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All right 1st Kings chapter 13. I love this story is a great story in the Bible and we actually just covered Part of this a couple weeks ago when I was going over the fulfilled prophecies and found in the Bible Because it starts off with a fulfilled prophecy. Let's start reading here again in verse number one where we just read by the reason 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 now just to bring you up to speed real briefly And and all the chapters leading up to here, you know, we we saw King David's reign end in Solomon's kingdom being established Then we saw Solomon get into some sin and and it was prophesied that he was gonna end up losing You know the majority of the kingdom, but God was gonna keep one for David his father's sake Rehoboam his son becomes king Rehoboam that's that's when all this, you know when the kingdoms rent away from the house of David and Jeroboam is prophesied to become the king of the other tribes of Israel Jeroboam just becomes king at the end of the last chapter in chapter 12 and Right away. He's getting into sin and he's worried. He's gonna lose the kingdom So and the reason why he thinks he's they're gonna lose the kingdom is he's thinking well Everyone's gonna go back to Jerusalem because that's where the temple of the Lord is they're gonna keep worshiping God and they're gonna their heart is gonna go back to the house of David and He says when they keep going back to Jerusalem, you know They're gonna end up killing me because they're just gonna have Rehoboam reign over the whole kingdom. That was his fear That was his worry and as a result of that he made these golden calves One at Dan and one at Bethel for them to go and worship in and he set up these feasts and he set up like All these various things so they said you don't need to go to Jerusalem anymore. You could just worship God here right worship at these idols and and That way he was trying to prevent them from going back and you know, it was all out of fear It's really bad decision, but it was a horrible sin because from that point on I mean the children of Israel in that name that northern nation of Israel is Just just goes down the wrong path for quite a long time The vast majority of the Kings are wicked the people are wicked just by and large That is the and he becomes kind of the standard for being a wicked King as I mentioned last week You know when you're reading through all the books of the Kings and the Chronicles and they're talking about how evil a king was They'll compare it to see what was he quite as wicked as Jeroboam the son of Nebat all the time He's that standard of how wicked a king is so We're seeing now here in chapter 13 as we start off he's right by this altar to burn incense unto this idol unto this false god and A man of God comes and what's interesting about this whole story that we never learned the name of the man of God He's just referred to as the man of God the man of God the man of God And I think even that alone from this pretty unique in this story we could learn quite a bit for one It doesn't matter what his name is It doesn't matter what any of the names are because what matters is the message what matters is the Word of God You could you know you could have any name if you're preaching the Word of God. That's what truly matters But another thing I think is kind of interesting too is that there is a man of God That God does use man that that God is you know Using men to preach his word and to deliver his message that while we're not like The Catholic Church or like some other religions that have a God man Like that that they are your mediator between God and man God still uses man to preach his word, and there's there's definitely a difference there, right It's not like like I am to have some closer connection to God because I'm leading this church or anyone else does for that matter But God does choose men to use and to deliver and his message and to preach his word And that's what we see here. We have a man of God. He comes out of Judah by the word of the Lord God sends him unto Bethel and Jeroboam is standing there. He's by the altar. He's ready to burn incense verse number two the Bible says 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. So this is the message that he's delivering as the man of God. He's crying out Which means you know what says he cried against the altar. It means he's yelling out. He's preaching with a loud voice He's preaching a message that needs to be heard people say why do you know? Why do you Baptist always you know? You have yelling and you're preaching and stuff like that because it's important because this is you know We're trying to preach God's Word and deliver a message from God And yeah, we're gonna cry out sometimes so that everyone can hear that message and realize this is important This is straight from the Word of God This is something that that God wants you to know so he cries out against he cries out against this altar saying halter altar You know thus saith the Lord they're not his words. He didn't come up with this he didn't come up with this out of his own heart God told him to say these things and He prophesied this is and this is an amazing event and I'm not gonna cover all the details of this Because I did that when we went over the the Bible prophecies that That were fulfilled in the Bible. This is one of those he Names off that someone a descendant of David a future descendant of David is going to be born and he says Josiah will be his name and He says he's gonna burn on this altar that you're making right that you just made. He just created this altar It's brand new. He says they're gonna be burning men's bones So all these false prophets and the people who are burning incense in the high places and the people who have gone after these strange Gods, you know what's gonna happen when Josiah comes around their bones are going to be burnt on this altar that you just made That was his prophecy. But what's interesting about that prophecy is that that came to pass some 400 years later 400 years and I mentioned this in my sermon, but I mean think about how long ago 400 years was we're talking in the 1600 So imagine someone in the 1600s calling someone out by name of the lineage and household of David y'all have a specific