What we have here is Jeroboam becomes king. over Israel, and there are eleven
tribes that stayed. This is when the kingdoms were
divided. And Rehoboam, the king over Judah, he was a son of Solomon. But
Jeroboam here was a descendant of Joshua. But I want you to
know something about him here. First of all, there are two things
I want you to really see here. Now his religion, his religion,
he started a religion. He started a worship. He started
a church. He started himself a church.
Hired him some preachers, built him some buildings, sent him
up some idols, and folks just flocked. Folks just flocked. And it tells us here, look what
it says there in verse thirty-three, down the middle of the verse.
It says, you know, even in the month which he had devised of
his own heart. Devised of his own heart. Anything
that comes out of the human heart, if the grace of God ain't in
it, got to be wrong. Got to be wrong. Don't. Has to
be. And Jeroboam here is a descendant
of Joshua. And he, as I said, he became
this father of this false religion that he made up. And he began
to think in his own heart, look what he says there in verse 26. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
in his heart, now shall the kingdom return to the house of David.
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 Reboam, king of Judah. And they shall kill
me and go again to Judah." So he got some fellows together
and says, what in the world can we do to keep everybody here?
What can we do to keep folks from rebelling against us? He
got some fellows together and they said, well, I'll tell you
what we'll do. We'll make a survey. Find out what folks want. Find
out, you know, whether they want entertainment, you know how much
singing they want, whether they want a restaurant in the church
or not, whether they want to have jazzercise. You know, we'll
find out how many preachers they want, what they want for the
kids. We'll find out everything. And you know that, and I'm not
making this up, but that happened up in Illinois. These two preachers
got out of seminary and they decided, now how in the world
do we need to make a living, we need to start a church. So
they went around the neighborhoods, come up with a survey, asked
a bunch of questions. And they said, well, and they
answered all the questions of whether they wanted them answered.
And they went around and told everybody, said, if we had a church just
like you asked for, would you come? And boy, they did. And they built them a building.
And that ended up being ten or twelve thousand people in there.
They had couches for them to sit on. They had plays certain
days of the week. They had One thing the people
told him, first thing they told him, we don't want to be preached
to. Don't want to be preached to. And we want to just discover,
you know, and that's what they got. And that's what happened
here. He got some fellows together
and said, now what in the world do we need to do? What do we
need to do to keep these people in here? And he says, well, He
made two casks of gold. You'd thought that they'd done
found out, but that's just not the way to do after Moses came
down off the mountain. And said unto them, It's too
much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy God, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he said, The one
in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin before
the people went to worship. And all the religion of Jordan
It's just like everything else, every other Christless religion.
It's the religion of a fool, it's the religion of an idiot,
it's the religion of the natural man. And there's always one way
you can always tell a Christless religion, a godless religion,
it cuts or originates in the human heart. It does not originate
from God himself. And that's what I just said,
wrote to you there in verse 26. He said in his heart, and he
devised in his own heart, And Jeremiah said this, the heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked. It's deceitful above
everything else. The heart is deceitful above
everything else. For it is wicked beyond repair. There's nothing you can do for
it. And that's why these preachers that go around and say, tell
folks, give your heart to Jesus, he don't want it. You ain't got
no heart to give him. You've got a heart full of sin
and wickedness and abomination and evil imagination, a heart
with enmity in it. And God's got to give you the
heart. He don't want yours, He's got to give you one. He don't
need yours. He don't need mine. He had to
give me one to know Him, one to recognize Him, one to believe
Him, one to trust Him. And there ain't but two religions
in this world. I don't care what name they go
under. I don't care what denomination they go under. I don't care what
everybody thinks. There's ain't but two religions
in this world. One is the I will of God. Sovereign grace, free
grace. God told Abraham, said, Abraham,
come out. Abraham went out. And God told
Abraham, I will. be your God. I will make a covenant
with you. I will make you the father of
many." Seventeen times God said, I will, and Abraham stood there
with his mouth shut. And that's what that leper, when
he come to Christ, he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. And the other religion is born
in the human heart. It's born, beloved, and it originates
in the I think, I believe, this is my opinion, this is my will,
