Would you turn to 1 Kings 15.
Verse 25. 1 Kings 15 verse 25. Now Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in
the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel
two years, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked
in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made
Israel to sin." You know, that's one of 19 times in the Bible
where it's pointed out that Jeroboam made Israel to sin. 28 times we read of the sin of Jeroboam,
and it seems to be the sin by which other sins are measured.
The kings were always compared to Jeroboam. And Nadab reigns
two years, and he does evil in the sight of the Lord, walked
in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made
Israel to sin. And Baasha, Baasha, the king
of Ahijah, or the son of Ahijah, of the house of Israel, conspired
against him, Nadab. And Baasha smote him at Gibethon,
which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all Israel laid
siege to Gibethon. Even in the third year of Asa,
the king of Judah did Baasha slay him and reigned in his stead. Now all of a sudden he's the
king. He murders Nadab and takes his plates. And it came to pass
when he reigned that he smote all the house of Jeroboam. He
left not to Jeroboam any that breathed. He destroyed all of
his relatives, all of his sons. He killed everybody. until he
had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the Lord,
which he spake by servant Ahijah, the Shilohite, because of the
sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned, and which he made Israel to sin
by his provocation, wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel
to anger." So everybody in the house of Jeroboam is destroyed. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and Lord, we come with thanksgiving. Truly, our hearts are thankful
that salvation is in our son and that we're complete, lacking
nothing in him. That he is our wisdom, he is
our righteousness, he is our sanctification, he's our redemption. It's because you and your mercy
and grace made him to be that to us. And we ask that we might
be enabled to worship him. We ask that we might be able
to see your gospel in this story. We ask for your presence in the
worship services, in the songs sung. Lord, enable us to sing
from our hearts, making melody unto thee. We ask that you would
bless the reading of your holy word, bless the preaching of
the word, bless our time together. Lord, we confess our sin and
we pray for cleansing. We pray for forgiveness for Christ's
sake. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us the grace to walk, to talk, and to think in a way that
honors thy dear son and glorifies him. Unite our hearts together
to fear thy name. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now we read here of Jeroboam's
entire family wiped out. Not one is left that even breathes
just like God said that would be. Now, Jeroboam, his name means
the people contend. the people contend. And he was
obviously a very contentious man that contended. As I've already mentioned 28
times, we read of a king throughout 1 Kings and 2 Kings following
the sins of Jeroboam. His sin seems to be the sin by
which all the other sins of the other kings are measured. Now,
this is how significant this man is. And 19 times in 1 Kings
and 2 Kings, it speaks of Jeroboam causing Israel to sin. He was the cause of their sin.
Now, they were their own cause. If I sin, I can't blame somebody
else. It's my fault. But he was the
instrument that brought about this sin. Now let me review Jeroboam
a little bit. You will remember that he was
the first king of the divided kingdom. It used to be one kingdom,
then all of a sudden it was split up into Judah and Israel. He was the first king of Israel
in this divided kingdom. And the Lord was chastising Solomon
and he raised up Jeroboam as a chastisement. You'll remember
that God promised Jeroboam when he raised him up. As a matter
of fact, turn with me to this. 1 Kings 11, I want you to see
this. Look at this promise God made to Jeroboam. Verse 37, and I will take thee
First Kings 11, 37, and I will take thee, and thou shalt reign
according to all that thy soul desireth, and shall be king over
Israel, and it shall be, if thou would 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, then I will make with thee, and build
thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel
unto thee. Now, what a promise. exactly for you what I did for
David, if you do as David did. Now this was his, the promise
to him. And well, he didn't live up to
it, but when God made this promise, Solomon found out about it and
tried to kill him. And so he fled to Egypt. Now, after Solomon
was dead, he felt it safe to come back. And at this time,
Rehoboam, Solomon's son, was reigning over Judah. And so the
people of Israel said to Jeroboam, you go to Rehoboam and try to
get a tax reduction for us. You remember that story. He said,
your father Solomon was awful heavy on us. And he was. He had
all these building programs and the taxation was so bad. And
he said, lessen the taxes. And you'll remember in that story,
Rehoboam went to the old men of Israel and they said, do it
and you'll have them forever. They'll be loyal to you if you
go ahead and lighten up on them. And he went to his buddies that
he grew up with, and they said, no, make the taxes harder. Let
him know that my father was strong on you, but we're going to be
like scorpions. We're going to tax you even harder. And so at that
time, Israel left after that. They said, we're not going to
be loyal to Rehoboam anymore. And so Jeroboam sets up his throne
in Mount Ephraim. and Rehoboam remains in Jerusalem. Now what's in Jerusalem? The
temple, the sacrifices, the sacrifice. The only way of approaching God.
