Alright, let's go back here now
to 1 Kings 13. Now I've read the chapter to
you, so we're just going to go and take a few verses here at
a time. The man of God in the text here
was a prophet. He was entrusted by his heavenly
master, by our Lord God, to go forth and to declare the Word
of the Lord to Jeroboam. And he represents every God-sent
preacher as well as every believer who is indeed a witness of Christ
in this earth. We see some lessons here from
a faithful man. First thing, we see the faithfulness
of the prophet in delivering the message. Verse 1 says, And
behold, there came a man of God out of Judah. by the Word of
the Lord. He came out of Judah. He wasn't
living in this land where he was preaching. He just went there.
He came out of Judah by the Word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar
to burn incense. This man of God didn't waste
any time. He had this commission from his
heavenly master and he went straight to the place where the Lord sent
him to go. And when he got there where Jeroboam
worshipped in his idolatrous worship, he was engaged in the
very idolatry of which the Lord sent him to preach against. He
was sitting there worshipping at this false altar, this altar
that he had built. And verse 2 says, he cried against
the altar. He cried against the altar. The
stone of that altar was probably softer than Jeroboam's hard heart. And by crying and addressing
the altar rather than Jeroboam, he's shaming Jeroboam's false
gods and at the same time shaming Jeroboam. Those that are sent
to preach the gospel have a divine commission from God to preach
against all falsehood and all corruption in this world. Any
doctrine that gives man room to glory is false. Any doctrine
whatsoever that gives man room to glory is false. All sinned
in Adam, all were conceived in sin, all come forth dead in trespasses
and in sins, all sin because sin is what we are. Not one sinner
saved by the grace of God has any room to boast in any aspect
of our salvation whatsoever. Salvation is all of grace and
salvation is all of the Lord. The Gospel doesn't give any room
whatsoever for a sinner to boast. No room at all. Salvation's of
the Lord. Divine election is of God the
Father. Redemption is through the blood
of the God-man mediator, Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Regeneration
is by God the Holy Spirit. We're kept by the Spirit of God
unto salvation. The works that a believer does
were before ordained by God that we should walk in them. So even
good works that a believer does, he has no room to boast in them.
God ordained them that we should walk in them. The wrath of God
is revealed against all unrighteousness. It's revealed against all free
will, works, religion, which is the same idolatry as what
Jeroboam was engaged in right here as we see in our text. The Lord said in Jeremiah 9.23,
Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich
man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in
this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. God said that I am
the Lord which exercise lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness
in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Secondly,
notice here in his faithfulness in preaching the Word that he
cried, verse 2 says, in the Word of the Lord. He cried against
the altar in the Word of the Lord. It doesn't say he cried
the Word of the Lord. It says he cried in the Word
of the Lord. God's true messengers, along
with every true believer, not only bear witness of the Word
of God, we not only declare the Word of God, We live in the Word
of God. We live in the Word of God. For
believers, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a system
of doctrine. Truly the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ are the words of eternal life. Christ Jesus is our life. He is our life. He's our righteousness. He's our Redeemer and our redemption. Who came to where we are and
redeemed us while as yet we were sinners. While as yet we were
enemies in our minds by wicked works. And Christ is the very
heartbeat in our inner man. And the very power and strength
in whom we live. he cried in the Word of the Lord. The man who abides in Christ,
in the Word of the Lord, in the essential Word, that man cries
in truth, in spirit, in the Word of the Lord. When he preaches,
he declares the truth clearly and dogmatically. You're not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. For you're dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." We're
in the Word of the Lord, in the Word of the Lord, in the Spirit,
not in the flesh. Well, the next thing we see here
is in his faithfulness in the message, or the faithfulness
in the message itself, what he declared. Now in type, the message
that he delivered is the gospel of the conquering son of David,
Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse 2. He says, 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 the priests of the high places that burn incense upon
thee, and men's bones shall be burned upon thee. And he gave
a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord
hath spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent,
and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. Josiah is
a type of Christ. His name is a compound of two
words. One word is foundation. The other
word is Jah, for Jehovah, and that's who Christ is. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the foundation, our one foundation, and He is
Jehovah Jesus. He is God in human flesh. Josiah was a son of David, like
as the Savior is the offspring of David. And like Josiah was
prophesied to come all these years before he ever came, and
even his name was given, and even a sign was given that day,
so it was with the Lord. Isaiah stood before a man one
day, and he preached the gospel to him, and he said, therefore
the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel." You
see how this is showing us a type of that Josiah is a type of Christ. The man of God declared that
Josiah would burn the bones of the false priests upon that very
altar right there. The prophecy wasn't fulfilled
for 360 years. And yet he stood right there, this man of God
stood right there and named the name Josiah 360 years before. And told exactly what Josiah
would do in burning the bones of the priests upon that altar.