this is the way I look at things. Instead of saying, Lord, Your
will be done. Instead of saying, Lord, Your
salvation's on the Lord. It either starts with man or
it starts with God. No way in the world it can be. This is two religions. What God
does and what man does. And there's no cooperation between
the two. It's either God does it all,
For man does it all, and there ain't no mixing it up. Huh? That's why God said this, He
says, you know, my thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens
is above, far above the earth, so are my thoughts above your
thoughts. So forsake your thoughts. Just forsake them. Forget about
them. Whatever you thought about God before, just forget about
it. Whatever you thought about yourself before, just forget
it. God says everything you think is wrong. He said, your thoughts are not
my thoughts. That's what everybody said. All
I've got to do, listen. It's a good thing he ain't. And
it all starts with the I think of man. And oh, name and behold,
he says, you know, when he got When the woman told him about
the life over there and he says, well, he said, I'll get on my
chair and I'll run over there and said he'll come outside knowing
who I am, what a great person I am and all what I've accomplished. He said he'll come outside and
he'll wave his hand over me and say, if you focus, focus and
wave his hand, throw a little water on me and say, boy, you
healed. He pulled up there and the man of God didn't even go
outside. He wasn't impressed by him, his chariot, his clothes. He wasn't impressed by anything
about the man. All he knew about him was that he was a leper. And boy, of course, he didn't
come out and send his servant out and said, didn't even come
out himself. He just, it'd be like me saying, you go over there
and tell someone, go over there and tell them to go down to the
River Jordan and jump in there seven times. He said, hey, you
know what? Oh, he got mad good at his deed.
He said, I thought, I thought, and I tell you what a man thinks,
and see how he's wrong? It wasn't that water that's going
to wash him pure. That water in Jordan never wiped
clean of his leprosy. It was doing it what God said. That's what done it. He's going
to humble himself. He's going to get out of his
clothes. He's going to get out of his chair. He's going to do what
God said, for he's going to have. And oh, and that's that rich
fool. He thought within himself, he says, boy, I've got so many
goods now. I said, I don't have to worry
about nothing. I've got my retirement made. I've got money in the bank.
I can go where I want to go, do what I want to do, drive the
car I want to drive. I can go any place I want to
go. I've got it made. propped up his feet, and God
said, you fool, tonight your soul shall be quieted.
Simon Magus. The Scripture said he believed,
he was baptized, and he continued. And then he was watching Peter
and John lay hands on men, and they were receiving the Holy
Ghost. And he thought, boy. He said, man, that's some power.
He said, I'll tell you what, I got a lot of money here. How
much gold and silver would it take for you to give me that
power? Simon Peter looked him in the eye and you know what
he said? He said, you thought? You thought? Now he done believed.
He'd been baptized and he was following them fellas around.
He says, you believe that the gift of God could be bought,
purchased with silver and gold? Oh! I pray you repent of this
wickedness of your heart, because you thought that the gifts of
God could be purchased with money. And that's why, you know, God
said, you thought I was altogether one like you. And man's heart
is so deceitful and so desperately wicked that it can never, now
listen to me, never bring out of it a system of worship, first
of all, that meets the claims of God. That's the first thing
that has to be met, the claims of God. And secondly, it cannot
meet the needs of the human heart. It can't do it. It can't do either
one of them. It's like Adam with his fig leaf.
Now, that fig leaf didn't satisfy him, and it didn't satisfy God.
If it had satisfied him, and he thought for a minute that
he could have stayed in God's presence, he wouldn't have put
a fig leaf on and went over there and hidden them bushes. That
shows you that he didn't believe it. When he put those fig leaves
on, God came and said, Adam, where art thou? He still knew
he was naked, even with that fig leaf on. He said, Lord, I'm
over here, and I'm naked. Even with a fig leaf on, Gary.
He said, I'm naked. He put a fig leaf on. It didn't
satisfy him, and it certainly didn't satisfy God. And I'll
tell you something about this fig leaf religion. And everybody,
I don't know how many people I've seen with it. And I had
it myself for a long time. Every time you pull a fig leaf
off that tree to cover up your nakedness with, it ends up drying
up. It's crinkling up. You've got to go back to the
fig tree and get you another. Whether you get it on the altar,
whether you get it by tithing, whether you get it by joining
the church, whether you get it by walking an aisle, whether you
get it by going out soul winning or passing out tracts, you've
got to keep putting on that fig leaf. Ain't that right? It'll
never satisfy you, and it'll never satisfy God. Or you would
quit, you'd take it off, and you'd say, Lord, I'm just making. And, oh, beloved, it's Cain.