Person's descendants from that time saying here's his name. Here's what he's gonna do and it came to pass Exactly as promised and what's really interesting about that is that when Josiah was born People weren't even reading the Bible. So when he was named Josiah, it wasn't like his parents were saying Here's gonna be the guy that fulfills this prophecy from 400 years earlier at all Because it wasn't until he decided to repair the house of the Lord because his father Had turned from the Lord and had been worshiping false gods He's the one that's saying you know what? No, we're gonna worship the Lord, you know that that's who we're gonna worship They repair the house of the Lord and they're like, hey, we thought we found this book in there Look at this, you know, it's the law of the Lord and then he gets all scared when they find out wow We've been sinning like crazy. We need to see what's going on So when he was born and named Josiah and came and did all this stuff. It was not planned This was not premeditated. Okay, we need to fulfill this this prophecy from 400 years earlier No, it happened because God knows everything and and and he knew in advance when he told this man of God to prophesy against it That that was going to happen He already knew in advance and of course, that's what plays out and and that that in itself is an amazing event But let's keep going out because I could go on and on about that. In fact, I did a couple weeks ago Let's see verse number three here. We're in first Kings 13 verse number three, and he gave a sign the same day So he's still preaching against his altar and he says something else here verse number three saying this is the sign which the Lord hath spoken Behold the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out rent means it's gonna be broken Okay, this is gonna be broken It's gonna break and the ashes are on they're gonna 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 think about I mean There's so many things that are amazing about this story So King Jeroboam saying, you know, like seize him right arrest that guy right there and and he's pointing to him And as he does that his whole arm and his hand just it just gets like just stuck He can't bend it can't move it. It's just frozen in place And it says in verse 5 the altar also was rent and the ashes poured out from the altar According to the sign which the man of God had given by the words of the Lord So this this second the first sign that he gives when he's preaching against it that happens 400 years later But to confirm what he's saying is from God right here right now This second part of his prophecy happens immediately. He says that altar is going to be burnt It's gonna be rent and all the ashes are gonna pour out and then like right after he says it What happens the altar breaks and all the ashes pour out? I mean think about how crazy is because that's a that's a new altar Jeroboam just made that thing It's not like it's been sitting there for hundreds of years and then it just finally cracks and in breaks because it's been weathered it breaks immediately why because He's preaching and has the power of God and and God's the one that causes these things happen. So Look at verse number six 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 so it's funny how scared you all of a sudden. He's just like, uh And think about that happened to you. He Jeroboam is full of pride. He builds these false, you know, these these idols he's graven images Now his hand stuck and it's not I mean that's not something that's in his head He can't do anything about it and he's like, you know He just told him to arrest this guy and now he's like in treating him right now. He's saying can you please tell God? give me my hand back so I could I could be healed of this of this problem and That reminds me exactly like Pharaoh Remember when when Moses was going to Pharaoh and he's these bringing you know He's preaching the Word of God unto Pharaoh and saying, you know, let my people go and he's if you don't do it Here's what's gonna happen There's gonna be this plague and every time after the plagues come Pharaoh's just he's all haughty. He's puffed up He's prideful like whatever who's the Lord and then the plague comes and all of a sudden Pharaoh's like Okay, can you can you please tell God to make this stop? You know to make this quit and this is a this is the kind of a pattern that we see in many people's lives You know, it's easy to get lifted up with pride to say who is God? I don't need God I don't need anyone, you know, I've done all this myself, but God's got a good way of bringing people real low and It's funny how everybody that gets brought down low pretty much is gonna now all of a sudden be looking for God But what we see here between we have Jeroboam and Pharaoh as bad examples because what happens as soon as the problem passes They're right back to being proud again. They're right back to not learning anything from their lesson They're right back to just not caring about God The point of these things happening is that hopefully your heart can get right with God not just in the moment But beyond that moment and forever, right? did when these things happen that the goal that God wants to see is that when he has to bring you down and maybe You know a base you because you've gotten to lift it up with yourself is that you can be humble and stay humble Even when God does bless you again or give you more or the problem subsides but we see Jeroboam the son of Nebat as well as Pharaoh both hardening their hearts and Stiffening their neck and still continuing not to want to have anything to do with that would to God more people can Wisen up a little bit when when these bad events happen and not go back to cursing God Let's keep reading here verse number six Or excuse me verse number seven and The king said unto the man of God come home with me and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward so now He's gone from being angry with them because he's calling out his idolatry And wanting to arrest him now that he was actually able to heal. Let me say hey Come back with me come back to my house He said you know I'm gonna feed you a nice meal, and I'm gonna give you a reward now Jeroboam's heart was not fixed at this point. We're gonna see at the end of the chapter that he's