And it did come to pass for 360 years, but when that time was
come, It came to pass exactly as the Lord said it would, right
here. Josiah came forth and he began his reign when he was eight
years old. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord. and He broke down all the altars,
He rooted out idolatry in all the land, and not only that,
then He turned and began to build up the house of the Lord. Now
that's a picture of Christ. Christ came into this earth and
He went to the cross and He fulfilled all righteousness for His people,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
by what He did, by His work. And Christ Jesus purged the elect
of God of all of our sin. He reconciled us to God when
as yet we were not even conceived yet. And when He finished His
work on the cross, Christ our victorious King rose from the
dead as the head over all things to His church that He might get
the glory for fulfilling all in all. And right now, He's gathering
out all the stones out of the earth. And I don't mean earthy
stone. I mean He's gathering His living
stones. He's gathering His children.
He's sending forth His gospel. He's creating life within them
through the Spirit of God. gathering them and knitting them
together and building them up, the house of the living God made
out of His living stones. That's exactly what Christ Jesus
is doing. Ephesians 2.19 says, the believers
of the household of God. and built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, just like Josiah's name was foundation.
Christ is that foundation in whom all the building is fitly
framed together and groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, and
in whom you also are built together for habitation of God through
the Spirit. So we see first of all, the man
of God comes forth and he's faithful. He's faithful to the charge that
the Lord sent him on. He came forth and in front of
this powerful king, he preached the truth. He stood before him
and he preached the gospel to him and told him exactly what
the Lord sent him to declare. Well, secondly, we see the man
of God's faithfulness as he stood faithful against the violent
reaction of Jeroboam when he heard this message preached.
Verse 4 says, it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the
saying of the man of God, when he heard the gospel he preached. which had cried against the altar
in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying,
Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth
against him, dried up so that he couldn't pull it in again
to him. And the altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out
from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had
given by the word of the Lord. The king's outstretched hand
here shows us what is the reaction of the natural man to the gospel
of God, to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the unregenerate
man hears the gospel preached and he hears declared that Christ
is the end of the lawful righteousness. You know most people come into
religion. Most people come into religion. thinking that what
they're supposed to do is look to the Ten Commandments and keep
the Ten Commandments and whatever they can't keep, Christ will
make up the difference. That's about what most folks
believe about the gospel. But when they're told Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it,
when they're told that Christ himself fulfilled the law, that
God honored and magnified His own law Himself in the person
of His dear Son, so that there's nothing that a person can contribute
by his obedience to the law. And when they're told that there's
none other name under heaven whereby we must be saved than
the Lord Jesus Christ, then men hear the message just like Jeroboam
heard the message. They hear it against their idols.
They hear it against the work of their hands. They hear it
as a message coming forth against them. That's what he heard, a
message against him. And the response of those whose
heart hadn't been made new, whose heart is just as hard as it was
the day they were born, the response is this, He put forth His hand
from the altar and laid it on him. laid it on him. Instead
of removing his hand from off of his false worship and off
of all of his idols and all of that which his own hand had made
and laying hold of Christ by faith, he took his hand off the
altar and laid it upon the messenger and wanted to kill him for preaching
the message. And he would have done the same
thing to God if he could have got his hands on it. This is
the response of the natural heart to the preaching of the gospel.
