Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Hymn number 429 will begin this morning.
Hymn number 429.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Hymn number 429.
Once you've found your place, sing it out on that first.
429.
Let's sing it out.
429. Ready.
Let us recognize.
Joyful all ye nations find.
Join the triumph of the skies.
We're with the telecos from plain.
Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the newborn King.
Light my highest heaven adored.
Christ the everlasting Lord.
Late in time the open door.
Offspring of a virgin's gleam.
Hail in flesh the God and King.
Hail in heart and unity.
With the man with man to dwell.
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the newborn King.
Hail the heaven, the prince of kings.
Hail the son of righteousness.
Light and light to all he brings.
Rest with him in his wings.
Mildly lays his glory by.
Born that man, no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth.
Born to give the second birth.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the newborn King.
On these isle of nations come.
Facing us, light of old home.
Rise of all its concrete sea.
Cruising us, the serpent's head.
Adam's wife is now in base.
And by image in its place.
Second Adam from above.
Free in status in thy love.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the newborn King.
Amen.
Let's sing it out.
All that first verse together.
Him number 428.
It came along the land.
I'm glad that glorious song of old.
From angels landing near the earth.
To touch their hearts of gold.
Peace on the earth.
And will to men.
Protect all gracious King.
The world is all a sin of its way.
To hear the angels sing.
Till through the golden skies.
They come.
For all the weary world.
Above these sad and lonely plains.
They then on the green wing.
And ever on a battle sound.
The blessed angels sing.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the newborn King.
Amen.
two days from now 5 30 p.m. we'll meet right here we'll get organized into
groups of about 20 or so people make sure we have a nice big group so that if
you're not a big singer don't worry about it you can sort of just fade to
the back we'll make sure that we have some strong singers leading each group
and want to make sure everybody can participate we'll go door-to-door
Christmas caroling for about one hour no more than that and then come back here
for some hot cocoa and cookies and then speaking of cookies on December 24th we
will have our normal church services as always Sunday morning 1030 Sunday night
at 6 but we will also have the cookie bake-off that day at 4 30 p.m. so if
you'd like to compete in that you can bake up those batches of cookies the
categories that you can win are best tasting best-looking and most festive
and then below that there's going to be a wedding reception on Sunday January
7th for my son Solomon and Chloe Miller that he's marrying the day before and so
Sunday 4 o'clock January 7th everybody's invited but if you could please RSVP
that would be helpful so that we can know how many people to prepare for
with food and dessert be sure that when you RSVP include the number of people in
your group on the back the preaching class starts up again on Tuesday January
2nd any man who goes soul winning is eligible to participate and if you come
please prepare a five-minute sermon because no spectators are allowed brother
say Gora is the one to talk to if you have any questions about that and then
with soul winning yesterday part of the small town soul winning program in
Roosevelt and Tonto Basin we had seven soul winners and four salvations keep
praying for the expectant ladies in our church that they will have a safe and
healthy pregnancy and delivery and then other upcoming events are listed there
that's about it for announcements let's go ahead and sing our next song come
lead us all right you should find the insert in the front of your hymnal with
the two songs we'll start with Oh come Oh come Emmanuel if you don't have an
insert please raise your hand and we'll sing it to get on that first oh come oh
come Emmanuel
Oh
And then excellent singing everybody let's turn that sheet over we'll sing together God rest ye merry gentlemen
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Oh
Save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray
From God
Oh
All right this time we'll pass to offering plates around as the plates go around let's turn our Bibles to first Kings chapter number 13
first Kings chapter number 13 as
We always do we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1
1st Kings chapter 13 follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads
1st Kings chapter 13 the Bible reads and
behold there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel and Jeroboam stood by the altar to
burn incense and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said Oh
Altar
Altar thus saith the Lord behold a child shall be born under the house of David
Josiah by name and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee and
Men's bones shall be burnt upon thee and he gave a sign the same day saying
This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken
Behold the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are opponent shall be poured out and it came to pass
When King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God which had cried against the altar in Bethel that he put forth his hand
from the altar saying lay hold on him and
His hand which he put forth against him dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him
The altar also was rent and the ashes poured out from the altar
according to the sign which the men of God had given by the word of the Lord and
The king answered and said unto the man of God
entreat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again and
the man of God besought the Lord and the king's hand was restored him again and became as it was before and
the king said unto the man of God come home with me and refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward and
The man of God said unto the king if thou will give me half thine house
I will not go in with thee neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place
For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord saying eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same
Way that thou camest so he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel
Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God
Had done that day in Bethel the words which he had spoken under the king them
They told also to their father and their father said unto them
what way went he for his sons had seen what way the man of God went which came from Judah and
He said unto his son saddle me the ass
so they saddled him the ass and he rode there on and went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak and
He said unto him art thou the man of God that came as from Judah and he said I am
Then he said unto him come home with me and eat bread and he said I
May not return with thee nor go in with thee neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place
What was said to me by the word of the Lord thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there
Nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest
He said unto him
I am a prophet also as thou are and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying
Bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water
But he lied unto him
So he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drank water
and it came to pass as
They sat at the table that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back and he cried under the man
of God that came from Judah saying thus saith the Lord for as much as thou hast
Disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and has not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God
Commanded thee but came us back and has eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee
Eat no bread and drink no water
Thy carcass shall not come under the sepulcher of thy fathers
And it came to pass after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk that he saddled for him the ass to wit
For the prophet whom he had brought back and when he was gone a lion met him by the way and slew him and his
Carcass was cast in the way and the ass stood by it. The lion also stood by the carcass and
behold men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and
the lion standing by the carcass and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt and
when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof
He said it is the man of God who was disobedient under the word of the Lord
Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion which hath torn him and slain him according to the word of the Lord
Which he spake unto him
and he spake to his son saying saddle me the ass and they saddled him and
He went and found his carcass cast in the way and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass
the lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the ass and
the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back and
the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him and
He laid his carcass in his own grave and they mourned over him saying alas my brother
And it came to pass after he had buried him that he spake to his son saying when I am dead then bury me in
The sepulcher wherein the man of God is buried lay my bones beside his bones
For the same which he cried by the word of the Lord against the author in Bethel and against all the houses of the high
Places which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass
After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way
but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places whosoever would he
consecrated him and he became one of the priests of the high places and this thing became sin under the house of Jeroboam even to
Cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth
Father in heaven, thank you for your son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as well in the Bible and thank you for faith
for Baptist Church
I pray that you please bless
Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word
So that we your children would continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ name
I pray amen
man first Kings chapter 13
We have this story about Jeroboam the son of Nebat being confronted by this unnamed prophet
And this story really centers on one of the most significant events in
the Old Testament when it comes to this time of the kings of Israel and it's something that's referred to
Over and over and over again and it's known as the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat
So Jeroboam is a very significant character because just to back up a little bit to chapter 12
He actually starts a false religion that ends up just persisting for centuries in
Israel if you would just back up to chapter 12 and verse number
26 for a moment
We'll give a little bit of background to the story in chapter 13. It says in verse 26 Jeroboam said in his heart
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David if this people go up to sacrifice in
the house of the Lord at Jerusalem
Now what is he talking about here?