basically as a hard heart still But what this is a picture of is this temptation because What the man of God was told and we'll get that in just a minute. He was told Not to go back. He said God says here's it was real specific instructions I was given the man of God. He says you go in to Bethel You preach the message that I have for you to preach You leave Bethel, and you don't turn back you don't stop to eat. You don't stop to drink you get out of there and That's what he was told that was that was the instructions for the man of God to follow And he knows that so when Jeroboam comes to him and says hey come home with me refresh yourself We'll grab a you know I'll feed you you know from the king's table this nice food, and I'll give you a reward He's got to answer no you say no, and that's what he does do, but what I think Jeroboam pictures here is Satan I think he's a picture is the way that Satan tries to deceive you he tries to get you to be tempted with breaking the word of the Lord Disobeying God's Commandments doing something that that is a sin that's against what God told you to do or told you not to do and Try to make it appealing try to try to make it sound real good try to try to say hey Come and do this yeah disobey the Lord and come back and I'll give you a reward Right try to try to flash something in front of your eyes to get you to disobey God Promising a reward you know to get to disobey God and sin this reminded me of when Jesus was tempted of the devil in the wilderness You have to turn over in Luke 4 verse 5 the Bible says in the devil taking him up into an high mountain showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and the devil said unto him all this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to Whomsoever I will I give it if thou therefore will will worship me All shall be done That's a Satan's pitch unto Jesus Christ Saying all these kingdoms all this glory all this wealth. I'll give it to you I'll give you this reward if you just Disobey God's Commandments and worship me And of course Jesus answers as Jesus an answer said on him get thee behind me Satan for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve he answers Satan with the Word of God And this is exactly what this the the man of God does is he says no I can't go with you because God said not to It's exact same response We need to learn to get that response because sometimes these temptations can be alluring Sometimes you get caught up thinking you know your mind focused on the wrong thing You know someone flashes a little bit of money in front of your face And you go wow and all of a sudden your integrity goes out the window all of a sudden God's Word goes out the window And you get you get caught up in that trap in that snare. I mean we try to just to trap an animal What do you do you're putting some bait out there? You're putting some you know you go out fishing you put you don't just have a hook You put something that the fish want to eat on that hook right you're trying to lure them in You put the the meat on the the bear trap to get the bear you're putting whatever out there. That is alluring to them But it's a snare. It's a trap. You know it's there. It's not there for their better It's there to get them to capture them, and that's what Satan tries to do with sin He tries to capture us he tries to allure us into his trap to destroy us and We need to make sure that the Word of God is settled in our hearts so that we are not going to be So easily deceived and tempted by these things when they come up because they will come up Another example turn if you would real quick to Proverbs chapter 7 There's another illustration of how this happens keep your finger in 1st Kings 13. We're coming back to that I Gave you the example of Jesus Christ and Satan. I think that that matches up fairly closely with what we're reading here with the man of God Being promised a reward in order to just to disobey the Word of God Proverbs chapter 7 verse number 14. We're start reading. We're gonna read about the adulterous woman Right another another example of someone trying to allure and appeal to the flesh to get you to sin Verse number 14 she starts saying you know she's she's conversing with this guy I have peace offerings with me this day if I paid my vows trying to be all spiritual saying how godly she is Therefore came I forth to meet thee Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry With carved works with fine linen of Egypt I have perfumed my bed with myrrh aloes and cinnamon, so she's saying all these things or you know to get this mental image think about how nice my bed is and there's there's all these sweet scents and and Everything's so nice, and I came looking just for you Verse 18 come let us take our fill of love Until the morning let us solace ourselves with love so of course she doesn't say come let's go commit adultery Come let's go commit fornication. She says no. It's love Come let's let's let's just experience love And that's what the world's gonna. Tell you today fornication. No. It's not fornication. It's love God's Word says it's fornication It's a wicked sin Adultery is even worse No, let's let's solace ourselves with love verse 19 for the Goodman is not at home He's gone a long journey He had taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed with her much fair speech She caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips. She forced him It's a trap to snare Trying to allure to the lust of the flesh go back if you were to first Kings chapter 13 Alluring to the lust of the flesh offering you this reward offering you this this this great experience Trying to get you to Disobey God and get into sin. This is what we see Jeroboam trying to do with the man of God Let's see how he answers him because we know how he does, but let's read it here verse number 8 first Kings 13 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 would the God we could all have this determination and steadfastness to remain in the will of God to be just so focused on keeping God's word that we're not gonna let these people Deceive us and who bettered I mean, that's a pretty influential figure Jeroboam was the king of Israel I mean a king saying do you come with me? He probably would have had the best meal he's ever had in his life by going to the king's