1st Kings 13 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 they told also
to their father I Remember them the one who's called the man
of God here Had come from Judah to Bethel where Jeroboam had
raised this false altar, had created a false place of worship
that God had not ordained, and was about to offer sacrifice
on this pagan, godless altar, and this man of God comes and
condemns, he speaks against the altar by giving a message from
God concerning a child that would be born. You remember that? Now
this is talking about another prophet, an old prophet, whose
sons knew about this happening and came and told him about it.
Now verse 12, and their father said unto them, what way went
he? For his sons had seen what way
the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto
his 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 him, Art thou
the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. Then
he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. And he said,
I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will
I eat bread, nor drink water with thee in this place. Now,
if you'll remember, the King Jeroboam made the same offer. He said, you stay, you're gonna
eat with me. Because he realized that he was
a true man of God and he wanted to, like everybody that hates
God, they want to manipulate God to benefit themselves. And so he wanted the man of God
to stay. But he told the king, Jeroboam, not gonna do it, can't
do it. Leave him now the way God told
me to. So this man offers the same thing.
And he said, I will, last part of verse 16, 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, I am a prophet also as thou art. This is the
old prophet talking now. I'm a prophet just like you.
And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying,
bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat bread
and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him and
did eat bread in his house and drank water. And it came to pass
as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came unto
the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man
of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord,
forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast
not kept the commandment, which the Lord thy God commanded thee,
but camest back, and hast 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 sepulcher of
thy fathers. And it came to pass, after he
had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled for
him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back. And
when he was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him.
And his carcass was cast in the way. And as the ass stood by
it, the lion also stood by the carcass. And behold, men passed
by and saw the carcass cast in the way and the lion standing
by the carcass. And they came and told it in
the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that
brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is
the man of God who was disobedient 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 the prophet took up the carcass
of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back.
And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his
own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!
And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake
to his son, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre
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 Bethlehem, against all the houses of the high places,
which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass. And
we'll stop reading there. Let's ask the Lord to bless us
tonight. Father, as we look at this portion of your word, I
pray your presence, pray your Holy Spirit be with us, Lord,
to teach us, to shine the light of the truth, the light of revelation
upon your word for us and to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ
and the power of the gospel, the vital nature of the gospel
unto us, that we might look to Christ alone. In his name we
ask, amen. Now the Lord had sent this prophet
that was lied to here, as I said, to condemn Jeroboam, who had
made a false altar, which was blasphemy, against God's Christ. You have to remember the key
to this story is something that's not spelled out in the story,
but explained in the context of it. In the whole word of God,
the Old Testament ceremonies, the Old Testament tabernacle
and then temple, all of the furniture of the tabernacle and the temple,
the priests, everyone that worked and what they did within that
tabernacle and the business of the tabernacle and the temple,
every bit of it was to set forth Christ in all of his glory, in
all of his, what he is to his people, the manna. the bread
of life, the light of the world. He's the incense, he's our mediator
before God. He, in John 17, prayed his mediatorial
prayer unto the Father as he went to the cross. That's the
incense that filled the most holy place before the blood was
splashed on the altar. And that blood was, of course,
representative of his precious blood that redeemed us from our
sins. And so all of this has to do with Christ, his honor,
his glory, his truth, who he is to his people and what he
did for them. And so him setting up this other
altar, that's what he's blaspheming. He's not just disobeying God
in the matter of location. He's disobeying God in the matter
of his son and his gospel. It's unthinkable and yet true. There's only one place where
God can be worshiped. There's only one place where
God can and will meet sinners and commune with them. There's
only one place of salvation. There's one place of atonement
made for the soul. There's one place of forgiveness
of sin. That's the message of the temple
and all things pertaining to the temple. such as the altar
of sacrifice, the brazen altar where the sacrifice was slain
and the blood shed, the mercy seat where God said, I will meet
with you there and I'll commune with you, where the high priest,
Christ, went in to that holy place, picturing him entering
the holy place not made with hands in the very heaven of heavens. as our forerunner, and this one
place, and it was not the place that Jeroboam had established,
we see in the first part of chapter 13 where this prophet, the one
who came from Judah, the man of God, Confronted Jeroboam and
speaks against the false altar and we saw how he did that He
didn't start saying everything that was wrong with the altar.
