(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

When we see a story of a man that comes to deliver a message for the Lord, we see a story of the man of God. Now this story was maybe it's kind of a story where you have some, you know, confusing thoughts about you know, you know, why was God so harsh or why, why did this event happen the way it did? Hopefully I can answer all those questions for you on top of the idea that, you know, this story is very relevant to us today. You say, you know, it's why would this random story be in the Bible? It's very relevant to things that we are going to deal with in our Christian lives. So let's look at this story and see what we can learn from it today. Look at 1 Kings chapter 13, look at verse number 1. So it starts out where we see a man of God that is sent to the king. Look at 1 Kings 13, 1. 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. So what is the context here? If you look at what has happened in Israel and the lower kingdom of Judah at this point, this is the beginning of the split of the nation, okay? We have the northern kingdom of Israel has just split and Jeroboam is ruling that kingdom and then we have the lower kingdom of Judah. We have kind of a unique situation here where God, Jeroboam, sins right away. You remember, right away Jeroboam in the chapter previous, he sets up false gods, one in Dan and one in Bethel. He says, I don't want the people traveling back to Jerusalem, I want to set up these false gods so all my people in my kingdom stay here. So he sets up these false gods and here we have a situation right at the beginning where God reaches out to Jeroboam to warn him and he actually sends a man out of Judah into Israel to warn Jeroboam. So that's the context of what's happening in this story. Of course we know that the northern kingdom just flies off the handle and they don't follow the Lord at all and they get overthrown and judged by God much sooner than the lower kingdom of Judah. But God at the beginning here sends a man out of Judah to go to King Jeroboam and warn him. So the first point is this, just out of introduction, God uses men. And as we saw in Acts chapter 2, you know, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. God uses men and women to get his word out to people. In this case, you know, the man of God, he sends this prophet, God uses men. He doesn't just come down and stand in front of Jeroboam, he's using a man to deliver a message here. He delivers messages to a lost and dying world through people is the first thing that we need to understand, okay? And look, as you see in this story, at the beginning of the story, you know, Jeroboam rejects him and tries to put out his hand against him and then at the end of the story you can see Jeroboam doesn't listen. But the point, just out of introduction, is God uses men to deliver his word and rarely does this go well in the Bible, okay? Rarely does this go well. Think about the times in the Bible that you can just think about it. Let's do a thought experiment. Think about the times in the Bible where God delivering his message went well. The times that just pop into your head probably are King David. You know, King David received the prophet Nathan came to him and he received it and he just got right right away. You know, we see the city of Nineveh got right. Look, the city of Nineveh got right and then they got wrong and they got destroyed, you know, a few decades later. But the point is, I mean, even think about this. The early church, as we're studying in Acts, the early church, Peter gets up and he preaches and some people just, you know, they're just struck through the heart. You know, they're just angry at him, but like 3,000 people got saved too. So I mean, that message was received by some people, but in general, the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the minor prophets, I mean, in general, they were not received well. In general, people did not listen to them. So this is not a surprising turn of events here. Okay, look, and we can apply that to our lives today as well because look, here's the thing. Like as a pastor, you know, I can tell you that people like hard preaching. People like, what is hard preaching? What is hard preaching? People like to say that. I've heard the term used recently, sharp preaching, that the preaching is sharp. Well, guess what? The word of God is sharp. The Bible says that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It's quick. It's powerful. Okay, so, you know, people like that type of preaching until they don't. That's the problem. But here's the thing, like, that's a temptation for a preacher because, you know, people that just, they turn against that type of preaching, they don't like to hear that sharp preaching. This is a temptation for the preacher, but let me just tell you because the preaching's not going to change here. The preaching's not going to change here because the minute the preaching gets less sharp is, look, that's the minute that a preacher doesn't care about you. You know, how many times have you been out soul winning, soul winners? How many times have you been out soul winning and you come to the door and you find out somebody goes to church? They go to church faithfully. And then they have no idea how to get to heaven. You preach them the gospel. They receive it gladly. And then you're sitting there in the back of your head saying, because, I mean, we often say things like this, we're not trying to steal you from your church, but in the back of your head, soul winner, you're sitting there and you're saying, man, you're going to a church that hates you. You're going to a church that you've been going to this church for 10 years, for five years, for two years, whatever you've been going to this church, you had no idea how to get to heaven. You had no idea that, you know, that church was just sending you straight to hell. You believe that you have to work your way to heaven. It's like that church doesn't love you. That's a pastor that could care less about you. You know, so look, the minute that God's word is not being preached to you is the minute that the man of God doesn't care about you. That's that's, I mean, so look, God's word is always preached through men, is always preached through people, and the introductory point is it is rarely received well, but look, sometimes it is. Sometimes it is. Okay? So imagine God here. He's going out of his way. He sends this man from Judah. Let's continue our story here. First Kings chapter 13, let's look at this story. Look at verse number two. Look at verse number two. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord saying, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer priests and the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. So here, the man of God is prophesying what will happen under a king, you know, hundreds of years later. Well, to look at that, that prophecy and whether or not it comes true, look at that this evening. Look at verse three. And he gave a sign the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord hath spoken, behold, the altar shall be rent, 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 had cried against the altar in Bethel. He's crying against one of these false altars of these golden calfs and he put forth his hand from the altar saying, lay hold on him, and his hand he put forth against him dried up so he could not pull it again to him. This miracle happens where his hand just withers up. And the altar was also rent and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king answered and said unto the man of God, and treat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me again. And the man of God besought the Lord and the king's hand was restored again to him as it was before. So here this great miracle happens. The man of God starts preaching against this altar, against this false idol that they're worshiping this golden calf that he set up. He's in Bethel at this time, and Jeroboam gets mad. He gets upset and he puts out his hand and says seize him, grab him, we're going to put this guy in and his hand dries up and the altar breaks and the ashes pour out from the altar. And then he also gives this prophecy that will happen later on that we'll look at this evening. But the point is he does this great miracle where Jeroboam's hand dries up and Jeroboam prays, he begs the man, he's like hey please let my hand come back to me and then he restores his hand. Look at verse number seven, and then the king said unto the man of God, he says come home with me and refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward. He tries to offer him money, material, some kind of prize. So this morning I want to show you some lessons we can learn from the man of God. Look at verse number eight, look at verse number eight, and the man of God said unto the king if thou wilt give me half thine house I will not go in with thee. Why? Because neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For it was charged me by the Lord, by the word of the Lord saying eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So let's learn from what happens in this story. We see this man of God, we learn more information here in verse number nine. We see this man of God, he is sent to Israel. He preaches against King Jeroboam, Jeroboam he's not going to listen, he tries to arrest him, he does this great miracle, withers up his hand. And then after he restores his hand, King Jeroboam, he invites him to his house, he's like I'll just give you a bunch of stuff, come and eat with me, come and dine with me. And we see that the man of God cannot do that because the word of the Lord, the instructions from God were that he go there, he preach, and he go back. And not only does he go back, he's not to go back the same way. Look, God was sending this man on a pinpoint strike. Why not go back the other way, you say? Because he did not want this man getting casual with anyone. He wanted him to go and deliver a message and we see in a few verses later that this message was, this miracle, this message was heard of by everybody. This was big news at this time and he didn't want him going back through the same place that he came from and having people talk to him and try to invite him in or whatever they were going to do. He wanted him to go there, speak this word and come back and go back a different way so they don't know who you are, is very specific commands from the Lord. One purpose is why he went there. One purpose. And God's like, don't get casual. He's like, you don't eat, you don't drink, you preach and you come home. That's it. Deliver the message, get out and go back a different way. So the first thing that we can learn here is the seriousness of God's word. The seriousness of God's word. God gave specific instructions to this man and he expected them to be followed. He expected them to be followed. Look, the more, the more you learn and understand the Bible, the more you will understand how specific God's instructions are in the Bible. Think about this from our perspective and the instructions that we hold in our hands. Think about the detail of the law. Think about the detail of the law. Think about the detail of just the tabernacle. It was so detailed they could do what? It was so detailed they could build the tabernacle from it. He didn't just describe how he wanted this tent to look like. He gave them specific detail so they could build it exactly how he wanted it built. Same thing with the temple. He gave dimensions. He gave the buildings, I mean, you could read the description of