Now this story really begins
in 1 Kings 12, verse 26. So let's look back at that and
remember Jeroboam and how he came on the scene here. Rehoboam
is of the lineage of David and he was to reign over Judah But Jeroboam was given, look
at verse 26 of chapter 12. And Jeroboam, let's see. Yeah, Jeroboam said in his heart,
now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. Jeroboam
was given dominion over 10 of the tribes. Judah and Benjamin
being under Rehoboam, son of David. and Jeroboam was given
ten of the tribes, but he says, now shall the kingdom return
to the house of David, which is Rehoboam at the time, if this
people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. Then shall the heart of this
people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king
of Judah. If that's where they worship,
then that's where their heart's going to be. And they shall kill
me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon the
king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto
them, it is too much for you, said to the people, it's too
much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one
in Bethel, that's where our text took place, and the other put
he in Dan, and this thing became a sin, for the people went to
worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made a house
of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people,
which were not of the sons of Levi, which was God's command.
It should be the Levites, the priestly tribe. And Jeroboam
ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the 15th day of the
month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, like the one that
God had ordained. but not that one. And he offered
upon the altar, so did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the
calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests
of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the
altar which he had made in Bethel the 15th day of the eighth month,
even in the month which he had devised of his own heart. Wrong
place, wrong time, wrong God. ordained a feast unto the children
of Israel and he offered upon the altar and burnt incense and
As he's getting ready to burn incense verse 1 of chapter 13
the man of God comes and so We see all of the marks of false
religion In that passage and that's so so that's what we're
dealing with here in chapter 13 all of that It's false religion. It's an imitation of what God
has ordained, which is today the simple preaching of Christ,
two ordinances in the church that point to Christ, that force
us, as often as we do this, they force us to look to Christ, to
see that he is our message. He is the reason we're here.
He is who we worship. But listen, first of all, unbelief.
Look back now at 1 Kings 11, and let's read a passage in 1
Kings 11 that show where that came from, where Jeroboam saying
in his own heart, here's what's gonna happen, instead of just
trusting the Lord. Look at 1 Kings 11, 29. And it came to pass at that time,
when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, the
Shilonite, found him in the way, and he had clad himself with
a new garment. And they, too, were alone in
the field, and Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him
and rented him twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, take
thee 10 pieces, for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,
behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and
will give 10 tribes to thee. When he says Solomon, that includes
Rehoboam, which was the son of Solomon. But he shall have one
tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake,
the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,
because that they have forsaken me and have worshiped Ashtoreth,
the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites,
and Milcom, the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked
in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to
keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David my father. So because
of that sin, God's gonna take 10 of the tribes of Israel and
give them to Jeroboam. Very simple. But look at verse
34. Howbeit I will not take the whole
kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the
days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose
because he kept my commandments and my statutes. But I will take
the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto thee,
even ten tribes. And unto his son will I give
one tribe, that David my servant may have a light always before
me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name
now." Now for whatever reason, Benjamin is not mentioned, but
it was Judah and Benjamin together that that were under Rehoboam.
And I will take thee, verse 37, and thou shalt reign according
to all that thy soul desires, and shalt be king over Israel.
You see that? This is what's gonna happen.