He's talking about the fact that Solomon had been the last king who had reigned over the whole Kingdom of Israel all
Twelve tribes and because of Solomon's sins God is going to take the kingdom away from the house of David
But he leaves one tribe with David so that he can keep his promise to David
so now you have the northern kingdom of Israel and then you have the southern kingdom of
Judah okay, so
Jeroboam is the one who becomes king over that northern kingdom of Israel
He's ruling over those ten tribes to the north, and then you've got Rehoboam ruling over
Judah in the south and so what Jeroboam says here in this passage that we just looked at is that
He's thinking to himself if people are worshiping God in Jerusalem if they travel down to that southern kingdom
To worship the Lord three times a year which God had explicitly commanded them to do
He said you have to go to Jerusalem you have to go to the house of God three times a year to worship the Lord
He's thinking you know if they go down there
And then they're hanging around the southern kingdom people and they're seeing the king of Judah and his court and the house of God
And they're gonna start maybe thinking hey, we need to be united we need to be one nation
Why did we break off in the first place and so he's afraid that if they go down there
Then he's gonna lose his power and so if you look back down at your Bible there in verse 25
It says or sorry verse 27 if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem
then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord even unto Rehoboam king of Judah and they shall kill me and
Go again to Rehoboam king of Judah verse 28 whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and
Said to them it's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy gods
O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt
So he creates these golden calves, and he tries to create a religion
That still is based on worshipping Jehovah and still has a lot of similarities with
What the Bible actually teaches
But it mixes in an element of idolatry and it has nothing to do with Jerusalem and so he can keep people
geographically
separated and create a wall of separation between the two kingdoms and so he puts one of these golden calves in
Dan which is at the extreme north of the kingdom and the reason why is because remember
What's his whole selling point on this religion? It's too far for you to go to Jerusalem
God doesn't expect you to go that far and so therefore if he just makes one golden calf people might think like hey
You know, this is still kind of far
So he says well, I'm gonna put one in the extreme north one in the extreme south
And then you know, these are your gods that brought you out of the land of Egypt
You don't have to go all the way to Jerusalem
You can worship God by bowing down to this statue of a golden cow, right? Like what does that have to do with God?
But false religion mixes truth with lies and
So why did he pick Dan and Bethel well because they're the geographic extremes Bethel is to the south
Dan's to the north also because the word Bethel literally means house of God
So this is an easy selling point to people he can tell people hey if you go back to the Hebrew
You know Bethel is the house of God
It's not Jerusalem and so he can get him to go there and then Dan
Had already had a history of idolatry all the way back to the early period of the judges they're already
Worshipping idols and so that's easy to get them over to this particular idol
And so Jeroboam does this and says hey, it's too far to go to Jerusalem
And by the way, don't let the devil convince you that it's too far to go to a good church
Right. It's worth the drive. It's worth the trip to go to an actual house of God
Not just necessarily well, I'm just gonna go to whatever church is down the street now
sometimes it's worth the trip to get true biblical preaching and
Of course the devil wants you to think that everything that God asks you to do is too hard
Right because the Christian life is just too hard
Following God's commandments are too hard going to church every week. It's too hard reading the Bible is too hard
Oh, well, God forbid you do anything hard
Right God expects us sometimes to do some hard things and we ought to make
Sacrifices for God and be willing to push ourselves a little bit in our service for God and not only be willing to serve God
When it's super convenient or super easy or just right there
So that's sort of the background for this story Jeroboam has set up this false religion and now he's being confronted
by a prophet in
Chapter 13 look at verse number 1 of chapter 13 be old there came a man of God
we don't know his name, but there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel and
Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said
Altar altar thus saith the Lord
Behold a child shall be born into the house of David
Josiah by name and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee and
man's bones shall be burnt upon thee so he comes and confronts Jeroboam about his false religion and
He cries out against the altar that Jeroboam has built in Bethel
And he says this altar is going to be desecrated by a great man of God someday
His name's gonna be Josiah and he is going to desecrate the corpses of the false prophets
He's gonna burn their bones on this altar. He's gonna defile this wicked abominable place and
He gave a sign verse 3 the same day saying this is the sign which the Lord had spoken
Behold the altar shall be rent rent means torn in half
broken in half and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out and it came to pass when King Jeroboam
Heard the saying of the man of God which he cried against the altar in Bethel
And he put forth this hand from the altar saying lay hold on him, right? So he he hears the preaching against him and
instead of
Feeling bad about it repenting getting right with God. He points at him and says basically put him under arrest and
when he does that when he sticks out his hand to
To call for this man's arrest. It says that the hand he put forth against him dried up
Again, so that he couldn't or sorry dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him
So basically like he stuck out his hand and he became like one of those Hindus
Who held their arm up for too long and it just kind of got stuck that way, you know
It's funny because your you know
Your parents will tell you like hey don't make that weird face because your face might get stuck that way
Did anybody ever tell you that when you're a little kid, you know what Hinduism has proven that to be true
Because Hindus have literally gotten in weird poses and they've literally got stuck that way and so mom was right
So listen to mom if if you don't take anything else out of this sermon
