Well, it's good to see everyone
out this morning. Remember those who requested prayer. Perry's
at home in considerable pain from having part of his lung
taken out. He's got a lot ahead of him. And the next step in
the situation will be a brain scan, which they do normally
if you have lung cancer. The lymphoids, they said, were
small, which is an indication they weren't swollen with cancer.
Hopefully, they will biopsy out and not have cancer. But he's
still got a long road ahead of him. Lung cancer is a tough kind
of cancer. No matter what kind it is, it's tough. So remember
him in your prayers. Also add to your prayer list
Pat Forkiller, whose colon cancer has returned. So pray for her.
Remember her in your prayers. Happy birthday to Cynthia. Now,
a couple of announcements. Starting the first Wednesday
in December not this coming Wednesday, but the first Wednesday in December
will go back to the six o'clock schedule for Wednesday night
services Because it's dark. It's dark real early and Big
Cove is extremely dark in the winter time and also See next
Sunday November 28th. We'll observe the Lord's table
now since everybody's gonna be doing Thanksgiving on Thursday
We won't have dinner that Sunday, next Sunday. We'll just have
the Lord's Table and a morning worship service. Because everybody's
gonna be full of turkey and I don't want turkey sandwiches brought
to me. And used cranberry sauce and
stuff like that. Next Sunday we'll just have the
Lord's Table after the morning worship service and that'll be
the only service we have next Sunday. So put that down on your
calendars and I hope everybody has a real fine Thanksgiving
and gets to eat a lot of stuff and so forth. Okay, you didn't
give me a copy of that, Jim. No. Thank you. All right. Okay. Oh, everything's set now. We're
gonna sing our first hymn, be the Christ of the Cross. Okay,
go ahead. On a hill far away died the Christ
of the cross. He yielded to He died in my place The purpose
of God to fulfill So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross And before
His throne I'll bow down ? The Christ of the cross ? For
he is the king I must crown ? Oh, the Christ of the cross ? So
despised by the world ? Has a wondrous attraction to me ? Let His glory above ? To bear
all my sin on the tree ? So I'll cherish the cross ? And before
His throne I'll bow down ? I will cling to the Christ ? For he is the king I must crown
? In the Christ of the cross ? And his blood so divine ? A
marvelous beauty I see eyes that long had been blind
to behold Him now on His throne. So I'll cherish the Christ of
the cross and before His throne I'll bow down. I will clean To the Christ of
the cross For He is the King I must crown To the Christ of
the cross I must ever be true His shame and reproach gladly love he constrains, till all
shall be gained. His glory forever I'll share,
so I cherish the Christ of the I will cling to the Christ of
the cross, for He is the King I must crown. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 185. If you have your Bibles, show
them to me, please, to 1 Kings chapter 14. Read the first 18 verses. At that time of Hijah, the son
of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife,
Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known
to be the wife of Jeroboam, and get thee to Shiloh. Behold, there
is Hijah, the prophet, which told me that I should be king
over this people. And take with thee ten loaves,
and cracknels, and a cruz of honey, and go to him. He shall
tell thee what shall become of the child. Jeroboam's wife did
so, and rose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah.
But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of
his age. And the Lord said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam
come to ask a thing of thee for her son. For he is sick, thus
and thus shalt thou say unto her. For it shall be when she
cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.
And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she
came to the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam.