He just gave a word that God had given him He delivered a
message that God had given him concerning a son that was going
to be born And that's what his that's how his preachers preach
against the false by preaching Christ We'll refer to this prophet,
we could say the man of God as opposed to the old prophet. I
guess we'll do it that way. Or the prophet that was lied
to as opposed to the one who lied. Because neither one of
their names are given. But the prophet that was lied
to was told by God to go there, say what he said, and get out. He was specifically told not
to stay and eat or drink anything. And he was told not even to go
back to Judah the way he came to Judah, so despised was that
place in the eyes of God and in his word to this prophet,
this man of God, that even the path to it was burned, was retired
once he took it. Go back a different way. This story is a lesson in the
vital nature of the word of God, clearly. The word of God was
disobeyed and the consequence was death. It's a lesson in how
that the word of God concerns Christ and his glory. And it's
a lesson in that there is one place of God's blessing in this
world. in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this was the reason the prophet
was there, to deliver a message concerning the glory of Christ,
to condemn Antichrist, and point to God's true way that
he's worshiped, that he accepts sinners, that atonement can be
made. Now the first thing that we'll
consider here tonight is the simplicity of the message from
God. It always is, isn't it? It's
always, Paul said, don't, I fear lest you be removed from the
simplicity. And we've seen that word before.
It doesn't just mean that it's one plus one equals two. Although
the Lord reveals his gospel that way. It's that clear. But also
it means all inclusiveness, simple, uncomplicated. Christ is all
is not complicated. And that's the message of the
gospel. Christ is all-inclusive. He is salvation. He is mercy
from God. He is forgiveness of sin. He
is the resurrection. He is all things in God's purpose
of grace toward his elect in this world. He's Lord, King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. He's prophet, priest and king
as our brother so clearly set forth. And all of those offices
are vital to the sinner. You must have a prophet. You
must hear from God. How many times do we say that
here? You must hear from God today, tomorrow. You must hear
from God. You got to have sacrifice and
somebody to offer it for you. and you must have the king, the
sovereign. Is there anything more comforting
to the believer than to know that the one who has loved us
with an everlasting love sits on the throne? Where do we see
him in the book of Revelation? And what did we go to bed at
night thinking about? Our savior magnified, exalted
on the throne of God. Now, to deliver this message, so simple,
he was sent to deliver a plain and clear, he was told in no
uncertain terms, go, say what I tell you to say, and don't
eat bread in that place. It wasn't complicated a bit,
and it never is a message from God. People say things like in
religion, well, I think God's trying to tell me something.
God don't try anything. He never tries, especially when
he has a message for you. He's not trying to tell you anything.
I've heard of people, you know, closing their eyes at a red light,
and if they open it and it's red, that means God says, don't
do it. And if it's green, when you open your eye. God's not
trying to tell you anything. I'm dead serious about that,
by the way. That's absolutely the type of
thing that people trust in. But notice that place. Did you
see it all through what we read in this place and here in this
place? It said it repeatedly four or
five times. This place, that place represented
the Antichrist convenient. Do you remember the Jeroboam
said, it's too much trouble for you to go all the way up to Judah.
to worship. We'll make our own Passover here.
We'll have our own feast day here, where it's more convenient. So that place represented that. The Antichrist's convenient free
will religion that God hates, he sent his man to say he hates
it. And in verse 16, it says, this
place, and it says that so many times in what we read, to emphasize
the significance of the place and how that God's place of worship
represents Christ. When Moses said, show me your
glory, God said, there is a place beside me. That's Christ. Look at 1st Kings 8. Let's turn
back just a few pages here. Look at 1st Kings 8. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
as opposed to the place in our text. 1st Kings 8, 27. This is when Solomon is building
the temple. And he's finished it, and he
gives this prayer, this benediction upon the finishing of the temple
for the worship of God, and look at verse 27, but will God indeed
dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that
I have built. Yet, Lord, have thou respect
unto the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord
my God. to hearken unto the cry and to
the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee today, that
thine eyes may be opened toward this house, toward Christ for
us, Christ in our prayer, God with us, toward this house. Night and day, even toward the
place of which thou hast said, my name shall be there. That
thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall
make toward this place. We're looking to Christ, God's
looking to Christ. That's how sinners are saved.
