You will open your Bible with
me today to First Kings, chapter 13. First Kings, chapter 13. I know that I do not need to
remind us of this truth, but I will. that this chapter is
part of the all scripture, which is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, all the scripture. And in Romans
15, the apostle Paul wrote, for whatsoever things were written,
A four time, that is in the Old Testament, for whatsoever things
were written a four time were written for our learning. The lesson that we should take
away from this portion of the scripture, this chapter today,
is disobedience has consequences. Disobedience has its consequences. The lost, all of lost men and
women live in disobedience. And if they die in disobedience,
we know they will suffer the consequence forever and ever,
which is eternal separation from God. But we're going to look
this morning at the disobedience of this prophet of God and the
consequences that he suffered, the consequences that his disobedience
brought. I want to give us some idea of
the time frame as to when this took place. It was roughly 900
years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world. That
would mean about 3,000 years ago for us today. The nation of Israel, God's people
that God had delivered out of Egypt because of their wickedness,
because of their disobedience, because of their sin, had now
been just divided into two nations. Of the 12 tribes, one nation
consists now of two tribes, referred to normally as Judah, the tribe
of Judah and Benjamin. And then the other 10 tribes
are referred to most often as Israel, sometimes as Ephraim. But Jeroboam was the first king
of this northern kingdom. Notice his name in verse one.
And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah, by the word
of the Lord unto Bethel and Jeroboam. Jeroboam, he's the first king
of the divided nation, the kingdom of Israel. Three parts to my
message. First of all, the unnamed man
of God. the unnamed man of God. Let's read the first 10 verses.
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
and the word of the Lord and said, Oh, altar, altar. Thus
saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house
of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the
priest of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's
bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day,
saying, this is the sign which the Lord hath spoken. Behold,
the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall
be poured out. And it came to pass, when King
Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he had
cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from
the altar, saying, lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put
forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it
in again to him. The altar also was rent, and
the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which
the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king
answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face
of the Lord thy God, and pray for me. that my hand may be restored
to me again. And the man of God besought the
Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again and became
as it was before. And the king said unto the man
of God, come home with me and refresh thyself, and I will give
thee a reward. The man of God said unto the
king, if thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in
with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this
place. For so it was charged me by the
word of the Lord saying, eat no bread, nor drink water, nor
turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another
way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. The unnamed man of God, we're
never told his name in all of the scripture. But we are told
that he was a man of God. A man of God. And that tells
us the most important thing about any person. He was a man of God. That means
that he was loved with an everlasting love. From all eternity, God
had set his love upon this man. A man of God, that means he was
chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world,
that he should be holy and in love, having predestinated him
unto the adoption of sons. A man of God, that means that
he had been called by the Spirit of God, given life, and now God
had called him to be a prophet. a prophet of God. And God sent
him on this mission, sent him to warn and to rebuke the man
that God made king, King Jeroboam. God made him king. Even before
Solomon died, God, through the prophet Ahijah, I believe his
name was, told Jeroboam He was walking one day and he had on
a new jacket or new coat and the prophet took it and tore
it into 12 pieces and gave him 10 pieces and told him that he
was going to reign, he was going to rule over 10 tribes. Solomon feared him and sought
to kill him and he fled into Egypt. When Solomon died and
his son came to the throne, Rehoboam, then Jeroboam came back out of
Egypt. And he is anointed as the king
over this nation. Now God sends this man of God,
this prophet of God, to warn him, to rebuke him for his sin,
for what he had done. He had set up two altars. He
set up an altar in Bethel. That's where we see this took
place. He set up an altar in Bethel,
the city of Bethel, which means the house of God. And here he
is setting up an altar to a false god. He set up another altar
in a place called Dan. Not only did he set up these
two altars, which was in disobedience, clear disobedience to the command
of God, which showed that there should be only one altar, only
one altar upon which the typical atonement or sacrifice for sins
might be made. That one altar, of course, pictured
our altar, the Lord Jesus Christ. But this man sets up two altars. Not only did he set up these
two altars, but look back into chapter 12 and verse 28. He made two calves, two golden
calves. Verse 27, I believe we read,
if this people go up to 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. He didn't take counsel of God.
He didn't take counsel at the word of God. He took counsel
of false prophets, made two calves of gold and said unto them, it
is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy gods. Now he wasn't saying, of course,
that those two calves were gods, but that they represented their
gods, which was in prohibition to the command thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image any likeness of anything in heaven. God is a spirit. He himself said,
to whom will you liken me? There's no being like God. He's a being in a class all by
himself, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present. We worship
a great God, don't we? And I love to think about his
great attributes, that one hymn that we sang just a moment ago.