The fool has said in his heart, no God. That's what we saw last
week. We see the necessity of the new
birth in this, don't we? Here this king's hand is withered.
He reached out to grab the man of God and his hand withers.
So he can't even pull it back to himself. And then he sees
the sign just exactly according to the word of the man of God
given by the word of the Lord. He sees that sign come to pass
right there. The altar rents and all the ashes
are spilled out. Surely, seeing all this, that's
going to make him repent and beg God for mercy to have mercy
on him and save him. No. Look what he did. And the
king answered, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, he
said, and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again.
You see, until God gives a new heart, until he creates a sinner
anew in his inner man. Not only will a man not repent,
but a man doesn't even know what to pray for as he ought to. He's
sitting here, the king only wanted his hand to be healed. That's
all. He just wanted the temporal,
superficial problem to be fixed. That's all. He didn't care at
all about his heart. He didn't care at all about righteousness
with God, and judgment being fulfilled, and his sins being
dealt with, and his sin being put away, and him having somebody
that he could come to God in. He didn't care about any of that.
He was ignorant of all of that. All he cared about was fix my
hand, heal my hand. That's all he cared about. But
by God withering that hand, you know what God shows us right
here? God shows His true messengers in every believer. We tremble,
we fear, we go into the face of powerful men like this and
try to declare some truth to them. And it's fearful, it's
a fearful thing to do. But God showed right here by
withering that hand that no weapon that's formed against thee shall
prosper. He stopped him and wouldn't let
him go any further. But we see in that that the man
of God stood firm and faithful even in this violent reaction
of Jeroboam to his message. Look at verse 6. And the man
of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand restored him
again and became as it was before. That's faithfulness. You know
why? It's faithfulness because he didn't render evil for evil
to the man. He didn't turn again and rend
evil for evil to Him. That's how Satan often attempts
to ensnare us. You know, somebody will do something
against our God, against our Gospel, against us, the cause
of the Gospel. And it's our nature, it's that
old man of flesh, to rear up and strike back at them. But
he didn't do that. Jeroboam stretched out his hand
against him, but the man of God lifted up his hand to heaven
for him, and the Lord healed him. And in healing the withered
hand of his enemy, at the intercession of the man of God, we see a picture
of the mercy of God for the sake of Christ, who forgives the sin
of His people, yet enemies in our minds by wicked
works because of the intercession of Christ who came and redeemed
them and purged them of all iniquity by His blood. That's His ever-prevailing
intercession that He makes. And even now when we sin against
the Lord, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and He's the propitiation for our sin. So our Savior instructs
us when we're reviled against because of our gospel. He instructs
us to bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully
use you. In 1 Peter 2.19, He said, this
is thankworthy, 1 Peter 2.19, this is thankworthy, if a man
for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults you shall take it patiently,
but if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently?
This is acceptable with God. For even here unto where you
call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, he reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
That's what the man of God did. That's how he stood faithful.
He committed it to him that judgeth righteously. And Christ did that,
his own self bearing our sins in his own body on the tree.
Aren't you thankful He didn't revile again? That's what Satan
was trying to get Him to do on that cross when men were going
by and they were shaking their heads and wagging their tongues
at Him and saying, others He saved, Himself He can't save.
That's what they were trying to do. They were trying to get
Him, Satan was trying to get Him to revile against Him. If
He reviled against Him, you know what happened? It would be over. It would be over. We wouldn't
have a Savior. We wouldn't have a Redeemer. But he bore it. He
didn't revile back again because he's faithful. He's faithful.
And by his faithfulness working in the man of God right here,
the man of God was faithful. And he committed it to the Lord.
