to see all of you that are here today, but it is particularly good for me to look out and see the Ramazanis. Glad to have you guys back. It's been six weeks or so that you guys have been in Guatemala, something like that. So one little particular video Christian sent me, they were on this, I call it a little skiff. I mean, it couldn't have been too big, but there was a car on the skiff and they're going down a river Anyway, I'd love to hear the story about that Christian Lots of fun. I'm glad to have you guys back All right. We're in first Kings chapter 13 If you would please turn there In the previous chapter We really saw the difference between true religion that God accepts and and false religion that angers him deeply. True religion has as its goal to become like God, not in his divine essence, not to become God's, but in his character of selfless service. And false religion seeks to manipulate and control. But if we are to live a life of service as God's creation, we must trust that he as our shepherd and Lord will graciously care for our needs. And this God promises to do in his word. The problem is that our experience of evil every day challenges the trustworthiness of God's promises. Whether it be through our own wrong decisions, or because of the selfishness of those around us, we begin to lose confidence in God's word. The call to faith is at the heart of today's passage. Both for the characters in the story, there are gonna be three of them, and for us as readers. God is calling us to trust him and the power of his word. Now, we're in the midst of Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom, his rebellion. He has been made king by God, but Jeroboam has taken that gracious gift and he has basically, We care less about God's commands. Instead, he establishes a whole new false religion. So how will God handle Jeroboam's rebellion? Now, if you hadn't got into the story, you might just think a lightning bolt would be just fine. We will not read the whole chapter at once. We'll follow through it and make comments as we go along 1st Kings chapter 13 verse 1 Behold a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel Now when you hear behold You are to hear pay attention Quit doing whatever else you're doing, whatever thoughts are going on in your mind. Pay attention to this. Now what are you supposed to behold? You are supposed to behold a man of God coming from Judah to Bethel. Now Judah is in the southern kingdom and Bethel is now in the northern kingdom. The southern kingdom still continues to worship at the temple. They still continue to have a son of David as king, even though he's not a good guy. And so there's a sense that Judah still preserves the truth and Bethel has gone astray. So instead of having a prophet from Bethel come, you have to have a prophet from Judah coming to Bethel, okay? We should ask the question, why do we not know this guy's name? Most prophets you hear their names. Ahijah in the last chapter, Shemiah, you hear this. But in this one, you do not know this guy's name. But we do know and we are told that this man of God was raised up, how? By the word of the Lord. Now that phrase, by the word of the Lord, occurs at least seven times in this chapter. There are actually some other places where it says according to the word of the Lord, but that phrase, by the word of the Lord, seven times in this one chapter, only three other times in all scripture. Do you think he wants you to think about by the word of the Lord in this chapter? Okay, if you just have word of the Lord, well that's 250 times in scripture, it's all over the place. But when you attach that little preposition by, you're stating something more. You are basically stating that the cause of whatever happens is the word of the Lord. Now, one of those other places in scripture where they use by the word of the Lord is found in Psalm 33 6. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth, all their hopes. See that idea, creation exists. Daniel did a good job of that this morning talking about, he said, let there be light. And you know what? There's still light today, still there. And the point is this, that the most powerful force in this passage is the word of God. By the way, the most powerful force in your life is the word of God. We get to know this because the narrator, the author of this passage tells us. And he repeatedly tells us. And so as you read through this passage, as I preach through this message, you should be asking yourself, do I trust the word of the Lord? Everyone in this room would say, oh yeah, I believe it's God's word, it's true. But do you believe the warnings of the scripture are true warnings from God? And do you believe that the promises of the scriptures are the promises of a sovereign God who can and will accomplish them? Period. There are three main characters in this story, and every one of them will question the word of God. So don't sit here and say, oh yeah, I don't ever question the word of God. Every character in this story questions the word of God. Jeroboam is the main character. He has absolutely no fear of the warnings of God. He is openly treating God's word as if it were worthless. God, by his word, sends a man to Jeroboam. And as the man arrives, Jeroboam is in the midst of offering up false worship on a false altar. Verse 2, Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings and the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord. And said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you and human bones will be earned on you. Now, I don't know about you, but I find it very odd that a man of God comes and actually pronounces a curse on the