
Broken Down
Altars
"He repaired the altar of the Lord that was
broken down."-- I Kings 18:30
There is something more than
history in the chapter from which my text is taken, just as there is
always more in a picture than is seen at first glance.
The state of
affairs at this time the chapter opens was as bad as is possible for the
human mind to conceive. The country was in an awful condition because of
idolatry,
adultery and all other sins associated with a nation
that had forgotten God and was given, unbridled, to all lust and evil
desires.
That talk had in it no "as it were", "in a degree",
"perhaps", or "in a measure" or "so to speak".
He didn't qualify it
by any adjectives; every word had a ring like chilled steel as it cut
like a Damascus blade into the putrefying abscesses of his day.Ahab and
Jezebel were on the throne. A more vicious, iniquitous, rotten man or
vile woman never disgraced the earth than these two. Wickedness had
the right of way throughout the kingdom; Ahab and Jezebel set the pace
and others followed. There were no depths of iniquity, adultery,
licentiousness and vileness to which Ahab and Jezebel did not sink. Baal
was worshiped; true religion was on the sidetrack, and hell had the main
line.
It is true that there were a few faithful, like Obadiah and
Naboth, who had not bowed to Baal, but they were in a sad minority. Many
had been compelled to hide in cavesand dens. If it was a woman who dared
say she believed in and worshiped Jehovah, she was an outcast and her
children were murdered; if it was a man, he was subjected to infamies
that no tongue would attempt to describe. So rampant had idolatry,
adultery, and kindred evils had become that in order to try to stem the
deadly tide, God sent the prophet Elijah to shut off the water supply
and bring on the famine.
As we read the Bible we will notice that
always in a dark time God sends a prophet to arouse, stir and call
the people back to the true God.
So in this instance, when the
situation looked dark, God sent His messenger to warn the people of the
judgment which they were bringing on themselves because of sin and
iniquity. The old Tishbite bobbed up before weak-kneed Ahab with all the
abruptness of a thunderclap out of a clear sky, and without banners or
bands or furbelows or salaam, spoke out in the first breath in a way
that brought a deadly pallor upon the cheeks of the miserable wretch
Ahab:" As the Lord of hosts liveth..." ( I Kings 18:15)."As the Lord of
hosts liveth, before whom I stand..." cried the prophet. that ought to be
the preacher's cry ever y time he walks into the pulpit. That kind of
faith makes the devil get up and dust every time! Such confidence in God
as the prophet had as he stood before Him would make granite out of
soapstone. And to know God as Elijah knew Him, and to have the same
unbroken sense of His presence, is better preparation for a great career
in the ministry than a degree from any college you can name.I am not
discounting the value of education. I consider a mind without education
as something like marble in a quarry, which shows none of the inherent
beauty until the skill of the polisher fetches out the color and
discovers every ornamental vein that runs through the marble. Education
draws out many virtues and perfections which otherwise would never come
to the surface and never be seen. I believe in education, but education
alone cannot make character-never! It takes acquaintance with God to do
that.
It takes purity of heart as well as brilliancy of intellect to
make one great for God.
But I have no sympathy with anybody who would
exclude anyone, educated or uneducated. "Seek ye first the kingdom of
God" is as much in force tonight as it was two thousand years ago. Any
man who does that will have a stirring time and will give the devil the
best run for his money he ever had.
Nothing was as much needed in
Israel as a sweeping revival: and God sent the right man to bring it
about. Let us see how Elijah did it
Elijah Was Sensational
He
repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Elijah did his work
in a way that was natural but unconventional. He had backbone. He wasn't
pinned down or dominated by the personality of other men. He didn't try
to add anybody's peculiarities or eccentricities; he had plenty of his
own and the nerve to use them, too, and to be himself.
The preacher
who is afraid to be like Elijah in this respect will be as weak in his
ministry as Samson with his hair cut: he will have no power. I tell you,
whenever God calls a man to preach, He expects him to do it as naturally
as he sneezes or snores. His individuality is to him what the steel
frame is to a skyscraper.
And when he surrenders it, he becomes like
other people. Down go his ministerial methods; his candlestick is taken
away, and God casts him into the dust of His displeasure.
Lots of us
are afraid that we do something sensational. I have no more patience
with such a man than I have with a horse that will shy at a wheelbarrow,
or a woman who will go into hysterics over the sight of a
mouse.