And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people,
Israel, verse 30, when they shall pray toward this place. And hear
thou in heaven, thy dwelling place, And when thou hearest,
forgive, forgive our sin. If any man trespass against his
neighbor and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear,
and the oath become before thine altar in this house, then hear
thou in heaven and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the
wicked to bring his way upon his head and justifying the righteous
to give him according to his righteousness. When thy people
Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have
sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee and confess
thy name and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house, then
hear thou in heaven. Verse 35 in this place, verse
36, Verse 37, all these different
situations, possible circumstances that will arise or may, he says
in verse 38, we'll spread forth our hands
toward this house. Verse 39, then hear thou in heaven
thy dwelling place and forgive and do and to give every man
according to his ways whose heart Verse 40, that they may fear
thee all the days that they live in the land which they gave us
to Amalphites. So all through he refers to this
place. Now, when the man of God is sent
to condemn that place where God did not ordain that men come
to him or call on him or sacrifice to him, it was all about that
place. Don't, you go and deliver your
message and you get out of that place and don't even go the same
way you came. Don't stay and eat in that place.
And that was pretty clear. God's word is always clear and
plain and unmistakable. Christ is all in our passage
tonight, in all of scripture, in all of God's purpose of grace
toward his people, Christ is all. Not only does the clarity
of God's word to this prophet that was lied to, Make this inexcusable
that he did. But consider the reason that
God said what he said. And don't forget that. No more than in the Garden of
Eden was it just a question of eating the wrong fruit. That
wasn't the problem. And the problem here is not just
a place or the eating itself or things like that. The reason
that he said what he said to this man was the honor of Christ. God's word is at stake here.
God said this, this, this, and this, and this man was doing
everything a different way. And so it's the honor of Christ
in God's ordained worship of him versus antichrist, which
is anything else. Everything that God had ordained
for his worship represents Christ, and so this place represents
antichrist. It represents man's will in religion. I know what God said, but I'm
gonna do what's convenient I'm gonna do what wins me favor with
the people. Wasn't just a matter of eating
a meal anymore than in the garden, it was just about a different
kind of fruit. It's still, Adam, where are you?
Where are you? Well, in disobedience to God,
trying to hide our sin by what we do. Sin isn't hidden that way. Sin's
not put away like that. It's put away according to the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God's been preaching since
this world was made. From the woman's seed to the
Lamb of God on the throne in Revelation. What was the garden law all about,
if not the fruit? It was about the honor and the
authority of God, was it not? That's Christ. And also, by the way, that the
garden law is another example of how clear God's word always
is. Always. And here in our story, it's also
about the honor and authority of God, which is Christ. He that
honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father. God sent his son to do what he
did that all men should honor the son. And God has given all
authority in heaven and earth under his son. So when this prophet is lied
to about this, instead of hearing that old man say, let's eat a
meal together, what he should have been hearing is let's dishonor
the Lord Jesus Christ together. Because that's what the man was
saying. It's important that we understand that. If we see things the same way,
If we see that God's law is not just some arbitrary rule, that
he's gonna catch you on a technicality. Oh, you know, I had some, I was
trying to explain to somebody one time that we don't, we don't give pledges in our
church. We don't get up and say, I'm
gonna give this much. And somebody else gets up and
says, I'm gonna give this much. I said, the Lord said, don't
let your right hand know what your, or your left hand know
what your right hand is doing. And he said, oh, okay, yeah,
you're right, you'd lose your blessing if you let anybody know
you'd lose your blessing. I'm like, no, that's not what
I'm saying. God's law is not just some arbitrary
rules that he catches you on a technicality and oh, you lose
your blessing. No, it's about Christ. It's about the honor
and glory of Christ. That's what it is. So when we hear somebody say,
well, why don't you visit With me, you come to my church and
I'll go to your church. You know what you should hear
them saying? Let's blaspheme Christ for a day, how about that?