Don't make weird faces or get into weird positions because you will get stuck that way and if you don't believe that
Then you can watch our documentary the truth about Hinduism and you'll see a guy who got stuck that way. All right
But that's way but this happened a lot faster. He just holds his finger out and he just boom. He's a Hindu
He's stuck that way. Okay
And
so
Obviously the king is really upset and so the altar does break in half as the man of God prophesied
So God performs two miracles here miracle number one
Jeroboam's hand spazzes out and gets stuck in a weird position dries up and and withers and then number two is
That the altar breaks in half. This is some kind of an earthquake or something where the altar breaks in half
The king answered unto the man of God verse 6 is where we are
entreat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again and
The man of God besought the Lord and the king's hand was restored him again and became as it was before
So he he shows mercy on Jeroboam Jeroboam says, I'm sorry. Just please fix my hand. You're not under arrest
and so then he prays for him his arm goes back to normal and
the king said in the man of God verse 7 come home with me and
Refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward, you know, because I know you're the one who screwed up my hand
But I appreciate you helping fix it
And it says in verse number 8 and the man of God said unto the king if thou wilt give me half thine house
I will not go in with thee neither
will I eat bread nor drink water in this place for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord saying eat no
Bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same way that thou camest
So he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel now so far
This man of God seems like a great guy. I
Mean what a powerful man about he boldly preaches the Word of God
Even to the king of Israel's face when he preaches there's power in his preaching
God actually performs a miracle
Breaks the altar in half not only that when Jeroboam
Gets injured and and prays for help because God has injured his hand and withered it up on the spot
Well, then this man of God shows compassion on him and actually he doesn't just say well nuts to you man
I hope your arm is always stuck that way because you you know, you've caused Israel to sin, you know, he's he's forgiving
He's trying to give the king a chance to do right
He is actually praying for him and he's got compassion for him
So, I mean this this man of God has a lot going for him, right and then when he's offered money and he's offered
You know a chance to go be with the king and eat and drink and be wined and dined
He turns it down because he said well God told me not to do that. So this guy's not in it for the wrong reasons
He's not in it for fame. He's not in it for glory
He's not one who would disobey God's Word to make somebody else happy. He's being faithful. He's got a good attitude
He's compassionate. I mean this guy is doing great and if the story ended here, it'd be a pretty simple story
But here's where the story starts to get really weird, okay
In verse number 11, it says now there dwelled an old prophet in Bethel and
His sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel
The words which he had spoken unto the king whom they told also their father now
Let's think about this old prophet for a little bit. First of all, he's living in Bethel
But yet you don't have any record of him preaching against Jeroboam or confronting Jeroboam or anything like that
So what's this guy doing?
You know
He seems to be just some old guy
Who's just sitting on the sidelines and he hears about the great works that this young man of God is doing
verse verse 12 their father
said unto them
Alright, I'm sorry
So so basically they told their father all about the works
These two sons were there and they heard the words and then they come and tell their dad at verse 12 and their father said unto
them what way went he for his sons had seen what way the man of God went which came from Judah and
He said unto his sons saddle me the ass
so they saddled them him the ass and he rode there on and
Went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak and he said to them art thou the man of God that
Came us from Judah and he said I am so the sons tell this story
Oh, man, you wouldn't believe what happened today
you know Jeroboam was confronted by this powerful man of God out of Judah and
The altar broke and and all this and he says well, you know, which way did he go? I want to catch up to him
I want to go talk to that guy this old prophet wants to go talk to the the young guy who was preaching
he catches up to him finds him under the oak tree identifies him and
he says in verse number 15 and
This is the old man speaking the old prophet
he said in him come home with me and eat bread and
He said I may not return with thee nor go in with thee
Neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place for it was said to me by the word of the Lord
Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest
He's saying look, you know, I already told this to Jeroboam
I'm not saying what God wanted this guy to do this guy's a prophet from Judah the godly southern kingdom
He wanted him to just go into that northern wicked Kingdom
Preach a sermon
Perform the miracle and then get out of there
He doesn't want him hanging out in the northern kingdom or being influenced by them or whatever, you know
He belongs in the southern kingdom. That's where God has called him to be a minister
He's just supposed to go up there preach go home. Don't stop and and and collect $200
You know don't actually eat or drink or do anything like that
You just need to just come back when you're done
And so he told that to Jeroboam and now he's telling the same thing to this old prophet, you know
This is what God has instructed me to do. So I'm not gonna go to your house and eat
But look what the old prophet responds to him
He said unto him in verse 18
I am a prophet also as thou art and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying
Bring him back with thee into thy house that he may eat bread and drink water, but he lied unto him
Okay, now here's the thing this young man who knows the Word of God he's already preached and been used by God
He should have known not to listen to this old prophet. Why because what the old prophet is saying is
Contradicting the Word of God that he already knows to be true
You see if we already know that the Bible says something to be true
We're not gonna believe somebody who comes along and says oh, I've got this other revelation
An angel I'm a prophet too and an angel came and told me something different. Oh
Well, okay
I mean think about it should the young man trust what he got first hand from God himself or
Should he rather trust third hand information?
