First Kings 13 33 after this
thing Jeroboam returned not again returned not from his evil way
But made again of the lowest of the people priests of the
high places Whosoever would he consecrated him and he became
one of the priests of the high places And this thing became
sin under the house of Jeroboam Even to cut it off and to destroy
it from off the face of the earth At that time, Abijah, the son
of Jeroboam, fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife,
Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known
to be the wife of Jeroboam, and get thee to Shiloh. Behold, there
is a high-gender prophet, which told me that I should be king
over this people. And take with thee ten loaves
and cracknels and a cruise of honey and go to him. He shall
tell thee what shall become of the child. And Jeroboam's wife
did so and arose and went to Shiloh and came to the house
of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for
his eyes were set by reason of his age. And the Lord said unto
Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee
for her son. For he is sick, thus and thus
shalt thou say unto her, for it shall be when she cometh in
that she shall feign herself to be another woman. And it was
so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at
the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam. Why
feignest thou thyself to be another? For I am sent to thee with heavy
tidings. Go tell Jeroboam, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, for as much as I exalted thee from among
the people and made thee prince over my people Israel, and rent
the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it thee, and
yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments
and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which
was right in mine eyes. but has done evil above all that
were before thee. For thou hast gone and made thee
other gods and molten images to provoke me to anger and has
cast me behind thy back. Therefore behold, I will bring
evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam
him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up
and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the
house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in
the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field
shall the fowls of the air eat. for the Lord has spoken it. Arise
thou therefore, get thee to that own house, and when thy feet
enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall
mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come
to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing,
toward the God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover,
the Lord shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off
the house of Jeroboam that day. But what, even now? For the Lord
shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he
shall root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their
fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they
have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger. and he shall
give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam who did sin
and who made Israel to sin. And Jeroboam's wife arose and
departed and came to Terzah. And when she came to the threshold
of the door, the child died and they buried him and all Israel
mourned for him according to the word of the Lord, which he
spake by the hand of his prophet Ahijah the prophet. And the rest
of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and how he reigned,
to behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Israel. And the days which Jeroboam reigned
were two and 20 years. And he slept with his fathers,
and Nadab, his son, reigned in his stead. So at the end of chapter
13 here, we see that Jeroboam, even after what happened to him
earlier in chapter 13, where if you'll recall, he had set
up a place of worship that was more convenient. He told the
people of Israel, it's too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem
to worship. We're gonna make our own altar,
our own place of worship. not where God said, but he didn't
mean it that way. He would want us to have a convenient
place and everything. And he did sin and made Israel
to sin, as we read just now. And we're told in the scripture
that the reason he did that was not for, he didn't care anything
about the people or any, Even the convenience of it his problem
was if they went up to Jerusalem There was a different king in
Jerusalem over the two tribes of Israel And he was afraid that
their allegiance would shift the people's allegiance would
shift Away from him if he allowed them to go there to worship And
so he did and did great sin in the sight of the Lord. You can't
bypass the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that God has ordained
in his worship in Old Testament and new is ordained of God to
set forth, exalt and reveal his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it, the table, the baptism,
Now, the way we worship, singing praises unto Him, everything
that He's told us to do now, Christ. Everything He told them
to do in the Old Testament, much more elaborate and complicated,
all Christ, all of it. And once you deviate from that
in any way, you blaspheme the Lord Jesus
Christ. God said I'll cut your house
off forever and this So the end of the chapter we see that and
remember that the the prophet came in as as Jeroboam was was
Worshipping in that false place of worship Antichrist worship
where millions of people are this morning it the names change,
but the truth of God don't and The places change, but people don't change. God don't change. People are
still worshiping anti-Christ idols. This morning, as we meet
here, I pray in God's name, in Christ's name. But remember,
as he was in there, worshiping the false god of his idolatry. God sent a man of God, he's described
as a man of God, to prophesy against the false religion. And when Jeroboam extended his
hand to say, arrest this man for rebuking me, how dare he? His hand withered up. Of course then he got real religious
