Baal Worship. Will it blend?

[0:00] 1 Kings 18, 21 Now just a bit of context here.

[0:39] And King Ahab, in 1 Kings 16, 32, determined to worship Baal. Or Baal, depending on how you pronounce it.

[0:51] 1 Kings 16, 32, King Ahab chose Baal. And the nation followed Baal. As a result, he did exceedingly evil in the sight of the Lord.

[1:05] And eventually the worship of Baal took over the nation. Elijah challenged Ahab.

[1:22] And gave the word of the Lord that there would be a great famine. In between times we see God's miraculous provision for Elijah.

[1:35] And then Elijah was brought back to Ahab. And the prophets of Baal and the associated prophets were gathered together.

[1:52] And it was a contest. We'll get to that shortly. I want to talk about the worship of Baal. Baal worship.

[2:05] False gods. And you might question, why is this relevant for us today? Are there Baal worshippers living in Australia today?

[2:17] Yes. Baal worship is alive and well. And in disguise today in our land.

[2:30] The old pagan gods like Baal and Ashtoreth are being redefined and Christianised today. Baal means master, ruler, possessor, controller. Australian is a nation of idolaters.

[2:43] Baal worship is evident in our nation's life and government today. 1 Kings 18 verse 17. When Elijah and Ahab met again.

[2:57] It came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Out there he that troubleth Israel. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baal.

[3:15] Or Baal's. Elijah confronted Ahab and said that Ahab was really the cause of Israel's troubles. The Baal worshipper, Ahab, was challenged by the prophet.

[3:36] And like Ahab, we and the government of our land have followed Baal. We've followed false gods. Our nation has also forsaken the commandments of the true Lord.

[3:50] We've forsaken the Bible, God's word, God's truth. And we're still living in the sinful Baal worshipping world. All that is of God, think of it now, in our nation.

[4:02] All that is of God and the Bible and truth, biblical truth, has been erased from our society, from our schools. Faith in the only Saviour now is mocked.

[4:14] It's commonly mocked in society today, in the media today, in the schools today, by our leaders today. True Christian faith is mocked.

[4:26] In 2 Kings 17, verse 16, we read that Baal worship boils down to disobeying God's word. It says there, they served Baal when they left all the commandments of the Lord their God.

[4:41] They left the word of God and they served Baal. And friends today, this really is a plea to God's people today, to the nation today, that we have got a critical need in our land.

[4:57] There's a need for a call to discernment and for a calling of God's people to repentance. To sound an alarm against false gods. False gods.

[5:08] Against idolatry. We've heard of that earlier, of the idolatry of Israel's day. And it's in Australia's day too. It's in the modern day today.

[5:19] Baal worship in modern day Australia. So, I'd like to explain a little bit more what I mean by the worship of Baal. The worship of Baal of false gods.

[5:31] And what this kind of worship is all about. What on earth does this ancient deity, this ancient idol, this ancient worship have to do with us today?

[5:42] And why should it matter? Baal is a dangerous counterfeit of the true and living God. Baal is really another word for the devil.

[5:56] And there's variations of it. For example, Beliel, Beelzebub. Numbers of words that relate to Baal. And Baalin, which is false gods in general.

[6:10] So, false gods were something that was very much in evidence in Israel and in the word of God through the Old Testament. We read much of that.

[6:21] And the cult of Baal celebrated annually his death and resurrection as part of Canaanite fertility rituals. And these ceremonies often involve human sacrifice and temple prostitution.

[6:33] So, what's that got to do with us today? The Bible tells us there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new under the sun. The fact is the spirit of Baal is still active and at work in our generation, in our society.

[6:49] And it leads us to this all-important question. How will we recognise it? How will we know what is actually Baal worship today? And some of the things that stand out to me that we see as the features of Baal worship.

[7:06] And the first one is this big word, syncretism. Syncretism. Now, I'll try to explain that, if I can spell it. Syncretism.