And the way of Cain is, I go with my own works. I go with
the works of my hands. If God don't like it, that's
his problem. It ain't mine. And that's the
way he felt about it. In fact, when God punished him,
He just said, well, my body was greater than I can bear. But
he never repented. He never said, I'll go get a
blood sacrifice. I'll go get a lamb. I'll do like
my brother did. I'll approach you by faith. I'll
probably approach you with blood. No, no. He got mad. He said, I don't like the way
God does things. He said, in fact, I just like
the way he does things so that I'll kill my own brother. If
he's more acceptable to God, his works are good and mine's
evil, so I'll kill him. I'll show you just how bad of
a man I am. That's what he done. And I'll
tell you what's needed. You know what's needed? A revelation.
A revelation. I'm telling you, and God gives
us a revelation. He gives us a revelation of His
blessed Word. Christ came into this world to
reveal God. It's like Simon Peter, when he
was with the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ said to him, said,
Peter, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? They said,
well, some say you're Jeremiah because you weep so much and
you've got so much sorrow and grief. Some said you're Elijah
because you've got so much power and because you can perform so
many miracles. But he said, who do you say that I am? Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's who you are. Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood didn't reveal that
to you, but my Father which is in heaven. And everything you
ever know about God, God's got to make you know it. God's got
to reveal it to you. And I tell you, even with what,
you can have the best preachers, you can have the best outlines,
you can have the most power that can be in a service. And they
won't do a soul a bit of good until God opens a man's heart
to see Christ and see His need. Now, that's the truth. Look,
I'll tell you something else about his religion here. Man's religion, this self-religion.
It has its own selfish ends. It started out in his own heart.
Have you ever seen anybody start out in their own heart? And then
his religion is for his own selfish ends. Look right here at what
he says in verse 27. He said, If this people go up
to sacrifice in the house of the Lord of Jerusalem, then shall
the heart of this people again return unto the Lord, Rehoboam,
king of Judah. And they'll kill me. They'll
kill me. He said, So I made him two gods,
set them up, and he set the one in Bethel and the other in Dan.
And you know, beloved, he set up the golden calves, one over
in Bethel. That's called the house of God.
Bethel means the house of God. That's where God laid hold on
Jacob, that's where God came and He saw that ladder going
up and down to heaven and earth, and over in Dan. That's the tribe
of Dan. And the reason He set this up
was He was afraid that the people would go up to Jerusalem and
worship and their hearts be turned from Him. How can I keep my position? How can I keep my power? How
can I hold these folks at bay? And his religion centered on
his own personal honor, and his own personal aggrandizement,
and his self-center. Self is the center of every false
religion. Self is the center of it. And
you know, that's why Paul, when he left the Ephesians, he said
this. He says, you know, when I depart
from you, there's going to be grievous wolves come in among
you, and they ain't going to spare the flock. And he said,
even from among your own selves, from among yourselves, shall
there arise those that will turn you away from Christ. Love your
own selves. And oh, beloved, that's why Diotrephes,
he loves to have the preeminence. And whether you're a Pentecostal
or a Baptist or a Methodist or a Catholic, it doesn't make any
difference. Everybody wants what they can
get from God and get out of Him. They don't want Him for who He
is. They want God for what they'd get out of Him, whether it be
health or heaven. They want Him to straighten out
their marriage or else justify them in divorcing and destroying
their marriage. I've seen that happen. You know,
it's not only that they want to straighten out their marriage,
but try to find justification to end the marriage and get God
to sanction it. And if they don't want him for
that, they want him for wealth. You know, want him for wealth. Or they want him to get him out
of jail, or get some child out of jail. And I'll tell you the reason
this is, is because preachers, preachers has made God to be
all thanks to all people. They make him to be all things.
Whatever your need is, they bring him down to your level to meet
that need. You got marriage troubles? Jesus can fix that. You got somebody
in jail? Come to Jesus and trust Him and
He'll get them out of jail for you. You having an unhappy marriage? Well, I tell you what, the Lord
don't want you to be unhappy. The Lord don't want you to suffer.
