Would you turn with me to 1 Kings
chapter 14? The Lord willing, this week we'll
be going to Mexico to visit the missionaries, and I'm going to
be doing the preacher's class Tuesday. And I prepared a lesson
from 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 for that preacher's class entitled,
What is a Successful Ministry? And we're going to look at that
tonight. I thought I'd like to bring that
message here. What does God's Word say a successful ministry
is? And I'm looking forward to bringing
that to those men down there also. But that's what we're going
to look at tonight. Now our subject for this morning is the sin of
Jeroboam. The sin of Jeroboam is used in
the Word of God as a measuring stick. And it is used to measure
the sin of others. As a matter of fact, there were
12 kings who were said to walk in the sin of Jeroboam. And it was a sin that always
led others into sin along with it. Did you notice how it says
he drave Israel from following after the Lord their God? And
the sin of Jeroboam is very much alive today. And I hope you'll
see that as we Look at what the Scripture says about this sin. Israel was given up because they
walked in the sins of Jeroboam. Look in 1 King chapter 14, beginning
in verse 14, this prophecy concerning what's going to happen to Israel
because of the sin of Jeroboam. Moreover, the Lord shall raise
him up a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam
that day But what even now for the Lord shall smite Israel as
a reed is shaken in the water and he shall root up Israel out
of this good land which he gave to their fathers and shall scatter
them beyond the river because they've made their groves provoking
the Lord to anger and he shall give Israel up because of the
sins of Jeroboam who did sin and who made Israel to sin. Look in this chapter 15, verse
29. As a matter of fact, I'm going
to read, stay with me because I want to read a lot of scriptures
to set up this message regarding what the sin of Jeroboam actually
was. I want to see if I'm guilty of
it. I want you to see if you're guilty of it. I don't want us
to just look at the people out there that are guilty of this
sin, but I want to see if this speaks to me. Look in chapter
15, verse 29. And it came to pass, when he
reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam. He left not
to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according
unto the saying of the Lord, which he spake by a servant,
Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins of Jeroboam, which
he sinned, and which made Israel to sin by his provocation, wherewith
he provoked the Lord God to anger." Now look in chapter 15, verse
34. In his days did Hiel, the Bethlehemite,
build Jericho. I'm in chapter 16, I'm sorry. Chapter 15, verse 34. And he
did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of
Jeroboam. And in his sin wherewith he made
Israel to sin. Look at chapter 16, verses 1
and 2. Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu, the son of Hanaiah
against Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the
dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel, and thou hast
walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel
to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins." Look in verse
7. And by the hand of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanaiah, came
the word of the Lord against Baasha and against his house
even for all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord
and provoking him to anger with the work of his hands in being
like the house of Jeroboam and because he killed him. Look in
verse 19 of this same chapter. For his sins which he sinned
in doing evil in the sight of the Lord in walking in the way
of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin. Look in verses 25 and 26. This
is giving the history of kings over the centuries. But Omri
wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord and did worse than all that
were before him, for he walked in all the way of Jeroboam, the
son of Nebat. Verse 30. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did
evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.
And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him
to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat. See, these
men all walked in the sins of Jeroboam. Look in chapter 22,
1 Kings chapter 22, verses 51 and 52. and Dehiza the son of Ahab began
to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat
king of Juden reigned two years over Israel and he did evil in
the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father in the
way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat
who made Israel to sin look in 2nd Kings chapter 3 you see this
goes along for centuries verse 2 And he wrought evil in the
sight of the Lord, but not like his father and like his mother,
for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made.
Nevertheless, he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam. Look in chapter 10, verse 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat, who made Israel a sin, Jehu departed not from
after them. Verse or Chapter 13. Verse two. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam. Chapter or verse six, here's
another king. Nevertheless, they departed not
from the sins of the house of Jeroboam. Verse 11 of the same
chapter. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord and departed not from the sins of
Jeroboam. Chapter 14, verse 24. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from all the
sins of Jeroboam. Chapter 15, verse 9. And he did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had
done. He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. Verse 18. And he did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not all his
days from the sins of Jeroboam. Verse 24. And he did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from the
sins of Jeroboam. Now do you see the significance
of the sin of Jeroboam? I mean, throughout the centuries,
this was the sin that Israel continually repeated, and it
was the one, as we just read, that finally brought them into
captivity to Assyria, because they refused to depart from the
sins of Jeroboam. Now, the question is, what is
the sin of Jeroboam? You see, it's a biggie. No doubt about that. What was
the sin of Jeroboam? Now, humanly speaking, Jeroboam
had a lot of things going for him. Let's look at his history.