Who this he's getting from the old prophet who got it from an angel who got it from God?
third hand preaching from some old has-been
Preacher
Telling him this or should he just go with what he knows to be true from the Word of God himself
You see in the New Testament. We have the Bible ourselves
Okay, and we don't need some old prophet called the Catholic Church like oh, we've been around for you know
thousands of years
Apostolic succession to tell us a bunch of stuff that contradicts the Bible
Okay, see when I'm reading the Bible
I'm a dwelled by the Holy Spirit reading the Bible for myself
You know, that's me getting this first hand from the Holy Spirit from the Word of God
That's all I need and then some old prophet the Pope comes along and tells me. Oh, no, no
You don't understand, you know, I'm a prophet too. And here's what our church tradition has told us
And so, you know and it look if it contradicts the Word of God, it's false
Doesn't matter how old the person is that's telling you it doesn't matter how old their churches how old their religion is and people say
Oh the Catholic Church is so much older. Yeah, it's it's as old as Satan. It's as old as Cain
It's so old. It goes back to the serpent in the Garden of Eden because it's lies. It's garbage
You know people will try to claim Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world
Yeah, exactly. It goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel
Goes all the way back to Nimrod, right?
It goes all the way back to Satan in the Garden of Eden and so oldest is not necessarily best
Older is not necessarily better. The older man is not always wiser than the younger man
now, of course we should be gaining in wisdom as we get older and
Often older people are gonna have wisdom that younger people don't have but at the end of the day
Guess what trumps both the old man and the young man the Bible
The Word of God is the boss and so therefore if we know what the Word of God says
Someone else shouldn't be able to come along and tell us well, you know, actually it's like this
We better check that with our original Word of God that we already know to be true what we saw in the Bible
You see if some old prophet comes along and tells me something
Well, I'm gonna go check it with the Word of God that I already know is true
That I got right here in my hand in the Bible and if it doesn't jive then I'm not gonna listen to it, right?
Here's another example, how about a guy named Muhammad comes along and says, oh, I know you've got the Word of God there
But an angel came and talked to me and I've got another revelation called the Quran and guess what?
It doesn't match what the Bible teaches
Because the Quran says that Jesus is not the Son of God
Well, guess what? You have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God to go to heaven
And if you don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you're not going to heaven
It's that simple because the Bible says he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life
Right these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God
That you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God
Think about the confession of the Ethiopian eunuch, right when Philip preaches the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch
And he wants to get baptized. How does the Ethiopian eunuch confess his faith in Christ?
He says I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Right. Was that what the Quran teaches?
No, and then fast forward. How about another guy who got a revelation from an angel that doesn't jive from the Word of God?
Joseph Smith, right Joseph Smith comes along and says oh, I'm also a prophet and an angel spake unto me and
Here's what he said. He said that there's actually
You know billions of other planets
With other gods that you can actually be your own god of your own planet someday
Right and you know our God happens to be from the star-based Kolob
and look that doesn't jive with the Word of God and
So then the Mormons will just come along and say oh, well, there's a problem with your Word of God
The Muhammad will come on and say oh, there's a problem with your Word of God. Nope. The Bible says that God's Word is preserved
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away
Right. The Bible says it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law
until all be fulfilled and so some prophet comes along and
Contradicts the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever
I mean, let's face it the grass perish it the flower withers and fades away
but the Word of God abides forever and so if God's Word abides forever and then somebody comes along and
Contradicts that Word of God. Why would we believe them? Why would we trust them? And so unfortunately this good man
Believes the lies of this old prophet who just straight lies to him and contradicts the Word of God
Why does he do it? Why does he believe it? You know, perhaps he just thinks well, you know
This guy is older and and and so I should respect his wisdom
He's been a prophet a lot longer than I have or maybe he's just really hungry and this old prophet's kind of telling him what?
He wants to hear because dinner sounds pretty good right now
Since he hasn't eaten all day and he's been traveling and so forth
We don't necessarily know why he gets sucked in by this guy
But what we can learn from it is don't get sucked in
by preachers no matter how
Sage or old or wise they seem or
If they come at you and say an angel spake unto me or I have this revelation from God
You better check it with what you know to be true what you got first hand yourself from the Bible yourself
And you know what the Bible says that the anointing that you've received from God
Which is talking about the fact that you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit
The anointing that you have received from him abideth in you and you need not that any man teach you
Let that sink in you need not that any man teach you but as the same
Anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie
Even as it hath taught you
You shall abide in him even as it that anointing has taught you you shall abide in him
The Bible says you have no need that any man teach you what does that mean that means that there is absolutely
Nothing that is true
that you can't learn from the Bible yourself between you and the Holy Spirit yourself from the Word of God if
Someone else has to explain it to you, and it would be literally impossible for you to derive that yourself from the Word of God
Well, that's just simply because it isn't true
Because you don't need anybody to teach you now of course God did give us teachers
Why did he give us teachers to edify us to perfect us to help?