and prayed for mercy, but he didn't repent of his sin read
that In spite of all that the fact that his hand was withered
up Clearly showing that God was against him that that religion
that he was involved in was false That his sin in setting up an
anti Christ place of worship Was grievous And that man that
came, the man of God, came to tell the truth about Jeroboam's
false altar and his idolatry. And even after what happened,
remember the prophet that came and told him, disobeyed God too,
later in chapter 13, and he died. And Jeroboam was aware of that. He knew about that. But after
what happened to his hand and the Lord restored his hand, and
after seeing what happened to the prophet that disobeyed God,
still Jeroboam did not return from his evil way. What a lesson
for all sinners. God destroyed him and all of
his house. because of this sin. Proverbs
29.1 says, he that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck,
shall suddenly be destroyed. And that without remedy. God
often reproves, doesn't he? He gives space to repent. But
without his grace, there's no repentance. There are a lot of
priceless lessons in this story. First, do not ignore the word
of God. Remember Jeroboam's rebuke when
it says he still returned not. That's referring to the fact
that he was personally, clearly rebuked by God, by his prophet. And his rebuke of his false religion
came in the form of a message from God delivered by a man of
God. God still speaks that way. That's
still how he speaks to you. Remember also that there was
a prophet in chapter 13 that lied. He lied to the man of God. and caused the man of God's death
because he lied. He said, yeah, you can stay here
and eat with me. God appeared to me and said,
it's fine. God had appeared to the man of God and said, don't
you stay there and don't you eat there. Don't even go back
the same way you came. But that prophet lied. And there was a man to whom was
sent a message by the prophet that told the truth. and Jeroboam didn't heed it.
So think about this now, in chapter 13, we have that prophet that
lied, the man of God that told the truth, and we see the result
of rejecting the one that told the truth, and what happened
to the one that lied. So let's all learn from this,
the simple, these stories. Isn't it beautiful the way God
defines his own word? Not by definitions with big words
in them, but by living examples. Listen to what God says, hear
what God says. God Almighty spoke from heaven.
when his son was baptized and said, this is my beloved son.
I'm well pleased with him. Hear ye him, hear him, hear him. What was that good part that
Mary chose? Sitting at his feet, hearing
his word. And that can't be taken away.
That can't be taken away. Be doers. of the word of God,
and by God's grace, I will always tell you the truth. And if I
do speak according to this book, don't take it lightly. Don't
take it lightly. Look at the language in chapter
14, verse nine again. You've done evil, Jeroboam, above
all that were before you, for thou hast gone and made the other
gods in molten images to provoke me to anger. And look at that
last phrase, isn't that incredible? You have cast me behind your
back. That's what you're doing when
you don't listen to the word of God and heed it and do it. God doesn't mean anything to
me. just the opposite of what Paul in Philippians 3 said. He
said, everything else I cast behind my back and I pressed
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. It's
in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Just the opposite of that is
Jeroboam. I cast God behind my back and
I'm gonna pursue everything that I want. Big difference. But subtle. Subtle in the experience
of it in it People looking at Jeroboam said well, he's religious.
You know, he worships God. He's he created this wonderful
place for us all Yeah, that's the religion of our day It makes God sick Jeroboam is compared to David
in this story and where we read, remember, he said, you're not
like my servant, David, who has kept my commandments. You're
not like him. He's compared to David. Not because
of David being better by nature. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is none good, no, not one.
There's no difference. There's no difference, Paul wrote. But the reason they're compared
is to show the difference that God makes. That his grace makes. Notice that when God caused David's
baby to be sick. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, 13 through
20. Turn over there with me. Let's
look at that for a second. Hold your place there in 1 Kings
14. If you would. And look at 2 Samuel
12. Was in a very similar situation
here his son was sick Second Samuel 12 And verse 13 David said to Nathan, now this
is on the occasion of Uriah the Hittite in Bathsheba, but this
is the end of that part of the story. In the beginning of another
part, verse 13, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against
the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. How be it,
because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme. The child also that is born unto
thee shall surely die. And Nathan departed unto his
house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare
unto David, and it was very sick. So Jeroboam is compared to David.
They both had children that were about to die. They were sick
unto death. Look at the way David handled
that. David therefore besought God. for the child and David
fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth. He went
to God and begged God, sought him, begged him to spare his
child. What did Jeroboam do? He came
up with a lie that he thought he could get away with. We'll
talk a little bit more about that in a minute. And the elders
of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the
earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And
it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died, and
the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was
dead, for they said, behold, while the child was yet alive,
we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice. How
will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead?