You'll remember three times a year, every man in Jerusalem was commanded
by God to leave whatever he was doing and go to Jerusalem to
observe the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, all these three
different feasts. They were commanded to only go
to Jerusalem. And that's the only place where man could be
accepted in Jerusalem. That's the only place where the
sacrifice was made in Jerusalem. You couldn't go anywhere else.
was a part of the commandments. Now Jeroboam observes all that. Let's pick up reading in chapter
12. We'll get to chapter 15 and 16 in just a moment. But verse
26, and Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. Rehoboam
was at the house of David. If this people go up to do sacrifice
in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of the people
turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah,
and they'll kill me, and they'll go again to Rehoboam, king of
Judah. Now, picture what's going on in your mind. Here is Jeroboam, and he watches
all the people that he's the head of in Israel go to Jerusalem. and he knows Rehoboam is there,
and they're going to think about this, and they're going to think,
Rehoboam is the true king in Jerusalem. Let's just get rid
of Jeroboam. Now, he obviously forgot everything
that God said to him. God said, I'll make you a kingdom
as sure as the house of David if you honor me. But he didn't
think about any of this. All he saw was what was going
on. They're going to Jerusalem. So what does he do? 28, whereupon the king took counsel,
I guess with himself, and made two calves of gold. You remember
a calf of gold somewhere else? He just doubled it. Error is
always recirculated. And I want you to think about
this. He's saying these golden calves are God. This is the one
who delivered you from Egypt. This represents God, this golden
calf, but he put up two. Whereupon the king took counsel
and made two calves of gold and said unto them, it's too much
for you to go up to Jerusalem. Now, follow what he's saying. This is very inconvenient for
you three times a year to have to stop what you're doing and
go all the way to Jerusalem. I'm gonna make things easier.
I'm gonna make things more convenient. It kinda sounds like contemporary
worship, doesn't it? I'm gonna make things more convenient,
more easy. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna set up these two
calves in Dan and Beersheba, whereupon the king took counsel
and made two calves of gold and said unto them, it's too much
for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one
in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. Much easier to get
to. And this thing became a sin. For the people went to worship
before the one, even unto Dan. 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. And Jeroboam ordained a feast
in the eighth month on the 15th day of the month. He changed
the date. Like unto the feast that's in Jude. It was like it.
It wasn't the feast, but it was just like it. What is a $20 bill
that looks just like a real $20 bill? A counterfeit. That's all it is, a counterfeit.
He set up a counterfeit Passover, and he offered upon the altar,
so did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he'd made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he'd
made. So he offered upon the altar, which he had made in the
Bethel, the 15th day of the eighth month. See, he could now be a
priest. Anybody could be a priest. It didn't have to be from the
Levites. He offered upon the altar, which he had made in Bethel,
the 15th day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had
devised of his own heart, and he ordained a feast unto the
children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar and burnt incense. Now, here's what he did. He made
a man-made religion. There's one place God can be
approached. Christ himself. Christ only. Jerusalem was the only place
which represented Christ as the only place where God will meet
men in acceptance. Christ only. But he changed that. He made it two places. He took
away the Levites. Now anybody can be a priest.
