and when there's a preacher and there's a crowd, he tends to open his mouth and out it comes. Verse 21 says, he preaches this, 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. So today I want to try to do the best I can to preach a message entitled, It's Just Time to Make Up Your Mind. It's time to make up your mind. Why? We're searching for rain. You're gonna have to make up your mind on some things right here in the text and they'll be revealed as we walk through it. I believe the Bible has all the answers. I believe if you're willing to look at it, the Lord will help you make up your mind if it's not already made up. If it is already made up, then the amens will be loud and clear. And they answered him not a word. See what I mean? I mean, if your mind's already made up and you're doing exactly what God wants you to do, man, this will be easy peasy, they say it. But I want to try to preach about you as a Christian, making up your mind about some things through the text, through the text as we go there. And the first thing I'd have you make up your mind about, number one, is in verse 21. Christian, you're going to have to make up your mind about the preaching. You're just going to have to make up your mind about the preaching. Look at verse 21 again. He says, How long halt ye between two opinions? There's only two opinions. There's right Or there's wrong? I know Elijah says it's an opinion, but it's either right opinion or it's a wrong opinion. There's not kind of in a sort of in the middle kind of out left field. It's the way I feel today. It's just there's two opinions. There's the Lord's opinion and for the sake of the text and there's Baal's opinion. Which one's right? You got to make up your mind and it starts with the preaching here today. It starts with the preaching in the text. It wasn't make up your mind what you're going to wear to church. Y'all did a pretty good job of that, amen? But it's making up your mind about the preaching. Now notice this preaching here in our text this morning. Notice the preaching was short. I got no amens on that one at all. The preaching was short. Look at it. Verse 21, the first point in his message was 20 words long. Like hire that preacher, man. We'll get rid of the one we got. We'll get a 20 word point message preacher and we'll beat everyone down the China buffet. It was short. I mean, you ever heard about that preacher? He was preaching and I mean, some old preachers, they preach a long time. Now me, I can hardly ever go over 45 minutes. Aren't you glad? I've learned a couple things that if you cut it short just a little bit, you might want to come back and get a little bit more later. Instead of wear them out and just get every possible thing you could ever, and then they're just, you know, when the saints go dragging out the door. But it was short. It was a 20-word message. And one preacher, he was a preaching, must have been a down south preacher. And right in the middle, I mean, when he was really getting in there and he was waxing elephants, I'm sorry, waxing eloquently, and he was giving all this illustrious, he pops up and he walks out the back door, right down the middle, I'm just as rude as could be, you know, he just followed where he goes. And right at the end of the service, a guy comes back in and the preacher after the service goes, where in the world did you go? He said, well, you walked right out of the... Man, I was just getting going. I was getting out of the hangar. I was getting warmed up, and I was flexing my guns. He's like, I had to go get a haircut. He said, yeah, go get a haircut. He said, why didn't you get that before you came to church? He said, I didn't need one. I'm saying the preaching was short. That's funny right there. Preaching was short. Preaching was short. One fellow said this. He says, the preacher who thinks by the inch, yet preaches by the yard, he shall be kicked by the foot. Amen. There's no reason a preacher can't keep it down to 45 minutes. Amen. You say, well, he's trying to stomp on what the Holy Spirit... I've seen the Holy Spirit move in and do something in five minutes. You don't need to go three hours. You know, stop and think about the lack of attention span we have now as Americans. Amen. I mean, your kids are 10 times worse than you and your grandkids are even worse than the parents are. You see what I mean? I mean, it has to be like flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip. When YouTube first came out, it was like 30-minute videos. We're 27. Now is it like three minutes? The average YouTube video is now three minutes. When you get into that ungodly TikTok stuff and that, it's like 15 seconds. You see what it's doing? It's dumbing you down. But listen, the preaching was short. You gotta make up your mind about the preaching. Whether it's short or whether it's long, is he telling you the truth? I mean, didn't Balaam have a donkey? And didn't the donkey, when he was gonna go somewhere he shouldn't have went, didn't that donkey sit down and crush his foot? And then old Balaam, he started whooping that donkey and he started beating him, right? And the donkey's like, hey, what are you doing? Oh. But wasn't that donkey telling him the truth? He sure was. So you better start listening to the truth no matter what donkey's delivering the message. Amen? But I want you to see that the preaching was short. The preaching was short. Elijah's first point in his message is 20 words. And you know what? It reminds me of a song. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth and fame. There is a prize and you can win it if you go in Jesus' name. Right? Little is much. Say, what does this have to do with preaching? He was just a short preacher, man. You don't have to go on for ages, but you have to make up your mind. Is the guy telling you the truth or is he not? Well, it was short. How about this? Verse 21, the preacher was straight, even better. Don't you like it when someone just tells you the truth? I do. No, don't preach a lie to me. Tell me I'm a wonderful person. You're a wicked, rotten sinner and you know it, amen. But the preaching was short and the preaching was straight. Notice in verse 21 it's personal. He looks at them, he says, How long halt ye? He didn't say, how long halt them over there? He said, how long halt ye? It was personal. Preaching ought to be personal. And preachers got to be careful about this, but a preacher can get behind the pulpit and say, be careful, you'll hear this. Well, you know, we need to do better. No, you need to do better. You are a sinner. You have things you need to work on. You are not meeting God's standards for how you should live as a... You see what I'm saying? We ought to do this. We ought to do... Yeah, we ought to go have lunch. Fine, I'm good with that. But when it comes to preaching, you ought to get you a preacher that says, thou art the man. It's personal. Don't get this we stuff. It's personal. Notice it wasn't political, amen? It wasn't political, and I'm telling you what, you've already got your guts full of that, don't you? Amen? Some of you are like buying Tums every week right now. Stop it! The Lord will take care of it all. It was personal. It was not political. Verse 21, he says, If the Lord be God. He doesn't say, If Ahab is a good king. He said, If the Lord be God, then follow him. It was not political. Not only that, it was practical. It was personal. It wasn't political, but it was very practical. In verse 21, it says, if He'd be God, follow Him. His preaching is like, look, you need to make up your mind who you're going to follow. I have decided to follow Fox News. Wait, let me back up here. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. It was very, very practical. And that's what the Lord wants you to make up your mind today, who are you going to follow? Who are you going to follow? Don't follow the preacher unless the preacher is following Jesus Christ. Amen? But you have to figure out, you have to make up your mind today who you are going to follow, whose opinion you're going to run with. Is it God's opinion or is it Baal's opinion? Alright, so the preaching was short. Amen. The preaching was straight, thank God. But notice this, verse 27. The preaching was sarcastic. The preaching was sarcastic and verse number 27, I just lost a third of you on that. I'll catch you on about 11, I was going to say 1130 but we're already past that. The preaching was sarcastic and verse number 27, it came to pass at noon that Elijah, oh no, he did not just do that. Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud for he is a God. Either he's talking or he's pursuing or he's on a journey, peradventure, he sleepeth and must be awaked. I wonder how many Christians deal with that today. You know, one of the tests of preaching is whether or not someone can hold up under sarcasm. Now listen, you can overdo anything. You can be too sweet and you can be too negative. But listen, just because you can do something wrong with something doesn't mean you'd ever do it. You use it effectively. And you know what Elijah says? Hey, pinheads, where's your God? Where'd He go? Is he out of town, you know? A little bit of Airbnb there. You missed him, buddy. Is he on Facebook? Maybe you need to poke him. You know, isn't that what you do on Facebook? You poke? Is that Facebook? I think there's a thing called a poke or something. And I don't know. Why do you want to poke people anyways? Just to prove that you're in their business? I'm in your business. I'm stalking you. Right? Okay. Thank you. A couple people are honest. The rest of you are a bunch of liars. All right, so the preaching was sarcastic, cry aloud for he's a God. Now notice this, I want you to notice this and I want you to mark it well. You either mock false religion, you mock false gods and false worship, or you're Obadiah and you're afraid of him. Obadiah is the antithesis of who Elijah was. And Obadiah, he's scared to death of everybody. He's just afraid, oh, you can't say that, oh, you can't be here, oh, you can't do that. He's just