So I just go ahead and put them away. People make all kinds of promises,
and they do everything under the sun. When they get what they
want out of God, they're happy about it, and they'll rejoice
in it until something else bad happens, and then they're mad
at God again. God didn't take care of me the
way I thought He should. You see, people want the benefits.
And I'll tell you something, they never mention sin. They
mention health, but never mention sin. Mention wealth, but never
mention sin. Mention some kind of a need,
but they never mention sin. They always mention some kind
of a need, but they never mention Christ and sin. And that's what
the gospel has to do with, with Christ and sin. The reason you
may have forgotten miserable marriage is because of sin. The
reason people are miserable in this world is because of sin.
The reason people are not satisfied is because of sin. The reason
there ain't never enough wealth for somebody is because of sin.
The reason people always, always looking for something else to
satisfy is because of sin. If you love silver, and the scripture
says silver, never satisfy it. And that sin is what makes people
miserable. Ain't that right? People want
the benefits and the blessings, but they don't want God. They
want the gifts, but they don't want the giver. It's like they
want wealth, but not the walk of faith. It's like a child. You know, they want to live in
their parents' house. They want their parents' money. They want
their parents to furnish them a car. They want their parents
to take care of everything. They want them to have the latest
fashions. They want everything they've got. But they don't want
the parents' authority. And how can you live in your
parents' house, wear the clothes your parents furnish you, eat
the food your parents puts on the table, Drive the car your
parents purchased you and go to school with your parents paying
all the way. And then you say, I don't want it. I want my way. I'm going to go where I want
to go and do what I want to do. And I don't like it, Daddy. I
don't like it, Mama, that you tell me I can't go here yonder.
And then disrespect them and get mad at them. You know who
you're really getting mad at? You're getting mad at God. God's the
one who put your mother and daddy over here. So you can't get to
God, so the only person you can get to is your mom and daddy.
And I'll tell you what, mom and daddy, I hope you don't have
to do this, but every once in a while you may have to take
the keys away. You may have to not buy them the latest fashions. You may have to cut off all the
money. Now, either you're going to do what I say, or find you
someplace else to go. That's right. That's what God's
going to do with us. You don't want me, I don't want
you. You hate God, God says, I hate you. You don't want to
bow to me, I'll put you someplace you'll never have to do it. And
here's what happens with these folks here, by the way. When
self feels it's not getting enough from God, do you know what it'll
do? Quit. Get mad. And then they'll blame
it on the church, blame it on the preacher, blame it on the
husband, blame it on the wife, blame it on the hypocrite, blame
it on somebody besides themselves, but they're going to find a reason
to quit. You know, it was the pride of
life that overthrew our first parents. They said, oh, the devil
gave them a lie. They said, well, we believe it.
Oh, man, we're going to know things we never knew before.
We're going to be able to go places we never went. Oh, my
goodness, we're going to have this great knowledge. We're going
to be like God Himself. Down they went. And I tell you,
it's the power of life is what blinded the Pharisees when our
Lord says, they do their works for to be seen of men. He says,
when you give your alms, don't stand in the trumpet. When you
pray, don't stand in the street corners. And he says, you know,
the Jews going about establish their own righteousness. The
pride of life will make you establish your own righteousness. And that's
what this fellow did. He was self-centered. Self, self,
self, self, self. Oh, my goodness. Brad brought
a message here a few months ago. On the end of self, the end of
self, Paul said, I had the sentence of death in myself. End of self. And let me tell you something
else about this man's religion, this false religion. It appeared
outwardly to be for the good of others. Look what it says
there in verse 28. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made
two calves of gold, and said unto them, it is too much for
you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold, thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Oh, it's too much. It's just too much for you to
go up to Jerusalem to worship. There's three feasts that they
had to go up, the men did, go up to Jerusalem three times a
year to worship God. Three feasts. And here's what
he says, he says, you don't need to go up to Jerusalem, it's just
too much for you to go up there. We're going to make religion
just as convenient for you as we possibly can. It's for your
advantages. I set these gods up here so you
don't have to go so far. You won't have to sacrifice,
you won't have to suffer, you won't have to travel, it ain't
going to cost you nothing, you can stay right here. People say, I worship at home
as well as I can any place else. And that's probably true. That's
probably true. But I know one thing, that God
set up worship and gathering around His people around the
gospel. And God's people, that's what they're going to do. And
oh, beloved, that's why these gods set up. That religion that's
born in the carnal heart can only make hypocrites. He said,
these be thy gods. Gold? Silver? The honor and glory
of God wasn't at all in their heart. Theirs was a religion
of self-expediency, not of sacrifice. Oh my, you don't have to suffer.