And then Jeroboam says in his own heart, that's not what's
gonna happen. They're gonna come to hate me and they're gonna
kill me. Wait a minute, what about what God said? And then
verse 38, and it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that
I command thee, and will walk in my ways and do that is right
in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments as David
my servant did, that I will be with thee and build thee a sure
house as I built for David and will give Israel unto thee. That's
the word of God. So the first mark of false religion
is unbelief. Don't you see that in modern
false religion? God has made some pretty clear
statements in his word concerning his son and how sinners are saved
and religion just ignores them, just ignores them. The God of
electing grace who says, I love the one brother and hate the
other, they just ignore him. The scriptures are pretty clear
now on all of the so-called deep doctrines of the gospel. They
are deep. They are unfathomable because
Christ himself is altogether lovely and we can never know
him in all of his glory. But the truth that the Lord teaches
is not complicated, but religion utterly ignores it. God's love
is in Christ. You don't just get born into
the love of God because you're a human being. It don't work
that way. But they make their own gods
and they worship them where they want to. It's too inconvenient
to do otherwise. So we see that. Just believe
God. That's all Jeroboam had to do,
right? Just believe God. And yet he thought in his own
heart, here's what's going to happen. And it wasn't what God
said was going to happen. That's us. That's our religious
wretched hearts by nature. Secondly, human reasoning, as
we've already mentioned in 1228. Whereupon the king took counsel
and made two calves of gold and said unto them, it is too much
for you, you people. It's too, it's not convenient
for you to go all the way up to Jerusalem to worship. Why can't we just do that right
here? It's not what God said do, but you know, it'll be like
that. Says he took counsel, and that's
what they came up with. I guarantee you this, whoever
he took counsel with, it wasn't God. Human reasoning. If we just,
we gotta get people to make a commitment. We gotta get people to walk down
an aisle. God can't just save them out there in the pew. We've gotta get them to pray
this prayer. Our numbers can't go down, they gotta go up, and
so we gotta do what it takes to get the numbers in here. We
can't support all this finery without numbers. Just human reasoning
upon human reasoning. I've been in the big middle of
it, and I can tell you in detail that it has nothing to do with
the word of God, absolutely nothing. Everything that the so-called
church of this religious world does now, is Antichrist and foreign
to the word of God. Walking in an aisle, sinner's
prayer, getting saved, crosses and statues, idolatry. And that's the third
thing, idol worship. The God of religion is nothing
like the God of this Bible. It's a golden calf. Fourthly,
imitation. It's close enough, though, for
most people. If you don't know God, it's close
enough. It's perfectly fine for you.
Also, they have a form of godliness, but they deny what? The power. Isn't that exactly what they
deny? The authority of God. God said, and by his grace, let's
do what God said. to deny His authority and His
ability. They say, well, He's trying to,
He wants to. You're denying the power of God Almighty in both
ability and authority. Now, the Word of God
is to be followed every day. Every day. We see this example
here. This is every day in our lives
recorded in the Word of God. were to follow his word and only
his word, which is always clear in it. Do not eat of that tree. In the day that you do, you're
gonna die. You can have everything else
in paradise. Was there anything unclear about
that? There never has been anything
unclear about the word of God. When preaching becomes confused
and complicated is when man tries to take his preconceived notions
of God and make them fit with the God of the Bible. It's gonna
get tricky then, because you can't make them reconcile. But
the word of God is always clear. It's to be believed every day,
acted upon every day, by us. Every day we make decisions to
follow the Lord, His word, honor Him, or follow our own human
reason. We decide that over and over
every day. Now, if you're a believer, if
you're a believer, you weren't saved by your decision, and you're
not gonna be lost by your decision. You're not, but I'll tell you
this, Your decisions are evidence of who you trust. You follow
in yourself, you follow in the Lord. I wouldn't dismiss that
evidence if I were you. But also there are consequences. We name the name of Christ. That's
what we talked about this morning. That's the greatest consequence
to bring shame upon him. No believer wants to do that.
If you're an unbeliever, your decisions are your problem. You
look into your own heart like Jeroboam did. You reason with
your own heart instead of just simply believing God. Learn that
here. Learn that. Let's, by God's grace,
God, give us this. Help us to learn this right here.
This applies to every day of our lives. Deny yourself, he said, and take
up your cross and follow me. Believe on him and have everlasting
life. What Jeroboam wasn't doing in
all of this imitation Antichrist religion was looking to Christ. It doesn't matter what else you're
doing if you're not looking to Christ. You're lost. that God had ordained With regard
to his true worship, and that's what we're talking about here
how God's gonna be worshipped God had ordained the way that
Sinners could worship and come to him and have communion with
him in his favor. That's Christ all the Old Testament
is Christ in picture and type and ceremony even in the law
itself and It was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ And that was true here what God
had ordained that which Jeroboam shunned and just flat-out opposed All of his true worship in that
day the worship of God it pointed to Christ it exalted Christ it
set forth Christ the Lamb of God that takes away sin all the
scriptures point to him and They tell of Him. Don't miss Him. Don't despise and reject Him. Don't look into your own heart.