scared to death. And notice this, if you're like Obadiah, then you just get everyone to go run and hide in the cave and shut up. That's the first part of the chapter, we already preached that, but that's still a pretty good reference point. And you'll take the credit for feeding everyone, Mr. Obadiah, get in the cave, get in the cave, shut up, get in there, I'm gonna shut the door, I'm gonna throw, you know, some Bojangles under the door every once in a while, or some Chick-fil-A, right? And see what I did? I fed them, look at me. And there's Elijah like, I don't care if I eat or not, man. I'm just going to follow the Lord. And he's mocking those Baal worshippers and he's letting them have it. Ain't that something? The preaching was sarcastic. I notice this, false preaching will always criticize and mock your Bible. But false preaching will never criticize your faith. Did you get a hold of that? False preaching will always criticize your King James Bible, but they'll never criticize your faith even when your faith is wrong. But you know what right preaching does? Right preaching criticizes your faith when it's wrong. Right preaching criticizes your worship when it's wrong. Right preaching criticizes your false gods and your satanic leaders. Now look at Jeremiah chapter 48. Oh, just because. Just because we're gonna be there. Jeremiah 48. But it's like soul winning, ain't it? You gotta tell people about hell, but as my preacher says, you don't have to act like you're the guy running the place. Okay? So we say things in the pulpit to keep it hot. Why? So you don't get cold. But you get out there and you deal with people and you can't do that. You better pray to God this pulpit stays scalding hot because the moment it gets nicey-nicey and kisses everyone right between the ears and all that stuff is just when it goes right to hell. Jeremiah chapter 48 verse 10, Bible says, better read it and underline it. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from I ain't going to preach behind this pulpit like you know everything about the Bible. I am not going to preach like you're living everything the right way. I'm going to preach because I'm a man and I know what a man thinks and I know what a man does. And I'm going to preach like you're a sinner saved by grace and I love the fire out of you. But when I see things, I'm going to preach about it. And if it means a little sarcasm gets injected in it, then honey, you better deal with it. But it's sarcasm. Real preaching mocks your false worship and mocks your false gods. We're having a good time this morning. We're almost done. I'll keep it short and straight. And it mocks your false faith, just like the Lord did to Herod in Luke chapter 13. Had a little messenger come. Jesus is off with his disciples. Luke chapter 13. And that little messenger, that little nitwit, that little pinhead comes up to Jesus. Don't you know Herod's gonna tell you? And you know what Jesus said? You tell that fox, I'm gonna do this today, tomorrow I'm gonna do cures, and the third day I'll be glorified. He was rough with him. Sarcastic, just like Paul when he wrote the words in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 6. He had a church there in Corinth, man, there was carnals a day as long. They were suing everybody. He had one fellow sleeping with his stepmother. He had a bunch of people all messed up on doctrine, a bunch of people messed up on how they're doing the Lord's Supper, ordering pizza, and then excluding people because they didn't like them. You think Paul got a little sarcastic with them? You better believe he did. You haven't read your Bible lately if you haven't. He said, though I be rude in speech, not in knowledge. He says, I know what you think about me. And then he gets over to Galatians chapter 4 verse 16, he says, what? Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? What's wrong, honey? Can't you handle it anymore? Now listen, I'm not getting on you. I'm showing that sarcasm has a place in the pulpit. But you're going to deal with lost souls out there, you better die on the bag. And listen, if you can't win someone to Jesus Christ, you know what you better do? You better make them feel like a fool. You know what John Wesley did? He had a bunch of preacher boys there in England, he'd send them out what's called a preaching junket, and he'd send them all over the town squares and the mining camps, and they'd come back after a day or two, and he'd say this, did anyone get saved? And if he did, he'd rejoice with them. And if the preacher said no, Wesley said, well, did you make them mad? He said, make them glad, or make them sad, or make them mad, but no one should walk away from a Bible-believing preaching message neutral. And that's what you gotta hear, just like Paul did to those he wrote, just like the brand new convert did to the religious leaders when Jesus Christ gave sight to that blind man in his 40s. Over there in John chapter 9, 27, they're grilling that man who now can see. And you know what that boy says? He