Everything that Elijah did was sensational; that is why he
aroused the country. If shutting off the water supply, shutting up the
heavens for three years so there was not a drop of rain or dew to fall
on the earth, wasn't sensational, trot out something that was. It raised
the biggest stir that that whiskey-soaked, licentious, idolatrous,
corrupt, godless, blasphemous country had ever seen or had ever
recorded; and it made Ahab and Jezebel mad enough, I think, to spit
fire.
If you wish to see a dead church awakened, do something out of
the ordinary. There's plenty of Bible authority for not pushing a thing
aside just because it seems sensational.
When Noah built the ark and
loaded it with strange cargo, that was a sensation.
When Jonah walked
down the streets of Nineveh covered with seaweed crying, "Repent!
Repent!"-that was sensational. Jesus Christ created a sensation when He
went into the synagogue at the beginning of His ministry and taught, not
as the sribes, but as one who had authority.
GET A LITTLE ENTHUSIASM
FOR JESUS!
The preacher who can't preach as one who has authority has
no call from God to open his mouth! Matthew 23 is sensational preaching
in words that cut like a razor.
John the Baptist was sensational in
what he said as well as in what he did, and in the clothes that he wore;
and because he was not like one of the bunch, all Jerusalem and Judaea
came out to hear God's lion-hearted preacher hurl anathemas of the Lord
into the ranks of sin-high, low, rich and poor!
"Why don't people go
to church?" is a question always asked. My guess is that it is because
it is too much like going to a cemetery or a funeral parlor. Put more
life in it and you won't have so many complaints. Many a time the prayer
meeting is dead because a corpse is leading it. When Ahab saw Elijah, he
put on a long, prayer-meeting face and with a sort of sanctimonious
whine said to him, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"
The prophet
of God came back with an uppercut and old Ahab got it under the fifth
rib. Elijah straightened up like a fire ladder and, with a look that
went through that old licentious king like an x-ray, thundered out, "I
have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye
have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed Baalim." If that
wasn't sensational, show me something that was! Elijah expected results
from his kind of preaching. If some preachers would talk that plain to
some of the big sinners on the front seats, we would soon see them begin
to crowd the pews. If your churches are full of men who are working
overtime for the devil-working seven days and then doing overtime at
night-tell them so! If you will call a spade a spade, you will hear
things begin to rattle like castanets for Jesus Christ.
One reason
why there are so few revivals and why religion and morality are at such
an awful low tide is because there is so little of the Tishbite kind of
preaching done today to the chief sinners who occupy the chief seats in
the synagogues. If Bible results are expected, there must be Bible
preaching. God will honor that, no matter who may do the
preaching.
I wouldn't give a rap for preaching which never lets
a sinner know he is an old hell-bound sinner. There is sure to be
discontent and disappointment for the preacher who is always shooting
with nothing in his gun but bird shot. When David killed Goliath, he did
it because he went against him with suitable ammunition. He loaded his
sling according to the size of the job that he had on hand. Oh, some
would have tried to kill the giant with a little sand in a blowpipe; but
you can't do it that way. David didn't waste any time skirmishing for
position; he took dead aim and put enough muscle behind the throw to
crack the giant's bean the first throw out of the box. If he had only
meant to wing him, there would have been no mourning in the camp of the
Philistines. Where no definite result is expected, nothing out of the
common will happen. Elijah trusted God to take care of the
consequences
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 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, them 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 your
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 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.
It always thrills me to the
end of my toes to see how bravely the old prophet of God stood up before
that jeering, howling, sneering, blatant, blaspheming mob of licentious,
adulterous, degenerate cutthroats who stood there and defied him. How
utterly indifferent he was to the tremendous odds that were against
him!
And,judging by appearances, all were against him.
It didn't
look as if God were within a hundred miles of that meeting on top of
mount Carmel. The whole country was reeking and stinking with filth; and
as the old prophet of God stood up and scanned the blackened
plains-turned black because no rain or dew had fallen on them-there
wasn't a green thing in sight. As he looked into the brutal faces of
that mop of blasphemers, jeering and sneering upon him, nothing but
unshaken confidence in God could have kept him from stampeding and
hitting it for the woods. But his faith held him!
Oh, faith is a
mightier force than dynamite and electricity! Elijah helped many as he
stood there alone. And if science and discovery can take the Bible from
us, then the sooner they do it , the better. If the Bible came from God,
you can no more hurt it by anything blatant blasphemers can say than the
waves of the ocean can be stopped by blowing a tin whistle against them.