Why feignest thou thyself to be another? For I am sent to
thee with heavy tidings. Go tell Jeroboam, thus saith
the Lord of Israel, for as much as I exalted thee from among
the people, and made thee prince over Israel, and rent the kingdom
away from the house of David, and gave it to thee. And yet
thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments,
who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which
was right in mine eyes. But thou hast done evil above
all that were before thee. For thou hast gone and made the
other gods in molten image to provoke me to anger, cast me
behind thy back therefore behold I will bring evil upon the house
of Jeroboam and will cut off Jeroboam him that pisseth against
the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will
take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh
away dung till it is gone him that dieth in Jeroboam in the
city of Jeroboam the city shall the dogs eat him that dieth in
the field shall the fowls of the air eat for the Lord has
spoken it. Arise thou therefore and get
thee to that house, and when thy feet enter to the city, the
child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn him
and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave,
because of him there is found some good thing toward God of
Israel in the house 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, shall root up Israel out of the
good land which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them
beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking
the Lord to anger. He shall give Israel up because
of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin and who made Israel to
sin. And Jeroboam's wife arose and
departed and came to Tisra, And when she came to the threshold
of the door, the child died, and they buried him. And all
Israel mourned for him according to the word of the Lord which
he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah, the prophet. Let us pray. Our Father, we bless you and
thank you for mercies that are new every morning. Praise you
for the goodness and kindness you show to your people. We pray
for the wonder of your sovereign providence We pray, Father, for
help in our time of need. We ask, Lord, for these who are
on the prayer list, remember especially Perry, been diagnosed
with lung cancer. We ask, Lord, you know what our
heart's desire is. We beseech you by your mercies
to be according to your will to heal him and bring him to
a good measure of health. We know you can. There's nothing
too hard for thee. And if it would bring glory and
honor to the name of your son, we pray you'd do so. Pray for Ms. Forkiller. This
cancer's come back on her. We pray you, Lord, be with her
and watch over her. Pray for those who minister. These are
sick. Pray for our loved ones. Pray for those who are traveling
away from us. Pray, Lord, you'd help us this
hour to worship you in spirit and in truth. We know that we
need you. We need your spirit to take the
things of Christ and reveal them unto us. We are dim and weak
and frail, and our mind is so easily dressed from here to there,
but you can fix our hearts and minds for this time upon Jesus
Christ. I pray you will. Help us now,
we pray, in Christ's name, amen. Hymn number 185, Glorious Things
of Thee Are Spoken. ? Glorious things of Thee are
spoken ? of our God, he whose word cannot
be broken, form thee for his own abode on the rock who ages
found What can shake a sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded,
thou mayst smile at all. my foes. See the streams of living waters
springing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and daughters
and all fear of waltz remove. Such a river ever flows that
dares to switch. Grace which, like the Lord, the
giver, never fails from age to age. ? Round each habitation hovering
? See the cloud and fire appear ? For a glory and a covering
? Showing that the Lord is near Our God, He whose word cannot
be broken, form Thee for His own abode. Now Stan and Stephen, receive
the organ some more, please. Let us pray. Our Father, again,
we approach in the name of Christ, that blessed name, the unspeakable
gift that you've given to your children and with them you've
freely given them all things. We know that we have what we
have because we've received it. Let us not boast as if we've
not received it. We know that every good and perfect
gift comes from above, from the Father of lights in whom there
is no farewell, there's no shadow of turning. Father, help us to
render unto Thee that which You've given us with joy and thanksgiving
in Christ's name, amen. so so This chapter in 1 Kings is the
record of the Lord taking the life of Jeroboam's sixth son,
and likewise is the record of the evil both he and his brother
Rehoboam did in their reigns as kings. They are buried and another takes
their place. regardless of whether their reigns
are good or, as in this case, of these two, evil and idolatrous,
they are a glad reminder to the believer that their good and
righteous king rules a kingdom of which there shall be no end,
for he shall never die. It says in Luke chapter 1 in
verse 31 through 33, it says, And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus, he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the
Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his
father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever.
And of his kingdom there shall be no end." That is our king,
not like Jeroboam and Rehoboam and the number of kings that
served in Israel and Judah who served evil and did evil in the
sight of the Lord. Our Lord's kingdom is a kingdom
of righteousness, a kingdom of purity, in which every subject
before Him and before the Christ Holy God is perfect and pure
and holy. His kingdom is awash in grace
and mercy, and though it is experientially realized in time, it is an eternal
kingdom, an eternal kingdom. And those who have been graced
to live in this kingdom shall never die, but rather live forever
in the eternal light and comfort of their King, who is King of
kings and Lord of lords." God raises up kings and princes according
to the Word of God, rulers He establishes. He lifts them up
and He puts them down. He puts them in office and takes
them out of office as fits his grand scheme of predestinated
providence. We don't know why the Lord does
it, except he's the Lord and it's business to do that. He
sits upon the circle of the earth and views all its inhabitants
as grasshoppers. And he makes some of those grasshoppers
kings. Some of those maggots on dunghills
he raises up and sits among princes. robes him in pristine righteousness
and has him stand perfect before him all because he is God and
he does as he pleases in heaven and earth and all the deep places
God raises up kings and princes and puts them down now the record
of these two kings Jeroboam and Rehoboam I only read about Jeroboam
is that of rebellion against the command of God as compared
to David who obeyed the command of God according to what we just
read. They openly embraced every rank form of idolatry, even erecting
groves, which are temples to the false god, the gods of the
adulterers and the sodomites who practice their perversions
as part of their temple worship. That is how they worship God,
their God. The end of the religion of the
flesh his flesh. Many years ago, Don Fortner and
I were driving over to Waynesville to preach in Waynesville. We
were talking, as we often did. We were talking about this preacher
that had left his wife and run off with the church secretary.