house He has to tell the king. No Someone who's already has the most authority in the land Or he's the king the king over everybody So he's got a lot of obstacles if you will to faith a lot of reasons to back down a lot of a lot of reasons to buckle But he stays firm he stays strong and he does what's right and he says no I Ought to obey God rather than man And this is the attitude that we need to have so far so good the man of God's doing great He stood up to one test and he passed look at verse number 11 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 unto the king Then they told also to their father so this old prophet gets wind of what's been going on. What happened out there Now we you know and we're introduced to this man some I really I think is you know I read this is like this is just some old washed-up prophet right why wasn't this prophet out there saying? Jeroboam you're wicked. What are you doing building up these altars unto unto these idols and unto these false gods? What's he doing? He's hanging out at home This is one of the problems we still have today There's way too many pastors and preachers that are not willing to stand up and say thus saith the Lord that you know Adultery is an abomination That's worthy of the death penalty according to the Bible that home that sodomy and homosexuality is an abomination According to God and it ought not to be done Where are these people standing up and just saying no we're not gonna tolerate this we're not gonna become tall We're not gonna be accepting of sin and wickedness We Way more people going out and standing up against us, but you got the old prophets. They don't want to step on anyone's toes The old prophets want to tell everyone Everything's just fine. They're afraid of getting attacked. They're afraid of what the king might say they're afraid of whatever afraid of their own shadow And that's how you know they don't got the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God gives you boldness I'm not saying they're not saved, but they don't have the power of the Holy Spirit on them if you're not preaching boldly Let's keep reading your verse number 12 I read a little bit more about this old washed-up prophet verse number 12 and Their father said unto them what what way when 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 thereon and went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak And he said unto them art thou the man of God that came is from Judah, and he said I am Now my first thing is why was it? What was he doing sitting under the oak now? Was it a sin for him to stop and sit under the oak no was he disobedient to God's Word by Stopping and sitting under the oak no But The Word of the Lord that came unto him he said in verse 9. He says eat no bread nor drink water Nor turn again by the same way that thou came and so if you are not even allowed to eat bread and drink water in that place I Want to be getting out of there right? I want to be getting a drink of water because he's traveling It's not like he's getting in his car and driving away Right traveling then is gonna make it a little bit more thirsty than easy even if he's on an ass even as he's on a Horse or whatever however you know his his mode of transportation You're still gonna get thirsty traveling out in the Sun, and I'm saying why are you stopping for a break under the tree? Just get out of there, so you could have yourself or if you know some refreshments and and and get back to to regular life I mean it was a Serious warning from the Word of God and I think that could have saved him all this trouble and all this hassle had he would have Just yeah, just push it out a little bit more and just just kind of gone the rest of the way and completed his mission 100% We need to be careful about these things that yeah, you can say you know what they're not sins But It might just lead you in the wrong direction, but you might end up putting yourself in a place Where where you're gonna end up being tempted to sin, or you know where bad things might be more prone to happen We need to have this type of wisdom and make sure that when we're following the Word of the Lord We are following it not just Well this is what I got to do and doing the minimum Right just just barely covering to make sure I don't sin But being excited about the word. Hey, this is the Word of God man. Let's do this. Let's do it with zeal let's be excited about it and and and Put in a hundred and ten percent You have that type of an attitude You're not gonna You know you're not gonna be finding yourself in these situations nearly as frequently where you're getting all these these temptations coming at you But here he is right he was not see that knew anything wrong as far as sinning goes He was he was just fine, but I think we can learn that a little bit Let's see let's see what he says here verse 15 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 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 got this in his head pretty good what God told him I mean he's not I mean he didn't even mix up his words at all He says the exact same thing This is what God told me to do and he knows it, and you know what praise God He returns the same answer to this old prophet that he did the Jeroboam Amen, he's doing good still staying true to the Word of God It doesn't matter if the the king says it it doesn't matter if this prophet says it He's saying you know what this is the Word of God. I'm not gonna break it But then this happens look at verse 18 So the old prophet answers them he said on him I am a prophet also as thou art hey, I'm just like you I'm a prophet 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 we have this lying old prophet Saying Hey, God told me that God said no no no I know God told you that But see God told me that it's actually okay, and that he wants you to eat bread, and he wants you to drink water Completely contradicting what God had actually told him That first thought is like what a jerk I mean this guy's he's already been told no and the reason why he was told no is because God said not to do it But it shows you how much respect this old prophet had for the Word of God Zero which is why he wasn't out there rebuking Jeroboah because it doesn't matter to him After hearing for himself the Word of God this guy still lies unto the