If the Bible came from God, nothing you can do can hurt it, anymore than
you can dam Niagara Falls with toothpicks, any more than you can knock
Gibraltar down by shooting green peas against it with a popgun. And if
the preacher has no faith, it becomes apparent when things go wrong. If
he undertakes to hold a meeting and it rains the opening night, it
chills his marrow. He is sure that it isn't God's set time to work, if
those whom he counted on are sick or away from home, or if they knock
him and won't come near him. How anxious he is if the janitor goes over
to the side of the devil and the building is too hot or too cold. And he
concludes that God has forsaken him if the organist gets on her high
horse and won't come out and play, and if there is nobody present to
lead the singing. Think of Elijah. In spite of all that was against him,
he could stir up the opposition to do their worst. He said to them," Cry
louder!" as they cried for old Baal. " Cry louder; perhaps he's asleep!
Or maybe he's gone off to hunt or fish; cry louder and awaken
him!"
Elijah Urged Immediate Decision
He addressed himself to the
conscience of the people. That is my aim when I preach. He urged
immediate decision according to their honest conviction. You do the
same! If everyone would act according to his or her conviction, there
wouldn't be a sinner left on God's earth.
He said," if the Lord be
God, follow him"-appealing to their conscience and reason. Now he gave
the people to understand that God would manifest himself in a God-like
way.
In these days we are prone to belittle the work of the Holy
Spirit. We depend too little on God and too much on the kitchen, or the
choir loft, or something or somebody.
Miraculous work of grace must
be expected and prayed for God is still the wonder-working God and He
always will be. The salvation of a sinner is as much a miracle as the
raising of the dead.
Human Conditions Must Be Met.
God has
spiritual laws that are as positive in their working and as subject to
conditions as the natural laws. The laws of faith are just as certain as
the laws of steam and electricity. There are laws of spiritual growth
and fruitage, just as there are laws that govern the growth of a potato
or a hill of corn. And to secure spiritual results, human conditions
must be set.
The man who plows with a forked stick gets all the crop
that he deserves. And the man who prays the same old rat-eaten prayer is
on the same par with him. Get something new! To have God's help in
obtaining a crop, the farmer has to do certain things, at certain times,
in certain ways; if he doesn't, there will not be a potato for him to
stick his fork into, nor a loaf of bread for him to cut. If one doesn't
work in harmony with God, then he can have nothing to eat.
There are,
I say, spiritual laws in this old world, just as there are natural laws.
And to have God's help in spiritual things one must put himself in right
relationship with God. The farmer must put himself in right relationship
with God and in right relationship with the ground and nature by plowing
and preparing it, then by planting the seed.
You must put yourself in
right relationship with God or He can do you no good. You have to put
yourself in right relationship with the physician by taking his medicine
and following his directions; else all the skills on God's green earth
will never drive the disease away.
There are natural laws to
follow.
There is common sense in everything. The prophet used it when
he prepared the broken-down altar. He knew it was a waste of breath to
pray for God to answer by fire if he did not do his part. It is
absolutely useless to ask Him to save and bless this city if the church
and preacher do not do their part. Elijah was smart enough to know
that.
And before you can pray right, you must begin to live
right. Whatsoever is wrong must be righted. Even if it is as valuable to
you as your right eye or arm, get rid of it if it is wrong, if you want
God's blessing and favor and partnership with you. When this kind of
repentance takes place, then the step from death to life is a mighty
short one.
Rebuild Your Broken-Down Altars
He repaired the
altar of sacrifice when it was broken down. Oh, God's warriors must
first be God's worshipers. Uncle Sam's soldiers must first be Uncle
Sam's citizens! Get things cleared away. If you want Heaven on your
side, the broken-down altars must be rebuilt in your heart. Give
yourself to God. Confess your sins. Stand as a solid phalanx for
Christ.
There are enough men and women in this tabernacle tonight to
rewrite the religious and moral history of this God-forsaken,
whiskey-soaked city and transform it for Jesus Christ, if you would go
out and do God's will, if you would line up absolutely as one man and
woman for Jesus. But before God will pay any attention to a call for
fire, Christians must get right. It is a great mistake to expect a crop
without planting the seed. It is a great mistake to expect a blessing
without first doing your part.
Christian, can anything more important
command your attention than to give God a chance in your hear? Perhaps
years ago something crept in your life and you have never had a moment
of peace since. Whatsoever it was has poisoned your joy and has made
serving God the hardest job in the world. Perhaps only God and you knew
about it. Your friends never suspected, yet it has been there blighting
and blasting. Wherever you go, that secret goes with you. You have cried
and sighed to be free. But you haven't taken the course God pointed out
to you. You have crucified your conscience.