[7:17] Syncretism. Can't see it. Can't see it. It's the best I've got, I'm afraid. Syncretism. Syncretism.

[7:29] Now, to try to explain what syncretism means, I'm going to use a bit of an analogy here. And for those that know the Shaw family, Brother Greg Shaw is the blender man.

[7:41] He sells blenders. And blending machines, if anyone knows a blending machine, if you've ever seen Mrs. Shaw cook a meal, she puts her pinny on, her apron on, and then she puts her earmuffs on.

[7:56] Because she gets just about everything she can play her hand on and sticks it in that blender and it makes a terrific noise. You know, I could use some sound effects, but I think I might be a bit irreverent to do so.

[8:07] But she gets the carrots and fruits and the vegetables and whatnot and puts it in the blender. If you want to buy a good blender, Greg's your man here today, a little effort. But then you see it on the internet, there's another blender man.

[8:23] And there's this fellow, you see him on YouTube, again, a little bit tongue-in-cheek here. But this man on YouTube, he puts on a white coat and he puts his goggles on and his earmuffs on.

[8:35] And he says, will it blend? Will it blend? And he takes just about everything you can imagine. My son put me onto this and it's quite fascinating.

[8:46] You know, he gets the latest iPhone or whatever it is. He says, will it blend? And they go, yeah. He puts, you know, and then, yeah, it blends.

[8:57] And he pours it out, it's just fine powder. Yeah, it will blend. He takes just about anything you can imagine. It's fascinating. You know, all kinds of things that weren't supposed to blend.

[9:07] And he says, will it blend? Bzzz. Yeah, he sure can. That's what syncretism is. Will it blend? The devil says, will it blend?

[9:21] Self-esteem. The Bible. Self-improvement. Apostasy. Will it blend? Yeah, it does.

[9:32] It's called syncretism. It's bar worship. It's emerging together, all kinds of wacky, way-out things, together with Christianity. Just this morning I read this and I was astounded.

[9:46] I thought it was a joke when I first heard about it. I heard about it some while ago. The movement is called Chrisland. Chrisland.

[9:57] Chrisland. CHR is land. CHR is land. Chrisland. Will it blend? Here's some of the quotes here. The author of this quotes from 2 Corinthians 6.14.

[10:11] The context of unequally yoking, of separation. Will the temple of God have an agreement with idols? What will? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.

[10:26] And I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Here's the quote. About the growing Chrisland movement started by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church.

[10:44] It has grown dramatically and has now infected many hundreds of churches and denominations all across America. A group called Faith Shared is now spearheading the move to merge Christianity with Islam.

[10:59] And in the process provoking the very judgment of God down upon us as a nation. Here's a quote from the website. Faith Shared asks houses of worship across the country to organise events involving clergy, reading from each other's sacred texts.

[11:16] An example would be a Christian minister, a Jewish rabbi and a Muslim imam participating in a worship service or other event. Suggested readings will be given from the Torah, the Gospels and the Koran.

[11:29] But communities are encouraged to choose readings that resonate with their congregations. Involvement of members from the Muslim community is the key. We will also provide suggestions on how to incorporate this program into your regular worship services.

[11:45] It's called Interfaith. It's Chrisland. It goes on... Look, I won't bother with it.

[12:01] But friends, the point is, will it blend? They're blending Christianity and Islam. They're putting it in the blender. It's called syncretism. Anything goes. You know, we're seeing that in Christianity, wide and field, where we're seeing, as we say, self-esteem, the Gospel of self-esteem.

[12:21] It could be visualisation. We've seen that with Yonggi Cho. And others like him. Visualise. Speak it into existence. Name it and claim it. Altered states of consciousness.

[12:33] That's what happens when they have the falling down in the spirit. Altered states of consciousness. The hypnotists do it too. Will it blend? It's happening today, people. It's happening today.

[12:44] Will it blend? And they miss out the important ingredients of repentance, of the blood, of true faith in Christ, of talk of heaven and hell. Friends, it's syncretism.

