I'd like to read a verse out
of John chapter four to begin with, because we're gonna find
out about the Samaritans. Where did the Samaritans come
from? And we can learn, I hope this teaches us the gospel. And after you get to John four,
I want you to turn to 2 Kings 17. This is the Samaritan woman that
the Lord was speaking with in John chapter 4. Verse 19, the
woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our
fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem
is a place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, believe me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. Now look what he says to her. You worship, you know
not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. So here we have the Samaritans,
and he says to her, in no uncertain terms, you don't know what you're
worshiping. Now where did these people come
from? Turn to 2 Kings 17. Verse 41. Now, here's the summary of this
chapter, and this is where the Samaritans came from. You remember
how the Jews wouldn't have anything to do with the Samaritans. Look
at this. Verse 41. So these nations feared
the Lord and served their graven images, both their children and
their children's children. As did their fathers, so do they
unto this day. Now here are the Samaritans.
They feared the Lord, it says, and they served their graven
images. They did both. This is what you
would call a hybrid religion. A hybrid religion. You know what
a hybrid car is? It's both gas and electric. It's
joining two things together. If a horse and a donkey come
together, what do they have? They have a hybrid, which is
called a mule. You know what the mule cannot do? It can't
have children. It cannot produce life. A hybrid religion, like they
had, cannot produce life. No one is born again. No one
is made to bow the knee to Christ in a hybrid religion. Now, let's
see what took place, how this came about. You know, this story
actually begins with Solomon's toleration of false gods. Under David's reign, Baal is
not even mentioned. Now maybe there were people secretly
worshiping Baal, probably were, but it's not mentioned under
David's reign. False worship was not mentioned. When does it begin? When Solomon
turned first Kings chapter 11, Verse 1, but King Solomon loved
many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh,
women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites,
of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children
of Israel, You shall not go into them, neither shall they come
into you, for they'll surely turn your heart away after their
gods. Solomon claimed to these in love,
and he became tolerant of these false gods, and it brought God's
judgment upon the nation of Israel. And at this time is when the
nation was divided into two different nations, Israel and Judah. And
do you remember who the first king of Israel was after the
nations were divided? Jeroboam. You remember what Jeroboam
did. He introduced golden calf worship
into Israel, and he made a new Passover, and he made things
different. And how many times have we read
going through the Kings of the sin of Jeroboam and the sin of
Jeroboam? He is the one who got this hybrid
religion going. He set up these calves. He said,
you can worship Jehovah through that. And he made it to where
Jerusalem was not the only place you could worship. You could
go to Dan and Bathsheba and worship as well. And this was great sin. Now, 19 kings later, 200 years
later, we have this story of Israel. The Lord was finished
with them. And He let them be carried away
because of their idolatry. Now this was Israel, this was
not Judah, this was Israel. Now let's pick up reading in
2 Kings chapter 17. And in the twelfth year of Ahaz,
king of Judah began Hosea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria
over Israel nine years. And he did that which was evil
on the side of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that
were before him. And against him came up Shalmazir, king of
Assyria, and Hosea became his servant and gave him presents."
This is the king of Israel. He became under the rule of the
king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria found
conspiracy in Hosea. For he had sent messengers, so
the king of Egypt brought no present to the king of Assyria,
as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria
shut him up and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria
came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged
it three years." Remember, Samaria is the capital of Israel. That's
where the king of Israel was. And in the ninth year of Hosea,
the king of Syria took Samaria and carried Israel away into
Assyria and placed them in Habaer by the river of Gozan in the
cities of the Medes. For it was so that the children
of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had
brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked
in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out from
before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which
they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those
things that were not right against the Lord their God. They built
them high places in all their cities. Look at the idolatry
that was going on. From the Tower of the Watchman
to the Fence City. And they set them up, images
and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. And
there they burnt incense in all the high places as did the heathen
whom the Lord carried away before them and wrought wicked things
to provoke the Lord to anger. For they served idols. whereof
the Lord had said unto them, you shall not do this thing.
Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all
the prophets and by all the seers saying, turn ye from your evil
ways. Keep my commandments and my statutes according to all
the law which I commanded your fathers, which I've sent to you
by my servants, the prophets. Notwithstanding, they would not
hear, but harden their necks like to the neck of their fathers,
that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected
his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers,
his testimonies which he testified against them. And they followed
vanity and became vain and went after the heathen that were round
about them concerning whom the Lord charged them that they should
not do like unto them. And they left all the commandments
of the Lord their God and made them molten images, even two
calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven,
and served Baal." Now this is the children of Israel. And they
caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire. Now
that's offering them up as sacrifices to Moloch. That's how low things
had become. They offered their children up
to pass through the fire and used divination and enchantments
and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke
him to anger. Therefore, the Lord was very
angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. And there
was none left but the tribe of Judah only. And Judah kept off
the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the
statutes of Israel, which they made. And the Lord rejected all
the seed of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them into
the hand of the spoilers until he'd cast them out of his sight.
For he rent Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam
the son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the
Lord, made them sin and raped sin. For the children of Israel
walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did. They parted not
unto them, until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight. As he said, By all his servants
the prophets, so was Israel carried away out of their own land to
Assyria unto this day." Now, we see Israel was pulled out
of the land as a judgment of God. Verse 24. Now, here's where
the Samaritans come in. And the king of Assyria brought
men from Babylon, and from Cuthath, and from Ava, and from Hamath,
and from Sepharvim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria
instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria and
dwelt in the cities thereof." Now, these were not true Jews,
but they were brought and placed in the city. Verse 25, and so
it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared
not the Lord. They were just practicing their
own religion. They had no fear of God. Therefore, the Lord sent
lions among them, which slew some of them. Now, I want you
to think about how terrifying that would be if there were a bunch
of lions around. I mean, have you ever heard a
lion roar? I mean, it would have been scary. And they were killing
some of these people. And look what happened. Wherefore
they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou
hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the
manner of the God of the land." That's interesting how they call
God the God of that land. They believed in regional gods,
and they said, They don't know this God, and we're in trouble
because of it. These lions are coming in and
eating us because of that. The nations which thou hast removed
and placed in the cities of Syria know not the manner of the God
of the land. They weren't interested in knowing
the God of the land, but certain things that would help them out.
Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them,
because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Then
the king of Assyria commanded, saying, carry the one of the
priests whom you brought from thence, and let them go and dwell
there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the
land. Now this is talking about knowing what kind of sacrifices,
not understanding what the sacrifices meant, but they'd have this feast
days and the sacrifices the way it was prescribed in the Old
Testament. They didn't have any true understanding, but they
thought if we can just do this, we'll appease this God. So they
hired him a priest, brought him from back to Samaria from where
he'd been taken captive. Verse 28, then one of the priests
whom they'd carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel.
and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Howbeit, every
nation made gods of their own. and put them in the houses of
the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their
cities which they dwelt there. And men of Babylon made suckle
up Bithnoth, and he named seven different gods. And we're gonna
go over those in just a minute, but look what it says in verse
32. So they feared the Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest
of them priests of the high place, which sacrifice for them in the
houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and served
their own gods. After the manner of nations whom
they carried away from thence, and to this day they do after
the former matters, they fear not the Lord, neither do they
after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the
law and the commandment which the Lord commanded, which the children
of Jacob, whom he named Israel. Now, here we have hybrid religion. They feared the Lord, and they
served their own gods. Now, let me say this as strongly
as I know how to say it. Anything that is not exactly
as the Bible says is not so. It's a hybrid religion. It's
a wrong religion. Any God that's not like the God
of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament, the God of the
New Testament, the God who's holy, the God who's sovereign,
the God who controls and rules and reigns in every way, the
God who's absolutely just, the God who's immutable, the God
of the Bible, any God that is not that God is a false God,
a non-existent entity. And they were trying to blend.
Now look back in verse 30, verse 30. Seven different gods are mentioned. The men of Babylon, this is Babylon
religion, transplanted into Samaria. And this is why the Jews hated
him so much. They thought they were taken away from, you know,
the truth. They thought that they worshiped
the God of the Bible and they hated the Samaritans. You remember
what that Samaritan woman said? She said, the Jews have no dealin'
with the Samaritans because the Jews had no respect for this. But look at these gods they kept. And the men, verse 30, and the men of Babylon
made Succoth, Benoth, And the men of Kuth made Nergal, and
the men of Hamath made Ashyma, and the Avites made Nibhaz and
Tartarc, and the Seraphites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech
and Anamelech, and the gods of Seraphaim." Now here we have
seven different gods named, and let me give you their meaning,
and it lets you know something about the religion that's going
on right now. Because right now, in the United States, in Lexington,
Kentucky, we have so much of this hybrid religion. And it
cannot produce life. The first name is, I can't pronounce
these very well, so just bear with me. In verse 30, sukhoth
binoth. You know what it means? A place for our children. What do you got for the children?