His power, you know, I thought as we sang that hymn, how a man's
strength, it gradually gets less and less and less as we age or
as we go through this world, whatever. But think about this,
God's power is the same today as it has always been. when he
spoke the world into existence. What power, what great power
in creating the heavens and the earth. But his power has not
diminished one iota. No, you cannot represent God
by an image, and yet that's what this king did. He set up these
two golden calves and said, Notice, behold thy gods, O Israel. Look, here's your gods. You know,
man, fallen man, depraved man, loves to have something he can
see. He just does. We're all that
way. We're all that way. God is a spirit. And we who would
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Those
are the words of our Savior. This man of God cried against
this altar here in Bethel. And he foretells, he prophesies
that a child is going to be born. And this took place, now listen
to me. This prophecy was fulfilled 300
years later in the lineage of David. There comes a boy born
of Judah and he's named Josiah, just like this prophet said would
take place. If we had no other reason, and
we do, But if we had no other reason to believe that the Bible
is the inspired word of God, this is enough right here. Fulfilled
prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy. Not just
this one, but many, many others that were spoken, and yes, God
even calling men by name. This man, 300 years before he
was born, and he came to to be king of Judah, and he did exactly
what the prophecy said he would do. He burned the bones of men
upon this altar, this altar at Bethel. Well, Jeroboam, being the king
that he was, was not about to let some lowly prophet get away
with this, prophesying against his altar that he had set up. Oh no. But just as he puts forth
his hand from his altar, he says, lay hold on him. Lay hold on
him. And he cannot even bring his
hand back to his bosom. It's all withered. It's all,
the strength is dried up. It's gone. And so we see that
Jeroboam suddenly becomes another man. Now he doesn't become a
new man, and I want to emphasize that. He doesn't become a new
man, but he does become another man. Before, a haughty man, a
proud man, a defiant man, but now he becomes a man who's asking
for prayer. Pray for me. Pray, pray to your
God and ask him to help me. The reason I want to point this
out is because over the years I've known people and people
have come to me and they've got problems. Usually it's a husband,
his wife's left him and it's his fault, and he wants to get
things right, and he turns over a new leaf, and it's not just
that problem. There's many problems, but man,
they suffer some tragedy, some calamity in life, and they become
another man, and it's all the work of the flesh. They do not
become a new man, They don't have a new heart. They have the same old heart.
They're kind of like that man our Lord spoke about in the Gospels,
who that demon left. And so the man cleans his house
up, paints it up, it looks so pretty and nice, and that demon
comes back and says, my, look at this place. It's really cleaned
up since I left here. And so he goes and he gets seven
more demons worse and moves back in. Now, demons are not able
to move in to the heart of a believer. But to a person who just becomes
another man, yeah, they can. And this man, he became another
man. He now says, listen, come home
with me. I'll have fixed a banquet for
you. There'll be all kinds of delicious
food and drink, and not only that, but I'm going to give you
a reward." The man of God said, no way, no way. I've received a charge from my
God, from the Lord my God, not to eat in this place, not to
drink in this place, and not only that, But I've been told
not even to go home the same way I came. And so I'm not going
home with you, King, the man of God. But now notice a second,
the old prophet of Bethel. The old prophet of Bethel. When
I was a very young man, now, almost 60 years ago, probably. In Bible college one day, we
had an old preacher come and speak to us in chapel service. He looked old to me, old as Methuselah
back then. He probably wasn't near as old
as I am today. But I remember he preached from
this passage of scripture. And he warned us young men about
old preachers. He said, they say old preachers
become mellow. He said, and I won't forget this,
he said, that's just another word for rotten. Rotten. And this man, this prophet, this
old prophet, he certainly became or was a rotten prophet. Let's read what we have here.
about him, beginning in verse 11. Now there dwelt an old prophet
in Bethel. 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, them they told
also to their father. And their father said unto them,
what way went he? For his sons had seen that way
the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto
his sons, saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass,
and he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found
him sitting under an oak. And he 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. For it was
told to me by the word of the Lord, thou shalt eat no bread
nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that 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
the house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied
unto him. So he went back with him and
did eat bread in his house and drank water. You notice that
the old prophet, he confessed, I am a prophet also as thou,
in verse 18. We're not told that he was a
man of God. The first prophet we or told
first of all he was a man of God. But this man, we're not
told he was a man of God. We're just simply, we simply
just have his words telling the man of God, I'm a prophet also
as thou art. And he invited the man back to
eat. And here's where we see the man of God's disobedience. Remember, that's the lesson I
said we want to take from this passage. Disobedience has its
consequences. At first, the man of God tells
this old prophet the same thing that he told the king. It was
told me not to eat or drink there and return another way. He would,
tells this old prophet, this lying prophet, I'm going to obey
God's word. He told me not to eat there,
he told me not to drink, told me to return a different way,
and that's exactly what I'm going to do. But I want you to look
with me in this chapter at these verses and these six words. I want you to go back to verse
one and look at these six words. by the word of the Lord. Verse five, by the word of the Lord. Verse nine, by the word of the
Lord. Verse 17, by the word of the
Lord. Now I want you to notice something
different. In verse 18, the old prophet says, I am a prophet
also as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of
the Lord. An angel, not the angel of the
covenant. You know, many times in the Old
Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ one of his pre-incarnate appearances
as the angel of the Lord. But that's not the case here.