And the Lord healed Jeroboam's hand. Alright? Here's the third
thing. We see his faithfulness in resisting
the tempting of the king. Verse 7. And the king said unto
the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and
I will give thee a reward." Satan has a lot of weapons in his arsenal,
doesn't he? If he doesn't get you by reviling
against you because of the message, well then he'll try to saddle
up to you and try to get you that way. A man whose heart's
raging against Christ, he'll speak ill first of all. He'll
run your name through the mud. He'll run down you and to everybody
that'll listen to you. But when that doesn't work, then
he'll turn around and he'll try to draw you to his side. Why
does he do that? Why does he do that? Listen to
this. This is very, very important. If the man who rejects our Gospel
can get God's preacher or his deacons to appear as his friend,
then the truth we stand for is discredited before the people,
while he and his false gospel has gained credibility in the
eyes of the people. That's what he's trying to do.
That's exactly what Jeroboam was trying to do. If he gets
the man of God to go to the house with him and to eat with him,
that the man of God has given Jeroboam credibility in his false
worship and his false God. But the man of God remained faithful. How so? Look at verse 8. And the man of God said unto
the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not
go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in
this place. For so was it charged me by the
word of the Lord. saying, Eat no bread, nor drink
water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So
he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to
Bethel. You remember this, Christ ate with publicans, and He ate
with sinners. And He even went to the house
of Pharisees and ate with them. But when they rejected the Gospel,
when they rejected Christ, He said, Let them alone. Let them
alone. Because once a man has rejected
Christ, Now you're going to give him credibility. Now you're going
to give him credibility. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
What fellowship is there with righteousness with unrighteousness?
Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I'll receive you.
And be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. That takes the grace of God working
in the heart, you know? Because that's painful. That's
painful sometimes. Especially when it's somebody
you love and somebody that's dear to you, it's painful to
do. But it must be done in order
to stand faithful to the Word of the Lord. Here's the last
thing. Now we see the man of God err. We see him err. For the sake
of time, we're going to skip some of these verses, but look
at verse 11. 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 they told also
to their father. You see, these boys have been
up there, they've been worshipping up there at that altar where
Jeroboam had this idolatrous altar set up. And here's this
old prophet. He wasn't there, but his sons
were there, and he was dwelling in this land. He lived in this
land right there. Look at verse 14. And he got
his boys to saddle up his ass, and he went after this man of
God. It says in verse 14, And he went
after the man of God, and he 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. And then he said unto him, Come
home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return
with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor
drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me
by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink
water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
And the old prophet said unto him, I'm a prophet also, as thou
art. 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. He was lying. Now notice the
tempter here first. It wasn't a ferocious king. It
wasn't somebody that out and out appeared like an enemy to
him. It was just an old prophet. Just an old prophet. He may have
been a false prophet. He may have been a true prophet.
It's hard to say, really. All the indications point to
him being a false prophet. He's dwelling in this land of
idolatry. And though he wasn't up there
where his sons were, he's letting his sons go up there and worship
in this house of idolatry. But the question mark that's
over this man's head, that's the answer. That's the answer. If a man's got questionable character,
it's better to leave him alone. Better to just leave him alone.
Judge righteous judgment. Judge righteous judgment. I know
men that say, oh, don't judge. Better judge righteous judgment.
The old prophet used their common offices to persuade the man of
God. He said, I'm a prophet also as
thou art. I've had something like this
happen to me. Beware of men attempting to appeal to any commonalities
other than the truth of Christ. Other than the truth of Christ.
Our common tie, the tie that binds us, is Christ. You take a man on the other side
of the world and he can hear another man preaching the gospel
through some means like the internet, and he knows just by hearing
him preach, that's my brother. That man right there is my brother,
because he hears the Word going forth. He hears the Gospel declaring
that Christ Jesus the Lord is the One in whom God is magnified,
and whom He's honored, and how God is the Just One, how His
justice is upheld, and how He's the very Justifier of His people.