Turn to 1 Kings 11. This is where he's first mentioned.
1 Kings 11. Verse 26. And Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
an Ephrathite of Zerida, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name
was Zerua, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against
the king." Now this is what Jeroboam did, he lifted up his hand against
King Solomon. And this was the cause that he
lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built Milo and
repaired the breaches of the city of David, his father. And
the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. I mean, this fellow
was somebody. He was a strong man. He was a
successful man. And he was industrious. Solomon,
seeing that the young man was industrious, he made him ruler
over all the charge of the house of Joseph. And it came to pass
at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem that a prophet
met him. Now, this man was somebody. Solomon promoted him. Solomon
admired him. Solomon liked him and he promoted
him. But a prophet met Jeroboam, and
you can read this, it doesn't take too long to read it, but
a prophet met Jeroboam, and because of the sins of Solomon, now you
remember how Solomon ended up worshipping other gods, the scripture
says, and his heart was turned from the Lord, and he got himself
into major trouble, and the Lord was going to chastise him because
of that, and chastise the house of Israel because they followed
these other gods. So this prophecy was made to Jeroboam. The kingdom
of Israel is going to be yours. Judah is going to stay in Solomon's
line. And Rehoboam, Solomon's son,
is going to get to keep that kingdom. But you're going to
be over Israel. This is when the kingdom was
divided. You've heard of the divided kingdom.
Israel was one nation and it became two nations. And it happened
with Jeroboam because of his sin is what brought that on.
And God even made a promise to Jeroboam. Look in verse 7. Now this is God speaking to Jeroboam. And He says, I will take thee,
and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth,
and shalt be king over Israel. And it shall be, if thou wilt
hearken unto all that I command thee. and will walk in my ways
and do that which is right in my sight, to keep my statutes
and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I'll be
with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David,
and will give Israel unto thee. And I will for this afflict the
seed of David, but not forever." Now, God makes this promise to
Jeroboam, if you do what I tell you to do, I'm going to build
you a sure house. You're going to have a kingdom
that is not going to be taken away. Now that's if Jeroboam
would have obeyed the Lord. Israel would be there to this
day, just like he said. Now Solomon was upset over this,
this prophecy regarding Jeroboam. So he said, I'm going to kill
him. So Jeroboam had to flee. He went into Egypt and he was
there until the death of Solomon. And so when Solomon dies, Jeroboam
returns to Israel. And he comes to Rehoboam, the
son of Solomon. Perhaps you're familiar with
this story. Do you remember he came to Rehoboam, the son of
Solomon, and he said, if you'll make it easier on us, if you'll
make it lighter on us, we'll serve you forever. We'll give
ourselves completely to you. And Rehoboam said, let me think
about it. And he went and talked to some
older, wiser men, and they said, make it lighter. Make it easier
for him. Don't be so hard on him. And then he went to his
cronies, his buddies. He said, what do you all think
I should do? And he said, make it harder. I mean, put your thumb heavier
on him. So three days later, Jeroboam comes to Rehoboam and
says, what's your answer? He says, I'm going to make it
harder on you. You've had it good under Solomon. I'm really
going to make it rough on you." And so that's when the kingdom
divided. Jeroboam left. He became the king of Israel.
And Rehoboam was the king of Judah. Now, here is the sin. of Jeroboam. Let's begin in 1
Kings 12, verse 25. Now this is what was referred
to in all those scriptures that I read. 1 Kings 12, beginning
in verse 25. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in
Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein, and went out for events and built
Penuel. He was a very industrious man.
He was always doing something. He was always making progress
as the world would see it. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. Now he
becomes worried. Now the Lord promised him, if
you obey my voice, this kingdom will be there. But he says, I'm
afraid it won't. And here was his reasoning. Verse
27. If this people go up to sacrifice
in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, now Judah was in Jerusalem. And
there's only one place you were allowed to sacrifice. That was
in Jerusalem. Nowhere else. That's where the
tabernacle was. That's where the temple was.