Facilitate our growth to speed up our growth to expedite our growth look obviously if you're going to church and listening to sound biblical
Preaching you're gonna learn the Bible quicker
You're gonna learn faster, but do you have to have Pastor Anderson to know the truth about the Bible absolutely not
You don't need any pastor to know the truth about the Bible the truth is all in there
And you and the Holy Spirit can get it on your own. We say well, then well. This is my last day in church then
But here's the thing
There are lots of reasons. Why you need to go to church number one God commands you to go to church
Not because you need someone to teach you and it's impossible for you as a saved Christian to understand the Bible
but rather because God wants you to have the fellowship and
God wants you to be stirred up
Motivated and encouraged by the preaching and also it can help you learn faster
But you could also learn it on your own. You know it's it's sort of like if I went and got
Tutored in Spanish or something I'm gonna learn Spanish faster than learning it on my own, but guess what I could learn it on my own
too
Right I mean it could be done
It's not like no no it's a mystical language
And you need to be initiated by some Spanish guru or something like that
You know the Bible and the Holy Spirit is all we need now
Here's the thing unsaved people they do need someone to teach them the gospel
Why because they don't have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, right?
Why why do we have no need than any man teach us because the anointing which we have received of him?
Abideth in us and
We need not that any man teach us because the same anointing teaches us of all things see we have the built-in teacher
The Holy Spirit because we're saved the unsaved man does not have the Holy Spirit
And so he needs a saved person to come and teach him the gospel
Preach the gospel to him explain it to him get him safe, but once he's saved
Theoretically he can get everything from the Bible on his own, and you know what?
What we need to do every single generation is we need to get back to the Bible go back to the source and evaluate
Whether what the previous generation taught us was right?
You know I grew up being taught a lot of wonderful things
My parents taught me a lot of great things churches that I grew up in taught me a lot of great things
But not all of it was a hundred percent accurate
it's my job to go to the source to go to the Word of God and test everything with the Bible and
And go back to source and and you see if you talk to the Catholics and the Protestants
They'll say this is like the Wild West or something you know how dare you?
Not listen to the authority of the church and the church fathers and the councils because that's an old prophet
Contradicting what I got straight from the Bible, and so I'm just gonna go with the word of the Lord
I don't care how old that prophet is of your council of this and council of that and church father this church father that
You know what every generation needs to just check all that stuff and prove that which is you know prove all things
hold fast that which is good and discard that which is not biblical and
you know it's possible for a false doctrine to persist for centuries just because the doctrines old doesn't make it right and
So we've got to constantly be testing things with the Word of God and so he believes the lies of this false prophet who says
Oh, I'm a prophet an angel came and talked to me
You know my name is Mohammed
My name is Joseph Smith and come on over to my house today
And he brings him home and look what the Bible says in verse 19
So he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drank water
Now here's where the story gets even stranger verse 20
It came to pass as they sat at the table
That the Word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back
And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judas saying thus saith the Lord for as much as thou
Disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and has not kept thy commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee
But came his back and has eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee eat
No bread and drink no water
Thy carcass shall not come under the sepulchre of thy fathers
So while they're sitting at dinner the dinner that the old man told him to come to
All of a sudden the Spirit of the Lord comes upon the old man and the old man just starts chewing him out
Like why are you here? You shouldn't be eating this. God told you not to do this
You violated the commandment of God and so, you know, you're not gonna go into the sepulchre of your fathers
Now that seems a little strange doesn't it
Well, let me give you a little symbolic interpretation here. This is exactly what the devil does
According to the Word of God, what does the devil do when we think about the devil and what he does isn't he tempting people?
To sin doesn't that what he tried to do to Jesus, you know
He shows up to Jesus and he tempts Jesus three times and the Bible talks about how we don't want to fall into the temptation
Of the devil the snare of the devil. We're not ignorant of his devices because the devil is out there
he walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and he wants to tempt and deceive and
Ensnare and trick you and entice you into doing something wrong into breaking God's guidance
But then what does the devil also do according to the Bible?
Satan is also the accuser of the brethren
And isn't that a little bit ironic?
It's a little bit ironic that the same devil who's trying to tempt you and seduce you to sin is
The same one who turned over. Oh this guy's sitting over here
He's gonna accuse you
Before God the Bible says he accuses the Saints before God day and night. He's up in heaven constantly
Accusing the Saints we see him doing this with Job and he's accusing job and talking smack about job up in heaven
Satan comes before God to accuse job. He is accusing me. He's accusing you
He accuses the brethren to God
But he's the one who sits there and tempts them to do this stuff in the first place
So just like this prophet he tricks him into doing it and then rebukes him for doing it and condemns him for doing it
right another example of this exact same phenomenon in the Bible is with Amnon and
Amnon is tempted by Jon Adab to end up forcing
Tamar to lie with him and then after he does that Jon Adab turns around and tells on him to King David
Oh, yeah, this is what you know he did
Same guy who tempted Amnon is the same guy who accused Amnon and so and I've even seen real-life
Examples of this if you live long enough you will see lots of examples of people trying to get someone to do something stupid
This is like remember junior high folks
They'll try to get you to do something stupid, and then they'll tell on you when you do something stupid
They're the ones who told you to do is their idea
And then they go tattling because they wanted you to do it so that they could get you in trouble
It's like when the Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees are coming to Jesus and trying to get him to say something wrong
so they can go run and tell the Romans that he said something wrong because they want to get him in trouble and
So this is the way the devil operates he both tempts you and
Accuses you and it's ironic, but it's true. It's real. That's what he does
We have multiple examples in Scripture, and so what I believe is going on here human
That's kind of the the greater symbolic interpretation
But I think what's going on humanly speaking is that this old prophet is just a complete jerk a complete idiot
Complete weirdo. This is a weird thing to do
you hear about some man of God doing something great, and then you just go hunt him down and
Lie to him and tell him to come back and eat with you for whatever, you know, what's going through his mind, right?