And he hears Him preaching the truth, and not turning men again
to their flesh, and to their works, and to their will. And
he knows that's my brother. So that's the question. What
think ye of Christ? That's our tie that binds us.
Not, well, I'm a prophet like you are. There's a whole lot
of folks that have that office, but they're not any more a prophet
than this man was. And then, thirdly, the old prophet
just flat out lied. He flat out lied. He told them
an angel spoke to him by the Word of the Lord. Why he did
that, I don't have any idea, but he just told him a lie. And
he said, and he told me to tell you to come back to my house
and eat. He's appealing to his belly.
You know the man of God's hungry. He's been preaching all day and
he's left now and been through what he's gone through and he's
headed back home. And he's saying, come home and eat with me. But
he lied to him. He lied to him. You remember
this, before the fall, Satan used a serpent. He had to use
a serpent because sin hadn't entered in. But since the fall,
after sin entered in, now Satan uses men. He uses men. 2 Corinthians 11, 13. It says,
for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
That's no great mystery. But here's the main thing. Here's
the main thing. Even though the old prophet did
all this, here's the main thing. There's the main reason he shouldn't
even give an ear to this man. The man of God knew clearly what
the will of God was in this matter. Look at verse 17. 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 knew this. He knew this was the word of
the Lord. This was the will of the Lord. You see, if we sit
down to meet with will workers, especially if we sit down and
join ourselves with them in their worship. We will return by the
way we came, like a dog returning to his vomit. We'll go backwards,
we'll go backwards, and we'll go backwards at a much quicker
rate than we came forward in this race that's been set before
us. Run the race, look into Christ. Lay aside the weight and the
sin that does so easily beset us and run this race, look into
Christ Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He had
the joy set before Him and He went to that cross and He endured
the shame of that cross because the joy that was set before Him
was the glory of God His Father and the salvation of every elect
child that God the Father gave to Him. That's the joy of every
God-sent preacher. That's the joy set before every
true believer. We have the joy set before us
of God the Father being honored and magnified, and of the good
of His people, of His sheep being called out, of His sheep being
edified, and we have this assurance. It's going to be accomplished
through Christ Jesus, the head of the church. We have the commission
to preach him, declare him, to pray and ask God to give the
increase and to wait on him to do it. And anything else is turning
from the way that he sent us in. It's turning to our own wisdom
and our own means and our own works. This is the way. It's
just the way. You remember after James gave
that bad advice to Paul at Jerusalem to go in and be at charges with
those men that had a vow on them and what have you? And then all
that those men came and wanted to kill Paul because of that.
Well, You know how we look through the epistle of James? That's
where James learned to write that epistle. By the Spirit of
God, he learned. And the theme of that epistle
is just that. It's a trial. It's preaching
the gospel and declaring the name of Christ. Standing for
Christ in the midst of a corrupt world is a trial. It's a daily
trial. Because when you see everybody
in the world going out and joining in with the world, when you see
your loved ones joining in with the world, when you see brethren
who you minister to turning to the world and to taking up with
it, when you see your own family that way, You still have to stay
the course. You still have to continue laboring
in the Word and looking to Christ and laying aside everything else
and coming forth and declaring the Gospel. Because that's the
only way God's going to turn that dear believer back to Him.