You don't have to go through this. It won't cost you nothing.
Especially now it's gasoline, three dollars a gallon. Oh, beloved. And that's what they, you know,
how many times have you folks here that has to come a long
way and go through, how many times have people said, why in
the world you go up, there's a thousand churches, you all
passed a hundred churches to get up there to Lentenna Grace.
Why do you all do that? There's churches everywhere.
So they're all the same. Maybe they don't understand why
you passed by. Why do you pass by all them places
to go up there? We don't go someplace where you
don't have to make hypocrites out of them. They wasn't interested
in the honor or glory of God at all. And there's that, the
thought of self-denial was left out. Oh my! And that's what gives, and I'm
telling you something about it. This is one of the things that
give men and women away. No self-denial. They want a religion
that cost them nothing. Don't cost them any time. You
know. Don't cost them any money, no
effort, no humility. And our Lord said, count the
cost. What man, if you're setting down
to build a house, don't sit down first and count the cost? And said, lest you get about
halfway through, you realize, man, I didn't have enough to
finish this thing. And everybody walked by and said,
well, what a fool that man was. He started building a house and
got halfway through it and run out of money. Now it's going
to sit there and rot. It's going to sit there and rot. And I'll tell you, blood, that
anybody, and I mean this from the depth of my heart and I don't
want to be mean, but if you want a religion of convenience, just
enough to keep your conscience quiet, just for a Sunday morning,
And you don't want to just sacrifice. You don't want to give up any
of your money, any of your time, any of your effort. You've got
a problem, a real problem. Now, I'm telling you that. And
I don't mean to be mean. I don't want to be ugly. But,
you know, if you've got a profession of faith, if you confess Christ in your religion, And that's
all you've got in religion that does not make you need Christ
24 hours a day, seven days a week, that will not let you get in
your pocketbook and put any money, will not let you get in your
automobile and come to worship God. You've got a real problem. It's
an issue between you and God. I hope you don't think I'm being
mean. I don't want to be mean. I'm just trying to be honest
with you. That's what this preacher said.
He says, you know, it ain't going to cost you nothing. Don't go
to Jerusalem. And he didn't care. It wasn't
whether they went to Jerusalem or not. He says, man, what am
I going to do if they all leave here? You know, I tell you why men
don't count the cost, because they don't know the true value
of things. They don't know the true value of things. Our Lord
said, Why will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? When he talks about profit to the whole world, he
means not getting everything in the world, getting everything
in the world that you want. If you get everything that you
want in life, if you get everything just the way you want it, and
you have everything just the way you want it, you have everything
in this world that you want. And if you don't have Christ,
he said, it will absolutely profit you nothing. What would you give
in exchange for your soul? And oh, beloved, are you more
concerned for time than you are eternity? Do you care more about
your flesh than you do the Holy Spirit doing something for you?
Do you more interested in dressing the body than you are to be dressed
in your soul, dressed in the righteousness of Christ? Are
you more interested in the world than the kingdom of God? And this is the way most people
are. A lot of folks are. And I'm not saying you're this
way. But the things that should be first are put last. What's
the first thing? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. Paul said, I want to win Christ.
I want to know Christ. I want to be found in Christ.
This is one thing I do, pressing for the mark, for the pride of
the high calling. But the things that should be
first are put last. Not the kingdom of God. Not Christ,
not His righteousness, not the knowledge of Christ, but the
giving of things, the world, and appeasing the flesh, satisfying
myself. But then, the last, you put the last first,
and that's exactly the way God's going to do you and do me, if
that's the way we do. If I put the first things last,
And the last things first. The last things first. That's the way God's going to
do it. He's going to take me and make me to be last. Ain't
that right? And oh, let me tell you something
else about this. It was contrary to the Word of God. He says there
in verse 28, Behold thy God, O Israel, which brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt. That was an out-and-out lie.
That was just an utter, absolute lie. Was it gold and cash that
brought them up out of Egypt? That was just an out-and-out
lie. Look at these gods. Two calves? Two calves? I've just seen two calves dragging
two million Jews up out of Israel. That's more than two calves there.
