Good morning. Would you turn to 1 Kings? I'm going to go ahead and read
this story. Beginning in verse 11 of 1 Kings
chapter 13. Now this is about the prophet
who had You'll remember from last week preached against the
altar that Jeroboam had made. Verse 11, now there dwelt an
old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the
works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The
words which he had spoken unto the king. Then they told also
to their father. And their father said unto them,
what way went he? For his sons had seen what way
the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto
his son, saddle me the ass. So they saddled him an ass and
he rode there on. And went after the man of God
and found him sitting under an oak and said unto him, art thou
the man of God that came as from Judah? And he said, I am. Then
he said unto him, come home with me and eat bread. And he said,
I may not return with thee nor go in with thee. Neither will
I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place. You'll remember
that God had commanded him, you're not going to eat bread or drink
water in this place. You're going to stay away from
this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, thou
shalt not eat bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to
go by the way thou camest. He said unto him, I'm a prophet
also as thou art. And an angel spake unto me by
the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with thee into
thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he
lied to him. He lied to him. So he went back with him and
did eat bread in his house and drink water. And it came to pass,
as they said at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto
the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man
of God that came from Judah, saying, thus saith the Lord,
forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast
not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee,
but camest back and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the
place of which the Lord did say to thee, eat no bread and drink
no water. thy carcass shall not come into
the sepulcher of thy fathers. And it came to pass after he'd
eaten bread and after he'd drunk, that he saddled for him the ass
to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he
was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him. And his carcass
was cast in the way and the ass stood by it. The lion also stood
by the carcass. And behold, the men passed by
and saw the carcass cast in the way, the dead body and the lion
standing by the carcass. And they came and told it in
the city where the old prophet dwelt. When the prophet that
brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it's
the man of God who is disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore,
the Lord has delivered him unto the lion, which has torn him
and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which he's
spake unto him. And he spake to his son, saying, saddle me
the ass. And they saddled him. And he went and found his carcass
cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the
carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass
nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass
of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back.
And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him.
And he laid his carcass in his own grave. And they mourned over
him, saying, alas, my brother, And it came to pass after he
buried him that he spake to his son saying, when I'm dead, then
bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried. Lay
my bones beside his bones for the saying which he cried by
the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against
all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Mariah
shall surely come to pass. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy dear son. And we ask in his name that you
would be pleased. To deliver us from merely hearing
from the word of a man. And that we might hear from you
and your word. That your son might be exalted, that we might
be enabled to see something of his glory and greatness, and
that we might be enabled to rest in him. Lord, we confess our
sins. Our sins are ever before us,
and we pray for forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of thy
son. And Lord, how we thank you for
the greatness and the richness of your grace. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Bless your word wherever it's
preached. Lord, unite our hearts together to fear thy name. In
Christ's name we pray, amen. That's an unusual story, isn't
it? It's in some respects kind of off the wall. This is the prophet that confronted
Jeroboam over what Jeroboam had done, and he's disobedient, and
he's slain. Look back in chapter 12 for a
moment. Here's what Jeroboam was guilty of. Verse 26. And Jeroboam said in his heart, now shall the kingdom return
to the house of David. He was afraid if the people went
to Jerusalem to worship and to go to the temple and to sacrifice,
that they would become once again loyal to Rehoboam instead of
him. He said, I'm going to lose everything
through this. Verse 26, if 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 Rehoboam, king
of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam,
king of Judah. 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. It's so inconvenient. This would
be much more convenient. 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. You didn't have to go
to Jerusalem anymore. And this thing became a sin for the people
went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made a
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 like
unto the feast which is in Judah. It's a Passover like the real
Passover. What's that? A counterfeit. That's
all it can be called, a counterfeit. Let's go on reading. 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 15th day of the eighth month,
even in the month which he had devised of his own heart. And
he ordained to feast unto the children of Israel. And he offered
upon the altar and burnt incense." Now, he said, you no longer have
to go to Jerusalem for the Passover. put a Passover in Dan, I'm gonna
put a Passover in this other place, and this'll be more convenient
and easier to get to, and you won't have such trouble. And
he was doing this in order to keep people from going to Jerusalem.
Now, let's talk about the temple in Jerusalem for just a few moments.
Chapter five through seven of 1 Kings is about the construction
of that temple. The temple took the place of
the tabernacle, And in the temple, you had the altar for sacrifice. You had the laver for sanctification. You had the altar of incense
representing the intercession of Christ. You have the table
of showbread, Christ, our sustenance, Christ, our food. You had the
mercy seat. And God had made this promise.