That's the only way He's going to turn those dear loved ones
that you love back to Him. That's the only way He's going
to go into the hearts of those who don't know the Lord and create
them anew and bring them to the feet of Christ to worship Him
and follow Him. And we have to preach the Word, bear witness
of the Word, beg God to show mercy to His people in His time,
and wait on Him to do it. That was the message James learned
from what he tried there at Jerusalem that day. Now let's look at the
man of God here. He was sitting under an oak there
instead of traveling on home. Now, this is the first thing
that we learn from him. Remember this. We've seen this
before, we've talked about this before. Often the real trial
comes after we think the trial is over. The real trial comes
after we think the trial is over. He may have been tired, but most
likely, most likely, after his successful resistance of the
king, he became self-complacent and he became full of self-confidence. Beware of false security after
we've proven faithful in one trial. We need to always remember
it's only by the grace of God that we've done anything. It's
only by the grace of God that we've stood. It's only by God's
grace that we were able to do anything, period. So we don't
have any room to become complacent and to become confident and proud
of ourselves for having stood for the name of the Lord. If
we stand for the name of the Lord, not only is it the grace
of Christ Jesus, the faithful one working in us by whom we
now live, it's also we've just done what our reasonable service
was to do. So it's not like we've got anything
to boast of and be confident of anyway. Well, and then this
is another thing to remember. He got there to a certain point,
and I have no doubt he probably felt like, well, I'm far enough
away from that place now, I can just sit down right here and
take a little rest. It's a dangerous thing to hang
around the scene of temptation. It's a dangerous thing to hang
around where we're going to be tempted. If the Lord opens the
door to go in and to preach the gospel in a place where we'll
worshipers are, Once you've gone in and preached, go home. Go
home. If the man of God had continued
on, if he'd have just kept on instead of stopping, he would
have never been overtaken by the old prophet. He'd have never
caught up with him. He'd have made it out of there.
You see the lesson there? Continue on in the race. Look
straight ahead and keep on in the race. And then generally
speaking, in our life as believers, we must not eat and drink by
the way. That's what God's teaching. We're
not to turn out of the way and stop and eat and drink. He tells
us, redeem the time. He doesn't tell us to waste time.
He's given us commission to set forth the Gospel. He's given
us a commission so that we must not become entangled with the
affairs of this world. You read that about the preacher. You read that exhortation given
by Paul to the preacher. And it's true of the preacher.
And it's true of the believer as well. We must not become so
entangled in the affairs of this world that we forget what we're
here for. They will forget what the mission
is that God sent us here for. And the very reason that we're
here is to honor Him and glorify Him in exalting His name in this
place. That's what we're here for. And
He said this plainly, no man can serve two masters. For either
he'll hate the one and love the other, or else he'll hold to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in mammon.
Cannot. Well, then we see here the chastening
hand of our Heavenly Father. Verse 19 says He went back with
Him. And He did eat bread in His house
and He drank water. He went back in there and He
ate bread and drank water. Now God our Father shall chasten
His servants. He shall do that. And God often
uses the very one who tempted us to rebuke us. That's what
he did right here, verse 21. The Lord made the old prophet
cry unto the man of God that came from Judah. And he said,
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 came as back and has eaten bread and
drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee,
eat, O bread, and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come unto
the sepulcher of thy fathers." Can you imagine that? Here's
this man who's come out to him and he's talked so softly to
him and he's told him that the Lord's talked to him and told
him to come with him and to go to his house. And so the man,
he goes. He goes. He still went directly against
the will of the Father. He knew what the will of the
Father was. But this was a trial. Even when this man is speaking
in a way that seems so much like God has sent him to speak to
you. He said, He knew the will of the Lord,
and the will of the Lord was, you don't go back and you don't
join yourself with men who are preaching free will religion.
You don't join yourself. Even if this man said he was
a prophet, the very fact he was a prophet in that land was enough
to say, this man hadn't gotten a word from my Lord. He hadn't
gotten a word from my king and my master, not this man. You see? But even after he's
done that and gone and sat back, now that very man turns around
and out of his own mouth says, the Lord says, you've directly
went against his command, directly broken his, went against his
will. That had to have been, if that
Lord does that somehow, he'll use the very one that tempted
us to rebuke us, to rebuke us. But we see mercy in His chastening.
He said here now that thy carcass should not come unto the sepulcher
of thy fathers. Now I want you to see here, this
is mercy in His chastening. Before we read this, let me remind
you of this. This is only temporal judgment.