It's a wicked and strange thing to do, but I believe that the dinner table confrontation
The way to explain that is that sometimes God will even use
Phonies and bogus people to still you know speak his word or to
You know pronounce judgment on someone or say something because think about it
You know there are a lot of false prophets in this world a lot of Judas Iscariot's
pretending to be God's people pretending to love the Lord pretending to believe the Bible and
These people preach a lot of lies, but I guarantee you they also read a lot of Bible verses
Even when a false prophet gets up pretending to be a Christian. He'll still say stuff from the Bible. That's true and
God could still use the word of God that's spoken to plant a seed in someone's heart obviously
He's not going to bring forth good fruit, but he could still if he quotes the word of God if a machine quoted the word
of God
Right if a parrot squawked the word of God to you
You know it's still the word of God it could still plant a seed in your mind or in your heart
And so I think that God
Intervenes and moves upon this prophet to say this correct pronouncement at the dinner table
And you know whenever I read this story
This is the thought that always coming to my mind like did the dinner get really awkward right after that like what like like?
How does this dinner end?
Like he brings him back. They're sitting down. They're eating everything's cool, and then all of a sudden the old prophet just chews him out
For doing it I mean does he just get up and run out of the room or does he does he finish his food I?
Don't know
It's a it's a peculiar story
and
so it says in verse 23 came to pass after he had eaten bread and
After he had drunk which seems to kind of indicate that he finished his food
because I mean he's already started eating and drinking by as well just fill the hump at that point and
After he had drunk that he saddled for him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back
So look after the guy chews him out at the dinner table and accuses him of
Violating the word of God because he's the one who lied to him and tricked him into violating the word of God
Then he saddles the guys asked for him here. Let me help you get on. Let's get you on the road, buddy
and
It says in verse number
24 when he was gone a lion
met him by the way and slew him and
his carcass was cast in the way and the ass stood by it and
The lion also stood by the carcass and again the lion could further represent Satan right you know the lion
represents the devil who walks about as
A roaring lion seeking whom he may devour so this guy is devoured by
You know or defeated by the devil because he listened to this
Lying prophet who told him these things and so he ends up getting torn up by a lion
but the lion doesn't eat him okay, so the lion kills him, but the lion just kind of stands there and
doesn't eat the corpse and
Then it says in verse number 25 behold men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and
the lion standing by the carcass and
They came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwell
And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof he said it is the man of God who was
disobedient under the word of the Lord
Therefore the Lord had delivered him into the unto the lion which had torn him and slain him
According to the word of the Lord which he spake unto him
And he spake to his son saying saddle me the ass and they saddled him
And he went and found his carcass cast in the way and ass
The lion standing by the carcass the lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the ass
So you have the donkey and the lion and the dead body and the lion is very strange because you'd expect the lion to kill
the donkey
Because that's what he's programmed to do. That's what lions do they tear apart animals like that
He's just kind of hanging out with the donkey and he's not eating what he did kill
Because he should be chowing down on the corpse of the prophet, but he doesn't do that either
He's just kind of standing there, and I think this is just emphasizing the
Supernatural element here that it's not just oh the guy happened to get attacked by a lion
but everybody who walks by kind of sees this as a
Miraculous thing like wait a minute. This isn't normal this lion is there just to execute this guy and
Not even eat him and not even kill the donkey
And he's just kind of standing there to show that this isn't normal and then people come by and see this and then the old
Prophet he explains them. Well you know this guy
Didn't obey God. You know he wasn't supposed to eat or drink and he did eat and drink and by the way
You know no, I'm not gonna mention that I'm the one who caused all this
and
It says that in verse number
29 the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back and the old
Prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him and he laid his carcass in his own grave
And they mourned over him saying alas my brother
And they came to pass after he had buried him
Then he spake to his son saying when I'm dead then bury me in the sepulcher wherein the man of God is buried lay my
bones beside his bones for the
Saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places
Which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass
After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way
But made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places and and of course the sin of Jeroboam goes on for centuries
They continue to have this false religion where they worship these golden calves in Dan and Bethel
And so what can we learn from the story? I mean there are there are a lot of things going on in the story
It's kind of a complex story, and if it's too complex for you
I'm sorry you know go back to your cartoons, but the Bible is a very sophisticated
Book and so it has very complicated stories sometimes a complex some things in the Bible really easy some stories are simple
This is one of those more complex stories where there's a lot going on here
And there's a lot that we can learn some of the things that we can learn from this
Are that you know even a great man of God or woman of God even a great person
Can still get tripped up by the devil if they're not careful who they're listening to who they're following who they start hanging around with
Okay, just because you have been greatly used by God in the past just because you have been doctrinally solid in the past
It doesn't mean that you're immune
From coming under bad influences if you start getting in some liberal church or or
Apostate Church watered down church. You know that stuff is going to have an influence on you. No one's immune to it
I don't think that this guy was a bad guy
I think he just made a mistake because he got sucked in
By some preacher that I don't know what the appeal was with this preacher
somehow this preacher sucked him in and
We need to understand that we're not immune and we need to take heed lest we fall and we need to be
Careful to always be studying the Bible checking what we believe and making sure that we're listening to
Biblically sound teaching and preaching so that we don't get deceived as well. This guy wasn't immune from it. Neither are we right?
