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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you would please grab your song books and turn to song 121. Song number 121, Like a River, Glorious. Starting on the first. Like a river, glorious is God's perfect peace. Over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it floweth fuller every day. Perfect yet it groweth deeper all the way. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace at rest. Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand. Never folk can follow, never trade or stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care. Not a blast of hurry, touch the spirit there. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace at rest. Every joy or trial, falleth from above. Trace upon our dial by the sun above. We may trust him fully, all for us to do. They who trust him wholly, find him wholly true. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace at rest. Amen. Would you open service in the word of prayer, please? Amen. Now go to 301. Song number 301, sweet hour of prayer. On the first. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. That calls me from a world of care. And busy at my father's throne, make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. And oft escape the tempest there by thy return. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear. To him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids, we seek his face, believe his word and trust his grace. Now cast on him my every care and way for thee. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolation share. Till from Mount Bizgah's lofty hide I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting rise. And shout while passing through the air farewell. Farewell, sweet hour of prayer. Amen. All right, well, good evening. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. Let's go through these announcements here real quick. If you have a bulletin on the inside, weekly church service times. Sunday mornings are at 1030. Sunday evenings at 6 and Wednesdays are at 7 p.m. Underneath that is a list of soul winning times. If you have any questions, 208-391-5323 is the number to call. Next page tonight will be in the book of 1 Kings chapter number 13. Don't forget, last Sunday of the month, October 30th, after the evening service, we're going to have a chili potluck. Not a competition this time, but a chili potluck. Let's see here, birthdays and anniversaries for October. So next up will be Ms. Melissa's birthday on the 31st. Verse of the week is Matthew chapter 9 verse 12, which says, when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. So we are a family integrated church. What that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason. Mother baby rooms right across the hallway should be set up ready to go. Dads, you can use that new room right over there. All set up, ready to go. Let's see here, don't forget to turn your phone off or place it on silent so it's not a distraction. And that is it. So we're going to have one more song before we receive the offering. All right, take those song books out one more time to 261. 261. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. 261. Turn your eyes upon Jesus on the first. Oh soul are you weary and troubled. No light in the darkness you see. There's life for a look at the Savior. And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting. We passed and we follow Him there. Over us sin no more at dominion. For more than conquers we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. His Word shall not fail you He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying. His perfect salvation to tell me. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. Amen. Alright well let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much Lord for allowing us to be able to meet here this evening. Let's pray that you bless the service Lord. And fellowship afterwards. Bring us back safely again on Wednesday. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright please tune your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter number 13. 1 Kings chapter number 13. Continuing our study through the books of 1st and 2nd Kings. 1 Kings chapter number 13. Starting in verse number 1 the Bible reads. 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 in 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 to 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 has 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 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. And treat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me. That my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord and the kings 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. And the man of God said unto the king. If that will 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 was it 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. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And 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 the father said unto them. What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went which came from Judah. And he said unto his son 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 said to me by the word of the Lord. Thou shall eat no bread nor drink water there. Nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. He said unto him. I am 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 thine house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So we went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drink water. And it came to pass as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah saying. Thus saith the Lord for as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord. And has not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee. But camest back and has eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee. Eat no bread and drink no water. Thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers. And it came to pass after he had eaten bread. And after he had drunk that he saddled for him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone a lion met him by the way and slew him. And his carcass was cast in the way and the lion also stood by the carcass. And behold men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and the lion standing by the carcass. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof he said. It is the man of God who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion which hath torn him and slain him according to the word of the Lord which he spake unto him. And he spake to his son saying saddle me the ass and they saddled him. And he went and found his carcass cast in the way and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his own grave and they mourned over him saying alas my brother. And it came to pass after he had buried him that he spake to his son saying when I am dead and bury me in the sepulcher wherein the man of God is buried and lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way but 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 off the face of the earth. Brother Kevin would you pray for us? Alright amen. 1 Kings chapter number 13. So if you remember last week what we talked about we're going to kind of review. Go back if you would to chapter number 12. Remember what we talked about we're talking about the split now. Okay the kingdom is now divided. We now have two kings to deal with from here on out. You'll have well at least until the northern kingdom of Israel goes away. But you're going to deal with the king of the southern kingdom of Judah which is made up of two tribes primarily. And then we're going to be dealing with the king of Israel the northern kingdom made up of 10 tribes. So the beginning of chapter 13 begins with the word and. So anytime you see that you want to make sure that you're reading before and obviously after. You know something that people today do not like to do. But just for a quick review look at verse number 27. So remember Jeroboam was told by the prophet of God a long time before this that God was going to take the kingdom from Solomon. Okay remember Solomon's sin he loved many strange women they turned his heart away from God. And God's initial prophecy to Jeroboam was very good. He's like I'm going to give you the northern kingdom here. I'm going to give you 10 tribes. Hey I'm going to set you up for success as long as you follow me. Okay you didn't say anything about starting a whole new religion. You know a whole with a whole new set of priests a whole new law. You know a whole new way of doing things that wasn't part of the deal. Okay Jeroboam did that of his own free will of his own volition. So first Kings 12 look at verse 27. So this is Jeroboam here and he says this people go up to do 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. They shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Okay see this is paranoia here. Okay because this is not what God told Jeroboam. God told him hey everything will be well. All you need to do is avoid what Solomon did and follow me follow my statutes and things will go well. Okay so initially the both nations of Israel at this time were meant to be beacons of truth. Okay it's Jeroboam who departed from that. So what does he do? Does he go to the Lord? Does he go back to Ahijah to get clarification? No he takes counsel verse 28. Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Verse 29 and he set the one in Bethel and the other put he in Dan. Verse 30 and this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan. Okay so what did he do? He made a religion of convenience. Okay and so the title of the sermon is convenience for control. Now obviously there's nothing wrong with convenience. We try to make things convenient here. Hopefully you work at a place where they try to make things convenient. You know there's convenience stores. Have you ever noticed that convenience stores come with a higher price? You know just just just throwing that out there okay. And in this situation this form of convenience comes with a high price. I mean think about Jeroboam's thinking here right. I mean think about old tell you know the Israel just not too long before this right. Three times a year no matter where you're at in Israel you were to go to the temple. Okay the place where God agreed to put his name there. And here we have Jeroboam taking power instituting his own religion. And he's so paranoid he sets up two spots okay. He's like no I'm gonna give you two choices. See back in old Israel right you had to go to the temple. You had everybody had to go to Jerusalem. I'm giving you guys more options right. Kind of like the whole Bible version thing right. No no no need to go back to that King James. I'm gonna give you NIV. I'm gonna give you ESV. I'm gonna give you a lot of different options. So again the title of the sermon is convenience for control. And obviously the topic is Jeroboam's new religion okay. And so we're gonna take a look obviously at chapter 13. We're gonna look for pictures okay. Every story in the Old Testament you're gonna obviously be able to connect that to New Testament teaching application. New Testament sheds light on the Old Testament. We know that. We're also gonna be answering the question why does the new prophet here. Okay the certain man of God. The prophet coming from Judah. Why does he get punished and the old prophet doesn't for a while. Okay we'll answer that. I'll tell you what I think about that here in just a minute. So if you would turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter number 11. 2nd Chronicles chapter number 11. So again we're starting this off here with the understanding that it was God's intention originally. Obviously to punish Solomon. To split the nation. To divide it up 10 to 2 okay. Think about that. Like if I was Jeroboam. If anybody in here was Jeroboam. You would hopefully look at that and be like wow. God gave me the greater portion. You know I've got the 10 tribes. That's more land. That's more people okay. And plus he gave me the promise as long as I follow the statutes. Guess what? Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be well. But you know there's a problem. Okay and it's the temple. That's always been the focus. The physical temple. Jeroboam's thinking because everybody's gonna want to go to the temple. You know and obviously they could have gone to the temple. They could have put their pride aside. Right and said you know what we're gonna stay. We chose to follow Jeroboam. We chose to leave David. But we're still gonna go down to Judah. Once or up to Jerusalem once a year. To do the sacrifices or the three times a year rather. And that would have been okay. You know because God told Jeroboam. It will be fine if you follow my statutes. But of course he's paranoid. Doesn't want to do it. Doesn't care. And so let's take a look at the result here. Second Chronicles chapter number 11. Let me get there myself. Second Chronicles chapter number 11. Let's see here. Look at verse number. Where is it here? Verse number 13. That's right. Verse number 13. So the Bible says and the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel. Resorted to him out of their coast. So obviously parallel passage here. You just get different details when you read through. Second Chronicles chapter number 11. It gives you more information about Rehoboam. Whereas we're primarily focusing on Jeroboam for chapter number 13 of 1 Kings. And so you can see the issue here. Jeroboam creates his new religion here. Now originally he says okay. You know I'm gonna use some Aaronism here. And I'm gonna go out and just basically take counsel. Get this counsel here. I'm gonna set up these golden calves. And I'm not changing the God. We're just gonna use these as shrines to represent the God that brought us out of Egypt. Of course that quickly goes awry. Doesn't work out. And so the people in the northern kingdom of Israel realize. Wait a second. Okay. He's setting up idols. He's ordaining the lowest of the land to be priests. So it's almost like he went to all the carnivals. You know. Grabbed the carnies and said alright come on down here. You know. God wants you to be a priest. Anybody can be a priest. Doesn't matter. There's no requirement. There's no list. There's no rules. It's you know. If you want to be a priest. Have at it. Okay. We're equal. Right. We're all about equality here. You see how that works. You know. There's nothing new under the sun. Everything you see today in New Evangelical Christianity. You're gonna see Jeroboam pretty much did the same thing. Okay. So again. Verse 13. And the priests and Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts being Rehoboam. Verse 14. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem. For Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priests office unto the Lord. And they ordained him priests for the high places. And for the. Don't miss this. The devils. You see that? Those things turned into demonic idols. The Bible tells us two devils. You know. It started out in Jeroboam's mind probably. Well this. You know. These are your gods that brought you out of Egypt. Okay. And then what does the Bible tell us? They're actually devils. That's the whole point there. When you disobey the word of the Lord. The devil loves that and is gonna send his minions to just wreak havoc on that situation. And then it says. And for the calves which he had made. Verse 16. And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers. Verse 17. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong three years. For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon and we'll revisit the rest of that at a later time. But you can go back if you would to 1 Kings chapter number 13. And so again the title of the sermon is convenience for control. Jeroboam feels that he is going to lose control of the nation that he is now in control of. Okay. So that's what happens when we let go of the promises of the Bible and we start to focus more on the physical versus the spiritual. We can develop the same type of paranoia. So with that being said let's go through this chapter here and let's look at verse number 1. So the Bible says. 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. Now this is wrong in so many ways you know because God did tell Solomon you know I agree to put my name here in this place in this house so that really is where they were supposed to go. The way it should have worked out okay is people from Israel should have been allowed to go down to or to Jerusalem do worship go through with the feast do the sacrifices and both kings should have worked together on those things okay but that's not happening all because of Jeroboam's paranoia. So here you see he's got his own altar he's burning incense okay completely foreign to the law and look at what this prophet who comes out of Judah okay notice God doesn't raise up a prophet out of the northern kingdom of Israel now okay you notice that that's very important for us to understand verse number 2 and he cried against the altar okay now let's stop right there okay I know I know you guys understand what this means okay he's not like slumped over the altar like just bawling his eyes out okay he's literally preaching to this altar to obviously communicate to Jeroboam but it says and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord okay very important there in the word of the Lord because what you're going to see is he starts out in the word of the Lord but how does it end out of the word of the Lord okay when we get out of the word of the Lord we get devoured by who the devil exactly verse 2 when he cried against the altar in 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 priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee and so if you do the math I can't remember exactly but it's it's definitely a couple hundred years maybe like 300 I forgot years after this this actually takes place okay and we're obviously gonna be studying through this we will get to that event but you've all heard of Josiah right he starts out great he finds the word of the Lord and he actually you know in his zeal right he actually goes forth and burns these false prophets on this altar and it's gonna be a great time when we get to that but this prophet coming from Judah now the beacon of truth because the northern kingdom has rejected God's ways wholeheartedly you know Jeroboan said hey I don't want you guys going down there I'm gonna set up a religion and most people understand this most people fall for it okay you know some of them don't and they go back to Judah they move down they migrate down but by and large you know he keeps most of the kingdom and so here comes this prophet from Judah he's preaching against this altar verse 3 and he gave a sign the same day saying this is the sign which the Lord has spoken behold the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out okay so what does he do he gives a prophecy of a sign he's saying hey what I'm telling you is true and it's gonna be verified by this event that's about to happen verse 4 and it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God which had cried against the altar in Bethel that he put forth his hand from the altar saying lay hold on him okay now think about this here understand this picture this prophet from God from the nation of Judah now the beacon of truth preaching against an an object that Jeroboam built and he's offended he's getting upset he's like wait a second right he reaches out his hand you know obviously the message was meant for Jeroboam you