FBC Daily Devotional – December 2, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Thursday morning to you. Say, did you happen to read 1 Kings 18 today? Man, there's a bunch of stuff in there, isn't there?

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I'm thinking, first of all, of how, and we see this in our culture today.

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We see it vividly in our culture today. Think about those who are the most guilty of sin and divisiveness and so, you know, loudly screaming at the top of their lungs about various things, are the ones who are quick to condemn the righteous.

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And by the righteous, I mean those who are taking a stand against the particular sin.

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So, for example, take the pro -life movement, for example.

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People can just be very calmly, peacefully protesting against abortion.

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You see this at some abortion clinics where, you know, some godly people, some people who are just very opposed to abortion, will just stand outside the abortion clinic and hold a placard that just says, basically, you don't have to do this.

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You know, that child has a right to live or whatever. And the pro -choicers, as they call themselves,

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I prefer other terms, but anyway, the pro -choicers are vociferous in their condemnation of those people who are just very quietly, passive, almost calmly, and almost passively protesting against this horror of abortion.

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And so, who's being divisive here? Who's being divisive? I mean, if you think about it before Roe v.

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Wade and all of that kind of thing, where did the divisiveness come? There was the standard guiding principle in our culture that there is a life inside that mother's womb that should be protected.

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I mean, that was just common -sense thinking. And then all of a sudden people come along and say, no,

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I should have the right to kill that child. I want to have the right to kill that child. And so they started fighting for the right to kill their unborn child.

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Where did the divisiveness then come from? It didn't come from those who had the the standard, quote, traditional presupposition that that baby in the womb was worth protecting and was alive, was life worth protecting.

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That's just one example. But how easily those who are the most who are practicing the sin and the divisiveness are ready to condemn the righteous, who are standing against the sin.

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You see that in 1 Kings 18 with Ahab, who finally meets up with Elijah and in verse 17 says, when

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Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is that you, O troubler of Israel? Now Ahab is the one who's actually causing all the trouble in Israel.

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It is because of Ahab's sin that the drought has come upon Israel, that is spoken of earlier.

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It's because of Ahab's sin that judgment has come upon Israel. It's not Elijah's fault.

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All Elijah did was say, look, this sin is bringing God's judgment. He just told him the way it is.

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He's not the one that has caused the trouble. Ahab has caused the trouble, but he accuses

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Elijah of it. Another thing we have to see here in 1 Kings 18 is that, you know,

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God's people have absolutely no business whatsoever trying to accommodate false worship.

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Claiming that, you know, the worship of the one true God in Christ Jesus can also be worshipped alongside the gods of the world.

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You know, those who are truly God's people have no business whatsoever trying to accommodate that kind of thing.

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If the Lord is God, then He alone is to be worshipped and none other. There should be no toleration in our lives for the worship of any other

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God. Now, be careful. I didn't say there should be no there should be no toleration of other people who worship other gods.

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We have no toleration for the worship of other gods in our worship as God's people.

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So the problem in 1 Kings 18 is that here on Mount Carmel, there are all kinds of, all the people who are there are

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Israelites. They're all supposed to be God's people. But they have, they have attached to the worship of God, the one true

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God, the worship of Baal. And these are supposed to be God's people.

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There should be no toleration for the worship of Baal among God's people. That's the thing. And yet here they are.

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They're accommodated. They're actually worshipping Baal as well as God. And so Elijah confronts

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God's people on Mount Carmel and he says, how long are you going to vacillate between two opinions?

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If Yahweh is God, then worship him. If Baal is God, then worship him.

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They can't, they're not both gods. Make your choice. In other words, this is what he's saying. You can't accommodate both.

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Make your choice. And that, that's still true today. There's all kinds of false gods out there that could be worshipped.

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Not like Baal and not, you know, gods of stone and so forth. But, but the gods of this world that appeal to us and want to take us away from the worship of the one true

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God, the gods of sports, the gods of entertainment, the gods of materialism, and the gods, you know, all these different gods that are vying for our worship.

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And they all need to be put in their place, which is outside of our worship. And our worship needs to be focused on the one true

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God and him alone. So again, there's more here in 1 Kings 18, and I trust you'll look into it, read that passage.

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It's, it's quite challenging for us to be God's people who are fiercely loyal and committed to the worship of our

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God and him alone. So with that in mind, let's pray. Father, I pray that,

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I pray that we would be true to you. We would be loyal in our worship to you alone. We wouldn't accommodate the gods of this world and try to, to, to try to take all of them along with the worship of you.

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We can't serve two masters. We can't serve two masters. Help us to serve you and you alone.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right. Have a good