He got caught in an affair in the church. He was one of those
full gospel Pentecostal preachers, which is pretty much a religion
of the flesh. really pleasing to the flesh, does things that
the flesh likes, makes people jump up and down, be happy, run
pews, act like fools, you know, be as stupid as you can be in
the name of the Lord. And I said, well, Don, I said,
it's no wonder that they ended up in the sack. There's just
no wonder about that. I says, flesh feeds on flesh. And I said, if your religion
is a religion of flesh, what's the best feeling that a flesh
can have? That's where it's going to always
end up. This was practiced commonly in the area or in the reign of
Rehoboam and Jeroboam. They openly embraced all of that.
Our Lord said, they that are in the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh. And God describes the followers
of Jeroboam and the ten tribes in the same way that David did
in 1 Samuel chapter 25 and verse 22. He says this in verse 10. He says, Therefore, behold, I
will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off
Jeroboam, him that pisseth against the wall. I remember one time
a dear friend of mine, preacher of mine, friend of mine was reading
from this text. He was kind of a, I don't know,
a modest man, a man who didn't use foul language. He was reading
from this text at a Bible conference. I guess he hadn't read it ahead
of time and he got to this word, pisseth. And he said, he that,
and his eyes went like this. He that pisseth against the wall,
and him that shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant
of the house of Jeroboam, is a man taken away, done, till it's all gone.
David said the same thing about his enemies in 1 Samuel chapter 2. What does that mean, he that
pisseth against the wall? It's a colloquialism that was
used commonly in this day that denotes a base and an uncouth
person who is more like a dog than a man, who takes no one
but himself and his own relief in account as to his actions. In short, the activity described
is most readily attributed to a dog. If you ever had a dog,
you know that's true. God designated these doomed idolaters
as common curs, filthy, mangy, mongrel cowards whose end is
according to their works. God even refers to these idolaters
as dung. He says, I'm going to clear out
the dung. They are denizens of the loathsome latrine of human
religion and they will not be buried.
A burial would honor their remains
They will either be eaten by the filthy canines they emulate,
or they will become the feast of carrion crows, that's what
our Lord said. Those that are out in the field,
the birds will eat, and those that are in town, the dogs will
eat. Save for a few short-lived beacons of light in the reigns
of the royals of Israel and of Judah, or but bait and rehearsal
of the cavernous darkness of the human heart, for over and
over it says these kings did evil. in the sight of the Lord. They practice the consummate
depravity of fallen man. And they stand, if we're able
to read with understanding, as historical warnings of what is
sure to happen when the pure worship of God is set aside for
the man-made deities imagined in the mind of fallen perverse
creatures. As bad as the report is, however, the believer can
rejoice because he knows that the destruction of the enemies
of Christ is an integral part of the salvation of the elect,
and it's imminent. As I read and studied this account, I was amazed at the idolatry
and filth that went on, but one thing stood out at the initial
reading that engaged my mind and my heart. It was, as it were,
a beam of sunlight. That's the title of my message,
A Ray of Light. A beam of sunlight in an otherwise dark and ominous
narrative. It takes place at the report
of Jeroboam's sick son. This story is a declaration of
the grace of God in the very midst of darkness and wickedness. First, this is a revelation of
the idiotic machinations of the religion of men. Paul on Mars Hill rightly observed
that the religion of man is really just superstition in clerical
costume. It is a vain effort to trick
God, to get God to do something. Greek mythology is replete with
the mind games played between mortals and their gods. We tend
to write them off as ancient mythology, but the mythology
exists and is rampant today in religion in abundance, in what
labors under the enormous umbrella called evangelical Christianity.
