Well, my text this morning is taken from 1 Kings chapter 13. I've just read a few verses from chapter 12, just to remind us of where we reached last time when we were looking at the life of Jeroboam. I take it up at 1 Kings chapter 13 and verse 1, from verse 1 to verse 6. And then I jump to the end of the chapter, 33 and 34. 1 Kings chapter 13, 1 to 6, and then 33 and 34. Last time I was speaking on Jeroboam's sin. I don't very often use alliteration, but it just so happens this time. In this discourse it's Jeroboam's stubbornness. And I hope to show you not only was he sinful, well we saw that last time, but he's guilty of a terrible stubbornness toward God. He's adding to his guilt. Before I go any further, perhaps I should say something, I don't think I said it last time, to justify why I'm looking at this. I did give some justification last time, but I don't think I mentioned this. If you didn't look at it now, but if you do look up 1 Corinthians chapter 10, if you look at that passage, you will find that a long time after Jeroboam, of course, Way into the time of the new covenant, Paul is writing to the believers at Corinth, a Greek people, and he's writing to these people. They have nothing to do with Jeroboam. This is Israel back in the days of the old covenant. These are Greek people living in a seaport in Corinth there. But he writes to them and he says this, He gives them some examples from Israel's history and he explains why he's doing it. And that's the reason I've just chosen that last hymn by Cowper. Cowper is doing the same in that hymn we just sung. What Paul does in 1 Corinthians 10 and what Cowper does in that hymn we just sung they take certain events in the life of Israel. And as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, I'm telling you this, he said, not just as a history lesson, but these things are written and recorded in Scripture for our benefit, to warn us. He's writing to believers in the first century. a thousand years after Jeroboam. Now, he's not actually quoting Jeroboam there, he's going back even further into Israel's history in the wilderness. But nevertheless, the point is made. It shows us how we have to read the Old Testament, not only as a history of Israel, but it's always speaking to believers in this day. Indeed, he is speaking to all men if they are listening. The journal poem, you see, if I can use the words of the Apostle, is recorded in Scripture for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that people like us in 2022 can look into his life and learn and act upon it and benefit by it. It's a dreadful life. Jeroboam sinned. Now his stubbornness. Next time it will be his stupidity. But even so, in a strange way, he being dead, still speaks. Right. That's why I'm doing this. I also explained that you can't understand the Old Testament if you don't understand Jeroboam because the chorus comes up again and again and again. They sinned after the manner of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. He's notorious. Chapter 13 verse 1 then. And behold, now there's a start. If I can paraphrase, wake up. Engage brain. Behold, something here is worth thinking about. Here's a remarkable thing, and we should be all ears, all eyes, whatever it is, paying attention to this. Behold, there came a man of God, that means a prophet, that means a man that God has raised, equipped, taught, enabled, empowered, whatever word you want. This man is a man sent by God. This is what it means. He's a prophet, as I say. He's a preacher. And he has sent this man. God has sent this man. A man came, a man of God, came out of Judah. Now, there is a remarkable thing. Remember, the kingdom has been divided. Rehoboam in the South wanted to go to war with Jeroboam in the North, but God stopped him. Nevertheless, enmity existed between these two peoples now. They've split away from the South, the North has split away. I mean, I haven't lived in Northern Ireland, I've never been to Ireland, but I can imagine the border in Northern Ireland, even today, is not altogether always a very pleasant, comfortable place to be living. Indeed, I've seen history programs on the Troubles, and I remember one case where a man from England was staying with his family, and they'd heard there was some trouble in the north, and he was in the south, and he went to the river, which was the boundary between the North and the South at that point, just to watch. And he was watching, and troubles erupted, and the army let fly with their guns, and he was killed. He'd gone out just to watch, but he was killed by it. A troublesome time. These borders are troublesome places. Checkpoint Charlie, you remember. Well, this man came out of Judah, so he crossed the border. Well, he's taken his life in his hand. No wonder Paul, when he writes to the Ephesians, says, pray for me, he said, because I need courage. People think preaching is easy. Paul says, I need courage, he said, so that I may preach the word boldly, fearlessly, as I ought to preach it. I don't want to go and be mealy-mouthed, and I don't want to miss the point. I don't want to pull punches. I want to say it as it is. I admire this man of God. He made a terrible mistake later on, but we won't come to that. That's not my point. But I do admire him, don't you? Here he is. He comes from the South. He makes a journey. He goes to the North. And where does he go? He goes to the source of trouble. He goes to Bethel. He's taking his life in his hand. I don't think I'm taking my life in my hand this morning coming here. I think you're more friendly than that. But this is what's involved, you know, with this man. God is being very merciful to Jeroboam here. God has found