But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that
the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his
servants, is the child dead? And they said, he's dead. Then David arose from the earth
and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came
into the house of the Lord and worshiped. What a difference. This is us, y'all. This is us. You and I both know people that
have done both of these things. You know people that have had
troubles in their life, heartache, pain, and I don't know where they go,
but it ain't here. I don't know what they do, but
it ain't worship God. I'm not sure what they're doing
this morning. And then there are those when they hurt, they
go not only to the one that heals, but the one that brought the
hurt and they worship him. That's not complicated, is it?
This is the message of the gospel. You don't have to look in a book
that thick to find it or to understand it. It's very, very simple. Do you love God? Do you trust
God? Do you depend on God? Do you go to Him when you're
hurt or do you go inside yourself or to this world or to something
or somebody you love more than Him? Not complicated. Not hard to get. He worshiped and then he came
to his own house and when he required, they sent bread before
him and then he did eat. He worshiped God before he ate.
That reminds me of what Job said, I value your word, Lord, more
than my necessary food. Oh, that God would give us that
heart. Give us that heart, Lord, that looks to you alone, that
utterly depends upon you. We hold up our hand to you for
every need. Be gracious to us in that. Jeroboam's first reaction was
deceit. And it doesn't take that much
to understand, because we're just like him by nature. We know
what he was doing. He thought he could fool God.
He knows that if God's prophet knows that it's Jeroboam that's
asking, he sent his wife, but it's Jeroboam that's asking,
don't tell him you're my wife, because if he knows it's me,
I'm not in real good standing right now with the prophet. If he knows it's me, he's gonna
curse us. It's not gonna end well. Act
like you're somebody else. If he knows it's me, it's not
gonna be good. He's not gonna have anything
good to say. And so he thought he could fool God. He knew that if the prophet knew
who this was that was coming with this problem, then Jeroboam's
sin would be taken into account. God can't be fooled. You're gonna have to come before
God's sin and all and beg for mercy. not connive your way into
a good outcome. Again, it's happening all around
us right now. People putting on a show, a front
for God, hoping for a better outcome. Don't take, you know,
he'll take, I don't want anybody, you know, Furthermore, Jeroboam sent gifts. You remember that part where
we read he sent gifts to the prophet, thinking that that would
influence the matter. Why would you do that? Why would
you go before God with gifts? We know the answer to that there
again. Are you in good, you know, the Catholic Church has a thing,
I guess, I don't know if all of them do or whatever, but I've
talked to enough, people I know that are, that there's such thing
as good standing in the church and it has a lot to do with money. That's all this is. It's thinking
that things are gonna go well with you because you paid God
off. That's what Jeroboam did. Right before God cut him off
and his whole house and killed him from the earth. Evil people think that others
are like them Jeroboam was the kind of person that could be
bought. And so like others that are spoken of in the scripture,
he thought that God could be bought. And as I mentioned, the Catholic
church is notably infamous for this. Indulgences for sin can
be bought. Benefits for dead loved ones
can be bought. Good standing with the church
can be bought. Absolute abomination to God. And it's a real short jump from
that to expecting any kind of special consideration in the
church because of anything you give or do. And so, therefore,
the Baptist church is not any better than the Catholic church. Any kind of politics in the church
is utterly abhorrent and unacceptable. This is clearly taught here.
The most vile man, one of the most vile men, the most infamous
men in the Old Testament is Jeroboam. You look through, in your concordance,
find the name Jeroboam and look at it. How often other people's
sin is compared to the sin of Jeroboam. He did liken to the
sin of Jeroboam over and over, that's in the scripture. the
most infamously evil man. And he sent gifts to the prophet
thinking that that would buy the mercy of God. People are
still doing that. They're doing that this morning. You send him honey and cracknels. I don't know what a cracknel
is, but it doesn't mean that you can't bring me honey every
once in a while. It's not the same thing. Bring
me some honey and it'll be fine. But you see what he did here.