says, I told you already and you didn't hear. Wherefore would you hear it again? Will you also be his disciples? What a kick right in the shins, man. This guy's been saved for five minutes. What, you gonna believe too? And what'd they do? They kicked him right out of the temple. They cut him off. Why? Sarcasm. Pious, little pompous brats can't handle it. Now notice this thing. Just like the brand new convert did to the religious leaders, and just like the preaching of any and every real Bible-leading preacher from the Protestant Reformation forward, Martin Luther, you know, he used to refer to the Pope as? Oh yeah, Martin Luther. Your hellishness. Now that's not very kind, Marty. That's not very nice, you're not going to win any friends. Old Cardinal Woolsey goes up to Martin Luther and says, Martin, the whole world is against you. History says, he bristled up, he said, great, I'm against the world. You got any grit in your craw this morning? Can you take it? Can you take it? We just got to have everything nice, everything sweet. Now notice this. Just like Martin Luther, to Peter Cartwright, to Sam Jones, to Mordecai Ham, to Billy Sunday, to D.L. Moody, to J. Frank Norris, Lester Olaf, Billy Kelly, we're getting closer now, Maze Jackson, Peter Ruckman, and any true Bible-believing preacher is going to have some grit in his crawl. He's going to have some shot and powder in him. So he's sarcastic. Now notice this, not only was he short, not only was he straight, not only sarcastic, but notice in verse 21 what the preaching produced. The preaching produced silence amongst God's people. A lot of preachers try to produce a culture of everyone shouting, everybody running, everybody trying to grab a hold of the fans and swing around and jump out the windows. That's not the culture we're trying to produce here. We're trying to feed sheep. I believe the Bible talks about sheep. Sheep get pretty nervous. And if sheep come into a church house and they see all this commotion and all this ruckus, they're not going to eat. They're not going to drink. They're going to be like, them people are weird. He said, are you against shouting? No, shout, man, if you got something worth to shout about. But keep it in English, man. But notice it produces silence. The Bible says, And the people answered him not a word. What are you saying about all this? You could make up your mind this morning. You're going to have to make up your mind about the preaching. Why did you come? Did you come to hear your ears tickled? Did you come to hear the truth? Did you come to hear the King James Bible preached? Then make up your mind that no matter how it's delivered, you'll take it and God will give you more. He'll give you more. Let's move on. You've got to make up your mind about the preaching. Not only that, but you need to make up your mind in the text. 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 30 about the altar. The altar, of course, is one of the fewest, least likely place to be visited in most churches. I would believe most churches that are even fundamental or Baptist don't even know what an altar is. You say, well, you're old-fashioned. Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment. The day that we get rid of this altar, you better get me out. You better throw me out. You listening? The day we get rid of this, the day we put screens in here with the old stinking bouncy ball, and the day we get canned meat, you throw me out! And if you don't, shame on you! I don't want the new ways. I want the old paths. But notice this thing here. You need to make up your mind about the altar in verse 30. The Bible said, and Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Now you need to notice this, that your altar needs repair. You've got to make up your mind about it. Look at verse 32. Some of you are going to have to re-excavate your foundation. It says, And he made a trench about the altar, as great as it would contain two measures of seed. Some of your foundations are shot. You're struggling in your Christian life because you won't take the time to dig down deep and excavate all that garbage out of the way. And just like in Nehemiah chapter 4, it wears you out trying to do right because your foundation's shot. You got to make up your mind about the altar. The foundation has to be re-excavated. Look in verse 30. Not only that, but the old broken down part, you got to remove it. You gotta remove the old broken down part. You just can't build on a bunch of busted stuff. Too many churches trying to do that. They get a bunch of people in a building, oh, let's do something for the Lord, but they never excavate all the junk out and get that solid doctrinal foundation in which all of the ground is sinking sand. And you're gonna have to remove the broken part. Listen, there's busted pieces inside of you that has to do with church, that has to do with, you've got to get rid of it. You've got to remove it. Why? It's broken down. It didn't work. It's what you tried in the flesh. It's what got you hurt. It's