Look to the Word of God. Look to Christ. Trust Him and
follow Him and obey Him and bow to Him and believe on Him. In
our text in chapter 13, God sent a man of God to bust this false
religion up and to honor the God of heaven and earth. Notice
how God accomplished that Look at verse 1 of chapter 13 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
What a picture he's getting ready right there to deny God to reject
Christ But look how the Lord Came and Put put down this false religion
first. He sent a man of God you reckon
he could have done it without that He could have just from
heaven itself Just put him out of business struck down Jeroboam
Without doing it this way, but he sent a man to do what? What
what did this man of God do? He just spoke. That's all he
did. He just talked That's what men
of God do Somebody that God sins he sins with a message by a simple,
plain, true message. He sent him to tell the truth.
He didn't come down there and put a knot on Jeroboam's head.
Sometimes we want to do that. He didn't start tearing down
the place of false worship. He just told the truth as God
told him to tell. In verse one, you have a man
of God come to tell the truth of God and you have an idol worshiper,
a hater of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And look, this is all
a man of God is. There's no hierarchy like there
is in the Catholic false church. There's just a man that God sends
to tell the truth. He's not fancy. He's not above
the people. They talk about clergy and laity. What in the world kind of foolishness
is that? You see anything like that in
the Word of God? God's man is always just a sinful man. He's
a wretched sinner. God doesn't hide that. Abraham,
Moses, weak flesh that God uses despite them. Simon Peter, all
of the men of God, just a fisherman. It's just a man sent by God to
tell the truth. And what is this truth that he
told? The effect of what this man of God had to say was to
denounce everything that was false and exalt the true Christ
of the Bible. That's what we do. That's what
we do. That's what believers now do.
He didn't stand there and ramble on about all that was wrong with
the false. No time for that. If it's not
Christ, it's false. And instead of studying up on
that, you need to avoid it. The minute you find out it's
not Christ, avoid it. The dumber you are about it,
the better. He made a declaration about what
God was gonna do. He didn't talk about what you
shouldn't do. He spoke about what God is gonna
do, which now is what God has done. And you know what God's gonna
do. He's gonna exalt his son. He's gonna put down every enemy
like he did this false religion here. He's gonna destroy everyone
who hates his son. He said, they're gonna burn you
right here on this very altar. Bow to God's son, the simple
message is bow to God. Believe what he said, bow to
his son, his way of worship. Believe on God's son, worship
God's son, learn of God's son and find rest. In verse two,
look at verse two. He cried against the altar, in
the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the
Lord, behold a child. What did his message have to
do with? A child that was gonna be born. Now he's not specifically
talking in an earthly sense about Christ here. Ah, but what a spiritual
picture this is. Our message concerns the child
that was born, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. born unto
the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he
offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon
thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. Josiah is a
clear picture of Christ here. And what this prophet, what this
man of God is prophesying here didn't happen until 360 years
later. Jeroboam is long dead and gone.
Recorded if you want to look at it sometime in second Kings
chapters 22 and 23 But this sets forth how that God's King that
honors him is the only true king and he's going to burn the false
the Antichrist priests on that very fake altar that Jeroboam
built the victorious successful Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ
will do that and All of his enemies would be made his footstool.
And notice particularly how God's man cried against the altar. This is important. I say this
a lot, but it's important that we see it all through. He cried
against the altar, but how did he do that? Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. We don't
cry against the false by talking about the false. We do it by
saying what God said. Notice it says he cried against
the altar in the word of the Lord. I want to speak to you
tonight in his words, not mine. That's what rightly dividing
the word of truth is now. Don't need to be well-versed
in all the different brands of error to cry against false religion. You just need to know what God
said That's it And notice God's men didn't speak about what Antichrist
people do Just about what God was going to do as I've said
well ago, which now is what he did do he gave himself for his
people on Calvary and Notice God's man didn't preach about
God's enemies. He just spoke of a promised child
that would destroy God's enemies in a great victory. God give
us grace to preach a person, and what he did, according to
the word of the Lord, to preach against false religion is to
preach him. And of course the purveyors of
false religion don't much care for the truth. Straight from
God. He spoke in the word of the Lord.
