A God an Idol a Religion

I have a very somber message for you this evening, friends, and if you lend me your ears and give me your undivided attention, I believe we just might do some business with God tonight. Some of you may be in the same shape I was in, but there was a time in my life where I was in the church and I had me a God, an idol, and a religion. And they were just enough to send me on to hell.

Yes, sir, I was doing just fine. I had my God that I served, which was the game of golf. And I had my idol, which was money, which facilitated my worship of my false God.

And I had a religion that was my security blanket that kept me warm and soothed my conscience so I could sleep at night. I believe I was a lot like other folks I knew in church who also had a God, an idol, and a religion. Theirs just might have been just a little different from mine, maybe a bass boat or a hunting camp or their country club.

But nonetheless, they were just like me. They had the whole deal rigged, just the way I did. They'd gone out and gotten a God for themselves who wouldn't get in the way of their daily living.

There are multitudes in our churches today who have a God, an idol, and a religion, and they will tell you that they are doing just fine. Our Texas Evening, friends, is found in the book First Kings. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 18. Let me give us some background to our text. In the wilderness, the Jews were a nation of shepherds, and when the Israelites entered Canaan, they found themselves in a land of farmers.

The land was fertile, and the Canaanites attributed this fertility to their god Baal. So the people of God struck a bargain with the pagan world they were in by choosing to serve Baal so they could prosper materially and at the same time keep the religion of their fathers. The Jews forgot there was only one omnipotent god who demanded full allegiance.

They forgot that, much like we've forgotten that as well today, friends. The Jews, in the days of King Ahab, had fallen in with Baal worship. They had gotten them a god of their imagination who would leave them alone, an idol they could serve, and a religion that could satisfy them.

They were content to worship their golden calves, serve their idol Baal, and live beneath the cloak of their traditional Jewish religious activity, just like a good number of us do today. God brought a drought into the land, and he sent his prophet to the land. It took an act of God and a prophet of God to get their attention.

And if you get saved, friend, it'll be the same way. It will be an act of God as you listen to the gospel preached by a man of God. I want us to look at our text this evening in 1 Kings chapter 18 and verses 20 through 21.

Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. 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. In other words, you can't have it both ways. God is a jealous God who will have no rivals.

He wouldn't accommodate my golf addiction, which was my God. He wouldn't allow me to worship money as an idol. He refused to allow me to cover my sins beneath an empty religious profession.

There came a day in my life, friends, where he killed my God, smashed my idols, and pulled the rug out from under me of the false foundation of my religion. I was in my study, reading a sermon that actually had the great doctrines of the gospel running through it. It was a sermon by Solomon Stoddard, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards.

Before I entered my study that afternoon, I had me a God, an idol, and a religion that I was satisfied with. And as I read that sermon, God in his mercy brought me under holy ghost conviction, and he clearly showed me I was religiously lost and on my way to hell. And not only that, but I deserved to go there.

That day, I was awakened to my lost condition. As God killed my God, I saw I was guilty of a multitude of sins that had never been dealt with by Christ's blood. And I saw hell, brother, and it scared me as he smashed my idols to smear the reins as he pulled the rug out from under me of my carnal security by resting on a religion.

He showed me that I deserved hell for my crimes against a sovereign. I entered that study with a God, an idol, and a religion. And I left that room with the Lord Jesus Christ having found him to be a perfect savior from sin.

When Elijah challenged the people by telling them to either cut bait and choose God or just go on to hell, Artek says, and the people answered him not a word. God had to do something in their lives to get their attention. He had to kill their God and slay the prophets of Baal by the sword and reveal to them by fire his almighty power as he consumed the sacrifice on that altar that Elijah had built.

I reckon there's enough meat in that last statement, friends, to show you what you need to do. Prepare your altar. Get your wood in order.

Turn from your false God. Forsake your idols and seek the God of the Bible for the grace of repentance for forgiveness of sin through his dear son, the Lord Jesus, who hung naked on a bloody cross for sin. If you woke up today with a God, an idol, and a religion, don't go to bed tonight without getting to the bloodstained Christ, the pearl of great price we're selling off for and losing all for.

Let us pray.