Watch and follow them. They're gold calves. They can't
even move. They was made by the works of men's hands. That's
why Paul stood on Mars Hill and he says, O men and brethren,
I perceive that in all things you're just too religious. He
said, I behold all these altars and all these gods. And he said,
now if there's an altar here in the description to the unknown
God, that's what I'm going to tell you about. He said, see,
he made heaven and earth and everything that's in it. He does
not dwell in all these temples made by hands. He does not need
the works of men's hands. He don't worship with silver
and gold and the things of men's hands. It's by Him that we live,
move, and have our being. He don't need us, but I tell
you, we ain't even got an existence without Him. And that's what
Paul told them. He said, I see all these other
gods, but I'm going to tell you about the one that created heaven and
earth just on His throne. Huh? And that's why, look over
here at Psalm 106 with me. I want you to see this. This
was an out-and-out lie. And I'll tell you how you can
tell if a fellow's lying on God or not. If he does not give all
the glory to God, all the glory to God for salvation, all the
glory to God for everything that's done, and attributes anything
to man whatsoever, he's lying. He's lying. Look here in verse
19. Psalm 106 and verse 19. They made a calf in Horb and
worshiped the molded image. Now watch this. Thus they changed
their glory in the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forget God their Savior,
which hath done great things in Egypt. They forgot God. You know, over
in Romans 120, you don't have to look at it, but it says over
there, man, by his vain imagination,
thought himself to be wise, but he changed the glory, the glory
of the incorruptible God, made him like unto man. First thing
he done, made him like a man. Made him like a man. You get
down in Mexico, you get in a lot of places and they got images
and statues there of like men. Go up to Alaska and they got
all them totem poles. Every one of them got a face
of a man. Just a different kind of a man. They have all these
men. Made them like men. Then they
made them like under four-footed beasts. Oxen, calves, bulls,
goats. Made them like under man, put
them on a cross and hanged them up in their living room, you
know. And look at him just weep and said, Oh, Jesus on His cross. Made him like under creeping
things. Oh, behold your God which brought
you up out of Egypt. What God brought you, what God
brought us up out of Egypt. I didn't even know I was in Egypt
until God made me know it. And suddenly Moses came to me
and says, Let my people go. I said, how in the world am I
going to get out of here? He told me how. He told me what
God had done in Christ. That's what the gospel does.
Now listen to me. The gospel, what it does, and this is how
we know it's so. It doesn't tell you what to do.
It tells you what God's already done. It does not even require you
to do anything. It does it all for you. Now, ain't that right? You need faith, God gives it
to you. You need repentance, God gives it to you. And any
man that tells you that you've got to believe and then God will
give you life, he lied to you. It makes your faith to be the
Savior, not Christ to be the Savior. If he tells you you have
to repent, and when you repent, then God will forgive you and
God will save you. Then your repentance is your
Savior, not God. If you need anything, whatever
God requires, here's what I'll do, know it's right. Whatever
God requires, He Himself provides. He needed perfection, He gave
us perfection in His Son. He needed a righteousness equal
to Himself, He gave us the righteousness of God in Christ. We needed faith,
He said, faith is the gift of God, not of worthless. We need
repentance, Christ says, as a prince over Israel, to grant repentance. that's given you on the behalf
of Christ to believe. And that's why we don't have
anybody do anything. We don't want you to raise your
hand. We don't even tell you you have to cry. People say,
well, when they become a sensible sinner. I've never met a sensible
sinner. How do you become a sensible
sinner? I'm a sinner and I still ain't got any sin. I'm not sensible. I'm not as sensible as sinners
ought to be. But what they mean is that you
have to have these experiences. You have to have this thing go
on with you. And beloved, listen, salvation
is what God does for you. Now, I'm not going to mean that
you may not weep. That may not mean that you won't know something.
You will know something about sin in your heart and your need
of Christ. But you'll come to say that God did ever benefit. One day you're up and you're
not conscious of God. One day you don't know a thing
in the world about sin. One day you don't know nothing
about being lost. And you're as happy as these
folks right here worshiping them golden idols, them golden kings.
And then all of a sudden you're laying in bed in the middle of
the night and you say, oh my, What if I was to die? Or you
get up one day and you start feeling, boy, I'll tell you what,
there's just something missing. There's really something missing.