He sent him... I'm not sure what a cracknel is,
but I know a pecan pie when I see one. So if anybody... Notice that the prophet was blind
and yet he knew exactly what was going on. And his blindness did not in
any way hinder him from being God's messenger. I'm glad that's
true. The Lord uses men to preach his
message regardless of their own shortcomings, regardless of their
own inability, regardless of their own weakness, He deliberately
chooses the weak. See that here again, that the
excellency may be of God and not of us. I cannot be of any benefit to
you unless God gives me a message. But if he does give me a message,
it doesn't matter how blind I am. There's nothing more beneficial
than a message from God. Don't think that limitations
in the messenger is a hindrance at all. It is nowhere in Scripture
the case Look at God's description of David in verse 8 of chapter
14 This is where the prophet is saying that you know Jeroboam
God gave you ten tribes of Israel to rule over and look what you've
done. But he said, here's part of what
he did for Jeroboam, and rent the kingdom away from the house
of David and gave it you. And yet thou has not been as
my servant David, look at this description of him, who kept
my commandments and who followed me with all his heart. to do
that only which was right in mine eyes. And what did you think
of when I read that? David only did that which was
right in the eyes of God. We just read the story of Beth,
the very end of the story of Bathsheba. David said, I've sinned,
I've sinned. But what came after that? God's
put your sin away. When Christ washes your sin away,
it's gone. It's gone. God has not beheld
iniquity in Jacob. He never has and he never will. Oh, he's always done that, which
is right. Remember that God's description
of Job and a perfect and upright man who loves me and hates what
I hate. Oh my, even a lot. If you read the story of Lot
in the scriptures, you'll find some problems. So David here, but in the New
Testament, he's called just Lot, righteous Lot, perfect Lot. Just means you've never done
anything wrong. But David, your eye of the Hittite,
God said, you murdered him. You know, David didn't argue
with him either. He didn't say, oh, well, I didn't
have anything to do with that. He was killed in battle. You
murdered him. You killed him in your heart.
And then you killed him in real life. David caused the death of 70,000
people when he numbered Israel. But God said he hath done only
that which is right in mine eyes. It's Numbers 23, 21, where it
says God hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. God sees all of his sheep in
Christ. He always has, and he always
will. Lot was full of sin, and you
see it in the account of him in the book of Genesis. but it's
2 Peter 2.7 where he's called Just Lot. His righteous soul
was vexed. Now Abijah, the son of Jeroboam,
which fell sick, is prominent in this text. God singles him
out in this pronouncement of judgment and wrath upon the house
of Jeroboam. He said, your family's not only
gonna die, but the dogs are gonna eat them. They're not even gonna
have a decent burial. You know what that tells you is that the
people that God gave him to rule over, what a privilege, what
an honor that God would give somebody like us authority in
this world to exercise authority over people. What a privilege,
what an honor, what a responsibility. But those people, they didn't
think anything of Jeroboam or his family. They didn't even
come up with money to bury them decently. They hated them. Except
for one of them. Except for one. Abijah is singled
out. And we're told in verse 13, that
some good thing was found in him. This is amazing now, considering
what Paul wrote in Romans 7, 18, for I know that in me, the
apostle Paul, oh, one of God's great servants. Did God ever
use anybody more than he did the apostle Paul? For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Just the opposite of what
it says about this man named Abijah. And the Bible teaches
all through that there's no good thing in man. No good thing. Here's God's pronouncement upon
the whole human race in Genesis 6-5. God saw that the wickedness
of man was great on the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. No good
there. But this good thing in Abijah
was found there. It wasn't good that he did, it
was good that was in him. We know that all men are totally
depraved by nature. You can't get good fruit from
an evil tree. The Lord was very clear about
that. When God begins, though, a good
work in saving a sinner, this is how,
and this is where he does it. when God does something in your
heart. Listen to the way that's described
in Philippians 1.6. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, a good thing,
some good things found in about you. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it. He will accomplish it. He will
complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's how some
good thing might just be found in you. God begins a work in
a sinner's heart. When the gospel's preached, when
the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed in the preaching of the word,
And by God's grace, faith is mixed with that message. That's
the language of scripture. Faith being mixed in those that
hear it, in those. I don't mix faith with it here
and bestow it upon you. I just tell forth what God said
and the faith comes in here by the grace of God. He begins a
good work in the heart. I might, by God's grace, do a
good thing for you. It wouldn't be meritorious. My
motive, something about it would be evil in me. But I might do
something good for you, relatively. I might do good by you. I might do something good to
you. but I can't do good in you. That's
God's work. You must be born again. You must
be born from above. And how like God, how like the
God of all grace, even in this household of dung, the language,
he said, they're gonna take you out like something repulsive that
has every trace of it has to be taken away. And even in that household of
Dunn, how like God to choose one out and to set his love on
him. And look how it manifested itself.