And he was, as a matter of fact, he got of the lowest of the people
priest. And he even offered sacrifices himself. Christ is the only one
who can bring me to the Father. I can't come on my own. But he
muddied that. He denied that. And he got the
people to follow his religion because it was convenient. There
was an appeal to the flesh. I won't have to go through all
the difficulty to get to Jerusalem. Now I can just go to Dan or I
can go to Bethel and it'll be a lot easier for me. Anything... Anything that makes
the worship of God easy is wrong. It's wrong. Don't ever think
of convenience in this thing of worship, but that's what the
people were doing. They followed after Jeroboam,
and he was the, because of that, the man whom God used, what he
did, as the example of sin. This king followed the sins of
Jeroboam. They worshiped a false god. They had a false altar. They
had a false sacrifice. They had a false Passover. Now,
anything that is not God is an idol. Let me repeat that. Anything that is not the God
of the Bible is an idol. Jeroboam didn't seem to be too
troubled by that. And the prophet told him, God's
gonna kill everybody in your family. Everybody in your family
is gonna be wiped out. And that's what we read about.
When Jeroboam died, Nadab, his son, reigned in his stead. Now,
do you remember another Nadab? Nadab in a bayou that offered
the strange fire. Why would he name his boy something
like that? Would you name your son Judas?
I don't think so. And I don't think that there's
a whole lot of difference between what he did. He named his son Nadab.
That shows the lack of respect this man had for truth and for
God. And he dies, Nadab reigns in
his stead, and Nadab's reign doesn't last too long. only two
years, and this man murders him. I'm having a hard time pronouncing
his name, but turn back to 1 Kings chapter 15. And Nadab the son of Jeroboam,
verse 25, began to reign over Israel in the second year of
Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years, and he
did evil on the side of the Lord, and walked in the way of his
father, and in his sin, wherewith he made Israel sin, he wasn't
any different than Jeroboam. And Baasha, The son of Ahijah
of the house of Israel conspired against him, and Baathias smote
him. He murdered him at Gibbathon,
which belonged to the Philistines. Now Nadab was the rightful king,
and this man murdered him. For Nadab and all Israel laid
siege to Gibbathon. Even in the third year of Asa,
king of Judah, did Baathias slay him, and he reigned in his stead.
There was a coup. He killed him, and he became
the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when he
reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam. He left not
to Jeroboam any that breathed." And that was the practice back
then. I mean, when a new king came in, he'd kill all the relatives
of the old king to make sure there wouldn't be any rebellions.
And that's exactly what he did. This is a gruesome sight. Until
he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which
he spake by a servant, Ahijah the Shilohite. Because of the
sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned. This is why this is happening.
because of the sins of Jeroboam which he made Israel to sin,
by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel
to anger. Now the rest of the acts of Nadab
and all that he did are then outwritten in the book of the
Chronicles of the kings of Israel. And there was war between Asa
and Baasha king of Israel all their days. And in the third
year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign.
This is the one who murdered Nadab. And he Baasha, 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. Now this is interesting.
He knew that he had been raised up to kill all of Jeroboam's
house because of his conduct and his making false gods. And
what does he do? He does the exact same thing.
He does the exact, precise, same thing. Now look in chapter 16. Then the word of the Lord came
to Jehu, the son of Hananiah, against Baashah, 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. Behold, I'll take away the posterity
of Bethshea, and the posterity of his house. I'm going to kill
everybody in your house just like I did Jeroboam's, and will
make thy house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat. Him
that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. Now
the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might,
are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings
of Israel? So Baasha had the same end of Jeroboam He slept
with his fathers, and he was buried in Tirzah. In Elah his
son reigned in his stead. And also by the hand of the prophet
Jehu, the son of Hanaiah, came the word of the Lord against
Baathshah, and against his house, even for all the evil that he
did in the sight of the Lord, in provoking him to anger with
the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and
because he killed him. He murdered him. And God punishes
him because he murdered him. God ordained this. It was all
of God's purpose to kill Baasha because he duplicated the sins
of Jeroboam. He's the one who raised up Baasha
to murder Nadab and put him to death. And yet God says, because
you murdered him, this is going to happen to you. Now there we
have God's absolute sovereignty and man's complete responsibility. Now somebody says, these two
things seem to be at odds. Well, they're not. They're not. God is absolutely sovereign. He controls everybody's actions.