man and this also shows you that the people that will try to cause you to sin and They'll try to allure you and tempt you it's not always going to be as easy to spot as Jeroboam is Jeroboam was doing everything public I mean he's just rearing up these altars on the false gods You know anyone that has that has half a brain in the Word of God can see this is wicked right I mean, this is just overt out in the open He's making idols the set you know the first and second Commandments They not to make idols not to worship them not to do any of that stuff It doesn't take a theologian to figure this stuff out Anybody can see that plainly So when you see the Jeroboam trying to tempt you trying to allure you That's a little bit easier to discern and say you know what I'm like a false guy But when you got someone that says hey, I'm a prophet. I'm a man of God, too And guess what God told me this Now that becomes a little bit more deceptive a little bit more tricky and we need to make sure that we are Aware of this obviously aware of false prophets aware of that these things are going to happen and Still stand by the Word of God Regardless of who is trying to tempt you regardless of who it is that's telling you no Actually, you should do this even though God's Word says that I don't care if it's me I don't care if it's your favorite pastor From from any other church someone that you respect someone that you look up to if someone's telling you No, I know the Bible says this but you should do that You need to go with God's Word every single time. I don't care who the person is We're not supposed to be respecter of persons anyways, and like I said at the beginning the man of God is named doesn't matter It's the message. It's the Word of God that matters We need to make sure that we don't fall into a cult of personality of following some one man or one teacher and just following him wherever he goes without analyzing it against the Word of God and testing it and judging it against Scripture Because that's when you fall into a cult When I was thinking about this I was thinking about what comes to mind is Galatians chapter 1 Galatians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 says but though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received let him be accursed That was the apostle Paul to the church of Galatia And he said though we so like we are he's including himself he says if me or Timothy or Titus or Barnabas or any of us preach another gospel unto you or even an angel of God I don't care if you see a heavenly vision if they preach you some other gospel than what you've already received let them be accursed He's including himself in that Why? Because any other gospel is going to be a false gospel and it's not going to be from God So whether it's coming from a man who you already know man this is a great man of God but he's teaching you a false gospel let him be accursed You claim to have these revelations from heaven an angel of God told me this let him be accursed This is how we know that the Mormons are wrong The Mormon Joseph Smith is the one that claimed to have a heavenly vision An angel appeared unto him and he gave him this new teaching and he gave him the golden tablets and he taught him about it he gave him the special glasses to be able to read it And he came up with a false gospel That's how we know he's a fraud he's got a false gospel he's got another gospel I don't care if Joseph Smith really did see an angel which would be a devil Giving him this vision and giving him this insight he's preaching a false gospel let him be accursed This is how we know the JW's are wrong Charles Taze Russell is a false prophet Made all kinds of false predictions and false claims that weren't of God trying to speak in the name of the Lord and his prophecies didn't come to pass He's a false prophet he's a phony This is how we know that the Seventh-day Adventists also are wrong Ellen G. White was a false prophetess with a false gospel having false prophecies that didn't come to pass because they weren't of God They weren't preaching the word of the Lord they are tested and failed let them be accursed And we need to make sure that we don't get sucked in to the people that it could be real charismatic that could be real good speakers Really good orders really good at tugging at your heart strings really good at using their words to manipulate you or control you This is a good speaker that claimed to have a word from the Lord that's not already written in the Bible This is a common thing these days especially in a lot of the bigger churches the mega churches I was down in Phoenix and I was attending a funeral for someone that had gone to one of these mega churches and I was hearing the pastor preach on the service And in the middle of the funeral he's talking to the man's child that the man had died and he had a couple of younger children And he goes God told me to tell you this I got a word from God last night and this is what he told me to tell you And you know what it wasn't anything that's found in the Bible Now I'll tell you what we got word of God when someone says hey I'm hearing and God's telling me this is exactly what you want to do We got to write that down because that's scripture That's not the word of God that's coming out of his own heart Now regardless of if he's saying something that's not bad okay and he didn't tell this kid anything bad He didn't tell him to go build an altar or worship some idol But don't claim God's word on something that's not God's word God has integrity when God says something it's going to come to pass for sure No doubt about it and don't be going around and throwing God's name around and saying this is what God said Unless it's already written here because I'll tell you what God has given us his word It's complete God uses man yes he uses man to preach his word but we have his words We don't need anything else watch out for those people In this case with the man of God he should have spotted the fraud from the old prophet First it was coming from someone he didn't even know He didn't know who this old prophet was why should he have any respect but even more importantly It contradicted what he was already told When you know something to be God's word let's say you know the Ten Commandments real simple right so many people know that