what makes you bitter. You've got to get rid of it. Not only that, but the foundation has to be re-excavated. The old broken down part has to be removed in verse 30. And look at verse 32. And then finally, the new part has to be rebuilt. Verse 32, And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. A lot of Christians try to pick up where they left off and they get frustrated. It don't work. You say, man, I know I'm saved. Yeah, amen, you're saved. You're going to heaven. But you're just afraid. You keep crashing and burning out. There's too much junk you're trying to walk over. Too much garbage in your way. Stuff you've got to dig down deep. You've got to excavate. You've got to remove. You've got to get rid of all that stuff that's in a way that you can finally rebuild with new. Notice this about Baal's altar. Baal's altar needs no repair. It was kind of like a come-as-you-are altar. You know, you say, after all, Baal just, he just accepts everyone the way they are, you know. He's kind of come in the way you are, you know. I say this, come in the way you are, but don't you dare leave the same. But Baal's altar needs no repair. They just get right to work on it. They throw all their junk on there and away they go. Baal's altar needs no repair, but notice in verse 26, Baal's altar also found no response. You ever been to your altar before? It's like you were hollering at the moon. Oh God, oh God, oh God, I need you. No response. Needed no repair and it found no response. Verse 26 of the Bible said, But there was no voice, nor any, that answered. Did you get it? Nor any that answered. There's no response. I mean, it's like Talas Bay at two in the morning. Ain't nobody there. Well, Baal's altar needed no repair, found no response. And notice in verse 21, if it could get any worse, Baal's altar was regarded by nobody. Baal's altar was regarded by no one. Verse 29, the Bible says, it came to pass when midday was past and they prophesied unto the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice nor any to answer or any that regarded. You know what I see here? They left worse than they came. That's a true story right in the passage. You had a church service, I'm going to show you in just a minute. You had a church service, and there was hooting and hollering, and they're running the bases, and they're shouting and screaming and crying. There's preaching going on, and they left worse than they came. How could that be, preacher? Wrong altar. You've got to make up your mind what altar you're going to be around. Notice this about Baal's altar. First of all, in verse 26, it was very vocal. I mean Elijah's preaching to the people, the Bible says they answered him, not a word. We ain't saying nothing. But Baal's altar was very vocal. Verse 26, And called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. Man, they're calling, they're trying to get a hold of them. Look here at verse 28. And not only is there calling going on, but there's crying going on. I mean, they are emotional. I mean, if tears are happening in the church service, there has to be something going on, right? They're crying aloud. Ain't nothing going on. You making up your mind yet? There's calling going on in 26, crying going on in 28, 29. There's even preaching going on. My goodness. Have you ever been to a church service? I mean, the only preaching going on is the preaching that the preacher's doing. There ain't nothing else going on. Oh, there's the only preaching going on. They're coming out in a little, little, little, just like that. I mean, he's a legend in his own mind. You couldn't believe how many years he's been doing this. how much he knows, and that whole thing is just all about him. And after a while, you see, it's all about him and his hang-ups. There's preaching going on. I'm showing you, this is Baal's altar. There's calling going on, there's people trying to get a hold of God, there's people crying because they can't get a hold of Him, and then there's preaching going on, and they still can't get a hold of that fellow. Verse 29, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. Don't ever think that this lost world doesn't have preaching. You see, the difference is you give your money to the Lord, this world gives it to the NFL or the NBA. You ever notice that all these major professional groups, they have special music. They start each event with special music. They have a halftime show. Before the climax of the show, they have some more special music. They have instruments. You see it? You realize all these places, all these stadiums across the world, they have their Lord's Supper all the time? Bible says, our vine is not as their vine. You take the Lord's Supper here, they take the Lord's Supper there. It's a different God, it's a different Lord. Bale's altar was vocal. There's calling going on, crying going on, preaching going on, but notice this in verse 28. It comes right down to it, Baal's altar is vicious. Verse 28 says, "...and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancet till the blood gushed out upon them." I don't want you to lose, there's so much in that verse, we're not gonna, you know, break it down so far, but I want you to see it. When they start cutting themselves in religious worship, notice what the Bible, the King James Bible says, as their, after what? Their what? After their manner? Don't you hear about people these days having trouble cutting themselves? No? Nobody's heard about it. Y'all live in the dirt, right? Y'all live under a rock somewhere? After their manner? That's the manner. What is it? It's an unholy, spiritual thing. And it's guilt. And they feel guilt, so they cut themselves. They're trying to get someone's attention. You say, are you an expert? No, I just read the King James Bible. There is a manner in which that goes on, and there is the correlation right there. You say, well, there's more to that. Oh, fine. Help yourself. You want to dissect it and uncover every nugget. Help yourself. But after their manner is what the Bible says. That's where that stuff comes from. But Baal's altar is vocal. It's vicious. They're cutting themselves with knives and lances. I mean, they're bleeding all over the place. Of course, it does remind me of a few Christians I know. Everywhere they go, they bleed. I'm not talking about physically. You ever get around somebody? All they do is talk about their hurt. Right? You've been there? What's wrong? Did I hit a nerve? I'm just trying to preach this morning. I mean, some Christians, all you have to do is sit down and talk to them for two minutes and they're right back where they're bleeding out all over again. Get off the wrong altar, man. Get off a Baal stinking altar. Now, let's conceptualize for a minute. I don't even know if I used the right word, but it sounded good, didn't it? Let's try to think this thing through. If they're jumping on the altar, if they're bleeding on the altar, and if the end result was they wanted the fire to fall, guess who's going up with the sacrifice? Not too bright, right? Do you know of anyone, any group out there that believes in flagellation? Roman Catholic Church, practiced by Spain, the Philippines, practiced in Mexico. You see that stuff? After their manor. You say, what? It's a vicious altar. You've got to make up your mind what altar you're going to be on. Make up your mind this morning. It was vocal, it was vicious. In verse 29, you know it, Baal's altar produces no victory. There was no voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. Let me give you this number three. You've got to make up your mind not only about the altar, but now you've got to make up your mind about the sacrifice. About the sacrifice. We talked about the preaching. You've got to make up your mind about the preaching. Whose opinion are you going with? The Lord's or Baal's? You make up your mind about the altar. Now you've got to make up your mind about the sacrifice. Notice this. The Lord's sacrifice has some order to it. It's like this wild, demonic, free-for-all, white zombie, Rob Zombie, whatever you want to call this, Jerry Springer kind of thing. And they're just jumping around like a bunch of maniacs. There's no order. Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14.40, of course, talking about tongues and the body of Christ there, but it says, let all things be done decently and in order. Still, the Lord's sacrifice requires order. Your life should have order to it. Now notice in verse 30 here, the altar, of course, as you know, had to be repaired. But notice in verse 33, after the altar was prepared, what went on next? The wood. The wood had to be in order. So what's the deep spiritual context about wood? Just cut it and split it and throw it on the altar. I'm not trying to make it difficult. But it had to be in order. The altar had to be repaired. The excavation had to be done. The rebuilding had to take place. The old had to be taken out. And now the altar is built. And now you put the wood down. That's order. There's an order. There's a, as we would say, there's a method to the madness here. The Lord's altar, the Lord's sacrifice has order. Now the wood had to be in order, and of course verse 34, then the sacrifice had to be next. Verse 34 says, cut the bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood. I want you to notice this, you would think at that point, we're done, right? You've repaired the altar, you put down the wood, right? You just have campfire there and marshmallows and all that, but then the sacrifice goes on top of that, but no, we're not done yet. A lot of Christians stop right here with a sacrifice. I've heard so much preaching, man, it's tore me up into shreds and convicted me and I wanted to change my life in the way that the Lord wanted me to change and be a better Christian and be a better husband, be a better father. All right, Lord, you just tell me what I need to put on that altar, right? And so I'll put the sacrifice on the altar and it's like, okay, here it is. This is pretty important. All right, I'll