That's where the Holy of Holies was. That's where the Ark of
the Covenant was. One place for sacrifice. Jerusalem. You weren't
allowed to go anywhere else. You were to look to Jerusalem.
Salvation's in Christ. One place. Nowhere else. That's
what that represents. Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jeroboam says, if this people go up to sacrifice in the house
of the Lord in Jerusalem, if they go to Judah, then shall
the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto
Rehoboam, king of Judah. And they'll kill me. And they'll
go again to Rehoboam, the king of Judah. They're all just going
to come right to Him. Whereupon the king, Jeroboam,
took counsel. And here's what he came up with.
He made two calves of gold and said unto them, It's too much
for you to go up to Jerusalem. It's too costly. It's too inconvenient. There's too many problems associated
with that. It's too costly for you to go all the way to Jerusalem.
You don't need to go to Jerusalem anymore. Jerusalem's a good place,
but you don't need to go there anymore, oh Israel. It's too
much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, oh Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Have you ever heard
that before? Remember, that's what Aaron said, isn't it? This
is a recycled sin. It's not a new sin. Sin always
recycles itself. And he set the one in Bethel,
and the other in Dan. And this thing became sin, for
the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he
made an house of high places, which made priests of the lowest
order of the people." The lowest of the people. I mean, he used
the dregs for his priests, which were not of the sons of Levi.
And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the 8th month on the 15th
day of the month, like unto the feast that's in Judah. He said,
we're going to have a Passover, we're going to do the exact same
thing, it's just going to be in a different place. That's all we're doing
differently, we're going to have it in a different place. 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 fifteenth day of the eighth
month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart,
and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel. And he offered
upon the altar and burnt incense." And there we have the sin of
Jeroboam. Now, upon the surface we see
that this has something to do with idolatry. They made two
golden calves, a visible likeness, an image of God. Now, what is
idolatry? What is idolatry? Idolatry is a visible likeness
an image of God, the golden gas. It's making a likeness of God.
It is a man-made representation of God. Now listen to me real
carefully. The Lord God is utterly unique. There's nothing to compare Him
to. Any comparison brings Him down. Any comparison. likeness. Any likeness is an insult to
God. It's a degrading of the character
of God. He said, I am the Lord and there's
none like me. Who are you likening to me? Idolatry
is trying to bring him down to a human level. Idolatry is opposed
to faith. You see, idolatry cannot trust
him who is invisible. God is spirit, invisible, all-powerful,
and faith has something to do with trusting Him that we cannot
see. We walk by faith and not by sight. Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Paul said,
we look not at things which are seen, but things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. They're temporary. But the things which are not
seen, they are eternal. Idolatry has as its root hatred. for God as He is. Now let me
show you that in the Scripture. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. Here is the commandment regarding
idolatry beginning in verse 4. Exodus chapter 20 verse 4. Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness
of anything that's in heaven above, or that's in the earth
beneath, or that's in the water under the earth, I shall not
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children, under the third and fourth generation of them
that... What are those next two words? Them that hate me. Now what idolatry is, It's a
hatred for God as he is, and therefore we reinvent a God that
we feel more comfortable with, that we can control, that we
can get him out when we need him, and we can put him away
when we need him. Here he is. It's a likeness. It's an idol. It's an image of God. God, and
it's because men don't love God as He is. Therefore, they make
a different God, one they feel more comfortable with, one they
can control. Now, does anybody say, I have
no idols? And you know, you'll see that
we're careful not to have crosses in this place. We don't have
any pictures of whoever it is they call the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have stuff like that.
Because it's idolatry. It's an idol. It is an image. We don't have crosses and statues
and pictures and so on. Well, that ought to be. But you
know, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 5 and Colossians chapter 3 verse
5 says covetousness is idolatry. Anything I covet, I make an idol
of. Covetousness, desiring that which
God has not given you. Covetousness is idolatry. That is an idol. Now, what in
the world can cure me of covetousness? Covetousness. What's the cure
for covetousness? You know, the only way, if I
tell you not to covet, as soon as I say that, you're going to
start coveting something. Now, you know that's so. As soon as
I say, Don't you dare covet. You know what's going to happen.