[12:55] It's Baal worship, in effect. It's going down that track. Baal worship. It did not reject the true God. It was instead an all-inclusive merging, melding, blending, a fusing together, a syncretism, a pantheism of many gods.

[13:12] And it's a dangerous trend today. It's an apostate trend that's across the board. And it's a marked move that is going on today, sadly. And we saw how they sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

[13:29] In Exodus 32, they came down. Moses had the plates, the Ten Commandments. And he threw them down in despair and in disgust, in God's horror at what the people were doing as they bowed down to that molten calf.

[13:47] And we know that a calf, the molten calf, was like the symbol for Baal, which was a bull. So it was a type of Baal worship that was going on amongst the very people of God, just after Moses had communed with God Almighty on the mount.

[14:04] It's syncretism. It's a feature, it's a characteristic of Baal worship. Another characteristic of Baal worship is tolerance. Tolerance is another... it's the catch cry.

[14:17] Tolerance. Anything goes. We just tolerate whatever goes on in the modern generation. The ancient pagan philosophy that underlies Baal worship is that which we see in the New Age.

[14:33] Just tolerate just about anything you want. Another feature of Baal worship was that it was very much tied with the environment. It was nature worship. The very deities were forms of nature.

[14:45] You know, whether it was the sun, the stars, animals and so on. This was... it was a worship of nature, of natural forces personified. And we're seeing that today, friends.

[14:57] In the old Mother Earth kind of worship that effectively that's going on. The goddess Gaia. You know, the New Age kind of Mother Earth kind of concept. Of radical environmentalism that's going on.

[15:10] You know, the all important thing isn't save souls. It's save the planet. We've got to save the planet. Man has to do everything he or she can do to save the planet. Man has to do everything he or she can do.

[15:21] Environmentalism got man. It's effectively Baal worship. Another feature of Baal worship was that it was a fertility cult. It was a fertility cult.

[15:32] And another feature was sensuality. Sensuality. It was all about the senses. It was all about the feelings of gearing things for pleasure. You know, they ate and drank and they got up to play.

[15:47] They got up to dance. They got up to go about their pleasure and enjoyment. Not that enjoyment is bad per se, but this religion, Baal worship, was founded upon that.

[16:01] Anything goes. If it feels good, do it. And we're seeing that today in our pleasure-geared world, where it's a society that's placing an emphasis on sexuality of any description.

[16:12] And Baal worship was like that. Baal worship. Another feature was that it was associated with the use of drugs. The use of drugs, again, of that sensuality, as the female worshippers would drink a concoction of herbs and wine.

[16:30] It's effectively drug use of the ancient world. Baal worship. And that sensuality that pervaded Baal worship was often filled with perversion, with homosexuality.

[16:42] immorality and sexual promiscuity. It was degrading. It was debasing. It was degenerate. What do we see today that parallels this in our modern times?

[16:54] We're seeing churches that applaud such things, that emphasise such things today. It's going on in Australia today. As we see, for example, the radical feminist movement, militant gay rights, the vice of promiscuity that grips our society.

[17:12] Baal worship was sexual sin. It was a spiritual harlotry against God. And friends, today, we're seeing that in our society, in our generation, where there's a drawing away after these things.

[17:25] And there's a war on for our children and our grandchildren. Child sacrifice was another feature of Baal worship and of the false gods of that day associated that they would sacrifice children.

[17:41] Perhaps that is something of the spirit that's behind abortions and child abuse that is rampant today. Certainly, there's forces at work drawing our young people away from the worship of the true and living God into these false gods, into these false philosophies.

[17:56] This is what is going on today. Baal worship is very relevant for us to know about and to be alerted about because it was corrupt worship.

[18:07] It was corrupt worship. It polluted the true worship. Baal worship has held ceremonies that included burning incense, of offering burnt sacrifices, sometimes of human victims.

[18:19] The officiating priests danced around the altars, chanting frantically, cutting themselves with knives in the hope of attracting the attention of their God. That's what happened when Elijah called the contest.