altar rather than on Jeroboam. Basically, God is telling Jeroboam, the false worship that you have set up will be gone. It will be destroyed. The priests who are sacrificing on it will themselves be burned on it. And by the way, a man named Josiah will do it. And he won't be one of your sons, he will be a son of David. Now this is a prophecy of judgment. But it is a extremely merciful a call to Jeroboam. Like I said, I would have expected God to just zap him. Boom, you're done. You're out of here. Instead, God, in the midst of him offering a sacrifice, graciously tells him, oh, yeah, everything about this altar that you're sacrificing on, it will be judged. So what do you think God's trying to convince Jeroboam of? Repent. You are worshiping on a foundation that will crumble. But in order for Jeroboam to repent, he must first believe that the word that God has spoken will come to pass. Now, in order, just so you get the context of this, the original readers of this passage are living in Babylonian exile. And so they are wondering the same question. Will God's promise to crush false worship really come to pass? It looks to them like God's word has failed. And that this word that is spoken by this man of God is nothing more than a word of man. Not a word of God. Put it in your context. In our present day, people trust in Jesus to save them. But as time goes on, doubts begin to creep in. Why does God not do more with the evil in this world? Why has he not overcome my sin? Why has he not saved my loved ones? What is going on with this word of God? I thought he was going to get rid of false worship. It seems like it's doing quite well. So this is where you kind of put yourself into the story. It's not a story of like thousands of years ago. It is the same struggle that you're dealing with today. God is aware of your doubts and he is merciful. Consider his mercy to Jeroboam. Verse three. And he, meaning the man of God, gave a sign the same day, saying, this is the sign that the Lord has spoken. See, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna show you that this is not just me, some man coming, I'm gonna show you through a sign that God himself has spoken. Behold, the altar, the one you're worshiping on right now, shall be torn down and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out. Now, this is not the exact same word that Josiah down the road is gonna destroy this altar. This is right now in front of your face, this altar is gonna be destroyed. I don't know about you, but if you were king, Jeroboam, and you had all your retinue around you, and this one man walks up and said he's gonna do that, you could just say, oh, no, you're not. And that's exactly what King Jeroboam does. When the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, seize him. And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. He's saying, you ain't going to do nothing to this altar. And his hand is stuck right there. We don't know exactly what happened. Did it wither? Was it like rigor mortis, like spasms? Like what is holding his hand? We don't know. But he knows. He can't do anything. Even as he's trying to give the order, he can't give the order. Some powerful force intervenes at that moment. And it's intended to be a sign to Jeroboam that what the man of God has spoken will indeed come to pass. Jeroboam still, even while his hand is frozen, does not see that this power is coming from the word of the Lord. He thinks it resides in the man of God. Verse five tells us that, I don't know if it was this man of God or just the powerful force of God, I don't know, but the altar was torn down in his presence. The ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And of course, at this point, you think, okay, Jeroboam's gonna say, Lord, you're in control, I trust you, I get it. Instead, he says in verse six, the king said to the man of God, entreat now the favor of the Lord your God. And pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before. There's no repentance here. There's not even a concern for the false worship, it's just get my hand back to me. Jeremiah ought to have renewed his faith in the covenant promises given to David. He ought to have said, yeah, oh yeah, this man of God that came from Judah, I need to restore the proper worship and submit to the Lord. That's not what he wants to do. Verse 7. Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you reward. Now, you just need to understand the way hospitality works in the Middle East. I think it's kind of true that even to this day, but it was certainly true back then. If you receive the hospitality of someone, you obligate yourself to them. Jeroboam knows this. He wants to have this prophet as a retainer in his control. He's not humbling himself before God. He's not being gracious to this guy. He wants to manipulate the prophet for his own purposes. And he wrongly believes that the prophet can control God. And I remind you again, we still don't know the name of this prophet. You see, God is never manipulated, period. I sit up here thinking to myself, how often in my life I've tried to manipulate God. But don't tell me you don't do that, because I know you do. But God will not be manipulated by even his people. This is immediately evident to us as we read the story because we're seeing the narrator give us little hints to it But the people that are learning the lesson are walking through it. So let's just walk through it in real time Verse 8 the man of God said to the king if you give me half your house I will not go in with you and I will not eat bread or drink water in this place for so it is For so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying you shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way you came. God is setting up for Jeroboam and us another sign. So if the outstretched arm and the altar being destroyed wasn't enough, God's gonna give him another sign. the man of God himself will become a sign. You see, this man of God has spoken a word of judgment that Jeroboam is supposed to believe and to obey. God also has spoken a word of command to the man of God, which he's supposed to believe and obey. Jeroboam is refusing to take God's word seriously The question is, will the man of God take God's word seriously? Verse 10, so he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. So far so good. We're to be like the man of God and not like Jeroboam, but the plot is about to thicken. Verse 11, now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king. Now who is this old prophet? Interestingly, we were never told his name. You think God is more concerned about his word than the ones who bring his word? What we do know is that this prophet is old. And you're not just to think of like old in terms of decrepit. You're to remind yourself that he's been around long enough to have lived under Solomon's reign, maybe even David's reign. And what we do know now that he is living in the Northern Kingdom. He has watched the promises of God to David crumble. He has watched an imposter grow up and start a whole new religion. Do you think he's in any way doubting whether or not those old promises to David are true? I'm telling you he is. He no longer believes. He is a man who has lost faith in the word of God. You can't just say, oh, he's a great guy, he hasn't lost, his own children are attending the worship service, the sacrifices of pagans. Otherwise, how would they be there to see it and come back and tell him the news, right? Sometimes the disobedience of your children may get you to question whether your faith is real too. There are doubts going on in the heart of this old prophet. If he was a true prophet, he himself would have spoken against Jeroboam. God had to send a prophet from Judah up. So we know that this old prophet is not right now believing. Having himself become hardened to the word of God, this old fogey is going to now teach this young whippersnapper a lesson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I once thought that the Word of God was the Word of God too, but no longer. And let me prove it to you. He says to his kids, which way did this guy go? And he's told. Verse 12, his son showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. And he said to his son, saddle the donkey. So they saddled the donkey for him. He mounted it and went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. Are you the man of God who came from Judah? Yes, I am. He said, come home with me and eat bread. The exact same thing that he knows that God told him not to do. Temptations may come, but woe to the one through whom they come. Verse 16. Man of God does pretty well. I may not return with you or go in with you. Neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, you shall neither eat bread nor drink water there nor return by the way that you came. Now like a serpent in the garden, Dan did a pretty good job with that at the beginning here, reiterating many of the truths of this passage. The old prophet spins his web of deception. I also am a prophet, as you are. And an angel spoke to me. One wonders if Paul was reading this in Galatians when he says, if an angel of God speaks to you and contradicts my gospel, let him be anathema. I am a prophet just like you and an angel spoke to me by the word Lord even picks up the language by the word of the Lord saying bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water and then just so you don't get confused as a reader the narrator tells you it's a big lie but those lies would not have been apparent to the man of God at that time The old prophet thinks so little of God's word that he is purposely tempting the man of God to disobey the word given to him because he doesn't believe that the man of God has truly heard from God. He thinks this whole idea of the word of God has become a farce. And I'm gonna prove it to you. I'm gonna show you how it's meaningless because I'm gonna get you to disobey the word of God and then nothing is going to happen. Good job. Praise the Lord. So the man of God goes back with him. And I read that my heart just kind of just plummets, doesn't it? Oh, no, no, no. What's going to happen now? Does this mean that the word that the Lord spoke to Jeroboam through this man can no longer be trusted? Isn't that what we say sometimes? Oh, how did that preacher fall into sin? He just really hurts the word of God. And he does. But was the word spoken through the man of God dependent on the man of God? That's the question. How often do we talk about faith, that's the name of our church, I'm glad it's the name of our church, but how often do we talk about faith in a way that faith itself becomes the mechanism that brings the word to pass? The Word of Faith movement does this. But we could do it too. Making our faith that which the thing that brings the word to pass and that is not the way the Word of God works God didn't need any person's faith when he spoke the creation into existence Verse 20 they sat at the table. I Love this they're sitting at the table the word of the Lord came and to the prophet who had brought him back. Wouldn't you expect God to bring someone else to confront the man of God? Instead, God speaks through the one who just lied. I mean, to me, this is even more amazing than God speaking through the donkey. God says to this false prophet, you may not be believing, but let me use you anyway. And he speaks truth. He cries to the man of God who came from Judah. Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, eat no bread and drink no water, your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. You are gonna die in this foreign land, and you are never gonna be buried back with your fathers in that precious land of Judah. I don't know what this old prophet was thinking when these words were coming out of his mouth. But God is using him like a rag doll here. And this is how we begin to know that the man of God is a sign, because now, If this man of God makes it home to Judah, then we can know that his first word spoken to Jeroboam cannot be trusted. If this word can be broken, then that word can be broken. But if this man of God doesn't make it home. then his death and burial outside of Judah will be a sign not only to Jeroboam but to everyone who would trust in false religion that the word spoken by him will come to pass and that word is all false religion will be crushed. Verse 23, after he'd eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. It's like, okay, great, you had a good meal, go on your way, God bless you. Can't you just hear him just saying that? Because he doesn't even really believe that the word that has just been spoken through him is truly the word of God. As he went away, verse 24, A lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road and the donkey stood beside it and the lion also stood beside the body. I can't make this up. Okay, I mean, I can get that a lion kills him on the road. But when a lion kills someone, they're gonna eat them. Or at least take them back to their pride for the rest of the pride to eat them. And I don't know about you, but donkeys, I've heard, are pretty tough animals. So either this donkey is going to run in fear, or he's gonna try to fight the lion, because that's what they do, they protect, you know? And so, one of those options. But here you see a dead man on the road, with on one side a lion, and on the other side a donkey. Just kind of sitting there. Isn't this fun? Who do you think is in charge of this? You know, you're coming by, you're like, man, we hear all kinds of crazy stuff on the news and YouTube, but this will be a crazy one. Oh yeah, I saw a guy today lying on the road with a lion on one side and a donkey on the other. Imagine going home and telling that to your family. And this is exactly what God wants. He doesn't want this man to get killed and then go off and not anyone know about it. He doesn't want him to be missing in action. The word of God would have still been proven to be true if that were the case, but God doesn't want it to just be a secret thing. He wants this to be a sign to everyone in the Northern Kingdom, get rid of your false worship because I am going to destroy it one day. Verse 25, the men passed by and saw the body thrown down on the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, oh my goodness, that's the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him according to the word that the Lord had spoke to him. Through me. The use of language by this prophet indicates that there has been a radical shift in what he believes. How he thinks about the word of the Lord. I think this is miraculous. By the way, signs are not enough to bring about repentance. There has to be a special work of God to do this, and I think this happens in this old prophet. God has used these events to renew his faith. And he says in verse 27, saddle the donkey for me, and they saddled it. And he went and found the body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. He now believes this word, but in addition to believing that the word of the Lord is true, he also has to deal with his guilt. What have I done? I have been the cause of this man's death. I have led him to disobey God. What am I gonna do? I can't bring him back to life. I don't know how he gets past the lion, but the prophet takes up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey whom God provided right there for him, brought it back to the city to mourn and bury him. And he laid the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, alas, my brother, this is huge. Remember, with the division of the kingdom, there will become hatred between the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom. And here you have a false prophet of the northern kingdom who has been converted by the grace of God, and he now looks at the prophet that has come to them out of the southern kingdom. He says, my brother. See, the old prophet, he can't fix the problem. He can't go and slay Jeroboam. He can't stop all the false worship. But what he can do is use this man's death as a sign to everyone involved that God will fulfill his word. I think sometimes we are so, myself included, we think we are so great that we can fix the world's problems. Praise God that this old prophet just says, what an idiot I was. And after he had buried him, verse 31, he said to his sons, when I die, bury me in the grave in which this man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. or the saying that he called out. Remember? It's all about the first word that the man of God spoke. The saying that he called out. How did he do that? What he said? By the word of the Lord. Who is he preaching against? Against the altar in Bethel. And, he kind of adds, against all the houses of the high places that are in the city of Samaria shall surely come to pass. He basically says get it guys in your head God by his word will destroy all false worship among his people But while I do believe that the old prophet was converted and made into