If I tell you what God said tonight and it makes you mad, where are
you, Adam? That's happened before, I've
told you. I'll just read a passage from the scriptures and it'll
make people mad. That don't say that. It don't say what? I just
read it. Verse three, when he gave a sign
the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord has spoken.
Behold, the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it
shall be poured out. It came to pass when King Jeroboam
heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against
the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar
saying, lay hold on him. He's fixing to put the man of
God out of business if he can. It's a mutual hatred, isn't it?
It's a mutual hatred. We despise, by God's grace, we
despise the false religion of our day that blasphemes our savior. And it's mutual. lay hold on him, they're fixing
to kill that man of God. And he put forth his hand, he
took his hand off of that altar where he was about to burn incense
to a false god and blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
stretched it out and said, lay hold on that, on that man. And when he did, his hand which
he put forth against him dried up. so that he could not pull
it in again to him. Can you imagine the horror on
his face when that happened? Apparently, Jeroboam had an entourage
with him and as this man of God, and by the way, we're never told
his name, the name of the man of God. What difference does
it make? God has always chosen a bunch of nobodies to preach
his word. Don't say amen. That's the truth,
isn't it? My gosh. That's the evident truth. So he had soldiers with him,
and this man of God told the truth, and Jeroboam was gonna
have God's man killed for telling the truth. That's nothing we
haven't seen all through. But look what God did, and think
about Think about what he actually did now. This is not just some
kind of a magic show to show Jeroboam how powerful God was. I'm sure he learned that lesson.
But think about what God actually did. He gave Jeroboam a glimpse,
just a glimpse right here of what Jeroboam actually is. Dead, dried up corpse. Without God, that's what we are
right there. He just gave him a little glimpse
of what he is by nature. Remember that field of dead,
exceeding dry bones that Ezekiel walked out into? It's gonna take
a miracle of God to give us life. That's what we are without God,
dead, dried up, helpless, hopeless. Ezekiel 37 is where that story
is about the field. It was an old battlefield and
there were a bunch of dead, dry bones. That's us without the
life of God. That's what it pictures there.
Without God's grace. Remember what our Lord said,
a branch is that abideth not in him. There you go, Jeroboam. You abide not in Christ. All
right, here's what you are. That's what you are. You're worth
nothing but burning. You're fit to be burned. That's what Jeroboam was all
through. The Lord just made his hand that way just to show him. Dead, dry, and fit to be burned.
We have no reason to believe that Jeroboam ever knew the Lord,
but look at the spiritual picture of the gospel here. Often unbelievers
are used in the scripture to teach the gospel. Yeah, I believe
that's what's going on here now. Look what happens when God gives
a sinner a glimpse of what we are before him. Oh, this is me. This is what I am. I'm a wretched,
vile sinner. I deserve hell. I'm dead. I'm
a walking dead man. Without God's grace, I'll die
forever. Look at verse five, 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, entreat now the face
of the Lord thy God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored
me again. Jeroboam doesn't have any use
for the golden calf now. Why didn't he just pray to that
golden calf? That was his God. Not anymore. Not anymore. That my hand may be restored
unto me again, and the man of God besought the Lord, and the
king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. Jeroboam, he cries unto the man
of God for mercy from the Lord. The man of God, the man of God,
that's Christ. This man of God here, he pictures
the Savior also. If a sinner ever sees what they
are before God, they're gonna cry for mercy. It's likely that this was not
sincere from Jeroboam. I don't suspect this was sincere
from him. He didn't cry for God to forgive
him for his idolatry. He didn't cry for forgiveness
of his sin. He just wanted his hand back,
you reckon? That's what it looks like to me. But you still see
the spiritual picture here, don't you? Oh, pray to God that he'd give life to a dead
man. Jeroboam's Likely unbelief doesn't
mar the picture here of The gospel the sinner cries for mercy from
God and gets it God answered the cry for mercy because Forsaking
if just for a moment his idols Jeroboam went to God's man picturing
the Lord Jesus Christ and asked for mercy That's how sinners
are saved. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. What did the man of God do? He
made intercession. For the Lord restore his hand.