This is where I'll meet with you. Turn with me for a moment
to Exodus chapter 25. There was one place of God's
favor where God would meet. Verse 22, or verse 21. And thou
shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark
thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, and there
I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee. from above
the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon
the ark of the testimony of all things which I give in the commandment
unto the children of Israel." There's one place where God would
meet, the mercy seat, the ark. You know that's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a reference to, there's
only one place that I'll meet with you. There's only one place
I'll have communion with you, the ark. The temple took the
place of the tabernacle, but you still had the furniture of
the ark and incense and all the different things that were in
the tabernacle. They're now in the temple. And let me show you
some scriptures in 1 Kings chapter 8. Turn back to 1 Kings chapter
8. Now, this is after the temple
has been completed, verse 10. And it came to pass when the
priests were come out of the holy place that the cloud filled
the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to
minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had
filled the house of the Lord. Now, picture, I can't picture
it in my mind, but there was such glory. What do you say about
that, other than read it? There it is, God's glory manifest
in the temple. and the priest couldn't even
enter in. Now, in chapter eight, Solomon talks about this temple. Now look in verse 29 with me,
chapter eight. Verse 28. Yet have respect unto
the prayer of thy servant to his supplication, O my Lord God,
to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant
prayeth before thee today, That thine eyes may be opened toward
this house, this temple that I built, that took the place
of the tabernacle, but it's the same thing, the meeting place
where God said, I'll have communion with you. That thine eyes may
be opened toward this house night and day, even toward the place
of which thou has said, my name shall be there. That thou may
hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward
this place, this place. And hearken thou to the supplication
of thy servant, of thy people Israel, when they shall pray
toward this place. And hear thou in heaven, thy
dwelling place, when thou hearest, forgive. Now look in verse 35. And when heaven is shut up and
there's no rain, because they sinned against thee, if they
pray toward this place. Now, the point is, there's one
place of God's acceptance. Only one. Christ himself prayed
toward this place. And what did Jeroboam do? He
muddied that issue. He said, no, it doesn't have
to be just toward this place. As long as your heart's right,
as long as you're sincere, you can go to Dan, you can go to
Beersheba, we've got this Passover that's just like the one in Jerusalem.
It's just as good. And what he's doing is muddying
the waters of the one place of salvation, the one place of acceptance,
which is Christ Jesus. So God's prophet brings his message
against this. Look in chapter 13. And behold, that 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, this altar that he had made that
was not the altar in the temple. It's something that he made.
And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord. Now
you can't preach the truth without preaching against the false.
And that's what he's doing at this time. He's crying against
this place. He cried against the altar in
the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, Thus saith the
Lord, behold, a child shall be born into the house of David,
Josiah by name. 360 years later, and upon thee
shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense
upon thee and men's bones shall be burned upon thee." Now he
says, this altar that you've made, the priests are going to
be sacrificed and their bones are going to be burned on it.
I mean, that's pretty severe language. He's saying this is
over. Verse three, and he gave a sign
the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord has spoken.
Behold, the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it
shall be poured out. Now he preaches against this place that Jeroboam
had made. Now there's one place of God's
favor. May the Lord give us the grace
to see this. There's one place of election.
Christ. There's one place of justification.
In Christ. There's one place of God's forgiveness. In Christ. There's one place
of sanctification. In Christ. There's one place
of redemption. I could just go on and on and
on. All of God's favor is in this
one place, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will not speak to nor
be spoken to apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what did Jeroboam
do? He muddied this issue. He set
up these other places. other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's when this prophet comes to him and preaches against
this altar. Now let's look back in verse
11. Now there dwelt an old prophet
in Bethel. It's interesting, everything
I read said this man was a false prophet. But the Bible doesn't
tell us that. It just says he's an old prophet.
And as a matter of fact, as you go on reading, you find out that
his prophecies came true. The word of the Lord came to
him and he made these statements against this man, but he was
a true prophet. I have no doubt about that. And
you see that in the language of the passage of scripture.
This old prophet, there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, verse
11. And his sons came to him and told him all the works that
the man of God had done that day in Bethlehem. He told him
about how Jeroboam put his hand out and it withered up. And then
the prophet prayed for him and his hand was restored. But the
altar was rent. Everything the man said came
to pass. And he said, this was a true prophet. And they were
telling their dad about this. And their father said unto them,
what way went he? For his sons had sent him. had
seen what way the man of God, which came from Judah. And he
said to him, son, saddle me the ice. So they saddled him the
ice and he rode there on and went after the man of God
and found him sitting under an oak. Now he had not yet left
the place. God said, if you'll remember,
don't eat, don't drink in this place. Don't have anything that
will sustain life in this place. You're to get out of this place.
