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.