And you start reading the scriptures. You start going to a meeting
somewhere and somebody crosses your path with the gospel and
starts telling you the truth about God. And you say, I never
heard that before. I never seen things like that
before. I didn't know that was in the Bible. The next thing you know, you're
paying attention. You're paying attention. I know
a fellow that sat and counted tiles for almost 18 years in
a service. He'd count the tiles in the ceiling
while the preacher was preaching. Henry Mahan was the pastor, and
that old fellow sat there and counted tiles every day, every
Sunday. One day, he quit counting tiles. God drew back that bow. And that's
what God does. He draws back that bow and he
hits you. And that's what I tell you, it was contrary. Behold,
you're God. And here's the difference between
faith and carnality. The carnal mind walks by sight,
by what it can see, not by faith. Not by faith. Man's faith, if
it stands in the wisdom of man, somebody else will come along
and talk him out of it and talk him into another one. That's
why our Lord said a man can receive nothing Nothing except it be
given him from heaven. And this religion becomes a snare
to others. It becomes something to others.
Look what it says there in verse 30. And this thing became a sin. This thing became a sin. For
the people went to worship before the wine in Bethel, and even
went unto David. They had one over there and one
up in Bethel. This thing set up became the
object of worship. How in the world, why would anybody
worship a golden calf? It don't surprise me that he
does that. It don't surprise me a bit. It don't. Does it surprise you that anybody
worship a golden calf? Huh? Does it surprise you that
anybody goes up and kisses the Pope's ring? You tell me the
difference, kiss the Pope's ring and bow down to a golden calf.
Huh? You tell me the difference in
worshiping a golden calf and worshiping on an altar, having
an altar up here to worship. You tell me the difference in
a golden calf than arguing with God over your free will. What's the difference in a golden
calf and you standing up against God and arguing about your free
will? I've got a free will. I've got a free will. I can choose
God whenever I want to. I can be saved whenever I want
to. What's the difference in that golden calf and your free
will? Whatever you set up in the place
of God Almighty, that's yours. And all beloved men have always
and always will worship the works of their hands, regardless of
what it is. Crucifixes, statues, prayer books,
sacred pictures. You remember, maybe some of y'all
even bought some of these. They used to run around selling
these great old big Bibles. Used to be Bible sellers. They'd
go around from house to house and sell Bibles, like they'd
sell a psychopedia. And the thing that always sold those Bibles,
they said, it'll be a family Bible, it'll be a family arrow,
and then all those pictures that was in it. That's why I sold
them them pictures. It wasn't what the Bible, it
wasn't the content of the scriptures that sold them. They didn't say,
now, you know, this is the Word of God, and God said, except
you repent, you shall not... They didn't sell a Bible on verses
like that. They didn't sell a Bible on, this tells us about Christ
and your need of Him. They didn't sell a Bible saying,
well, this is the revelation of God. No, no, they say, well,
have you ever seen such pretty pictures? Oh, you'd lay that
on your coffee table and open it up. Oh, they're beautiful
pictures. Oh, boy, you'd believe it, but
they sure like the pictures. Give me your Bibles. Oh, boy. I tell you, get you a Bible,
you know they got these Bible, they say red letter edition,
the words of Christ in red. All of this is the word of Christ. I don't need a red letter to
tell me what Christ said. Do you? Oh, well listen, I've
got to move on. And I'll tell you something else,
this religion had no regard for purity whatsoever. It says down
there in verse 31, he made a house of high places. This house of
high places means that he set it up. This place is a holy place. The high place don't mean he
set it up way up high. It means high places means it's
set up to be a holy place. It's high in a holy place. And
that's what he meant. High places, he made it holy,
declared it to be holy, a place that you need to come. This is
a high place. And all beloved, and then they
said, and they made priests of the lowest of the people, which
were not the sons of Levi. They went out and got the lowest
of the low. They went out and got the drunkards, whoremongers, liars, cheats,
thieves, drug addicts, alcoholics. You want to make good living?
Oh, I do. I've got these clothes, you put them on, you just pretend.
That's really what happened here. He got the lowest of the low.
And oh, they loved it. They were not of Levi. They loved the ornate building.
