Topic:Between Two Opinions
Text: I John 2:15-17

Some years ago, I went to the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, to preach and spent the night there. In the evening I told my driver to fill the car with petrol. The following morning, the river got into the car and started the engine. However, each time he tried to engage the gear, and move forward, the engine would stall and stop. We had to tow the car to a mechanic’s workshop where it was discovered that the man who sold petrol to my driver had mixed water with it. The tank had to be drained and filled with good petrol. When we started the car after changing the fuel, the car moved. The above story forms the background to today’s exhortation. “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God follow Him: but is Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word” (I Kings 18:21).

How long shall we go on mixing water with fire? How long shall we go on saying, “I belong to Christ,” with one side of the mouth, and “I belong to the world,” with the other side of the same mouth? How long shall we praise the Lord, sing and dance, only to go back into the world without any visible difference in our lives?

In the Old Testament, there was a clear line of demarcation between saints and sinners. The prophets of Baal had their own altar while had his own too. There would always be two altars, one altar for the world and the other altar for the Lord. However, you cannot be at the two altars at the same time. The altar of the world is a very dangerous altar. It has a lot of beautiful things to offer. It has a lot of things to appeal to the eyes and the pride of life. It has a lot of things to appeal to the lust of the flesh.

However, God has warned us in I John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” Do you love the world? If you mix water with petrol you won’t get anywhere. Where do you stand?

Memory Verse: Romans 12:1 - “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”