Broken Down Altars # 3

Broken Down Altars # 3

The next thing we learn about Elijah is he knew his God well enough to trust Him. Some of us are so very slightly acquainted with the Lord that we are afraid to do this. Many of us get little help from God because we are afraid to trust Him to do very much for us. We won't trust Him any further than we have to. We are like the little girl who said, "I don't have to pray anymore that I won't get scarlet fever because I've got a sulphur bag around my neck." We won't go any further than we seemingly have to for the Lord.

Elijah had a God who made the ravens feed him. The widow's oil and meal failed not. He wasn't afraid of anything that could happen. So many of us are, and that is why we accomplish so little. As soon as the Lord told Elijah to go show himself to Ahab, Elijah girded his loins and started out. He didn't loose a minute considering what great odds were against him; he thought only of the help God would give him to go out and win that conflict.

Think of the help that God will give you to succeed in life, then you will not moan about the tremendous odds against you when you try to live for Jesus and His truth. Faith says, "Amen" to everything God says. Faith takes God at His word, without any "if's" or "and's". Faith says, "I believe it" and rests on that and stands pat for Jesus. If some of us had more raven experiences yesterday, there would be more mountains moved for God today. We wouldn't go through this life as nonentities, accomplishing nothing for Jesus and His truth.

The prophet knew his God well enough to set out for the front without a tremor, and when he got there, he wasn't afraid of what would happen. His only concern was to meet the conditions as they had been made known to him, knowing that when he had done his prayerful best, he could trust God to take care of the consequences. When a farmer plows his ground and plants the seed, he has done his best; then he has to trust God to make that seed grow. When he puts that seed in the ground, he trusts the rest to a law which he cannot understand, a law which he did not originate and which he cannot control. When you have done your prayerful best, you can bank on it that God Almighty will do His part. You never need fear or lose any sleep over the Lord. When Elijah challenged the opposition, he defied them to their worst, giving them all the rope they wanted.

Elijah asks that they choose whom they will serve. We, too, must choose!

A great camp meeting, or revival was to be held on Mount Carmel. The opposition did all the advertising. Hear this: "Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came and said, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him." He said, "Take your choice!" That is fair enough, isn't it? Nothing could be more reasonable. If we are better by all getting drunk, then let us all quit being sober and go and get drunk.

If we are better because we curse and do not pray, let us all quit praying and go to cursing. If we are better because we are impure, then let us all stop living decent lives and go out and live for the devil. If we are better with saloons and beer joints than with churches, then let us close the churches and build more breweries and saloons. Take you choice! If you are better, if this city is better without Jesus Christ than with Him, then I'll quit, go home and stop preaching. That is a fair deal. What was fair and reasonable then, is fair and reasonable today. "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him." Make up your mind how it will be - the Lord God or the devil?

Now if the Bible came from God, find out what it tells you to do, then do it! If it is God's Book, you have to do that or God Almighty is against you just as sure as you breathe. If the Bible comes from God, then there must be an easy way for every willing mind to find it out. If you want to know if the Bible came from God, square your life by its teachings and see if it will not make out of you the kind of man it says it will.

Give it a chance! Give it a test! The fact that God proved His existence on Mount Carmel is proof that God can do it today in Richmond. And He will do it for every honest doubter who wants to know.

Elijah's Faith Held Midst Tremendous Opposition

Now the purpose of that meeting on Mount Carmel was to have the people know that there was a God, and to have them get right with that God. That is the reason I sweat every drop of perspiration; that is the reason I preach with every ounce of my manhood. You haven't money enough in your bank vaults in Richmond to hire me to spend my energy and strength if I didn't believe that you were bound for hell without Christ.

The man is either insane or a fool who deliberately fights against God and lives without God. Why, it would be as wise for him to stand on a railroad track and contest his strength with that of steel and steam as to fight against God.

~Billy Sunday~

(continued with # 4)