the temple and you could build it. People have. They built models of what the temple looked like. Even Ezekiel's temple, it's described to the point where you could build a model of it. So God gives specific, I mean, turn to Exodus chapter 21. Even the law, even like the civil law of the Bible, look at how detailed, I mean, it is so detailed. Let's just look at one example. We can just look at this for hours, but look at Exodus chapter 21 and verse number 28 just to give you some just obscure detail that you would think, you know, why does this kind of detail have to be in the Bible? Because God is giving instructions on how to run something, on how to govern something. Look at the detail here. Look at Exodus 21, 28. The Bible says, if an ox gore a man or a woman, this is a cow, an ox that hurts somebody, that gores them with his horns, that they die. Then the ox shall surely be stoned and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit. That means the owner is okay in this case. So here you have somebody's cow, or somebody's bull, you know, in this case, you know, gores somebody and kills them, and okay, you're to just kill that animal is what the Bible says. Which, it makes sense, because some animals are mean and some aren't, and it's hereditary. Okay, so some animals are mean and some aren't, and it's hereditary, and guess what? The Bible knew that. Look at the next verse. It says, but if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he not kept him in, but he hath killed a man or woman, the ox shall be stoned and his owner shall also be put to death. That's some pretty detailed stuff right there. You have an animal that kills somebody, and, you know, you're supposed to kill that animal. But, if you don't, and then that animal goes, and it hurts somebody, and then it goes and it kills somebody, and you knew about it, and somebody, like, you're going to be, you're responsible now. Now, you're to be put to death. Look, just think of the detail here. God, I mean, this is just one tiny example, but God gives enough detail in his law where you have the details to govern a people. You have the details for a nation to run. You know, a lot of times you'll buy something, and you'll get like an, you know, you'll get an instruction manual. You know, if you buy an electronic device or something, you might get an instruction manual for it. But, if something breaks on that device, you know, you need a different type of manual. You need like a service manual for it because the instruction manual doesn't cover how to fix, you know, the device itself. You have to go get a different manual or some kind of other drawings or something to go along with it. Look, the Bible has everything. The Bible's specific. It's the entire thing for our lives, and God is serious about the detail that's in the Bible, which is why, you know, you see a lot of detail preached here because in the Bible we're going to preach it. It's that simple. So back to the story. For us, for us, for the people, for the man of God here, the detail, it must be followed specifically. Let's go back to the story. So he preaches against Jeroboam. Jeroboam invites him to his house for a reward. He's like, hey, you know, I'll pay you. Come to my house. Then we see that God told him, you can't do that. He says, you can't do that. So Jeroboam, he just, or the man of God just rejects Jeroboam. I mean, it's pretty easy, right? It's pretty easy at this point. Here this wicked man is trying to get you to go against what God said, and the man of God's like, no way, buddy. He's like, you give me half your kingdom. You give me half your castle. He's basically saying, it doesn't matter what you offer me. I'm going to listen to the word of the Lord, is what he says. Even though this guy was trying to entice him away from God's command. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, but it doesn't end there. Why is that? And the answer to why it doesn't end there is because Satan never stops there. That's why. I mean, this was pretty easy. Here you have this wicked king coming to this man of God and you know, the man of God's like, no wicked king, I'm good. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse 13. The Bible says, Satan never stops there folks, and this is what you need to learn from this lesson today. You need to take away from this story today, the lesson from this man of God. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11, 13, it says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers. That means they're not upfront with you. That means they're trying to trick you. Transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. It says in no marvel, it's like, don't be surprised because Satan himself has transformed into what? An angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. So here the Bible is describing how Satan works to us here. He's saying, he's saying, look, the devil, he's saying Satan is not going to like, Jeroboam, this is what it was. The devil's not going to show up to you in a devil suit. The devil's not going to walk up to you with a pitchfork and a devil suit with the tail. He'll be like, hey, I need you to go into sin. Because then everyone's like, whoa, you look like the devil. Guy in devil suit? That was Jeroboam. It was this wicked man. It was this wicked guy. He's like, hey, come with me. He's like, nah, get out of here. You got a devil suit on. But Satan is never going to stop there. Satan is going to transform himself into what? An angel of light. He's going to appear like a good guy. He's going to appear like somebody that is your friend. He's going to come at you in Genesis chapter three, third chapter of the Bible, you see Satan, he's subtle. He comes at you, he's, you know what that means? That means sneaky. That means deceitful. Satan