a man who will go. He didn't get on a jet. He had to walk or whatever he did to get up there. And he came out of Judah. Now he didn't do this because he thought it was a good idea. It tells us here, behold, remember chapter 13 verse 1, by the word of the Lord. God told him to go there. I want you to go to Bethel. I mean, the heart must have sunk when he heard it. I didn't have a lot of fear and trepidation when Gabriel asked me if I would preach today, whenever he did ask me some time ago, and we arranged it. I didn't lose sleep over it. But this man is taking his life in his hand. But God says, that's where I want you to go. Preaching today is very comfortable, very popular, very nice, a lot of kudos. It's not the same here. Not the same here. And he came to Bethel. And remarkably, what a coincidence. It's no coincidence at all, my friend. And here's Jeroboam standing by the altar, and he's just about to burn incense. Now, we talked about that last time, and I tried to remind you that this is a terrible thing for a king. He is a king. offering incense upon the altar of God. But this isn't the altar of God, this is an idol. This is evil on every count. But here's the man, he's all geared up to offer this incense. He's all keyed up to it. And out of the sunny weather of the day in this place, whatever it's like at Bethel, comes this man. And he's going to throw a spanner in the works. And what a spanner. Look at verse 2. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord. What does that mean, cried? It doesn't mean he shed tears. It means he lifted up his voice. He shouted. He was passionate, wasn't he? He was absolutely moved. He didn't get his tablet out or his iPad or undo his briefcase and take out a nice sheaf of notes and start reading very nicely, very calmly, gently. He didn't have any notes. He didn't have any iPad. He wasn't lecturing. He was crying out. It must have been a terrifying, awesome picture to see this man, this lone man with all this paraphernalia of worship, whatever it is going on around. And here he is, he's got the courage, the gall, the temerity to just stand up and cry out. And I noticed the word against too. And he cried against the altar. I'm tempted to digress on all these words because they're so rich with application to today. As far as I can judge, I might be wrong, of course I'm wrong on a lot of things, but as far as I can judge, I would say there's far too much so-called preaching today which is not against, but is alongside. Now what do I mean by saying that? Well, like here. What I can hear him pick up is this, people think we should keep alongside people today and sort of jostle them into the kingdom and smooth their way. But as I read my Bible, I'm bound to say this is how I read it, you can judge for yourself, as I read Christ's preaching, As I read Paul's preaching in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, as I read them in the Acts of the Apostles, as I read this man here, they're not trying to jostle people gently into the kingdom, they're confronting. Have you ever heard Christ preaching? Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you! Have you ever read Acts chapter 28? These are just taken at random. Acts chapter 28, when Paul's in house arrest in Rome, he calls for the Jewish rabbis, the leaders. And he talks to them, and they won't have anything to do with the gospel. And how does he finish up? Well, read it and see. He's very blunt with them. He confronts them with the gospel. This man cried against the altar. He didn't get alongside it and say, now let's see if we can just adjust. No, he's not adjusting anything. He's against it. But he's got Jeroboam in his sights. He's talking to the altar, but Jeroboam knows he's talking to him. I tried to think of a picture of what's going on here, This is a poor thing, but can you imagine in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, say July, August, it'd be a pretty brave preacher, wouldn't it, to go to Germany and stand before Adolf Hitler and give it to him between the eyes, wouldn't it? Especially if he, say, came from Austria or Poland or somewhere, or even England. I wonder what the Queen's listening to this morning. I wonder what her preachers are saying to her. I wonder what Mr. Johnson's hearing this morning. I wonder what preachers are saying to him if he's hearing any preachers at all. I give this man, this man of God, four marks. Crying against the altar, running against the tide, lifting his voice. And it's all by the word of the Lord. That's what it says. In the word of the Lord. Now what does he say? He's saying it to Jeroboam, but he's speaking to the altar. What does he say? This is a load of trash. And it's all going to come to pieces. Bones are going to be burnt on you, men's bones, as an utterly degrading thing. And this altar, this posh altar, is going to be rent in pieces and the ashes are going to pour out. Again, I thought, how can I illustrate this? And my mind went back to my grandchildren. They lived in Wyndham, in Norfolk, and their school would have special events and services, I don't know, all that kind of stuff, and they would have it in the Abbey at Wyndham. It's only a little market town in Norfolk. It's not much consequence except to those who live there. But have you ever been in Wyndham Abbey? Well, if you go in, it's a massive church for a small... A massive building for a small Norfolk market town. Obviously, it was an abbey. And the east end is absolutely covered in the most blazing gold you could ever wish to see. As far as I remember, in some years I've been there, but the whole wall is twice as high as this or three times as high as this. It's absolutely