He's greatly used by God now. Look people can be greatly used by God
Here's the next lesson from the chapter people can be greatly used by God, but then
down the road they can crash and burn in their lives as well and
Guess what? If you are greatly used by God and then in the future you crash and burn it really doesn't undo
The good work that you did in the past necessarily and it also doesn't make what you preached in the past
Not true, you know think about this
What if some man of God gets up and preaches the Bible faithfully for 20 30 years?
And he preaches a lot of great truth from the Bible and then as an old man
he liberals out or he just
Falls into sin or he stops serving God or he goes out and commits some awful sin or something, right?
It has happened before and I'm sure that it will happen again where people who used to be
godly men have
Gone astray
They have become apostate or they have become worldly or sinful or quit serving God or or whatever
It doesn't change the fact that what they said back when they were serving God was true
You know
so a lot of people what they'll do is they'll find some example of some preacher who crashed and burned somewhere and say see this is
Why you don't want to be a Baptist?
This is why you don't want to be a fundamentalist
See, this is why you don't want to be King James, you know
And they want to try to say well because this guy failed or this guy crashed
You see this is why I don't like about Christianity. Oh, this is why I don't go to church
That's what people say, don't they? Oh
I don't go to church because you know, I went to a church and you know, everything went up in flames at some point
Well, guess what whether or not some particular person
man of God or faithful Christian lady goes up in flames at some point or
Crashes and burns in their own personal life or their own Christian life that does not prevent the Word of God from being true
And if they preach the Word of God if that man of God said look Josiah is gonna desecrate this altar
Well, guess what Josiah's gonna desecrate that altar because that's God's Word
Even if he personally messed up because at the end of the day, we're not following personalities. We're following Christ
Now hopefully the people that you're following
Will serve God all the way to the end and of course many Christians do faithfully serve God all the way to the end
Hopefully your parents stay faithful to Christ all the way to the end
Hopefully your pastor and if I'm your pastor, hey take it to the bank
All right. But anyway, I'm saying, you know, if you go to church somewhere else or people are listening online. Hey
Hopefully your pastor makes it all the way to the finish line
Serving God faithfully preaching faithfully doing the right things living right but at the end of the day
When things do go bad when someone does crash and burn, you know at the end of the day
we need to look into Jesus because he's the author and the finisher of our faith and
So even if this young man of God messed up the Lord is still true
Jerusalem was still the right place to worship the man of God had said everything right this old prophet is still a bozo
Okay, and they still need to be abstaining from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and Josiah is still coming and so forth
You know you I mean take take King Solomon for example, you know King Solomon started out as being a very godly
Righteous man a humble man a wise man and yet at the end of his life
He had completely turned away from the right path and he was no longer serving God and he started just
Indulging his foreign wives in the worship of all their false gods and he's basically
Building shrines for them to worship their false gods and his his heart is more with these women
Than it is with serving the Lord
He's outlandish wives. The Bible says turned his heart away from the Lord in his old age
Okay, but does that mean that the Proverbs of Solomon are true?
No, because the Proverbs of Solomon are the Word of God. Does that make Ecclesiastes not true?
Does that mean the Song of Solomon does not contain spiritual truth? No, it's still true
It's still the Word of God human beings are gonna let us down
That doesn't change the fact that Christ is the same
Yesterday and today and forever and so we see here that this young man crashed and burned
But the Word of God that he preached was still true
Then we see the old prophet, you know, just because a religion is old doesn't make it right
Just because a doctrine is old doesn't make it right, you know
All these theological books from 300 years ago 400 years ago people. Oh, yeah, we got to get back to that stuff. I
Say no
Here's why I don't recommend
Because if we're to get in a time machine and go back three or four hundred years
The real powerful men of God their books aren't being published
Think about it look around today
Who do you see actually preaching the Word of God faithfully now, let me ask you this is their book at Barnes and Noble is
Their book in the library of a Roman Catholic University
No, well guess what the people who are writing the history books
Throughout a lot of the last 2,000 years were Catholics
Right, and then you have Protestants and then you just have the kind of mainstream
Joel Osteen style Christianity and Rick Warren style
Christianity and all of this kind of stuff Billy Graham style Christian, you know, that's what is popular. That's what sells
That's what's going to be at Barnes and Noble
That's what's going to be promoted. That's what you're gonna see in the libraries of the universities
The pastors who are actually preaching the Word of God faithfully the people who are out there doing soul winning and everything
You know, why would it be different in the past than it is right now
Woe unto you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers under the false prophets
But I'm supposed to believe that the most popular
Pastor in England 150 years ago was a great man of God. He's the number one most popular guy in England
Well, let me ask this is the number one most popular pastor in England right now a great man of God is
The number one most popular pastor in any country in the entire world a man of God
Then why would it be the different back then?