give this to you. But notice in the text, it's not done until the most important thing is then put on top of the sacrifice. You can't miss this in verse number 34. What do they put on top of the sacrifice? They put water. We're in a drought, guys. We're searching for rain. We're searching for water, so that means the most important thing is not that Bullock, who is probably 90% lean at this point. But now the most important thing is what I put on top of that sacrifice. It's the water. And it's not like a little shake here and a little shake there, like, right? But it's like, here, let's take four barrels and put four barrels. What is this? Is this a sacrifice or is this a stew? At this point, if I'm like in Israel and I'm going, all preachers senile here, he's lost his mind. And then like he's like, do it a second time. Excuse me? You know we have like no water, right? Do it a second time. Okay. Second time, do it a third time. And I'm guessing, because I don't know and I'm not there, I'm guessing this time they're indignant. They're thinking, look at that waste. Look at that waste. Do you know how many people could have been fed with all that waste? You think all the people that could have got a drink of water, but no, you had to go build a stinking sign? You put the most important thing on the altar. It's water. That's the most valuable thing. You better make up your mind this morning. Well, you see in the text, the Lord's sacrifice is accepted. In verses 30 to 35, it's prepared properly. In verses 35 to 37, it's prayed over quietly. No jumping around and trying to fling the fire, not trying to get all the attention, not bleeding out on the altar, not screaming and crying and hollering and jumping out the windows and grabbing onto the fans and creating a culture of maniasm. is prayed over quietly and then finally in verse 38 it's consumed by fire vehemently. Notice verse 38, the Bible says, Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. The Lord's sacrifice is accepted, but Baal's sacrifice has no order. Notice in verse 26, Baal's sacrifice It came all dressed up. I want you to see it. Verse 22, they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it. I don't know if they put like a suit and tie on it or something. They say, preacher, you're so dumb, that is not what that means. Help yourself. Baal's sacrifice, it comes all dressed up. Amen? It comes all dressed up. Well, you can come dressed up, but look at verse 28. It ends up all cut up. Ends up all cut up and then finally, verse 29, in a matter of hours, you're all messed up. You see it? You can come in dressed up, end up getting all cut up. Why? Because this book is like a two-edged sword dividing us under. You see what I mean? Cuts going in and cuts going out. And if you don't have the right altar and the right sacrifice, you'll walk out of there just mad. messed up. You've got to make up your mind about the Lord's sacrifice. We're almost done. We're bringing it to a landing here finally, very quickly. Number four, not only making up your mind about the preaching, about the altar, about the Lord's sacrifice, but a real quick thought. Will you just make up your mind about the Lord's judgment? Look at verse number 40. It's a very difficult thing for Americans to understand the wrath of God. We live in a country that, now everyone can argue with me, help yourself, but for the most part it tries to protect life. I know it's falling apart, I know it's wicked as hell, I know there's slaughtering, I get all that, but for the most part tries to protect life. Most of you in here, unless you're older and went to war, you've done everything you could to protect life. Unless it's been on the FX channel or the horror channel and people getting chopped to pieces, you don't witness, you don't have memories of people getting slaughtered. So this is difficult for Americans, but you need to make your mind up about the judgment of God. Look what happens in verse number 40. Verse number 40, the Bible says, And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there. I'll be honest with you, I can't fathom it, but I believe it. And you know what? One day the Lord's going to come back and He's going to do it all over again. He's going to come back, he's going to put his foot on the Mount of Olives and split that thing in half, and half is going to go to the west, and half is going to go to the east, and all the kings from everywhere are going to come. And the Bible says that blood's going to run as deep as the horse's brow. That's four and a half feet, and it goes for 1,760 furlongs. That's a lot of blood, and that's what you have a picture of right here. Look at it again. And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon. That thing enters out into the Mediterranean. and slew them there. Nothing, listen Christian, make up your mind this morning, nothing that is against the Lord should escape our capture in our Christian lives. I'm not talking about physical, being physical or violent with people. I'm talking about an