You're to go back to Judah, but here he sits under an oak tree.
Now, was he wrong in sitting there? I don't know, but there
he was. He hadn't left that place yet. The place that God said
was cursed. The place where Jeroboam had
set up the false altars and the false Passover and the false
sacrifices and set up the golden calves. He was still in that
place. He hadn't left yet. Verse 14, and he went unto the
man of God, and found him sitting under an oak, and said unto him,
Art thou the man of God, that camest from Judah? And he said,
I am. Then he said unto him, Come home
with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return
with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor
drink water with thee in this place. There's in this place. I can't do anything in this place.
It's the place God has cursed. For it was said to me by the
word of the Lord, thou shalt not eat bread, nor drink water
there, nor turn again to go by the way when thou camest. And
he said unto him, this old prophet, and he said unto him, I am a
prophet also as thou art. I'm somebody that God speaks
through. He was a true prophet. And an
angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him
back with thee in thine house, that he may eat bread and drink
water. But he lied to him. He lied to
him. There wasn't any truth in this.
He lied to him. Now somebody says, how could
he be a true prophet if he lied to him? I don't know, but he
is. That's about all I can say about
it. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 22. 1 Kings 22, beginning in verse
5. And Jehoshaphat said unto the
king of Israel, Ahab, Inquire, I pray thee, of the word of the
Lord today. And the king of Israel gathered the prophets together,
about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against
Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, go
up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
And Jehoshaphat said, is there not a prophet of the Lord besides
that we may inquire of him? These were not prophets of the
Lord. They were Baal. And the king of Israel said unto
Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imla,
by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him. I despise
the man. Can't stand him. For he doth
not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat
said, Well, let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel
called an officer and said, Hasten hither Micaiah, the son of Ammon.
And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, set each on
his throne, having put on their robes in a void place in the
entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied
before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Chineth,
however you pronounce it, made him horns of iron and said, thus
saith the Lord, with thee shalt thou push the Syrians until thou
hast consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied
so, saying, go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall
deliver it into the king's hand. And the messenger that was gone
to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, behold, now the words
of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth.
Let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them,
and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, as the Lord
liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. So he
came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall
we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?
And he answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it
into the hand of the king. And the king, Ahab, said unto
him, how many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing
but that which is true in the name of the Lord? And he said,
I saw all of Israel scattered upon the hills of sheep that
have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master.
Let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king
of Israel said in Jehoshaphat, did not I tell you that he prophesied
no good concerning me but evil? And he said, hear thou therefore
the word of the Lord. This is the prophet speaking again. I
saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing
by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said,
who shall persuade Ahab? that he may go up and fall at
Ramoth-Gilead. And one said on this matter,
and another said on the other matter, and there came forth
a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade
him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will
go forth and I'll be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his
prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him and prevail also,
go forth and do so. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord
hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets,
and the Lord has spoken evil concerning them." God can't lie. Amen? Let God be true and every
man a liar. And yet God put this lying spirit
in these prophets. And so I have no doubt that he
was in control of this man who lied to the prophet to teach
us something of the gospel. So turn back to our text. First Kings chapter 13. Now, the prophet went back with
him and did eat bread in his house and drank water. Now, one
thing that really hits me very hard when I read this passage
of scripture, this man lied to him. He said, I'm a prophet.
I'm coming in the name of God and you can eat bread and drink
water in this place. He lied to him. He said, you
can do this. Now, I'm not allowed to believe anything unless it's
verified in the word of God. Now that's the point. He didn't
have a word from God. He had this man telling him something,
but I'm not allowed to believe anything unless it's verified
in the actual word of God. And he didn't have an actual
word from God. He had what this man was telling
him. Now you and I are responsible to search the scriptures to see
if what we're hearing is the word of God and the truth. And
this man didn't do this. So what took place? Verse 20. And it came to pass, as they
said at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet
that brought him back. See, this guy was a true prophet.
The Lord sent him a word. And he cried unto the man of
God that came from Judah. Thus saith the Lord, forasmuch
as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept
thy commandment, which the Lord thy God commanded me, but you
came back, and you've eaten bread and drunk water in this place,
in the place of which the Lord did say to thee, eat no bread
and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come into the sepulcher
of thy fathers, because you ate and drank in this place. Now, remember, there's one place
of the Lord's favor. There's one place of acceptance.