What does God do in a sinner's heart? Look at verse 13. And this is where we have those
beautiful, gracious words. When God does that work, when
he has mercy on one out of a horrible household, sometimes God saves
a whole household. Sometimes he don't save any household. Sometimes he saves one. He saves whoever he wants to
save. But all Israel shall mourn for
him and bury him. They didn't care for any of the
others of that house. Not even gonna bother. But this
man of Bajah, he must have been a young man, I don't know. Maybe
he was a teenager, maybe he was much older than that, I don't
know. But they're gonna bury him and only Jeroboam He only
shall come to the grave and be buried be given a good burial
because in him There's found some good thing toward the Lord
God of Israel In the house of Jeroboam and all of that household
Just one and notice it was a good thing Toward God That's what
God puts in us Our heart is toward him, toward him. The good thing in a badger did what? It pointed him to Christ. Toward God, toward God. You can't see God, you can't
know God, you can't have anything to do with God apart from Christ. But the good thing in Abijah
pointed him. No man can come to Christ except
the Father draw him toward, toward, toward him, toward Christ. It drew Abijah to the Lord Jesus. And may God do this work of grace
in us. Christ in us, the hope of glory. So that even in this house of
dung, in this wretched, sin-wrecked world, we might honor him. We might look to him. It'll be
evident, won't it? Everybody knew there was something
different about him. Daniel, there was excellence
found in Daniel, remember that? The Lord put that there too. May we be drawn toward God in
everything that we do. Drawn toward Him. Turn with me to 1 Peter 3. Let's
read a couple of passages and we'll be through. 1 Peter 3. May this be true of us by God's
grace. Verse one, 1 Peter 3, 1. Likewise,
you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any
obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by
the conversation of the wives. While they behold your chaste
conversation, that's conduct, coupled with fear, who's adorning,
let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing
of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man
of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great
price. That within the, the new man
of the heart, the hidden man of the heart that God puts within
us. May it be evident to everybody
that comes in contact with us, the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit. That's what matters to God. He
mentions the things that ladies do to dress up. There's nothing
wrong with that. I wanna look pretty. I can't, but you ladies can. But you know what I'm saying,
but he's deliberately saying it's not about that so much.
It's not about that. Beauty is on the inside. It really
is. I used to scoff at that. It was
like when you're young, you're either hot or you ain't hot,
you know. But beauty is so much more than that. So much more
than that. And that's the work of God. And
it's beautiful to him. When he made this world, he said,
it's good. When he gave you a good heart, it is in his sight of great price.
Ephesians three, one final. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 For this cause This Paul speaking to the church
at Ephesus the elders there of the church For this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant
you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man. You see what we're
talking about? Some good thing that God puts
there. It's Christ in you. by His Spirit
in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. You see how it's described? What
is the inner man? What is the hidden man of the
heart? It's Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith that you
being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that
you might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's what
God does on the inside, and that's our prayer this morning. God,
do this in us. May Christ dwell in our hearts
by faith. May we have that adornment of
a quiet and meek spirit for your glory. You know, there was a
difference made between the way Abijah died and the rest of his
house died. The rest of them were eaten by
dogs and birds of prey in the streets, cast off. Jeroboam cast
God behind his back and God cut off Jeroboam and his house. But
there was a difference the way Abijah died. He was given a decent
burial, a respectful, loving burial, memorial. But think of
the real difference in how they died. The spiritual difference. The difference God makes is eternal. By his grace, because some good
thing was found in me. Faith in Christ, a new heart
that loves him. How are you gonna do that without
a new nature? How are you gonna do that? You love God? How is that? But because the Lord did that
for us, if you're his, for us to live is Christ, and to die
is more Christ. Let's pray.