[18:32] And there was 850 false prophets versus one prophet of the Lord. They whipped themselves into a wild frenzy. They were insensible to their pain as they cut their bodies.

[18:42] We're seeing some of that today, aren't we? Tattoos, for example. Not to condemn people who might have a tattoo in their lost past. But we're seeing churches that are promoting it to save people and save people going and cutting their bodies.

[18:57] It's a feature of Baal worship. Here they were going frenzy, in their frenzy. In 1 Kings 18, we see from verse 26. Samuel 20.

[19:08] Samuel 20. Samuel 20. Samuel 20. name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar that was made. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is talking or he's pursuing or he's on a journey or for adventure he's sleeping or must be awakened.

[19:32] And they cried aloud and cut themselves after this man with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. They shouted, they danced. This was enthusiastic. This was exciting worship.

[19:45] It was Baal worship. Pagan worship. It was spellbinding. It was ecstatic raving. It was a frenzy. It was a wild disorder. We see that in some churches today. It's almost commonplace. It's almost the dumb thing. There were times when Israel as a nation were thinking they were worshipping God when they were worshipping Baal. Could that be happening in churches today? I think it could be. When the priest holds up the wafer, the wafer God, and somehow transposes it into the real body of Christ, God forbid. It stems back to Baal worship. We see that in Avalon a mystery religion of Freemasonry. We see it in Freemasonry, but friends we're seeing it in the Church of God. We're seeing it in the Church of God. Aaron fashioned a molten calf.

[20:38] The Canaanite Baal was depicted in the form of a bull. And Baal worship is still alive within the Church, though veiled, though hidden and under cover. Satan's good at that. Will it blend? He's good at blending. He's a chameleon. He's a shapeshifter. The devil, the enemy, Satan. And Pagan worship has been introduced into the true Church of God. It's as if he couldn't beat it, he joined it. He's a member in good standing in many churches today. Wherever there's a mismatch with Scripture, he's there. There's a elements of idolatry often veiled. We just have to scratch beneath the surface. And it's not just in the Catholic regime. It's in the Protestant churches today. We see it veiled. It's seductive influence. Infiltrating. An unholy mixture. A work of demons and unclean spirits. And yet people think God is at work. Sometimes God does work, despite man. But I think we need to be very, very cautioned. And for this reason, we must be when there's preterm new revelations. When there's fables. When there's winds of doctrine blowing people all over the place. When there's this whirlwind of false doctrine, we need to wake up and smell the coffee. We need to take the word and try to get God's perspective.

[22:03] These are days that call for a return to Bible truth, biblical understanding, obedience to his word and for divine intervention. What is the answer?

[22:13] Sir Baal worshipped. Thankfully God raised up an Elijah. He raised up God's people in this day of apostasy of Elijah's day after Baal's prophets gave up trying, Elijah praying.

[22:26] Really a simple prayer and God answered immediately with fire from heaven. And we read there from verse 30 of 1 Kings 18. And Elijah said unto the people, Come near unto me.

[22:38] And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.

[22:53] And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And then we see he pours water over this altar, over this bullet. It's saturated with barrels of water poured out numbers of times, filling the altar, filling the trench.

[23:13] And verse 36. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

[23:34] It was word-based worship. He says, Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their hearts back again.

[23:46] Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

[23:56] And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They didn't fall on their backs. They fell on their faces. And they said, The Lord, he is the God. The Lord, he is the God.

[24:08] And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal. Let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the book Hishon, and slew them there.

[24:20] Drastic action was called for, and drastic action was taken. The evidence was overwhelming. The fire of the Lord fell. The people fell prostrate, and cried, The Lord, he is the God.

[24:32] The Lord, he is the God. We see, even though evil predominated, later we read in 1 Kings 19.18, that there were still 7,000 whose knees had not bowed to Baal.

[24:47] Whose mouth had not kissed him. They hadn't kissed the idol. What is the answer to Baal worship? It's a rebuilding of the altar.