Nothing will give back
that peace until you build up that altar in your heart, renew that vow
and covenant. Take a clean-cut stand for Jesus. Until you do, you will
stay as cold and unresponsive as a stone.
Did you quarrel with
someone? Did hate get a foothold? Did someone wrong you whom you think
you can never forgive? Ask God to take the bitterness out, or give you
grace to get rid of it. God stands pledged to help; you do not have to
do it in your own strength.
No matter what has broken down the
altar, build it up. Maybe it is the breaking of vows, or neglect of
prayer, or neglect of family worship, or failure to get anything
worthwhile done for God; maybe it is that you never go to prayer
meeting, or that your business practices are crooked, or that you have
been a coward about witnessing for Christ.
If you have one drop of
red blood in your veins, then when a man talks about your country or
your wife, you will knock him down. Yet you will stand around and let
somebody damn and curse God and spew out his maledictions against the
church, and never open your mouth in protest! Brother, your altar is
broken down! Build it up and see what the Lord will do.
The
broken-down altar at Mount Carmel was built up-not in the name of the
prophet, not in the name of the scribes, but Elijah built up the broken
altar in the name of the Lord. And the fire of God fell. The man who
undertakes anything in His name will not have the Devil for a silent
partner!
The mother who undertakes to train her child in the name of
the Lord will have more anxiety about his salvation than she will about
her own standing in society.
Note how carefully the broken-down altar
was built up. Elijah began at the ground and cleared away the rubbish. A
stone represented each tribe. He took the stones according to the twelve
tribes of Israel, leaving out not one stone; if he had, there would have
been no fire all that day. God is particular about important things. Now
don't try to short measure God. When God says 36 inches for a yard,
don't make it 32. When God says one hundred cents on a dollar, don't
make it 94. When God says 2,000 pounds for a ton, 1,700 won't work.
Don't try to put one over on God.
Do you remember what happened to
Ananias and Sapphira when they held back part of the possessions and
lied? Yes, their dead bodies were carried on out to the place of the
dead.If God says 12 stones, He won't take 10. You can't get through with
11 if God says 12.Don't try to cover up the rubbish. No; clear it away
if you want His blessings.
How particular the surgeon is to sterilize
his instruments in order that all the dangerous germs may be kept from
the wound and thus keep the patient from being put into the grave. And
before fire will fall from Heaven there must be a clean place for it to
fall. If the clean place is prepared, then it will come.
How is your
praying? Unselfish? Or is it, "God bless me, my wife and my son John"?
Are you unselfish in what you want to do? Is there anybody you won't
speak to? When you get down on your knees, is there hatred in your heart
against someone? Then He won't listen. The command to forgive is as
positive as the command not to steal, not to commit adultery. No
difference. It is just as positive as the command to insulate before you
touch a wire.
Do what God says-step by step, not mile by mile.
Never mind about tomorrow. We may not have a chance to do anything
tomorrow; do it today and see if God doesn't bless you.
Elijah
Expected Results
The next thing I notice is, Elijah went to the
mountain prepared for results. He had no doubt about its being God's set
time to work. He knew God so well that he was willing to meet the horde
for Him. That is why he nagged the opposition to do their
worst.
Trust God to give you great things. Don't be afraid of
the Devil outflanking the Lord. Never! God has never lost a battle and
God will never lose a battle.
Elijah wanted the prophets of Baal to
humble themselves. He knew that the more fuss they made, the easier it
would be to show that they were a bunch of frauds and humbugs.
It has
been computed by naturalists that one mustard plant will ripen and
scatter through a season thousands of seeds, and that if they all took
root and grew and then scattered their seeds, in ten years all
vegetation in the United States would be choked out and
killed.
One saloon or beer joint in a community can smother,
choke and kill enough manhood, womanhood and childhood to blight the
entire community.
I read of a woman in New York called "Typhoid
Mary." She was known by scientists as a carrier of the dreaded disease.
After recovering from typhoid fever, a strange phenomenon happened- the
germ remained with her. Wherever she went she scattered those germs.
Giving typhoid fever to scores of people. To keep from further spreading
the germs, she was finally put in a hospital.
The saloon is a
germ-spreader, spreading the germ of drunkenness, the germ of crime, the
germ of poverty, the germ of hereditary mental and physical weakness.
Liquor curses and blights the world!
Said a fellow to me the other
day, "A glass of beer never hurt anybody." Of course he lied. A glass of
beer never did anybody any good. It is that first glass that always
leads to a drunkard's grave. If a man never took the first one, he would
never take the last one.