covered in gold. Well, it seems like gold to me. The Abbas were very wealthy in the Middle Ages. whether this survived in some way or whether it's a false picture, but I mean, it's staggering to look at. Well, I mean, I'm not staggered by it, I'm appalled by it, but I mean, from wealth. I mean, General Boehm didn't build a cardboard box here, you know. You know, a sort of orange box knocked together. This would be a posh old thing, these golden calves and all that kind of stuff. I mean, we're talking big money here. And people like these things, you know. They venerate them. They're precious to them. And what does this man say? They're going to burn dead men's bones on your altars. They're going to split this altar to pieces. This is what's going to happen. And Jeroboam, chapter 13 and verse 4, he's listening to it. Now, Jeroboam's a clever chap. And he's not asleep. He's listening. And he knows what's being said. And he thinks, oh, well, that was a nice discourse. I wonder what we've got for lunch. Oh, no, no, no. I'm going on holiday next week. No, no, he's not talking like that. He gets it, and he doesn't like it. He doesn't like it. I wonder if the Queen has ever heard a sermon that she doesn't like. I wonder if Mr. Johnson's ever heard a sermon he doesn't like. David heard a sermon he didn't like one day from Nathan. I told you before I think, I remember many years ago when I was preaching to a very small number of people, somebody said it must be very cosy. Just shows you we didn't know anything about preaching. Preaching to one is very, very difficult. Preaching to a thousand is easy. Preaching to two or three is very hard. Jerry Bowen gets it. and he doesn't like it one bit. And it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he had cried out against the altar in Bethel, he didn't like it and he thrust his arm out and he said, catch hold of him. I want to scrag him. And then, something absolutely amazing happens. Now, I'm not expecting this to happen today, but the apostles, when they preached, they had, sometimes, they had remarkable signs, yes? I think myself, some will disagree with me, I think those, that day of signs is gone. We're left with the preaching. I don't expect these signs but this man of God, something happened in this preaching when Jeroboam stretched his hand out to grab him, grab him he says, he found he couldn't take it back. The authorised King James says it dried up. I think today we would say it was paralyzed or something. Well, I don't know how long I can do that, hold my hand up, not much longer. Imagine going around like that the rest of your days. Don't you think some of these things by now should be waking Jeroboam up? And something else happened. Verse 5. The altar fell apart. Not with anybody hitting it with a hammer. None of these pneumatic drills. God in his sovereignty, as the prophet had said, the altar was broken apart and all the ashes poured out. It must have been a staggering sight. Here's this king with his hand held out and he can't stretch it back. And what the prophet has said has come to pass. Don't you think Jeroboam's going to get the message now? He's heard it, he knows what is being said. Is he going to wake up? I'm talking about Jeroboam's stubbornness. Can you see how stubborn he is? How much more does he need? He's had a faithful preacher, as faithful as you could get. The man has spoken bluntly and plainly. He's warned him and everything else. He's given these signs and wonders, and Jeroboam is still here with his hand stuck out. Is he going to repent now? No. He's guilty of what Paul writes to the Romans about, Romans 2.4. I'll remind you of it. The natural man, he's talking about the Jews in those days, but you could talk about Jeroboam, you could talk about plenty of people today. They despise the long-suffering of God. God is kind to them and shows them mercy and he gives them evidences and sermons, I don't know what. And what do they do? They despise it and they say, oh, it's a load of rubbish. God's weak, and so on. And Paul says they despise this long-suffering of God, not realizing, not thinking that God's kindness is leading them to repentance. God is giving them space, and they misread it. He's giving them time. They misjudge it. It's for repentance, but they don't repent. Jeroboam's right on the ball for that. He hears these words, he sees these signs, he gets the evidence, and it doesn't move him. It's all by the word of the Lord, verse five. But what did the king do? Look at verse six, remarkable. You'll say, ah, well, this shows he wasn't stubborn. Listen, let's read it and see. This shows how God was working in him. Verse six, and the king answered and said to the man of God, pray for me and treat now the face of the Lord and pray for me that my hand may be restored again. I tell you today, my friend, people would be over the moon if that happened in a congregation this morning. If somebody said, oh, pray for me, I think many preachers would go home really rejoicing that somebody had asked that. Here's one preacher who won't. Me. I don't rejoice at that. I'm reminded of Spurgeon again. I think I've told you this story. A lady said to Mr. Spurgeon once, she said, Mr. Spurgeon, will you tell me how to be converted? He said, no. He said, I've told you over and over again. I'm not telling you again. He said, go and do it. People are delighted, aren't they? when in national extremity and disasters, we'll have a national day of prayer. Lord of hypocrisy! And I know I've told you this before, but it's the truth. Evangelical Times, I think, is 1992. There was an article there where a lady, I think it was, wrote a letter to her pastor. Dear Pastor, pray for