The only way someone can be enabled to keep from coveting is to have
everything. There's nothing to covet. That's
the only way. You're going to have to have
everything so there's nothing for you to covet. Now in Christ Jesus
the Lord, I have everything. And truly there's nothing to
covet. Let your conversation be, the writer to the Hebrews
said, without covetousness. And be content with such things
as you have. Now when he says be content with
such things as you have, he's not really talking about material
stuff, although we ought to be content with such things as we
have. All of us got plenty. Really, really, I don't see anybody
in here starving to death. I mean, we got plenty. But he's
not really referring to don't covet a bigger house or a bigger
car or bigger, that's not what. What do you have in Christ? What do you have? You have justification. You're not guilty before God.
You have perfect righteousness. You have the promise of eternal
grace that'll never leave you. He's promised I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. You have everything in Christ.
What is there to covet? I'm not coveting anything else.
I'm plumb satisfied to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Covetousness
is idolatry. There isn't anything in Christ
that I don't have. And I'm satisfied. with him. Now, Jeroboam's sin obviously
is idolatry, and it's a recycled sin. You know, there are no new
errors. They just keep resurfacing. They
keep reinventing themselves over and over and over again. There's
nothing new under the sun. And I think it's interesting
to look at Rehoboam's sin. There's always a bad motive behind
false worship and false doctrine. You'll notice that he had a reason
for coming up with this new religion. He's trying to save his own skin.
He was operating out of the fear of man. So he reinvents this
new religion that he wants to introduce to everybody. It was
the religion of his own choice. It's the religion that came from
his own heart. There's a choosing. He chose to go this direction. Now, this is very important.
I've tried to express this before. Let me give it another shot.
You don't choose to believe. You believe something because
it's true. Isn't that so? You don't say, well, I'm going
to choose to believe that. No, you believe it. If it's true,
you believe it. That's why you believe it's the truth. You don't
choose to believe. You believe because you really
got no choice. You got no other options. There's nothing else
to believe. It's the truth. I'm going to
believe the truth. You don't choose to believe. You believe
because you have no other choice. But you have to choose to believe
error. You have to choose to believe
that which is not true, and there's always a bad motive behind it
every single time. You see his self-serving motive
for coming up with this kind of religion. You always choose
to believe error. You know the word heresy? It's
in the Scripture quite a bit. And you know what heresy means
by very definition? It means a choosing. A choosing. Pick your poison. Let me show
you this in the Scripture. Turn to Joshua 24. Joshua 24. People use this scripture to
promote the doctrine of free will and choice, but it doesn't
teach that at all. Joshua chapter 24. Here's the promise of the gospel,
verse 13. And I've given you a land for
which you did not labor. Joshua 24, 13. and cities which
you built not, and you dwell in them, and of the vineyards
and oliveyards which you planted, which you planted not, do you
eat. Everything's a free grace. Now, therefore, fear the Lord,
and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods
which your father served on the other sides of the flood and
in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, if you don't like to go that direction, if
you think, well, it's going to cost me too much, Choose you
this day whom you will serve. Pick your poison, whatever heir
you want, whether the gods which your father served that were
on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in
whose land you dwell. Go ahead, go whatever way you
want. Pick your poison. But as for me and my house, we'll
serve the Lord. Now, obviously, back to 1 Kings,
His religion was the religion of His choice. Look what verse
33 says in verse Kings 12. So He offered upon the altar
which He had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month,
even in the months which He had devised of His own heart, and
He ordained a feast unto the children of Israel, and He offered
unto the altar and burnt incense. Now, let's take it back even
further. We see that his sin was one of his own choosing.
He chose to go in this direction. But it was all founded on the
fact that he couldn't trust God. He couldn't believe what God
said. God made this promise to him. If you follow me, I'll make
your king just as sure as David's kingdom was. Now, would he have
done it if he followed him? Absolutely. God can't lie. And
he made this promise that old Jeroboam says, I just can't trust
that. I need to, I need to get some control in this thing. I
need to stop them from going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices
because I know what will happen. I'll end up getting killed. He
could not trust God for his safety. He couldn't trust God for his
salvation. It was unbelief. And here's what
he did. He modified worship. He said,
now we're going to have the exact same kind of feast. We're going
to have the Passover just like in Jerusalem, but only we're
going to have it in Bethel or we're going to have it in Dan.