doesn't walk around in a Satan suit. Satan covers himself up. Satan disguises himself. Now let's continue the story. Go back to first Kings chapter 13. So the man of God did pretty well so far. The guy in the devil suit showed up and he's like, get out of here guy in the devil suit. Look at verse 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, them that they also told to their father and their father said unto him, what way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And they said unto his sons, he said unto his sons, saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass and he rode thereon. So he goes out. He hears, look, this guy liked what happened. This guy was an old prophet, a retired prophet, and he hears this great thing and he wants to talk to this guy. He wants to visit with this guy. He's living in Bethel. He's living there. We'll get into that this evening. We'll talk about the prophet in detail this evening, but for now, he goes out and he seeks out the man of God. Look at verse 14. And he 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 from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I mean, look, he just wants to fellowship. He just wants to fellowship and talk to another fellow man of God. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord that thou shalt eat no... He says, I can't, 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 said unto him, and this is the old prophet says this, he says, I am a prophet also as thou art. And the angel spake to 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. So here you see this prophet and he wants to speak to this man of God so badly, he just tells this terrible lie to him. He tells him this terrible lie and he says, basically he tells him God told me that it's okay for you to go against what God told you. And here the man of God, he believes this. I mean, the guy just wants to visit with the man of God. He tells him this lie. But the point that we have to take away from this is our final authority always has to be the Bible. Our final authority always has to be the Bible, not commentary, not history, not what other people say, not how we feel, not how other people feel. Look, this guy was a prophet. He just wanted to talk to another man in the ministry. He's this old retired guy, sitting around watching Fox News all day. He's bored. He's bored. He hears this great man of God came and did this great thing and he's like, he wants to hang out and just fellowship with the guy. But then he pushes it into this lie. I mean, at first it seemed innocent enough that he just wanted to talk to the guy, but it leads to deception and the man of God here is deceived. It's very subtle. That's what I'm trying to get across to you this morning. The guy was a prophet and then he lies to me and says, God told him. So the lesson here and the lesson this morning for us, what do we take from this? What do we take from this? Look, this was a man of God. Was this not a man of God that did great things? And he was deceived by the subtlety of this attack. The lesson that we need to take from this is we need to beware of influence in our lives. We need to always beware of influence in our lives and I'm warning every single one of you here today that you will, not you might, you will deal with this. You will have every single person that I have seen that gets knocked out of church, knocked out of the Christian life in the last several years, not just at this church, they have been influenced by someone other than the pastor of the church. Every single time. Every single time. And it's, you know, it's always been in the name of God. It's always been for some spiritual reason. Every time. It's not some guy showing up in a devil suit saying, hey, I'm the devil, come with me. It's always some very subtle, seemingly spiritual attack. Imagine somebody, imagine somebody enticing you into sin. Think of this. This will, as I say these words, this will sound surprising to you. Imagine somebody enticing you into gossip. Imagine somebody enticing you into railing. Imagine somebody enticing you into backbiting. All in the name of righteousness. It will happen to you. I guarantee it. It happens all the time. And this is what happened to the man of God. But what's the lesson here? What's the lesson? What do we see happen to this man of God? What do we see happen to him? The lesson is this, anything or anyone that tries to get us out of God's way is bad. It's pretty simple. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We learn the Bible here. I mean, do we not? I mean, we like dig into the Bible here. I mean, that is my job. My job is to influence you in the things of the Bible. For sure. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse number 2. 2 Timothy chapter 4, look at verse number 2. The Bible says, he's talking to a young preacher here, he's saying preach the word. He says, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Look, that's my job right there, is to just preach what that word of God is to you. To just give you that and just preach that to you no matter what. No matter what. I mean, look, church, think about this, church, soul winning, the Christian life, the whole thing. Look, bad influence can and will come from all over your life. You will get bad influence, you will have bad influence around you, I guarantee it. You will have bad influence come to you. You will have bad influence come to you inside the church. Whoa. Yes. It will happen. You have bad influence. Look, turn to Proverbs chapter 16. The prophet was a brother. The prophet was a brother, did a bad thing here, did a horrible thing here. He says, I'm a prophet like you. He's like, I'm not a false prophet, he's like, I'm a prophet like you, and then he just like lies to him. He just wants to