a believer Jeroboam was not converted The prophets death should have been assigned to him that God's Word concerning the altar at Bethel would come true But the message reaches dead ears Verse 33 after this Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again In other words, whoever was killed at that altar or whatever happened at all there. He just rebuilds at all. I From all the people, any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places, and this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. Jeroboam remains hardened in his sin. God has been merciful to him. Is God merciful to us in our rebellion? Yes, he is. But never think that if you remain in hardened rebellion to God, that his mercy will just go on indefinitely. There will come a judgment day. Jeroboam is an example, in the face of God's mercy, he didn't listen to that mercy, he didn't care about the word of God, and he kept on living the way he wanted to live. He becomes the standard of unbelief. He is the leader, the father of all who call upon false gods. And this leads us to the third sign. God is going to cut off Jeroboam and his descendants. He does this, Jeroboam and all his household will be just utterly cut off. This is a warning that we should take seriously. There is no sin that you can commit that can't be forgiven. But do not think that if you remain in hardened unrepentance that God will just let it go. His mercy brings you to repentance. Will God destroy false worship? This is a sign for you guys. Because ultimately, God has not yet destroyed all false worship. We know that in the world in which we live. Christ rose from the dead. People still continue to refuse to believe in him. They go to all kinds of false worship. They still do it. It happens today. But will God destroy all false worship? I want you to hear the final sign in this passage. Turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 23. This is the end, remember Kings, 1 and 2 Kings is one book. This is the end of Kings. We're gonna look at verses 15 to 18. And if you have your titles there, you know, oh, it's about Josiah. Oh my goodness, this man Josiah. Do you realize that Josiah lives 300 years after this man of God prophesied? And this is what it said. Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned. Oh, Josiah destroyed it, did he? Reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. Oh, there's some tombs right over there. Assuming these are probably tombs of false worshipers, false priests. He sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed who had predicted these things. We still don't know his name. Then he said, oh, what is that monument over there I see? And the men of the city told him, it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah. and predicted these things that you have done against the altar. And he said, let him be. Let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. That monument was there for all God's people to be reminded that he will always keep his word. And that is the word to you. Will God destroy evil? Yes. His Word says it will. It means that you can trust His Word. I don't care what's going on around us, how evil seems powerful. It doesn't matter. God's Word is driving history. And you have to decide in your own heart, am I going to believe God's word and therefore begin to live by God's word, or am I going to continue to be in hardened rebellion to it? Because everyone who remains hardened to the word of God will be crushed by it. Does it not say that of the cornerstone, the one that people have rejected, that cornerstone will actually crush. People who fall on the cornerstone, yeah, you're saved. The one the cornerstone falls upon, crushed. Now, a couple applications, and guys, the more I study this passage, the more I'm like, man, there's a thousand applications. So, first off, Your faith in God's word does not always have to remain constant. Praise God that God in his mercy took this old prophet whose faith had waned and renewed it again. But also don't assume that you're the old prophet and not Jeroboam, right? Secondly, praise God that the fulfillment of God's word does not depend on your perfect obedience. Yeah, that man of God disobeyed. He never got to go home. But he actually probably saved more people in his death outside of the land than he ever did by going up and speaking the word of God. I think that's pretty cool. God's word will be fulfilled. You don't have to bring it to pass. He's gonna do it. Jesus' coming did not depend on any man, and Dan rightly said he's the word of God. Wasn't like, oh, these people were believing in me, so I have to send the word. No, he sent the word in the midst of their unbelief. And so I ask you today, did you come here today doubting God's word? I hope, as we look at this passage, you are more like the old prophet. That you're like, oh my goodness. God is doing His good work. I can trust Him. And your faith is renewed in God's Word. Confess your lack of faith. Cry out to Him for mercy. Renew your commitment to trust Him and obey Him. Humble yourself before Him because any who humble themselves before Him will not be put to shame. We are to be like the old prophet and not like Jeroboam. Hebrews 10 says this brothers and sisters, therefore, we do not throw away our confidence. Basically, the confidence in Christ. Which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. As you leave here today. Let the Holy Spirit do that work deep in your soul, meditate, search out those areas in your life where you are not trusting God. And confess it to him. Don't try to fool him. Trust him with your heart and he will continue to sustain you. Amen.