Because that's what they're saying. Let's hear lies about God. And
then I'll come here where your preachers sit. No, I don't believe
I'll do that. I don't believe I'll do that. Adam should have heard the serpent
say, let's ignore God's authority and disobey. That's what he said. Likewise, the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ is not ambiguous. It's not complicated or hard
to understand. You are a desperate, totally
depraved sinner and you need Christ. You need righteousness
before God and Christ is that righteousness. Everything you
need, Christ is. You need a sin offering before
God. You need your sin put away. Christ is that sin offering. You need to be saved. Christ
didn't come to offer salvation. He is salvation. And notice secondly, that the
lie that was told completely contradicted the word of God.
God said, don't eat there. And that man said, what? Stay
here and eat. Same in the garden, wasn't it? It always is. Doesn't matter
how creative it's told, it's anti-Christ. Not complicated, when it comes
to the gospel and the salvation of sinners, there is Christ and
there's everything else. There's Christ and there's antichrist.
There's truth, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated, the distinguishing,
electing grace of God, his love being in Christ. Romans chapter
eight, the end of the chapter. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And then there's the lie, God loves everybody. Exactly the opposite of the truth. The truth is God doesn't love
everybody. And the lie is God loves everybody. There is the truth, I lay down
my life for my sheep and they shall never perish. That simple
correlation right there, that the laying down of Christ's life
equates to salvation is what this religious world denies.
Is that simple enough for you? I lay down my life for my sheep
and they have a great opportunity to live forever. No, the laying
down of his life for me is me being saved. The lie is just
the opposite. Christ died to try to save everybody. The truth is always clear and
the lie is always a direct contradiction to the truth. And the lie always
and the truth always concerns the glory, the honor, the authority
of God in Christ Jesus, always. The lie always sounds good too.
This is a man inviting you to dinner. What could be wrong with
that? Well, if God didn't say anything, then there wouldn't
be a thing wrong with it. Religion would be a great, you
know, helping the poor and, you know, talking about going to
heaven when you die and this and that. That'd be great if
it wasn't, the problem with it is God has spoken. God has spoken
and made everything you say a lie and made the whole point of your
religion a lie. I'm sure the prophet that was
lied to was tired. He was sitting under an oak tree
when the man found him. Long journey apparently. I'm
sure he was hungry. He was probably relieved when
that old prophet said that God had changed his mind. One problem, God don't change
his mind. And even more importantly, the
honor and glory of Christ Jesus is never to be compromised. Don't forget that aspect of the
message. You might think, well, surely
it's not a sin to just go and visit. Well, how much blasphemy
do you think God will tolerate? How much of you openly and just
freely dishonoring him do you think is okay with God? People lie on God using their
authority to make the lie credible. He said, I'm a prophet just like
you. Always remember, in these stories
now that the earthly story is one thing and the spiritual lesson
another. We have an earthly story told
here. We're seeing the spiritual truth of the gospel taught in
these earthly things. Remember that. In the earthly
story, Jacob was the bad guy. But in the spiritual lesson,
he represents Christ. You remember me making the statement,
David was a monster? And it's the truth, but he represents
Christ in so many ways we can't even count them. Moses was called
the friend of God, but he struck the rock twice and the spiritual
lesson was clear. That rock was Christ. And by
one offering, Christ hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So here, this prophet, he might
have been a true prophet of God in the story, in the earthly
story as the text, it seems to indicate that. He was heartbroken
when the inevitable transpired because of his lie. He may have
just been a true prophet of God, an older man, and he made a terrible
mistake. He wanted that man of God. He
knew he was an authentic, man of God that God sent and he was
anxious to spend time with him and he just wanted to do that
so bad that he made a terrible mistake. But there's no question
about what he represents. In the spiritual lesson, he's
a lying prophet, isn't he? Pretty clear, pretty clear. The
only thing we know about him in this story is that he lied.