whether it comes in through the river of salty tears shed on
some altar after many verses of some song, or the supposed
influence of ganging up on God with prayer chains and praying
through or working up a crowd with rousing renditions of gospel-less
melodies, or the ignorance of bloviating so-called anointed
men commanding God to do something. The notion is that men worms
of the dirt lower than a wagon root that men can stir God up to act
upon their desires by the influence of their sincere and multitudinous
manipulations we hear it all the time hear it all the time We just studied on our Wednesday
night studies about Judah. One of the things pointed to
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is a lion who is resting and cannot
be roused up, cannot be stirred up. I tried to enter into this
man's mind. How it is that he believes that
God has the power to heal his child can be tricked by doing
so. What does he do? He tells his wife to dress up
somebody else other than his wife and go to the blind prophet. Because the blind prophet can't
see. But in these nights, ask him about his child. Ask him
about this child, whether he's going to live or not. Does he apply to the prophet
and deny the prophet's God? That's what he's doing. He's
trying to trick God into doing something. There could be no
answer but that men believe themselves wiser than God while admitting
they need God's help. It's a dilemma, isn't it? Is it any wonder that unbelief
is set forth in Scripture as insanity? His wife went to the prophet
dressed like somebody else, but God told her, the wife of the
Jeroboam's coming dressed up like somebody else. So the prophet
knew it for as soon as she walked across the door. His wife got
an answer from God after being surprised that her commoner costume
fooled no one. She went back to Tisra, or Terza
rather. When her feet crossed the border
of the city, the child died, just as God had promised. The
child, however, the Lord said, shall have an honorable burial. unlike those whose bones shall
be publicly picked clean by dogs or carrion crows. An honorable
burial. The thing that engaged my mind
is a description that God gives of this child in verse 13. Think of all this chapter, which
are 18 verses, almost half the chapter, and all of it was a
condemnation of Jeroboam and his actions as king, a promise
of his ruination, a promise that those who followed him would
not be buried. They would be eaten, devoured,
left to rot where they died. And here in verse 13, it says,
And Israel shall mourn this child, and bury him. For he only of
Jeroboam shall come to the grave because in him, now this is a
wonder in this child, in him there is found some good thing
toward the Lord God some good thing toward the Lord God of
Israel in the house of Jeroboam he was of Jeroboam and from Jeroboam's
house and here's a good thing How can that be? In the midst
of all this evil and darkness, shining words break forth from
the prophet concerning this child that soon will die. He will be
buried with honors. He will be mourned by all Israel,
because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord
God of Israel. And where was this bit of good
found? It was found in all places. in the house of Jeroboam. What a description. Some good
thing. Doesn't say what, does it? Just
says some good thing. What a contrast is inserted by
inspiration. It is in the evil, dark house
of Jeroboam that this beacon of goodness toward God brilliantly
flames. What a wonder. Is the child good? No. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that doeth good. There is none good but God. Our
Lord said that when they said, good master, what shall I do
in her eternal life? He said, there's none good but
God. Even if the child performed some
good work, for instance, he might have refused to worship the idols
and rather worshiped God alone. If he did, it's not mentioned.
He said, it's just a good thing. A good thing. Something good
toward God was found in him. Where in the world did it come
from? How did it arise? What was the
source of this good? Was it from his carnal nature? No. Did it arise from his heart,
which naturally hated God? where'd it come from? Where all
good things come from. All good and perfect gifts come
from above, from the Father of lights in whom there is no variable,
there's no shadow of turning. Anything good toward God comes
from God. What hast thou that thou has
not received And if you received it, why do you boast as if you've
not received it? What was found in this child? Grace. On the money. Grace was
found. The sovereign grace of God was
found as is testified by the fact of where it was found. This child, living in the midst
of utter idolatry, His father being the chief advocate of that
idolatry found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord mercifully removed him
from this awful place to forever rejoice in the presence of the
angels with his eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Some good thing
was found in this child. And this diamond of grace is
displayed against the black velvet of sin in Jeroboam's house. Any good thing in me? If there
is, I can't find it. And I've stopped looking. But
if there is, come from God, and it's toward God. Grace alone. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. Anita, how's your mom?