I know the Ten Commandments say I know that I know I shouldn't steal But then you get someone trying to convince you that well stealing is okay in this situation stealing is okay in that situation I don't care if it's a pastor telling you that you tell them no it's not okay Because God's word said so if you're going to tell me something that contradicts what the Bible says you're wrong And we need to make sure we don't fall into that trap and that we can test it and spot these frauds This old prophet was a fraud he should have been able to tell that look at 1 Kings 13 let's keep going here in the chapter So this guy lies to him and he deceives him He tricks him and he falls for it verse number 19 so he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drank water He did exactly the things that God told him not to do Look what happens verse 20 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 So now he actually is receiving the word of the Lord Before he lied about what God said now he actually is getting the word of the Lord Verse 21 it says and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah saying thus saith the Lord For as much as thou has 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 unto the sepulchre of thy fathers 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 Think about what just happened here He disobeyed God's word The very prophet that lied unto him now said Okay because you disobeyed my commandment now you're going to die And that's exactly what happens as soon as he leaves lion meets him lion kills him There are so many things that we could learn from this one event that happened First of all gives us a little bit of an insight into God's character and this is something unfortunately that's not taught often enough We were just out soul winning today brother Sebastian and I and we talked to this lady real nice lady and I forget how we got on the subject, but she said something about about the preaching I think I had a Mormon Church as she was going to and I said she said something about Hellfire and Brimstone I was like well we do preach Hellfire and Brimstone right I mean that is what we preach here and as he was kind of like Oh like and I was trying to explain why why do we preach that because it's not just for no reason It's not just to be jerks it's not just to try to make people feel bad necessarily but you know there's a good reason for it What I was telling her is that the reason why we preach that way is because we're trying to preach the whole Bible We're trying to follow the example of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel We're trying to follow the example of Jesus Christ who's you know when he was preaching in Matthew 23 against the Pharisees Saying you know how shall you how shall you escape the damnation of hell you vipers and you serpents And these are things that we find throughout the Bible and we don't want to have an imbalanced view of who God is We know that God is love and we love him for that and we preach on that and it's comforting and it's edifying We know that God is long suffering and praise God for his mercy that endureth forever We find that throughout the Bible and we're going to extol that and we're going to preach on that and we love that But that's not the only thing we're going to preach We have to get the full perspective we have to get the full view if we want to understand who God is we have to understand all facets of God Because there's also this aspect of God that killed somebody for not obeying his word Took his life from him like that and this isn't an isolated incident You think of Uzzah when they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant back from the Philistines and what did they do they put on a cart That's not what God told them to do he told them to carry it on their shoulders They put on a cart because that's what the Philistines did so they're learning from the world they're learning from the heathen how they could transport this easier They hit a bump the thing's about ready to tip over and Uzzah goes wow the Ark of the Covenant this is sacred we need to protect this thing He puts out his hand to stop it from falling God strikes him dead Sons of Aaron offered up strange incense they're saying wow God said this is the incense I want you to burn unto me You offer this this is the way you make it this is the way you do it and this is what I want But they had a better idea they said you know what I don't like the way that this incense smells I think we're gonna do it a little bit different God's gonna like this we've got something for him you know we're doing the work for God we're doing service for God We'll offer him this and see what God thinks about that dead You say oh that's how God was in the Old Testament but he's way different than the New Testament Really do you ever read Acts chapter 5? Acts chapter 5 the church right the church age this is when you got people coming to church you got the apostles All kinds of great things are happening you've got people getting saved you got people being baptized you got this church growing Thousands of people getting saved and they got everyone coming together and and they're trying to you know people are donating all kinds of stuff to further the service of God So they gave all things common. Acts chapter 5 verse number 1 says but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold a possession And kept back part of the price his wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid at the apostles feet But Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and keep back part of the price of the land Whiles it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not thine own power Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart that thou hast not lied unto men but unto God And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost and great fear came on all them that heard these things He died. Why did he die? Because he told a lie and it wasn't because he lied unto men but he lied unto God You say what's the big deal? He was still offering up all kinds of money and stuff for the church Yeah so he lied about how much he was giving right? That's not the attitude we want to have with God I think what we could learn from God is that we ought to have a healthy fear of God and not just treat