me. I've sinned and I need prayer. Please pray for me. And I wrote to the Evangelical Times about it, taking a strange line for them. I won't develop all the correspondence we had now, but it was quite a correspondence. What do I think of that? I think it's potpourri. If you know you've sinned, my friend, you pray for yourself. You don't need me to pray for you. I'm not saying I won't pray for you, but I'm telling you, you go to Jesus. Oh, you pray for me, he says to the prophet. Well, the prophet did pray for him. Yeah, okay. It's wonderful, isn't it? He wants prayer. No, my friend, because his hand is restored and Jeroboam turns around and said, I'm sorry, I repent. I don't know what version of the Bible you've got. Let's read it. Verse 33, after this thing, Jeroboam returned not from his evil way. It didn't make a scrapper difference. Can you see why I've called this Jeroboam's stubbornness? He sinned against the light. The prophet Ahijah has told him this long before. Don't do this, the prophet had told him. If you live under God's law, God will bless you. That was in the old covenant. Jeroboam ignored that. Now God has given him a second chance. He's given him a faithful preacher. Thank God for faithful preachers. Men who call a spade a spade, and this man did. Praise God for it. And God has given him evidences. His hand is stuck out, and God heals him. The altar is broken to pieces. It's all telling him something. God heals him as a result of the man's prayer, which Jeroboam had asked for. God in his mercy is spending over backwards, if I can say that, to this man. And Jeroboam, it says, after this thing, Jeroboam returned not from his evil way. He went on adding insult to injury. He made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places. Whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. No wonder he is one of the most notorious sinners in Scripture, in the history of the human race. Did ever a man sin against more light, more opportunity, more hearing of the truth? Well, I fear there's plenty of Jeroboams about today. They're listening to the Word of God. They know it's true. They mean to do it, perhaps, or I don't know what they're thinking, but whatever it is, they do not repent. These things, says Paul to the Corinthians, are written for our learning. Well, I've preached it. Have I learned it? That's the first thing. But that's my affair. I've got to work that out. What a consequence for me if I preach it to others and don't learn it myself. But that's my affair. That's my business. I've got to live with that. I've got to think that out. But now, my friend, you've heard it. And you've got to think it out. We need preachers like this today. But you know, my friend, with all the signs and wonders in the world, because in the 70s and 80s, men began to say, oh, if we only had the signs, they'd all believe. My friend, you can have all the wonderful signs. But the only reason why men repent and believe is that God has been gracious and broken their spirit and convicted and converted them, regenerated them. You must be born again. Jeroboam proves how powerful a natural man, how far a natural man can go. It's terrible, you know, the power a natural man has to refuse God. I won't explore the mystery of that, but I say this as an awful thing, that Jeroboam can sit under such a faithful man of God, under such powerful preaching, such clear evidences, and still, still go on, and in fact, add to his sin. I think it's a solemn warning indeed. You realize, of course, There's only one thing more dangerous than listening to a sermon, and that's preaching one. It's a very dangerous thing to listen to faithful preachers. And it's even more dangerous to be a faithful preacher. What am I talking about? I say this, the gospel when we hear it either brings us closer to Christ, or it drives us away. Paul said this. He said, I know when I preach, he said, I know two things happen. One of two things. I'm either the sweet sense, the sweet perfume of life. Some here, and they do get convicted and they do repent. You'll read this in the Acts. You'll see men hearing the gospel and they're believing. And they're converted, saved. But he says, we also, those who said who preach, and we are not the perfume of life, we are the stink and smell of death. Because some hear the gospel, and they laugh at it, or they mock it, or they push it aside, and they're hardened. Oh, so what do I do? Well, I tell you what I don't do. I don't peddle the word of God. I don't change it. I go on preaching it. The parable of the sower. The sower went forth to sow. He's catering the seed. But have you seen the tractor marks in the fields, the tram lines? As the tractor is driven over, that's the modern sowing and all the rest of it, but it happened when the men walked on the field, they could not help but tread the soil down. Every preacher is treading the soil down. What am I saying? The gospel either brings me closer to Christ or I do a Jeroboam and become stubborn against Christ. That's the gospel. Jeroboam is in the Old Covenant, but Paul says, remember, these things are written for us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. But we haven't finished with Jeroboam, because we've still got to look at his stupidity. But we've seen quite a bit so far. We've seen this man is notoriously sinful. Of course, he's an exception, yes, but the principle's there. We've seen his stubbornness, yes, he's exceptional, but the principle's there. Next week, next time I come, God willing. We should look and see how stupid he was. God deliver us from his sinfulness, stubbornness, and his stupidity. May we learn and be wise. May God bless his word to us. Amen.