You see, it's too much for you. It's too inconvenient. It's too
costly to go all the way to Jerusalem. Now, they were all commanded
three times a year to go to Jerusalem for a week to observe these feasts.
And he said, that's just too much. Too much sacrifice involved. I'm trying to make this thing
easier for you. Now, sacrifice is important. The Passover is
important. We'll observe the Passover. The
priests are important and so on, but we're going to change
it. We're going to change it just a little bit to make it more
convenient for you. Now, here's the next thing that
I would notice about the sin of Jeroboam. The sin of Jeroboam
has something to do with a religion without personal sacrifice. A religion without personal sacrifice. The Lord said, whosoever will
come after me, let him deny himself. No self-denial. There's nothing
to it. There's nothing to it. Most people
want a religion that's convenient. They don't want a religion that
interferes with their life. Don't want anything like that.
We don't want any imposition on our time or on our finances. We want a religion without personal
sacrifice. You know, a Sunday morning sermonette
will do. Sunday night, that's too much.
That's too much. Wednesday, out of the question.
That's too much. I will give After all my bills
are paid, and after everything's taken care of, and all my recreation's
taken care of, out of my surplus, I'm willing to give. But giving
that involves sacrifice, that's too much. You know, Gerald Boland
was actually, I think this is almost funny, I think he was
the founder of the modern seekers movement. I mean, you think about,
you know, everything's made easier for you. We'll even have Saturday
night services so you can sleep in on Sunday morning. Just come
Saturday night, and before you were going to do anything, maybe
make it about 5 o'clock, you know, something like that, you weren't
doing anything anyway, and that way you can sleep in Sunday morning. Things are
much more convenient. There's even a church in Lexington where
you can come in your pajamas. Just come on in your pajamas.
Nothing but religion would do something that weird. Come on
in your pajamas, everybody. I mean, that's an abomination,
but it's making things easy. Let's make things easy. Make
the truth easy to receive. Tear down the truth. Don't take
the offense out of the gospel. Make it explainable. Make it
to where everybody can receive this. It's a religion without
sacrifice. Now, if it's not worth personal
sacrifice to you, your religion, you can write this down, it's
of no value at all to God. As a matter of fact, it's an
offense to Him, an utter offense. Oh, may God deliver us from the
sin of Jeroboam, no sacrifice involved. Love so amazing, so
divine demands my soul, my life. My all, it's worth everything. I love what one writer said.
He said, the gospel, if true, it's of infinite importance.
If false, it's of no importance. But the one thing that it cannot
said to be is moderately important. So Jeroboam sinned. It was religion
without personal sacrifice. I don't want to be guilty of
that, do you? Now, let's take it even further. Jeroboam's sin,
what was it? I mean, it's the sin that kept
repeating itself, that kept recirculating itself. It's the sin that made
God forsake Israel and put him out of His sight. It's what brought
him into Assyria. It kept happening over and over
and over again. What was it Jeroboam was saying?
Jeroboam was saying that Jerusalem's important. It's a good place
to go. I mean, God said it. It's a good place to go. Jerusalem
is important, but it's not necessary to go there. It's important, but it's not
necessary. Now there we have the sin of
Jeroboam. Truth is important. But it's not necessary. You can
be saved with the truth or without the truth. Faith is important. We ought to believe. But it's
not necessary. I was listening to someone this
week talking about Christ being his way to the Father. He said,
but Christ is my way to God, but there are other ways. Christ
is a way, but it's not necessary for him to be the only way. Obedience is important. You ought to obey God. It's a
good thing. Obedience is important, but it's not necessary. Salvation by grace. I think it's
what the Bible teaches. I agree with that. Salvation
by grace. I believe that the Bible teaches
that God is absolutely sovereign in control of everything. I believe
the Bible does teach that men are dead in sins. I can read
the Scripture about it. I believe that the Bible teaches
that God elected who would be saved. I believe the Bible teaches
that Christ secured salvation for God's elect. I believe that
grace is invincible. That's what the Scripture teaches.