There's no new thing under the Sun my friend and let me tell you something
Even the Apostle Paul in his lifetime said all they that are in Asia be turned away from me
Okay, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution
Okay, some Catholic monk in a monastery is not going to determine my theology
some Protestant reformer who's in bed with all these kings and princes and and
Promoted by the politicians and super popular and loved of this world is not going to determine my theology
Okay, we look if I wanted to hear what somebody had to say from three or four hundred years ago
I can't because they're dead and somebody wouldn't publish their books at that time
Right if they were alive today, they'd be banned from social media
You know if they were alive today, they wouldn't be published. They'd be self-published if anything, you know
and so what has survived is
mainly a bunch of stuff from just the popular preachers that this world is always gonna lift up and exalt and and and you
Know the Catholics are gonna declare him a saint or whatever
Whereas
You know the real men of God you're not gonna hear about them in history
But that's why I don't I don't buy into this like historical Christianity, you know historical fundamentalism or something like that
You know, I'd rather go with biblical Christianity and biblical fundamentalism
And I'd rather have every generation
Hit the Bible
again
with the Holy Spirit in their breast and
Find out the truth and test everything and check everything and make sure that everything jives and not just say well
You know, let's go with the old-timers
Gave me that old-time religion. Yeah, the old-time religion as long as we're going all the way back to the Bible
But if we're just going back to the 20s or if we're going back to 1800s or going back to the Reformation
I'm not interested. I
either want to talk about
2023 or I want to talk about first century AD Christ and his apostles what we read about in the Bible
Okay, that's what matters to me. And so that's another thing we can take care. Is that older is not necessarily better right preachers
They can come along and maybe say some good things because the Prophet and the story said some good things the old man
But he also lied
Just because you say well this prophet preached some good stuff, yeah, okay, but what about the lies that he's telling
You know, it's not like you think that as this guy's being torn up by a lion
This guy's thinking you know, that guy did say some good things
You know, he'd you know, hey at least the dinner was good, you know what I mean
No, because when you're getting torn up by a lion that kind of outweighs any good that you got from this guy
And so yeah
You might be able to glean some good things from some false prophet because even a broken clock is right twice per day
But that doesn't mean that you should go listening to these apostates because they can get you
ensnared with the trap of the devil and you don't want that and
So older is not necessarily better. You can't trust every preacher that's out there preaching
You got to prove all things you got to test things with the Word of God and remember you don't need anyone to teach you
So if anybody's like well, no, no you and the Holy Spirit that's not enough you need the church fathers
You need theology you need systematic theology. You need the philosophers. You need the creeds. You need the councils
You need the confessions. No, you don't you need the Bible and the Holy Spirit period and you know what?
I'm here not because you need me. You don't need me. I'm here because I can help you
You don't need me
Okay, then you say well, I'm not gonna come to church
Well, then, you know what? You're disobeying God cuz God told you to come to church
But at the same time if there's some doctrine well, you know, you can only get it from Pastor Anderson
Then it's a false doctrine
And you know, what's so funny about this is that people people often have accused me of preaching unique doctrine
and
yet
everything that I teach
Every major doctrine I teach obviously I might have like
Interpreted a single verse in a unique way because the Bible is so deep people are constantly finding new things in the Bible little tiny
things
But as far as the big things that I believe
People will literally accuse me of being unique on these things and it's absurd because there are literally millions of but you name anything
I've named anything I teach
Anything absolutely anything and there are millions and millions of people on this earth that I could point to that believe the same thing
You think I'm the only person who's not pre-trib
Because there are millions and millions of people who don't believe in the preacher rapture
Okay, there are there are all there are whole denominations that don't teach the preacher of rapture. There are
Millions of Baptists who don't believe in the preacher of rapture
I mean look nothing that I teach is unique and people people have tried to claim that the reprobate doctrine is unique with me
What first of all, I grew up hearing the reprobate doctrine being preached throughout the 80s and 90s in Baptist churches
I've met Christians all over the world who independently told they told me the reprobate doctrine and I'm thinking like yeah
You know, I'm but you had me at hello. And do you realize who you're talking? You know, sometimes it's funny to me
I'm like, do you realize who you're talking to? You're telling me the reprobate dogs. I'm like, this is great
You're telling me the reprobate doctrine it warmed my heart
Okay
Because it's not unique to me
It's in the Bible. It's right there in the text and you could go down the list. You could name any doctrine
That I teach and I'm not talking about some super fine point of Bible prophecy or something
I'm talking about the big, you know, whatever I'm teaching about the Trinity whatever I'm teaching about
Salvation whatever I'm teaching in general about end times whatever I'm teaching about any kind of a
Lifestyle thing I promise you there are millions of people believing the same thing because we all have the same Bible same Holy Spirit
Nothing's unique to me. Okay
When something is just unique
Right, then that's a red flag when nobody's ever heard of something. Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Why because we shouldn't need a
Certain person to teach us a doctrine and let's face it
There are a lot of doctrines you're never gonna come up with in a million years reading the Bible
Unless someone came and taught you have need that they teach you you think you're gonna read the Bible and come away with baptism by sprinkling
Think about it
No one's gonna read the Bible and say sprinkling
You know, they went down both into the water and he baptized him Jesus went down into the water
It comes up out of the water. We're buried with him by baptism sprinkling
But you know, there's a church tradition of sprinkling
Right, you think you're gonna so you go to the Bible and it's like a bishop then must be blameless
The husband one wife bishops can't be married
Bishops aren't allowed to get married
No, you know who you need to teach you that the Roman Catholic Church because the Bible says the bishop must be the husband of
one wife
Catholic Church comes along just teaches the opposite
Cannot be the husband of one wife
But you need them to teach you that and we could I could list examples until I'm blue in the face
At the end of the day the Word of God is the boss
Nothing try go by what you got firsthand from the Bible
Not what you're getting third hand from Joseph Smith Muhammad the Roman Catholic Church Church fathers or anybody else
Let's buy rides in a board of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word Lord
And we thank you that we have direct access to the ultimate truth Lord
Thank you for the built-in teacher of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for direct
Insight into the mind of Christ Lord help us to take advantage of that every day by reading your word and Lord help us
Never to walk away from things that we know to be true
To follow after something just because someone told us Lord
Help us to realize there are many deceivers that are gone out into the world Lord
Help us to be sober and vigilant that we be not devoured as this young man was and in Jesus name we pray men
Amen
Amen let's take our song looks please go to him number 433
433 away in the manger him number 433
Sing it out with me on that first verse in number 433
Oh
You