his commandments as suggestions When he says not to bear a false witness let's take that seriously When he says don't go back and have a meal don't go back and have the meal What's so hard to understand about that? You say oh how mad can he get right? I mean all I did was I listened to this prophet and ate a meal I mean you really have to kill me for that? Well I'll tell you what that's part of who God is We need to have a healthy respect and fear of God. This is in the Bible for a reason I'm not making this stuff up. Unfortunately people aren't hearing this aspect about God because it doesn't make you comfortable You say well I thought God is love. He is love. Amen and amen He provided a savior for us that we don't deserve He absolutely is love. He absolutely offers forgiveness but you know what he also is a judge and he also has a law He's also the law giver and he also expects and commands us to behave a certain way and to respect him and when he says something that we ought to listen to it. It's another part of who God is So the reason why we do the Hellfire and Damnation preaching is one we need a healthy fear of God We need to know that he's not playing around. They're not suggestions they're commandments Another thing that teaches us so here in this story is that God will hold you accountable for sinning even when you're deceived Because what happened here? Now this man of God would not have just gone back on his own and had a meal Even after Jeroboam invited him he said no and even when this guy invited him he said no until he said oh well God said it's okay That's what he was relying on and you can say well why is that such a big deal? I mean he tricked him because he lied unto him Right? That's not as bad. Well God still holds you accountable for sinning even when other people deceive you It's important to recognize that and the more we realize that the more you ought to have a fire under your butt to make sure that you know what this book says for yourself And not rely on someone else on some old prophet to teach you what this book says you need to understand it for yourself because God's going to hold you responsible Now shame on this old prophet for lying to him you know what he's going to have to pay for that too But shame on you for not knowing what the book says if I'm up here lying to you tonight or any day for that matter Shame on me for that but you know what you ought to be able to judge what I'm preaching you based on God's Word And you can't go and blame you know blame this person like you know say well God you know Pastor Burzan said this so You know I'm kind of not responsible for all these sins I've gotten into. Yes you are. We're all guilty we're all held responsible for our own sins The thing about Adam and Eve is a perfect example of that. Right? Adam and Eve both knew they're not supposed to eat of that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil They knew that that's the forbidden tree. Eve repeated that unto Satan when the serpent approached her in the garden No no you know we could eat of all these trees but not that one. What do you do? He deceived her. He alluded to her. He lied to her First he questioned God's Word. Yeaeth God said. And then he said well God knows the day that you eat thereof you'll be like gods. You shall not surely die. And he lied to her. He deceived her. But God cursed her anyways. Because she already was given the Word of God and should have known better And she was punished just like Adam was just like you know the serpent they're all punished for getting involved in that sin And we can't use an excuse even of being deceived with God. It's not a valid excuse We also know that sinning through ignorance is also we're also responsible for that not only if you're deceived but even if you're ignorant of something Even if you just don't know. I'm not gonna go back and read all this but in Leviticus chapter 4 if you're interested the whole chapter Leviticus chapter 4 talks about in God's law when people are guilty of sinning through ignorance what the proper sacrifices are that they need to make in order to atone for their sins So what that teaches is that you know what when you sin through ignorance you're still sinning and you're still responsible for what you've done Now you ought to get right with God if you sin through ignorance say what do I do if I sin through ignorance because we don't have these Old Testament laws and sacrifices to make Because Jesus Christ is a sacrifice once from the foundation of the world for us Well when you find out about it you ought to confess and forsake your sins you ought to just repent get right with God by confessing to God You know what God I didn't realize all these years what we're doing is a sin just like King Josiah I mentioned him earlier in the sermon When he realized oh wow this is what the Bible actually says what did he do did he say well I didn't know oh well whatever No he said we need to get hold of God tell God we're sorry all these things have been happening I didn't know this stuff God but we're going to do what's right now And that's the attitude that we need to have whether you're deceived or whether it's through ignorance to have the attitude when you realize what you did was wrong To get on your knees confess it to God forsake it and do what's right from that time forward And you know what God will show his and that's where God's mercy and his long suffering and everything comes into play is when you could humble yourself and get right with him Let's keep going here in 1 Kings chapter 13 verse number 25 1 Kings 13 25 And behold men passed by and saw the carcass 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 is disobedient unto 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 sons 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 it's making this point of saying that in the Bible it's not by accident because this is undoubtedly God's judgment coming upon the man of God It's not some random lion attack where the lion's real hungry and he needs a meal so he's going to kill this guy to eat him That's why it says just point black because there's no other reason why a lion's just going to go and kill a man and just stand there That's not normal behavior for lions to just do that If the lion's going to attack and hunt he's going to be eating