He's sovereign over all things. When that man went and murdered
Nadab, it was because it was the sovereign decree of God. That's why I did it. And God
says, because you did that, I'm going to punish you. It's your
fault. It's your responsibility. Now,
how do you bring those two things together? I don't know. But they're together. They're together. You know, there's
a lot of things we just can't intellectually comprehend. But
I know this. God is absolutely sovereign over
the free actions of men. And everything that happens,
I don't care what it is, everything that happens is under the sovereign
rule and will of God. And the glorious thing about
the Lord is, is He brings good out of evil. Now we read this
sordid story of these murders, these houses being wiped out,
and it was all according to God's purpose, and all according to
God's will. That does not in any way take
away the responsibility of man and his sin. My sin, my sin, every sin I've ever committed,
every sin I've ever thought, my sin is all my fault. I'm not a victim. It's not because
of the way I was raised. It's not because of my circumstances. My sin is all my fault. I can't blame God's sovereignty.
I can't blame God's providence. is all my fault. Nobody's fault but mine. And isn't that what David said
when he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight, that you might be justified when you
speak and clear when you judge. God's right. He's right and I'm
wrong. My sin is all my fault. And yet, God takes everything
and uses it for the accomplishment of His purposes. He's completely
sovereign over all the free actions of men. And beloved, I love it
that way. I wouldn't want it to be any
other way. God really is God. And we see that by this example,
the Lord exalts Christ. out of the dust, raises him up
to wipe out all the sins of the relatives of Jeroboam because
of Jeroboam's great sin. And indeed, he should have been
wiped out. Baasha does it. He murders Jeroboam's
son, takes the throne in his place, and duplicates the sins
of Jeroboam. He wasn't any different. He couldn't
control himself. He couldn't just stop. He went
on. That's because that's what his wicked heart wanted to do.
He didn't have any understanding, but he knew God had raised him
up. And the prophet said, God raised you up, and you've just
forgotten him. And here's what's going to happen.
Every one of all of your house is going to be wiped out, and
I'm going to judge you for killing and murdering the man that God
in his sovereignty said, you're going to kill and you're going
to murder. All this was ordained by God. Now let's go on reading verse
eight. In the 20 and six year of Asa,
king of Judah, began Elah, the son of Bathsheba to reign over
Israel in Terzath two years And his servant, Zimri, captain of
half of his chariots, conspired against him. And he was in Terza,
drinking himself drunk in the house of Azra, steward of the
house of Terza. And Zimri went in and smote him
and killed him in the twenty and seventh year of Asa, king
of Jude, and reigned in his stead." Now, before I go and read him, the Bible's not family friendly,
is it? This is not PG. It's reality. It's what takes
place. God is faithfully letting us
know what took place and everything in the Kings, it just seems unclean,
nothing. One murder after another murder,
after another treason, after another murder, on and on and
on it goes. Verse 11, And it came to pass,
when he began to reign, as soon as he had sat on the throne,
that he slew all the house of Bathsheba. Just like God said,
they're all going to be slain. He left him not one that pisseth
against the wall, neither of his kinfolks or of his friends.
If you were a friend, you were put to death. Vested Jemriah,
destroy all the house of Bathsheba according to the word of the
Lord. which he spake unto Baasha by Jehu the prophet, for all
the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they
sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the
Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Now the rest
of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written
in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?" Now,
all of this is a fulfilling of the prophecy. And here's what
I thought of. You see all these Horrible things
taking place. And they're horrible, aren't
they? Horrible. God's in control of all of them.
And listen to this. History is His story. It really is. History is His
story. And the glorious thing, there's
so many glorious things we can say regarding the Lord God, but
what is so glorious is He brings good out of evil all the time. And the proof of this is the
cross. What's the most evil thing to
ever take place? Men nailing the Son of God to
the cross out of hatred, out of contempt. What's the most
glorious thing to ever take place? The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. There's God's absolute
sovereignty in the cross. There's man's responsibility.
Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and
thy counsel determined before to be done." Now remember, with
regard to everything, it's the Lord. And He's too wise to err. He's too kind to be cruel. And everything He does is just
right. Whether we see it, we might not
see it right now, but we know it is, don't we? Now I wanna
read this hymn. You've heard it. God moves in a mysterious way,
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea. How, if a footstep's in the sea,
it doesn't last there very long, does it? There it is, it's gone,
but it's still his. And he rides upon the storm,
deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures
up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Ye fearful
saints, fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread are
big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge
not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour, The bud may have a bitter taste, but
sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his works in vain. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord's on the throne? Amen.