What do you got for the children? Isn't that the big question people
ask about church? What do you got for the children?
Well, we got the gospel. That's it. That's it. Nothing else is
wanted or needed. And then the next one is Nergal. You know what that means? Hero.
Hero. Hero worship. Not the Lord Jesus
Christ, but man, man. And then the next one is Men of Cuthbert, Nergal, Men
of Hamath made Ashina. Ashina means I will make desolate. And that's exactly what this
religion does. There's no life in it. I will make desolate. And the Abites, verse 31, made
Nibhaz. That means barker, a dog. What
does God call false prophets? Greedy dogs. Paul said beware
of dogs, barking. And Tartarc. Tartarc means the
prince of darkness. Satan is controlling. this kind
of hybrid religion. That's how serious this is. Prince
of Darkness. And the Seraphites burnt their
children in the fire to Adramalek. Now this is interesting. Adramalek
means the decider. The decider. Now what is the
biggest issue of false religion? You make the decision. It's up
to you to make a decision as to whether or not you're going
to accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior or not. The decision
is up to you. It takes away from the sovereignty
of God and makes man sovereign, the decider. And Ahimelech, the
gods of Seraphim, Ahimelech means image of the king. image of the
king. It's not the real thing. It's
an image. It's an idol. Now there's a reason
for these names. They tell us something in this
hybrid religion that's going on so much in our day. Now, any God that is not the
God of the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, the God who
created the universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
the covenant God, The God of Joseph, where Joseph
said to his brethren, you meant it for evil, but God meant it
for good. The God who appeared to Moses
in the flaming bush. What a beautiful picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That bush didn't need the energy
of the wood. He's the independent God with
no need. His flame goes on with no needs
for man. And yet the wood couldn't be
consumed. The Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect
humanity could not be consumed by the wrath of God. Now this
is the God of the Bible. And any God that is not just
like this is a false God that cannot save. Now this hybrid
religion did have a kind of fear, but it wasn't the fear of God.
It was the fear of getting eaten by lions. That's all that was
behind it. It was the fear of what will
happen. I need to get this straightened out or this bad thing will happen
to me. And if I can get this straightened out and get the
gods of the lands appeased, everything will be okay. So they hired him
a priest, got him to come down, and the priest taught them the
manner of the God of the land. And that is where the Samaritans
came from. It's based upon fear. But they still had all their
false gods. Look in verse 33. They feared the Lord and served
their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they'd carried
away from thence. Until this day, and until this day in 2019,
September 22nd, they do after the former manners, they fear
not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after
their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the
Lord commanded the children of Israel, whom he named Israel,
the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, with whom the Lord
had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, you shall not fear
other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, or serve them, nor sacrifice
to them, But the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt
with great power and stretched out arm, him shall you fear,
and him shall you worship, to him shall you do sacrifice. And
the statutes and the ordinance and the law and the commandment
which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore, and
you shall not fear other gods. You won't have any respect for
anything that's not the God of the Bible. And the covenant that
I have made with you, you shall not forget, neither shall you
fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear, and
he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies, howbeit
they did not hearken. But they did after the former
manner, so these nations feared the Lord and served their raven
images. Both their children and their
children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this
day." Now, in this hybrid religion, the fear of the Lord is spoken
of. They feared the Lord. But it wasn't that fear of the
Lord that's the beginning of wisdom. It was fear of him sending
lions. That's all it was. There wasn't
any true reverence and respect and fear for God. Here's what
the fear of God is. The fear of God is to be afraid to look
anywhere but Christ alone. And if you can look anywhere
but Christ alone, you really have no fear or reverence or
respect toward God. You're a part of this hybrid
religion that has a sort of fear where you think, well, at least
I can be safe from the lions if I try to appease this, but
it's not truly the fear of God. Now, this frightens me. When I see the disobedience of
Israel, I know that apart from the grace of God, I'm going to
be just as bad and you're going to be just as bad, apart from
Him preventing this from taking place. And I don't want to have
some kind of phony fear like this that's just produced because
of hoping what I can avoid or what I can gain. That's not the
fear of God. May the Lord deliver us. from this hybrid religion that
we will participate in if the Lord doesn't prevent it. That's
how important this thing is. This will be us if the Lord doesn't
prevent it. But may the Lord prevent this
and cause us to have this fear of God that causes us to be afraid
to look anywhere but Christ only, because we know we have nowhere
else to look. Amen.