the lion, eating the ass, you know, whatever it is That would be the whole purpose for him attacking But he didn't do that He just killed the man and he stood there and said okay So then when the old prophet comes back he sees this scene and we definitely see this is without a doubt God's judgment that had come upon him Let's keep reading here, verse number 29 And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God laid it upon his 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 Yeah now you're real sad after you just lied to him and caused this guy to die Verse 31 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 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 This guy knew that everything that the man of God preached would come to pass Which is why he's saying he wanted to make sure his bones were not dug up and burnt on the altar Because remember that was the prophecy that he gave when Josiah comes around He's going to burn the bones of those people that were offering up in the high places Which tells you that you know what that old prophet was probably offering sacrifices up in the high places Because those were the people's bones that were going to be dug up and burned on that altar So he's like I believe him these things are definitely going to come to pass so put my bones with his bones Because he was a man of God and that's exactly what happens when you read about King Josiah When he goes back and he actually fulfills that prophecy he leaves the man of God's bones alone He says and what's this marker say who's this? Well that was the man of God that prophesied all these things that you're doing right now He says okay leave that guy alone and everyone else got dug up and burned on that altar So even this old prophet was able to recognize you know what this is the word of God and that's why he said bury me with him I want my bones with his bones because I don't want my bones getting all burned up on that altar Let's finish up here the chapter verse number 33 After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way Returned not from his evil way his hand got withered up He saw the sign he saw the altar rent he knew it was from God He had already heard from God through the prophet that told him that he was going to be the king All of these things happen you know what for some people it just doesn't matter how much they see because they have hardened their own heart We see the same thing you know it's kind of mind-boggling when you think about the people in Jesus day It didn't matter how many miracles they'd seen with their own eyes it didn't even matter when he raised Lazarus back up from the dead And they had no explanation for it but they still chose let's kill him Some people it don't matter how much they see you know because a lot of people say well I can't see you you expect me to take this on faith You know I can't see with my own eyes it doesn't matter it doesn't matter you could see it with your own eyes That's still you know some people it's never gonna be enough You tell them one thing oh, but whatever you know and that's why I don't get too caught up That's why the Bible says you know an heretic after the first and second admonition reject Because you can show these people that just want to say oh the Bible's wrong. I was full of errors Okay, let's look at one and then you show them and explain you say no actually it's not an error because and you have a real good answer for you Oh, but what about this over here? Oh, but what about this over here? It doesn't matter because they've already hardened their heart, and they don't care now. We give them the opportunity right We give them the first admonition you give them the second admonition, but after that Forget it God sent this man of God unto Jeroboam to try to get him right To try to get him to repent to try to get him to fix his error and to do what's right But you know what we're not gonna see after this God dealing with Jeroboam anymore after this manner. It's fine fine. I'm done with you You made up your mind too bad Verse 33 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 he 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 Jeroboam stiffens his neck against the Word of God and his whole household gets cut off as a result He pays for it with his life and the life of his of his seed of his children of his heirs His whole house ends up getting cut off God says fine. I'm done with you These are aspects of God that we need to have that healthy understanding of That we could keep a humble heart a humble attitude when we see the Bible says something that we treat it with respect because it's God's Word It's not a suggestion. It's not something that you that yeah, you know, I know it says all these various things I know I know Leviticus has all these rules and stuff, but you know, it's 2017. It's just it's just so old I don't see why we have to follow that anymore I mean God, you know God changes right with the times and God hit with the times Bible says I am the Lord I change not God doesn't change His words are eternal. They're from everlasting and to everlasting We need to treat it as such have respect under the Word of God Try not to get deceived by these false prophets out there and by by Satan and anyone else who's going to try to Lure you through the lusts of your own flesh to go against the Word of God and let's all make sure we're responsible for knowing what's in this book on our own by reading through it regularly to make sure that No one can deceive you because you've got the Word of God in your heart and in your hand Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this great story in the Bible God I pray that you would please help us all to not go away tonight as forgetful hearers but that we could glean these these great truths from your word and apply them into our life Dear God help us to be vigilant and steadfast and trusting and believing in your word and to not allow anyone to sway us from your words dear God that we could keep them in our heart that we could spot the false prophets from a mile away and just stand fast in your word dear God Pray that you would please bless everyone here tonight and help us all to grow closer to you to know more about you dear God and to become more conformed under the image of your Son in whose name we pray. Amen