This is a chastening of the Lord. It's like Moses. You remember
Moses smoked the rock twice? He was a child of God. He was
a child of God, but God chastened him for going against the will
of the Lord. The Lord's going to chasten his
children. He's a faithful father. And so this was chastening like
that of Moses. The Lord buried Moses. He didn't
get to go into the Promised Land. But when Peter saw in that Mount
of Transfiguration, who did he see there with the Lord? He saw
Moses. He was a child of God. So Christ
has borne our judgment on the cross. He's put away the judgment
of His people on the cross. And God's not dealing with His
children in judgment, that judgment, not that wrath anymore. Justice
has been satisfied for His people, but God does deal with His people
in chastening. He does do that. Nothing can
separate those from Christ for whom Christ died and who He's
called to faith in Him. None can separate them from Him.
Therefore, when believers are judged, we're chastened of the
Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. So we see mercy
in this too. There's mercy blended in with
this chastening, in that the Lord didn't allow his body to
be torn up by this lion. Watch this, verse 24. Now I'm
sure there's much more here than I'm going to say tonight. We'll
look at this another time. But look at verse 24. When he
was gone, a lion met him by the way, this is the man of God,
and slew him. He killed him. And his carcass
was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, and the lion
also stood by the carcass. And the old prophet was told
about it, and he went to retrieve the body of this man of God and
to bury him. And verse 28 says, 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. The Lord allowed the lion to
go just so far in killing his body, but then he stopped him. He stopped the lion. And then
the Lord turned the lion into a guardian of the man of God's
body. So he sat there and protected
his body from being torn to pieces against his very nature. You
know who I see a picture of in that line? I see a picture of
the lion of the tribe of Judah. I see a picture of the very one
who took his life and then stood there and protected his body
so he could have a proper burial and not be disgraced before the
people. You see, he was chastened, but
there was mercy in it. God does chasten His people.
The Lord does chasten His people. But because He's put away our
sin, there's mercy in the chastening. And I know some of you sitting
here, maybe, I was going to say some of the young people, maybe
some of the older folks sitting here thinking, well, that's mighty
strict chastening there that He took his life. He's a child
of God. He's going to enter into the
presence of the Lord. So it's not that he's separated
from the Lord, but it's chastening. It's to show you and I what it
is, to show us that the Lord's going to chasten his people.
God showed him mercy in that. And that old prophet came back
and he got that man and he took that man back up there to where
Jeroboam was, and he performed a funeral up there and just cried
like a baby and said, oh, alas, my brother. Alas, my brother. Just like those who weep at the
funeral for those that they treated so bad all their lifetime. This
old prophet wasn't nothing but a hypocrite. That's all he was.
Here's one last lesson in all that. We can't judge of a man's
eternal state from the way in which he may be taken out of
this world. Here you got the man of God who sinned against
God and within a few hours a lion slays him, kills him. Then you
got a lion prophet who seduced him and he just lives on and
goes to his grave in peace. And here you got wicked Jeroboam,
who it says he wasn't turned from his idolatry. He went right
on in his idolatry, making the priests of the lowest of the
people, whoever he would, just went right on in it, shredding
right up on the grave of that one who reproved him, probably
putting flowers on his grave and talking about what a fine
preacher he was. There is a judgment to come in what appears right
now to be inequality is going to be made clear by impartial
justice, by our God. But here's the lesson, the chief
lesson in everything. Brethren, follow the Lord. Follow the Lord. Wherever the
Lord said, my people hear my voice, and a stranger they won't
follow. If you hear the voice of the
Lord, follow Him. Follow Him. And don't turn back
to the voice of strangers. Don't turn back. And I trust
our Lord to keep us. He's going to keep us because
He's faithful. He's faithful to do so. In all of it, He'll get the glory.
If we remain faithful, it's going to be to the praise of His grace.
And if we sin, the unfaithfulness is all of us. It's all of us.
So set your affection on things above where Christ sits. When
He's our life and when He comes, when He returns, then shall we
appear in glory with Him. Amen.