Now nothing was slighted, and nothing was
hurried through. Too many of you are in a hurry to get this meeting
over. You pay closer attention to your watch than to the preacher. Men
will go fishing and stand up to their knees in water for hours without
even a nibble, and say they are having a good time. Yet they will fidget
around when they go to church like a boy with a hornet in his pants!
Don't be in a hurry with God. You can't put the pressure on when you
want to get through.
Be Sure You Pray to the Right God!
In their
prayer meetings, the prophets of Baal were as much in earnest as anybody
else. They called on Baal from morning until evening, saying, "O Baal,
hear us!" They tore their clothes, they cut themselves until blood
gushed out, thinking that that self-inflicted suffering might appeal to
Baal.
Elijah said, "Cry louder! You've got on the soft petal. Cry
louder! He's talking or perhaps he's hunting, or he's gone on a journey,
or perhaps he's asleep or gone joy-riding! Cry louder!"
Hold on! It's
a waste of time to pray to the wrong god. Don't pray to money; don't
pray to culture; don't pray to philanthropy; don't pray to social
greatness!
Baal never heard-never! And he will never hear. Elijah
addressed a prayer to the God from whom he expected help. And he had his
answer before sundown! The three years that he spent out there in the
cave taught him how to get a prayer through to the throne of God in
three minutes-something that has never been taught in any theological
seminary!
Charon and Serapis had their drawbacks, yes; but they also
had their advantages. War has both its advantages and its drawbacks.
Many of the blessings, which we enjoy today, were bought with blood on
the battlefield. There are some things that you never get without war.
Nobody wants war. But there are some things we never get without it.
Never! Therefore, out in the cave Charon and Serapis had their
drawbacks-as well as their advantages.
I have met a lot of people on
my
Journey here below
Who were always discontented,
grumbling
About their lot of woe;
Never seemed to know the
blessings
that a thrill might secrete,
Or in passing take a lesson
from the
Hobo on the street.
But they fancied that the roses
should
Be grown without a thorn;
That it ought to rain at
midnight and
Be pleasant in the morn;
They never paused to listen,
nor to
Reason out alone
That luster of the jewel is due
to
The grinding of the stone!
Elijah called upon the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who made the ravens feed him every
morning and every night; the God who made the clouds obey Him; the God
who made the stars witness that He was true; the God who burned Sodom
and Gomorrah with fire; the God who drowned the world with a flood; the
God who saved Noah; the God who said," Let there be light"; the God who
shut the lions' mouths for Daniel; the God who didn't let the fire burn
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in the furnace because they wouldn't bow
down to Nebuchadnezzar and his idol of gold. The prayer that Elijah
offered to God that brought fire down from Heaven was short-only
sixty-three words-and it burned up and consumed everything. When the
fire fell, everyone on the mount knew it was the fire of the Lord. It
licked up the water; it licked up the dust; it licked up the stone; and
the people fell on their faces-all except these 450 stiff-necked,
uncircumcised, black-hearted, white-livered false prophets of
Baal.
Oh, hear me! God has plenty of the same kind of fire up in
Heaven to pour down on us! And He will give it to us and to our country
just as freely as He poured it down on the altar on Mount
Carmel.
When the fire fell, how soon there was purity on the
mountain! Oh, let God's blessing fall and there will not be a house of
ill-fame; there will not be a drunkard; a thief, a panderer, a
prostitute, there will not be a stick-up nor a gunman to do the job.
There will not be one blasphemer left on God's dirt. Everything that
stands in the way of the Lord will be consumed.
The idolatrous
prophets-all of them-had to die before dark. What happened then will
always happen when God has a chance to reveal Himself. The prophets of
Baal must die. When God appears on the scene, other things must go. It
won't do to parole these prophets of Baal on their good behavior. They
had to do what they did on Mount Carmel-put them to the sword. They had
to be slain.
You will have to slay uncleanliness; you will have to
slay lasciviousness; you will have to slay adultery; you will have to
slay enmity; you will have to slay strive; you will have to slay
jealousy; you will have to slay wrath; you will have to slay divisions;
you will have to slay heresies; you will have to slay these infamous
lies that men are preaching from their pulpits that lead people away
from God. You will have to slay envy; you will have to slay drunkenness;
you will have to slay lying; you will have to slay stealing; you will
have to slay reviling. Before the fire from God comes, the prophets of
Baal must die, sir!
Do you want God's blessing? Do you want it on you
home? In your church? On your city? On America?
Then slay utterly!
Repair the altar of the Lord that is broken down!