Now, I believe that. I believe that. But it's not necessary
to preach it. True, but not necessary. Everything God says is necessary, of vital importance. Everything He says. Every word
in this book is necessary. Every word. You know, I was thinking about
this thing of being necessary. I know for me, it's necessary
for me that the Bible is the Word of God. That's necessary
for me. You take that away, I'm left
with nothing. You're left with nothing. It's necessary. It's
necessary for me that God is absolutely sovereign, controlling,
ruling and reigning everything. Because you take that away, I'm
scared to death. What's going to happen? If God's
not in control, who is? You? Me? The devil? That's bad
news. It's necessary for me that God's
election of his people before the foundation of the world is
unconditional. That he didn't have to find a
reason in them to give it to him because he foresaw they'd
do it. Because I've had it. It's necessary for me. It's necessary
for me that Christ is a successful Savior. It's necessary for me
that He saved everybody that He died for because if He didn't,
you've taken away the only hope I've got. It's necessary for
me that God's grace is irresistible and invincible because if it's
not, I'll resist it and I'll be damned. I know I will. It's
necessary for me that God preserves His people because if He doesn't,
I'll fall away. I know it. It's necessary. Now what did Jeroboam do? He
didn't deny Jerusalem. He didn't say you shouldn't go
to Jerusalem. He said it's not necessary. Bethel will do. Dan will do. It's not necessary. Can you see how the sin of Jeroboam
is very much alive today? Look back in 1 Kings 12. Look
who he made priests. Verse 31, And he made an house
of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people,
which were not of the sons of Levi. There you have the preachers
of Jeroboam's religion. You know, I read this statement
and I believe it's true. A man said this, he said, the
profession that will have the greatest percentage of its people
in hell is preachers. You know, I believe that. I believe there will be a greater
percentage of preachers in hell than there will be plumbers. Preaching a false gospel, getting
into the sin of Jeroboam, prostituting the truth, trying to sugarcoat
it and make it more acceptable, easier to believe, easier to
receive, change the truth, take the edge off in order to make
it more likely to be received. That is the sin of Jeroboam. Now, what is interesting about
the sin of Jeroboam, we see what it is. Obviously, it's idolatry.
Second, it's a religion without personal sacrifice, easy-believism. Thirdly, it's taking the truth
of God and saying, it's not necessary. It's not necessary. You know
what I think is very interesting is there was a prophecy regarding
Jeroboam. 1 Kings 13. Verse 1, 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. And he cried against the altar
in the word of the Lord, this man of God. And he said, O altar,
altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born into 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 will be burned upon thee." Now, he
gives this prophecy, this fellow named Josiah, and he happens
hundreds of years later. He's going to actually take the
priests, their bones, and burn them on this altar you set up,
these false priests. Now, turn to Josiah chapter 22,
I mean 2 Kings 22, and let's look at the history of Josiah. I kind of want to leave us with
this thought. I'm going to read a pretty lengthy
passage of Scripture, but which am I, a Jeroboam or a Josiah? Let's read about Josiah. 2 Kings
22, verse 1. Josiah was eight years old. when he began to reign. And remember,
hundreds of years before this, the prophet said that he would
reign. His name was actually mentioned.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
31 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jediah,
the daughter of Adiah of Boscoth. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord. Well, there weren't many of these
fellas, were there? We read so many of them, they
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. But here we
have one who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
And he walked in all the way of David, his father, and turned
not aside to the right hand or to the left. As a matter of fact,
as we go on reading about Josiah, we're going to find out that
God said regarding this man, there wasn't anybody like him
before him or after him. He was the greatest of the kings. When he speaks of him, even with
reference to David, he said there wasn't anybody like this man,
Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all of his heart and with
all of his soul and with all of his might. Now, something
happened in Josiah's reign. When he was 26 years old, He'd
been writing for 18 years. When he was 26 years old, it
came into his heart to repair the temple. And he had a bunch
of people go in and repair the temple. And evidently, nobody
had a copy of the scripture. And they found a copy of the
scriptures in the temple. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
the Pentateuch, the Old Testament Scriptures. They found this copy,
maybe the Psalms and so on, and somehow it had fallen into, nobody
knew, but a priest found it. And they come and tell Josiah
about it. And they read it to Josiah. And
Josiah is heartbroken. He said, great wrath is on us.