talk to him, just selfishly lies to him. Look, you can have people entice you into sin inside the church. Did you know that? It can, look, it will happen. Turn to Proverbs 16. Look at verse 28. The Bible says, in Proverbs 16, 28, it says, a froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth chief friends. Turn to Proverbs 20. You say, whoa, there's going to be people that sow strife, look, this will happen in the church right here. There's people that will sow strife in the church. The Bible's telling us. Look at verse 20, verse 17 of Proverbs 20. You say, why does it happen though? It's like, why does it happen? Why would someone sow strife inside a church? Why would a brother sow strife inside the church, and why would people fall for that? Why would people go for that? Here's why. Look at Proverbs 20, 17. The Bible has every single answer. It says, the bread of deceit is sweet to a man. Because you know why? When you get sucked into that, it feels good at first. It feels good to like be together like complaining about people, whether it's the pastor or somebody else in the church or whoever. Look, gossip feels good at first. It feels good. But guess what? Afterwards, his mouth shall be filled with gravel. So look, that is just one of the things. This is just one example. But here's the thing. And look, I'll do whatever I can. I'll do whatever I can to protect you, but unfortunately, the pastor's the last to learn about many things. Pastoring men have said that all the time, and I never understood it. I'm like, really? The pastor's the last? But unfortunately, that's how it does actually work. But guess what? I do have some weapons. God promises me, in Luke chapter 8 and verse 17, he says, for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Look, everything will always come out. God promises me that. And you know, that's where you all come in as well. Deceit always comes out. There's church discipline that God gives to the pastor that can be used to protect the church. But unfortunately, like I said, the pastor's usually the last person to find out a lot of things in the church. So it just takes a mature Christian to recognize these attacks. This is why I'm preaching this to you today, because you need to know this personally. You can't just say, oh, pastor's always going to protect me all the time, no matter what. Look, I would, if I knew what was going on, I would protect you all the time, no matter what. But it's like, I do what I can with what I know. But the attacks will come to you personally, which is why this message is so valuable. Look, I believe in the church. I believe, look, I believe in this idea of the church from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, 100%. I believe that today, I believe this institution that Jesus Christ started and is the head of, I believe that today, in the society that we're living in, I believe that you have a very slight chance of success as a parent, as a child, if you are not in a good church. I believe that. I believe that. So this is why this message is so important for everyone in this room, especially the men as you lead your families. Because these attacks, these old prophets that come to you, you know what they're trying to do? You know what they're trying to do? Look, they may be attacking me. You know what they're trying to do? They're just trying to ruin your family. That should make you angry. It should make you angry. They're trying to ruin your family. They're trying to ruin your children. You need to understand what is at stake. You see, there's just some people out there, there's some people out there that will just never be able to put themselves under a pastor. I don't know why that is. But the point is, this is a fatal flaw in their life. It's a fatal flaw in their life. Because guess what? We aren't the first. For people like that, we aren't the first church. We aren't the last church. We're just the next church. That's all it is. It's a fatal flaw for people. We're just the next one. That's it. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. So you could have influences like this old prophet happen to you in the church, is the first point. You need to be aware of this. It's subtle. You need to be aware of it. Look, if you have maturity, you'll recognize it. I mean, let's be real. You'll recognize it and you'll be fine. But look, it's a real thing and it will happen. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse 17. You'll have influences come at you and your family outside of the church as well. So you'll have influences on you from inside the church. And like I said, I will do whatever I can to stop that. I will do whatever, I promise you, whatever I know about, whatever, I mean, look, God will eventually show me things. God will eventually bring things out. He promises me that. I will do whatever I can, I promise you, to protect you and to protect your family about these types of influences. But you need to individually be a mature person and continue to defend yourself, your family, and your children, who these people are after. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 17. God gives us instruction on influence outside the church. This is another important one. Men, leaders of your families, listen up. The Bible says in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 6, Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Look, God's protecting you here. He's saying you need to be separate from these influences. This is the whole point. This is why, you know, in the description of our church, we're an independent fundamental separated. Well, this is why. Because being separated from the world and people that would attack your beliefs and attack your family's beliefs and attack the church that you go to, attack the Bible that you believe, attack these things, look, we're to be separate from that. God's trying to protect you from that. That's why he's saying, you know, like, that's why, like, I get up here, I'll just, like, preach all this stuff. Like, Pastor Jimenez gave a sermon many, many years ago that I just remembered just now. It was like, he was preaching, he was talking about, like, media influence or something like that. He was just listing off all these shows, like, these cartoons and all this stuff. These, like, SpongeBob SquarePants, you know, Blue's Clues, and I Can't Even Name Anymore. But the point is, he was naming off, like, he just kept going on and on and on and on. If you've heard the sermon, you know what I'm talking about. He's just going on for, like, several minutes of just, like, listing off titles of, he's like, how long are you going to go on with all this? He's like, until I get yours, is what he said. He's like, until I find yours. Look, he's trying to hit you with sin. So look, if you sit in the, this is a side note, if you sit and you listen to preach, and you're preaching, and something cuts you, you're like, oh man, that cut, look, that's just the Bible. If you're sitting in the chairs and you're like, everything cuts you, look, you got problems. You got problems. Because no pastor is up here, like, writing sermons for one person, like, what kind of, you know, that would be, like, psychopathic. No one is sitting here writing sermons for just you. You're like, every single sermon, like, cuts me like a sword. And you're like, well, you know, that's the point of preaching against sin. And that should, like, wake you up. But the point is, is that God gives us these directions to separate from these things. So we have to deal with this less, this outside what? This outside influence. Because look, it'll beat you down. It'll beat you down. You got somebody that, you know, you get together with every week, or you get together with every week, and they're just throwing in all these little digs against your church, and digs against homeschooling, or digs against whatever. Look, that'll beat you down. That'll beat down your wife. You need to be careful with that stuff. They're, they're, you're like, oh, but it's really subtle, they didn't mean anything. Look, they're trying to wreck your family. That's what you got to understand. Look, for somebody, I hope you're the same as me. For somebody that believes in the church, and the protection that it provides. And the fellowship, and the exhortation that it provides. And guess what? The sharpening that it provides. By the way, when you have friends in the church, they should sharpen you. Not entice you into sin. They shouldn't entice you into sin, but that's dulling you. That's ruining you. We'll talk about that more tonight. But look, these subtle things, look at 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse number 8. God gives us direction, he gives us protection against this. But we always must be watching. 1 Peter chapter 5, look at verse number 8. Why? It says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He will use, he will use people outside the church. He will use backslidden Christians inside the church. He will use whoever he can use. He used an old retired prophet in this case to derail the man of God. To derail the man of God who was under very, were the instructions complicated? They were very simple. You go, you tell them, and you go home. That's it. Don't let anyone get you off that horse. But the subtle things start small. They start small. They start small. You know, and then roots of bitterness pop up. Look, these things will happen to everyone in this room. This will happen to you. This sermon, you wonder, am I preaching to you this morning? I'm preaching to you. These things will happen to you. If you are effective, if you are effective in the Christian life. If you're out there, this is like a thousand percent guarantee from your pastor. If you're out there and you're winning souls, and you're coming to church, and you're raising godly children, this will happen to you. Guaranteed. Why? Because he's just walking around. He's walking around trying to roar and just derail people is what he's trying to do. He can't send you to hell, but he can get you out of this thing. He can ruin your kids. He can make it so, you know, your kids fall into horrible, horrible lives. He can do it. It happens to everyone. You just must recognize it. You must shut it down right away. That is the difference between a mature Christian and someone who is not. A mature Christian will recognize this and will stop it. See the man of God here? He was fooled. He was fooled. Turn to Galatians chapter one. Turn to Galatians chapter one. The man of God was fooled. We'll look at the rest of the story tonight, but I just want to get this across to you this morning that nothing nullifies the word of God. Again, turn to Galatians chapter one. Even Paul knew very specifically how Satan operates. Paul knew this. Look at Galatians chapter one in verse number eight. We use this verse to talk about false prophets and false gospels all the time, but look what Paul says in verse number eight. Look what he says. Who is going to be doing this? Look at how he warns them. He says, the we or at what? What's the next one? What did the old prophet say told him? He said an angel told him. He said the we or an angel from heaven. Now look, Paul knew that he wasn't going to go give a false gospel to these people, but you know what he knew? He knew that somebody was going to come to them and say an angel told me, or Paul told me that the gospel was really this way, that the gospel was really like this. He knew that that's how Satan operates. Paul was just, he was getting ahead of the game here. He knew Satan's moves before Satan