introspective look at your own life. There should be nothing that is against God that you let escape. Not only that, but there should be nothing against the Lord that doesn't get killed. Verse 40 it says that they slew them there. What a gruesome picture of what's going to happen one day. But also what a great picture of not only the washing of the water of the word as it cleanses away all impurities in the life of the believer once he makes up his mind to do it. For Paul says, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 6, And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is filled, every single action, every single thought, every single thing that comes to your mind or comes in front of you that tries to exalt itself against the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to grab it by the spiritual neck and take it down to Kaishon and kill it! and said, you ain't coming in here. You're not taking up residence here. I've made up my mind. You got to make up your mind about the Lord's judgment. Judgment. A difficult word in our day. The showdown atop of Mount Carmel has come to an end. The prophets of Baal are all dead. As the old preacher said, he took 450 prophets and turned them into a non-profit organization. Just like that. In my mind's eye, I see Elijah on top of Mount Carmel, bloody, shaking. You say, why would he be shaking? You don't know nothing about war, do you? He said, neither do you. I've read nothing about it. People get in a daze when they take people's lives. It should be the hand and mercy of God to keeping any of those individuals or his children right there from losing their ever-loving mind. The slaughter of 450 false prophets. I can see in my mind's eye Elijah up there on the top there and he's just standing there and he looks kind of like something out of a horror picture, standing there, blood dripping off his hands, looking at Ahab. And Ahab going, Oops. See, Elijah's mind was made up. The greatest preacher in the Bible. He's such a great preacher, he comes back in the tribulation with Moses and he starts his ministry all over again. What a guy. What a man of God that he could use. 450 prophets of Baal gone just like that. You say, how in the world did that happen? It says all the children of Israel probably just grabbed ahold of him and said, you ain't going nowhere. You're going out for lunch. He's like, going out? Because it's lunchtime. You're dead. And if you consider where we're at in the passage, he's exhausted, he's bloody, he stands atop the mountain taken in the finality of the moment of what has just taken place, a great victory for the Lord God. And now, if you're willing to look at it, I'm not going to preach it because this is another message from another day. We're now closer to rain than we've ever been before. But some minds had to have been made up. Made up about the preaching. Made up about the altar. Made up about the sacrifice. And then finally made up about God's judgment. Well, have you made up your mind about the preaching? Elizabeth, you come play. Have you been criticizing the message based upon how it's delivered? I understand who I am. I ain't nobody. This is not a time for me to act like I'm humble. I am a voice in the wilderness. God called me to preach, and I'm going to preach, and I'm going to do the best I can. And it don't always come out right, but I'm not here because I'm going to always come out right. I'm here because the Lord said, you come preach, because there are some sheep that have got to come eat. Have you been making up your mind about the preaching? Have you made up your mind about the altar? If the fire will fall, your altar is in need of repair today, and only you can make the repairs, only you can make the excavation, and only you can make the renovations. Nobody else can do it for you. Have you made your mind up about the sacrifice? Is it in order? You say, preacher, I've got the sacrifice, man. It is all ready to go. I'm just waiting for the fire to fall, but it won't fall. Yeah. Probably won't fall until you put the most important thing on it. You say, what's that? The water. What's the most valuable thing in your Christian life today that you're hanging on to? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe it's time for you to put that on the altar. and see if the Lord will take it. Maybe He won't. Maybe He'll say, get that off there. But maybe that's what He's waiting for. He's waiting for your water. Have you made up your mind about the judgment? Christian, you ready to take everything down the brook and get rid of it? Or are you just going to try to coexist with it? You know, hang on to it. I'll be okay. I'll just put it in the closet for a while. You want the rain? Christian, you want the rain this morning? All right, you're going to have to get to the brook Kishon and execute those things for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Kishon means river of slaughter. River of slaughter. Maybe it's just time to take some things down to the brook and let them go.