That's exactly what our text pictures. And then verse seven,
Back in our text, and the king said unto the man of God, come
home with me and refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward. What a perfect picture of false
religion. All through this, and in one
minute they're threatening you with hell. Lay hold on that man. That's what the law says. That's
what false religion is all about. Lay hold on that man, he smokes
cigarettes. Lay hold on that man, he said
a cuss word. Lay hold on that man, he ain't been to church.
He ain't been paying his tithe. Lay hold on that man. Moses says,
stoner, what do you say? And then the next minute, they're
bribing you with heaven. Rewards, rewards, if you just
do what we say. Sinners can neither be bribed
nor threatened into believing on Christ. That takes faith that
only God can give, and he gives it when Christ is preached, not
when sinners are bribed or threatened. Sinners believe on Christ by
someone preaching Christ. Romans 10, 13 through 17. You
look at that at your convenience. The true man of God wants nothing
to do with false religion's methods or rewards. Why can't you threaten a man
of God with hell to motivate him? You think this man of God was
intimidated? Why can't you threaten the man
of God with hell to motivate him? because of Romans 8, 33,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. As Stephen was being stoned. What a horrible way to die. But
as he was being stoned, he looked up and he was given
a vision by the Lord of the Lord Jesus Christ standing to receive
him. And it says that they stoned
Stephen calling on God. Oh my, may I always be Chris
calling on God. Why can't you bribe a man of
God into your false religion with promises of reward? Genesis 15, one, after these
things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. If Christ is mine, what are you
gonna bribe me with? If I've sold everything I had
and bought the pearl of great price, what are you gonna use
to make me part with it? Verses eight through 10, we'll
close. The man of God said unto the
king, if thou will give me half thine house, I will not go in
with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this
place, for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord. That's
all this man cared about, it's what God said. Can we ever come
to the place if that's all we care about? What did God say? It had to do, it affected where
he went and what he did and the decisions that he made. It guided
his life every day, not just on this day. The sheep of God have no part
whatsoever with the religion of this world. We don't buddy
up to them. We don't have anything to do
with them. It's shocking and insulting to
them when we're forced to express our utter disdain for them and
what they do, but it's just the truth. I don't go around doing
that, but when I'm forced to, I do. We're not to bid them Godspeed.
When our gospel is despised, we're to shake the dust of that
place off of our feet. It's a question of the glory
of our God. It goes right with what we talked
about this morning. If you name the name of Christ,
you're in his great household. Remember what Abraham said in
Genesis 14, 21. Listen, the king of Sodom said
unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.
Take all of the spoils of this battle that we just won. You're
the one that won this thing. You deserve all of this. And
Abram said to the king of Sodom and I have lift up mine hand
unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven
and earth. I hold my hand out to the one
that owns everything. "'the possessor of heaven and
earth, "'that I will not take from a thread, "'even to a shoe
latchet, "'that I will not take anything that is thine, "'lest
thou shouldest say, "'I have made Abraham rich.'" You didn't
make Abraham rich, God did. Again, the word of the Lord is
mentioned in that part that we just, for so it was charged me
by the word of the Lord. And you know what In the next
study that we see in this chapter right here We're gonna see again
the importance of the Word of the Lord and how every one of
us believer or unbeliever are Susceptible to departing from
the Word of the Lord We're warned And it'll show us now that the
one exalted here is not the man of God. Though he pictures Christ, it's
Christ himself and his precious word that's exalted. He's exalted
his word above all his name. And every word that proceedeth
from the mouth of the Lord, that's what's exalted here. And this,
what we do here, it's more than we can ever know. You take it
for granted, I take it for granted. Back when, you know, my business
was just to come and sit like you and worship and hear the
gospel, I neglected it. I had other things to do a lot
of times, and people do now. The word of God. It's not bound. It's steadfast and reliable. The Lord Jesus Christ, he don't
have other things to do. He has a world because of us. And he blesses us this way. This
is how he does it. It's more than we know. May God
give us grace to heed his word. Take heed how you hear the scripture
says, Mary hath chosen that good part that shall not be taken
away from her. Where are you, Mary? At his feet,
hearing his word. God help us.