made them. Look, turn to Matthew 24, even the antichrist. Think about it. Even the antichrist will come this way. You say the antichrist, this guy that's against Jesus. He's like, everyone will know this, right? Even people that, you know, they aren't saved, but they're in some church, you know, they're in a Pentecostal church and they believe in Jesus. You know, they're not saved, but they know who Jesus is. They're going to recognize the antichrist. No, they won't. Here's why. It says, for many shall come in my name saying what? I am Christ. The antichrist is going to come and deceive people because, look, Jesus here is saying lots of people are going to do this. It's like lots of people. It's not just false messages. It's not just false gospels. People are going to literally come and say they are Jesus. They're going to say they are the Messiah. That's what the antichrist is going to do. He's going to say, I'm the Messiah, and everyone except us is going to believe him. That's what the Bible tells us. So, look, the point I'm trying to get across this morning is not a complicated one, okay? It doesn't matter where this influence comes from in your life. There is no excuse for going against God's word. Look at the consequences here for this man. Satan came at the man of God in a Satan suit at first, and the man of God said, no way. Get away from me, the guy in the Satan suit. And then he came at him in this very subtle attack, and God killed him for it. God killed him for it, meaning Satan can use backslidden people to deceive you. That's basically what this story is telling us this morning. We must always be on our guard from attacks both within the church and without the church. The thing is, it's not that hard, but it still seems to get people. Keep it simple, folks. You know the Bible. You know what God, I mean, look, you all know the Bible. I mean, maybe some of you know it better than others, but if you come to this church and you listen to preaching and you're reading your Bible, I mean, isn't that part of the preaching? Read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible. You know the Bible. You know what it says. You know. Just keep it simple. Anyone or anything trying to entice you into sin, trying to knock you off this Christian horse should greatly offend you. That should offend you, and these attacks for sure will come. And the consequences, here's the thing. So think about that this morning. Think about this morning, you know, the attacks are coming. Maybe you're not under attack right now. Maybe you've fended off a lot of attacks, and you all have. I know you have. You've all offended. I mean, great, but there's more coming. I hate to break it to you, unless all of a sudden you're just like not effective and like Satan doesn't even have to pay attention to you anymore. More attacks are coming always, so you must always be on your guard. Shore up your weak points. Shore up your weak points, because that's where the attacks will come. Think about the things in your life. What do I struggle with in my life? Maybe what are sins that I've had in my past that I struggle with, and that are things that maybe I struggle with that somebody else doesn't struggle with? What are those things? Look, everybody should be thinking about those things, and for you it's different than it is for me, and it's different than it is for so and so. It's different for all of us. You need to be thinking about those points in your life, because that's where Satan's coming. What are the things that you tend towards? What are the things that are your weak points, and you've got to shore up those points? You say, I struggled with a sin in the past, whatever that sin was. Maybe it's alcohol or whatever. You've got to stay far away from those things. You always should, but maybe you should be further and further away than most people, because maybe you have tendencies. How many times have we seen that? Somebody that falls back into something that they were in before. This is where the devil will come for you. Only you can have this mindset of figuring out where your weak points are. Men, you need to defend your families. Men, your wife is the weaker vessel. It doesn't mean she's weak. We've got some strong women in this church, and thank God for that. We've got some good, fundamental mothers in this church, and thank God for that. But men, you need to always be looking out for anything that is coming after your wife. Always. Because it's coming. I guarantee the attacks will come. The consequence is, just because this was a man of God, the consequence was still real, because he just went against God's direct command. We're going to look at the perspective of the prophet this evening. We're going to look at the perspective of this man, maybe why he did this, how this affected his life, this prophet, how this affected his life, and what can we learn from that. We'll look at it this evening, but this morning, it's a very simple message of we just need to be aware of influence in our lives, and you can never have your guard down. You can't just come to a church and just be like, oh, anything that happens in the church is always great, because it's in the church. No. I'll do whatever I can to help you and to defend you, and I will always be there for you, but I just don't know everything that's going on. I wish I did, but I don't all the time. So you need to be mature Christians as you have been, as you have been, and continue to defend your families and defend yourself, shore up those weak points, because God's word is God's word. God's word is God's word, and we know what it is, and we just need to follow it. We just need to follow it no matter what. We'll look at the profit and the consequences this evening. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.