[24:58] It's of that worship, that true worship. It's a return to the word of the Lord. We see that in the account. We see reference to the word of the Lord in verse 31. We see reference to the altar of the Lord in verse 30.

[25:12] We see reference to the name of the Lord in verse 32. And then we see the fire of the Lord, verse 38, fell. The answer to Baal worship is believing prayer.

[25:23] It's for us to believe in prayer. It's for us to return to the altar. The word, the name. Absolute trust in God that was evident by what they did in saturating it with water.

[25:36] It was only God who could do this. The answer to Baal worship is divine intervention. A rejection of the substitutes. A rejection of the counterfeits. A repentance.

[25:47] And a return to the altar. A return to the biblical God. A return to biblical faith. Friends, just to consider, if we could look at these features of Baal worship.

[25:59] Syncretism. Will it blend? A mixing, a mishmash, a conglomeration. A blending, a melding, a mixture.

[26:11] An unholy mixture. What is the answer to syncretism? The answer is separation. Separation. We need to be a separate people from Baal.

[26:24] We need to separate ourselves. Come out from among them and be separate. We don't adopt the methodology of Baal worship. Where will it blend? What is the answer to tolerance?

[26:39] Of course we love people. We love everyone. We love every lost, sinful man. I was there. Thank God for his love that extended to me. We love everyone.

[26:49] We love homosexuals. We love Muslims. We love every manner of dimension of people in this world because we want to see them come to Christ.

[27:00] Because no sin is more or less than any other sin. But tolerance is not a feature of God's word. It's Biblicism. It's Bible truth.

[27:11] Biblicism. We need to have a biblical relationship with people in that we will love people. We will witness to them. We won't condone their sin.

[27:23] Biblicism. The answer to the environment or pantheism is true faith. It's true faith. We don't worship Mother Earth. We're called to be stewards of this world that we live in.

[27:35] We want to care for it. We don't support over much pollution and so on. But we don't worship Mother Earth. Our worship is the worship of the true and living God.

[27:46] Of true spirituality. The answer to sensuality is true spirituality. So, it's not denying that we all have emotions.

[27:59] We all have our senses. And there's times we get excited. And we rejoice. And we might dance. And we might worship. We might glorify God with our emotions. And with our joy.

[28:11] With our weeping. With our singing. With our faint. With our smiles. With the joy that Christ gives to us. But it's not a worship that's based on the sensuality.

[28:22] It's a worship that's based on the spirit of God. It's the spirit of the living God. God. And so we can move from corrupt worship. To biblical worship. Move from Baal worship.

[28:34] To the worship of the true and living God. Of Yahweh. The true and living God. The God of the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true and living God. And friends.

[28:45] We just want to urge all of us to consider that. Will we be like Elijah. And have that absolute trust. That absolute faith. That went beyond the circumstances. That went beyond what was humanly possible.

[28:57] As we have that faith in Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father. We thank you that you are the true and living God. And that despite man's efforts to blend.

[29:11] And mix unholy things with your truth. Lord you help your people to see these things. Help us Lord to be a discerning people. That you might lead us into all truth.

[29:24] Help us Lord to have our eyes open. Even within our own selves. In our own families. In our own perceptions and concepts. And our own preferences that we may have.

[29:36] Guard us Lord. Guide us. That we might be led by your Holy Spirit into truth. Help us Lord to be discerning of these things. I pray Lord for anyone here.

[29:47] Everyone here Lord. That every one of us might have. A heart that seeks to worship you. That we will be. As Mary. Come to your feet.

[29:57] And hear your word. That we will be. As the people. Who didn't. Follow the idols. Lord. If we have followed them Lord.

[30:07] That we will repent now. And burn them. And dash them to dust Lord. Lord let them be discarded. Let them be rejected. And Lord help us to be a biblical people.

[30:20] To worship you in spirit and in truth. And to be very ever watchful. For the great blender of evil. Who always tries to mix his foulness.

[30:33] With that which is true. And godly. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.