There's one place of grace, there's one place of forgiveness, there's
one place of salvation, and that place is Christ only. Not Christ in your sincerity,
not Christ in you. Get yourself out of the equation. There's one place of the Lord's
acceptance. And that prophet muddied the
waters. Somebody says, isn't that severe?
Well, was it severe when Moses struck the rock twice when the
Lord said, speak to the rock and he struck it twice and he
muddied that type. Well, the Lord said, you're not
going to enter into the promised land because of that. And Moses was
not allowed to enter in. Now this may seem severe, but
it is not. Let's go on reading. Verse 23. And it came to pass after he'd
eaten bread and after he'd drunk that he saddled him in the ass
to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he
was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him." What a terrible
way to die. A lion killed him. And his carcass
was cast in the way and the ass stood by it. The lion also stood
by the carcass. Now, can you imagine that picture?
Here you have this dead man and a lion and an ass. They're just
standing there. Verse 25, and behold, men passed
by and saw the carcass cast into the way, and the lion standing
by the carcass, and they came and told him the city where the
old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back
from the way heard thereof, he said, it's the man of God who
is disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore, the Lord
hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him and slain
him according to the words of the Lord, which he spake unto
him. This is exactly what he said would happen. And he spake
to his son saying, saddle me the ass. And they saddled him
and he went and found his carcass cast in the way and the ass and
the lion standing by the carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass
nor torn the ass. Now that's an unusual sight,
isn't it? And the prophet, I guess he came
up right to where that lion was. And the prophet took up the carcass
of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the
city to mourn and to bury him. He was grieved over this. Now,
do I understand this? No. He lied to him. It was all
part of God's purpose. God was in control of this. And
God moved him to lie to him. The one who cannot lie caused
this to happen. But the reason the Lord caused
all this to happen is to teach us that there's only one place
of salvation. There's only one place. You can't
look anywhere else. There's only one place. It's
in Christ. God won't have any favor. apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so this happened in order
to teach us this glorious lesson. One of the things I love about
the Lord is he brings good out of evil. Aren't you thankful
for that? He brings good out of evil. He
always does. He's the only one who can do
that. And he always does that. This tragic story about this
prophet being lied to, believing the lie, being killed. I mean,
although it's strange, it's a strange story, but yet we see the gospel
so clearly there's only one place of God's blessing. There's only
one place of God's favor. And to muddy the waters there,
you don't go there. And this prophet did that. He
believed a message that he had no authority to believe because
he didn't have a word from God himself. You know, we have this
book that we can try everything we're hearing from. If they speak
not according to this book, it's because there's no light in them.
And this man just neglected that. And we see what happened to him.
Verse 30, and he laid his carcass at his own grave, and they mourned
over him saying, alas, my brother, he caused this guy to get killed.
And then he started saying, alas, my brother, I guess he wishes
he didn't do it. And he saw what had taken place,
alas, my brother. And then verse 31, it came to
pass after he buried him that he spake unto his son saying,
when I'm dead, then bury me in the sepulcher wherein the man
of God is buried. Now there's a type of the gospel right there,
buried with Christ. There's my hope, buried with
Christ. Lay my bones beside his bones
for the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against
the altar in Bethel, against all the houses of the high places
which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass. Now, here's my closing thought.
There's one place of God's favor. Paul put it this
way in Philippians chapter three. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in what place? In him. Now I have thought before I'd
love to die preaching the gospel. That'd be really cool. Here I
am preaching the gospel and all of a sudden I just die and go
straight into heaven. Paul said, not me. The only place I want to be found
is in Christ. That's the only place. I don't
want God to see me preaching or any of that vanity is what
it is, vanity and fleshly thoughts. I simply want to be found in
Christ so that when God comes after me, all he sees, all he
sees is his son. Now, Jeroboam had taken that
away. And we're going to find out what's
going to happen to Jeroboam as a result of that next week. But
even when a true prophet muddies the water and finds sustenance
in this place that God has cursed, our works, counterfeit religion,
works religion, human religion, even when a true prophet muddies
those waters, and sits down in the place God forbid him to.
God's gonna kill him. But you know that true prophet?
He's in heaven. He's in heaven. What all could you think of that
God could kill you for? Every breath. Every breath. Every breath I breathe. but thank
the Lord for the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that's in you.