This man says, an angel, an indefinite, an angel. An angel, spoken to
me by the word of the Lord. You notice anything different
in those verses? In all of those verses that we
read, it was always the Word of the Lord, by the Word of the
Lord, by the Word of the Lord. And then we come, an angel spake
unto me by the Word of the Lord. Now, before I move on, I must
remind us of the Apostle Paul's words in the letter of Galatians,
when he was writing to those churches and False teachers had
come among them, and Paul said this, though we are an angel
from heaven. Now there he's talking about
a good angel. Though we are an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you.
Let him be accursed. There's only one gospel, one
faith, which was once delivered unto the saints, and we dare
not preach any other gospel. Even though an angel speak unto
us, we dare not preach any other gospel. Paul said, let him be
anathema if they preach any other gospel. Let him be accursed,
even an angel, if he preaches any other gospel. Now the gospel
has been summed up by preachers over the years, the three R's. Years ago they used to joke about
going to school to learn the three R's. Reading, writing,
arithmetic. Arithmetic, the three R's. You don't get that joke. Am I too old for you folks? reading,
writing, arithmetic. The three R's. Ruin, ruin, redemption,
regeneration. Every message should contain
the three R's. Now, if I preach a message that
does not declare that man is ruined when he comes into this
world, He's not slightly damaged. He's ruined. Ruined in the fall. Redemption. If I do not preach
the message that the blood of Jesus Christ has absolutely,
effectually redeemed each and every one that God gave unto
Him, I'm not preaching the gospel of Christ. I'm preaching another
gospel and regeneration. As I said a moment ago, a man
may become another man, but to become a new man, he must be
regenerated by the spirit of God. Our Lord said you must be
born again to see the kingdom of God. Now, this man of God disobeyed. Look in our text here, verse
19. After listening to that lying
prophet, the scripture says, so he went back with him and
did eat bread in his house and drank water. Here's the third point, the consequences
of disobedience. Now the consequence of this man's
disobedience was his death, his physical death. But think, if
you were to go through the scriptures and just look at, there's one
after another, but Adam, our father Adam, he disobeyed God
and the consequence was he was driven out of the Garden of Eden,
out of paradise. The two sons of Aaron, they disobeyed
God, offering strange fire, and the consequence was God killed
them. The first king of Israel, Saul
by name, he disobeyed God and the consequence was he lost his
kingdom. Look back in 1 Samuel. You see
this here in 1 Samuel, chapter 15. First Samuel chapter 15 and verse
18, Samuel speaking, and the Lord sent thee on a journey and
said, go, he's speaking to Saul the king, go and utterly destroy
the sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until they
be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not
obey the voice of the Lord? but didst fly upon the spoil,
and didst evil in the sight of the Lord. And Saul said unto
Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone
the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king
of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people
took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the chief of the things,
which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice Unto
the Lord thy God, and Gilgal, and Samuel said, Hath the Lord
as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obey the
voice of the Lord? To behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice, and hearken than the fad of rams. For rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry. Because, now notice this, because
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected
thee from being king. Just case after case after case
we're given in the word of God of disobedience, David David
disobeyed God in numbering the nation of Israel, and the consequence
was 70,000 men were slain. Jonah, he disobeyed God. God told him to go to Nineveh
and prophesy against that city. He buys a ticket and flees in
the opposite direction. The consequence was he spent
three days in the fish's belly. I knew a man one time, years
ago now, and after his pastor warned him
he was leaving his wife and going to be with another woman, his
pastor warned him. He'd been a very integral part
of that congregation. He disobeyed, and I tell you,
the way He suffered death. I know we can't read into things
God's providence. That's above our ability. But this was so providential,
the way God took that man out of this world. Disobedience has
consequences. Every time, of course, is not
as dramatic as in the text here, where this lion killed this prophet
of God. But there are always consequences.
Always consequences. I wish we could all learn to
hate sin like we should. We talk about little sin. Well,
it's just a little sin. Little sin becomes a bigger sin
and then a larger sin. And before long, a person is so far from God. I'm not talking about in distance. We know that we live and move
and have our being in him. But disobedience many times brings
loss of communion, loss of fellowship, loss of that warm heart, that
joy, and coming together to worship God. That will never end in the
relationship being destroyed, I understand that, because we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. If you notice in our text here
this morning, in verse one, We read, and behold, there came
a man of God. And then notice down in verse
29, and the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God. He was a man of God when this
chapter began, and he was a man of God when they laid his body
in the grave. God's salvation is eternal. It's everlasting salvation. God
does not begin at work. a work of grace in the heart
of any of his chosen people and not finish that work. I understand
that. But many times God's people forfeit
by disobedience, the fellowship and the communion, the blessedness
of being a child of God that we could know in this world.
For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. And that's never going to change,
is it? That's never going to be altered. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Well, what then,
preacher, should a person do if he's convicted of his disobedience? Well, there's only one thing
to do. That's confess your sin unto the Lord and ask for forgiveness. And one thing we know for sure,
our God is a merciful God and a gracious God. And he's willing,
he's abundant in mercy. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word and help each one of us to take away from this chapter
today, that lesson. These things are written for
our learning. Disobedience, you may seem to get away with it
for a while, but disobedience always, for the child of God,
disobedience always has consequences. Let's finish this service with
singing number 201, hymn number 201.