We've not paid any attention to what God said to do. We're
in trouble. And he begins a great reform. This man Josiah. Let's begin
reading in chapter 23 now. This is his reform. I'm going
to read this chapter. I'm going to mispronounce several
words. There's a lot of hard words in here. So forgive me
that. Just get over it. And the king sent, and they gathered
unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king
went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him and the priests and
the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he
read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which
they had found in the house of the Lord." That book that had
been lost, they found it again. And the king, Josiah, stood by
a pillar And he made a covenant before the Lord to walk after
the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes
with all their heart and all their soul to perform the words
of the covenant that are written in this book. And all the people
stood to the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah
the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers
of the door to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all
the vessels that were made for Baal. and for the grove, and
for the host of heaven, and He burned them without Jerusalem,
and in the fields of Codron, and He carried the ashes of them
unto Bethel. And he put down the idolatrous
priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense
in the high places in the cities of Judah. These ones, Jeroboam
got into power. And in the places round about
Jerusalem, them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun,
and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the hosts of heavens.
And he brought out of the grove from the house of the Lord, without
Jerusalem, unto the brook Chidron, and burned it at the brook Chidron,
and stamped it to small powder, and cast the powder thereof upon
the graves of the children of the people. And he break down
the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord,
where the women wove hanging for the grove. And he brought
all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high
places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to
Beersheba, and break down the high places of the gates that
were in the entering of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the
city, which were on a man's left hand and the gate of the city.
Nevertheless, The priests of the high places came not up to
the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. I'm sure they were scared to
death, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their
brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the
children of Himnon, that no man might make his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire to Moloch. And he took away the horses that
the kings of Judah had given to the son at their entering
into the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan-melech.
the chamberlain which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots
of the sun with fire, and the altars that were on the top of
the upper chambers of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made,
and the altars which Manasseh had made, and the two courts
of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and he break
them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook
Chidron, and the high places that were before Jerusalem, which
were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon
the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination
of the Zideans, and for Chemoth, the abomination of the Moabites,
and from Malcolm, the abomination of the children of Abraham. And
he break in pieces the image, and he cut down the groves, and
he filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover, the altar
that was at Bethel, and at the high place with Jeroboam, the
son of Nebat, who had made Israel a sin, had made both that altar
and the high place." Remember, it was said hundreds of years
before, this is what he'd do. He break it down. He burned the
high place. He stamped it small to powder. He burned the grove.
And as Josiah turned himself. I love to think of this. It's
like he's turning. What else can I do? What else
can I do? He turned himself. He spied the
sepulchers that were in the mount. And he 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 had
proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, what title
is that I see? There was a true prophet of these
bones that he protected. And the men of the city told
him, it's the sepulcher of the man of God which came from Judah
and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar
of Bethel. And he said, let him alone, let no man move his bones.
So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet that
came out of Samaria. And all the houses also of the high places
that were in Samaria, the cities of Samaria, which the king of
Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away. And he did to them according
to the acts that he'd done in Bethel. And he swore. all the
priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and
he burned men's bones upon them and returned to Jerusalem. And
the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover. unto the Lord your God, as it
is written in the book of this covenant. Keep it exactly as
it's written. And surely there was not holding
such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel,
nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah.
And in the 18th year of King Josiah, wherein this Passover
was holding to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, the workers with familiar
spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and
all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and
in Jerusalem did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words
of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the
priest found in the house of the Lord. Now look what it says
about Josiah. And like unto him was there no
king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and
with all his soul, And with all his might, according to all the
law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him." Jeroboam or Josiah? Which am I? Which are you? May God give us
grace to be Josias. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you will deliver us from the sin of Jeroboam. For Lord,
we know that apart from your grace, that's exactly where we'll
be. Lord, deliver us from idolatry. Deliver us from a religion without
personal sacrifice. Deliver this. Deliver us from
saying regarding anything you say it's not necessary. Lord, cause us to be like Josiah. Who turned to you with all his
heart and with all his strength and with all this might. Lord,
we ask that we might be Josias in this day. Lord, give us the grace and the
strength and the courage to be Josias in this wicked and perverse
generation in which we live. And oh, Lord, that we might see
a mighty outpouring of your spirit. Lord, we Ask for the glory of
your son that we might see that. In Christ's blessed name we pray.
Amen.