They didn't care what was in it. And they had no regard for
the office, for the positions and the people that God Himself
established. God said, Aaron's the first high
priest, and all of his sons were the priests. And they made priests
who were not of the tribe of Levi. God said, you'll have a priest
of the tribe of Levi. They didn't care about Levi.
I didn't care about God's Word. And that's why TV preachers are
so big, and why they're so popular. People don't have to regard them
or their authority. And Aaron's sons, if they'd have
been here, they would have heard to the Word of God. And that
certainly wouldn't affect old Jeroboam's way of looking at
things. And this is the way, beloved, of those who are satisfied
with a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. They
had a fine place, they had the priest, they had on the right
clothes, they had on the right vestments, they had their incense,
they had their water, they had their altar, they had their labor,
they had everything that they needed. But there was no power
of God about it. They had a forum. When you went
up there, boy, you see them going through the mechanics, see them
going through the religion. But they denied the power. They denied
the power of God's Word. They denied the power of the
righteousness of God. Denied the power of the blood.
Denied the power of the Lamb. Denied the power of God Himself.
And oh, will-worshippers. Will-worshippers is what they
are. You know what a will-worshipper is? Paul called them will-worshippers. A will-worshipper is a person
who says, I'll worship the way I want to. I don't care what God says. I
don't care what the Bible says. I don't care what you all do.
I'm going to worship according to my will, the way I see things.
That's what a will-worshipper is. And you know what God said
he'd do? He said, I'll send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie and be damned. Everyone,
everyone who received not the love of the truth, not received
the truth, received not the love of the truth. Let me tell you
this quickly, and I'll be done. It has the appearance, this religion,
this man-made religion here had the appearance of being right.
Again, verse 32. In Jeroboam, ordained a feast
in the eighth month of the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the
feast that is in Judah. And he offered it upon the altar.
And he did in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he made,
and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had
made. And watch this. And so he offered
upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of
the eighth month. Now watch this. Even in the month
which he devised in his own heart, he set up the time and the month
and the day. and ordained a feast unto the
children of Israel, and he offered an altar for them to burn incense. First of all, there was an altar.
Israel had an altar. They had priests. Israel had
priests. They had sacrifices. Israel had sacrifices. They had
an ordained feast. Israel had an ordained feast.
What was the difference? This was all born in this man's
heart. It was a sham. It was a mockery. It was just a lifeless, lifeless
image of what was real. That was the outward semblance
of the truth. They had everything that everybody
else had. But it wasn't real. It was put on. It was a sham. The priest was shamed. The altar
was shamed. The feast was a sham. They made
it up. They said, just do it this way. There was no power, there was
no authority, no foundation from God or in the sight of God. They went to the feast, they
made their offerings, they burned incense, but it could not put
away a sin, it could not give them any peace, it couldn't give
them any hope. Why? Because he devised it in
his own heart. And look what it said here in
verse 1 of chapter 13, 1 and 2. God don't destroy it. And behold,
there came a man of God out of Judah. And now look at the difference
here. By the word of the Lord unto
Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. This
man came by the word of the Lord and is a man of God. And he cried
against the altar and the word of the Lord and said, O altar,
altar! Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name.
This is years and years before Josiah was born. 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." Now, look
over to 2 Kings 23 and see the fulfillment of this. 2 Kings 23 and verse 15. what is said here in verse 16.
Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this
is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah
now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this
is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now.
Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah
now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this
is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now.
Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this
is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now.
Now this is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this
is Josiah now. Now this is Josiah now. Now this
is Josiah now and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchers,
and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it according to
the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed
these words." He took the very bones of those priests, made
them the lowest, and burned them up on their own altar. This religion born in your heart,
your religion born in your heart, is God-given for you. God put
it in your heart. Our Lord said, without Me you
can do nothing. No man can come unto the Father
but by Me. And the one way to do it, that's
God's way. Ain't that right? Our Father, in the gracious,
blessed, holy, glorious name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
I thank you for your mercy, I thank you for your grace, for your
tender patience, pity, mercy, and long-suffering to us. And
Lord, I pray that you would use today's message to open hearts,
to open understanding, to put the fear of God in hearts, put
the fear of God in minds. Oh Lord, please do something
for your people here. Lord, don't let us ever, ever
trust in our own heart. Never look to ourselves for anything.
To always look outside ourselves and look to You. Look to our
Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His holy
name. Amen.