We don't even know his name. False preachers stand behind
pulpits and are given authority by men, but not God. They say
that salvation is up to the will of man when God plainly said,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that shall have mercy. Just the opposite of what God
said. And again, God said, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. So this man of God that was lied
to, he knew what God had said to him. You couldn't mistake
it. He didn't have to sit there and
think, well, is that what he said? And all he had contrary to that,
all that he had contrary to what God had plainly said to him was
what? The word of a man. You need to find out what God
said. You need to hear and make sure you're not being
lied to. Because if all you have is the
word of a man for that, not good. You need to be sure. It's not hard to tell. You got
it right there in front of you. Is he speaking according to the
word of this prophecy or not? If not, it's because there's
no light from God in him. There are many who claim to speak
for God, but if they speak not according to the words of this
prophecy, there is no light in them. Teach us, Lord, to honor
your son when all the world seems joined for the sole purpose of
dishonoring. There are a lot of ways to dishonor
and lie about the Son of God. You could carry a sign like the
one I saw that says, if Jesus comes back, we'll crucify him
again. Or you could stand behind a pulpit
and say, Christ did all he could do and now it's up to you. And
no one lies worse than the other. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
waiting on you Nothing is up to you, nothing. I thank God that nothing's up
to you and you should thank God nothing's up to me. He died to
redeem his people and all who believe on him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. Everyone for whom he laid down
his life will never perish. You can come to him saying in
your heart, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. or you
can reject him and his gospel of free and sovereign grace and
be damned. But don't you say my savior tried
and failed. Don't you say that. You don't
get to say that. Don't you say he wanted to, but
he couldn't get it done. You come to him or you blaspheme
him with your last breath, but you don't get to say that, that
he tried. It might seem harsh for this
man to get eaten by a lion just for eating a place where he was
told not to eat. But don't forget the spiritual
truth here. It was that place. Verse 22, that place. Outside
of Christ, there is no love of God. Outside of Christ, there's no
mercy. There's no compromise. Again, we don't know if the prophet
that was lied to here suffered God's eternal judgment for this. I suspect not. I think he was
a true man of God who again made a mistake in the story. But clearly
what he represents is that you reject the word of God to your
eternal damnation. If you reject God's plain, clear
revelation concerning his son. Despise God's son, take refuge
anywhere but in the son, you will perish forever. You will
perish suddenly, you will perish violently. Did you notice in the story that
the lion didn't kill the prophet that was lied to because he was
hungry? He didn't kill him because he
was hungry. He didn't eat the carcass and he didn't kill and
eat the donkey either. Well, why did he kill the man
then? Because God told him to. The only one in the story that
did what God told him to do and was true to God was the dumb
animal. What does that remind you of?
The ox knoweth his owner. The ass his master's crib. But Israel does not know. You're never going to obey God. You're never going to hear the
message concerning his son. You're never going to honor the
son. Unless God gives you grace to
do so. My people doth not consider,
ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have
forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel
unto anger, they are gone away backward. Thank God he has mercy on dumb
animals. worse than dumb animals. If we provoke the Holy One of
Israel to anger, then we have to do business with the lion
of the tribe of Judah. Our brother was clear about that
this morning too, wasn't he? Pretty clear about it. In the place of God's blessing,
in the obedience of the gospel, he is the atonement for our sin.
He is our altar. He's our sacrifice. He's the
mercy seat. He's our high priest that comes
before God and speaks of us as those whom the father gave him. But outside of the gospel, outside
of God's favor and blessing, he's the avenging liar. God told this prophet that was
lied to not to return by the same way he had come, but apparently
he was returning to Judah a different way. The way to the place of man's
will being so abhorrent that God wouldn't even permit him
to take that same way again. But it was as he tarried, it was as he rested that he was
lied to. Verse 14, and he was deceived
to his own destruction. Lesson, don't rest until you
get to Christ. Get back to Judah, and don't
you sit down for one second until you get back to the place of
God's blessing, the place of God's sacrifice, the place of
God's worship, the place of acceptance, the place of atonement. the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you ever find that you've
wandered, get back to Christ as fast as you can. I'm thankful
that our security doesn't depend on us being smart enough to run
back or our ability to get there, but run back and by all means,
get there. Say with the people of God in
Psalm 137, four, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange
land? And if you know not the Lord
Jesus Christ tonight, do not sleep until you are reconciled
to God by his precious blood. Amen, let's pray.