know that's very clear altars don't communicate that you know you can talk to this all day long and it's a good listener but it's not gonna talk back to you okay but this is a picture of having our toe stepped on and people preaching against our sins are primarily the Bible you read the Bible from front to back and you're gonna find things you're not doing all of us okay and the question is are we gonna have Jeroboam's attitude right is that the attitude we're gonna have reach forth our hands say hey no you know you're wrong you're messed up you're all ate up and just get bitter and upset you know is that how we're gonna act and the question obviously needs to be answered you know how do we handle this type of correction look at the look at the rest of the verse lay hold on him and his hand which he put forth against him dried up so that he could not put it again to him right so God's giving another sign here he's like no I'm gonna freeze that hand you're not gonna talk to my prophets like that there's no way I'm going to allow the beginning of this nation here to flourish in some new system okay not gonna happen whatsoever verse 5 look at what it says here it says 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 so we've gone over this many times you know the Bible says that the Jew requires a sign you know I would apply that to the Hebrews here as well they required a sign because obviously what was Jeroboam gonna do if he didn't get a sign tell the guy to get lost right arrest him put him in prison feed him with bread of affliction you know who knows but the point is he didn't want to hear that he didn't want to hear the prophet of God you know preaching against what he built what he designed you know and that's what we do today right we we preach against the new religions that pop up in the world which aren't really new we preach against new evangelical Christianity right we preach against the things that these false prophets are building and they look at us like we're crazy right they reach forth their hand get them off YouTube cancel this guy get rid of him shut him down and just silence these people it's the same thing Jeroboam's doing so look at verse 6 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 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 wow what a change of attitude that took you know he's all of a sudden you know ain't that how the world is you know you'll see this all the time where people they'll badmouth God they'll say horrible things about the Bible and all of a sudden they'll be told like oh you got stage four cancer and it's hey pray to your God for me you know this happens all the time you have a real change of attitude but they never have a change of heart you know it almost seems like that I remember one time we were soul-winning in Vancouver and we pastor Thompson and I knocked on the door of this lady and she's like come on in guys I was just told I've got stage four cancer I've got I think it was like two months to live she's like I want to hear what you have to say he goes to the whole gospel with her and then she busts out with all this Jehovah Witness stuff she's like well a week ago the Jehovah Witnesses came by here and they told me there was no hell they told me this they had already gotten to her you know but she's she literally basically says this would you guys still pray for me to your God because I want to make sure I have all my bases covered you know and he completely roasted the Jehovah Witness doctrine I made it crystal clear okay but what was she doing she was holding up her hand I can't have that type of correction I have spent my life doing good works and building an altar and burning incense sweet odors to the world right and she could not fathom that God wouldn't accept that you know but unfortunately today she wrote you know isn't here anymore and I'm sure you know the rest of the story where she's at verse 7 and the king said unto the man of God come home with me and refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward so he's happy now he's like all right let's just forget about that whole message against my altar here you know I want to give you a reward for actually healing me and having mercy on me you know but look at the man of God because remember okay what was he charged with we just read the chapter he was charged not to hang out there he had a specific mission preach against the altar don't even go back the way that you came okay that whole thing is meant to be a sign unto the northern kingdom of Israel verse 8 and the man of God said unto the king if that will give me half thine house I will not go in with thee neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place for 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 okay so he reinstates his mission this prophet understands how the Word of God came to him and every detail about it is crystal clear and he passes literally this first test here this is a trial that he overcomes look at verse 10 so he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel so test number one very good he passes it it's okay now look at verse number 11 it says this now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel a lot of times you'll hear this preacher they'll say okay the guy from Judah is the young prophet and this is the old prophet the Bible just tells us you know that a certain prophet came so I'm gonna call him the new prophet and then this guy the old prophet so verse 11 it says now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel and 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 also or them they told also to their father in verse 12 and their father said unto them what way went he for his sons had seen what way the man of God went which came from Judah and again there's always people watching isn't there's always people watching what's going on and that's great this was meant to be watched this was meant to be assigned to this nation here okay and so here you got this old prophet he hears this and he's like wait a second we got a new buck in town and he actually performed a miracle through God by healing this King's hand preached against the altar the altar rent all of these things he's like what about me why didn't God use me okay well remember what we read what we read in 2nd Chronicles chapter number 11 a lot of people of their own free will saw what Jeroboam was doing he's bringing new religion he's setting up a whole new system they said ah we're not having any part of this we know how this story goes so they migrate back down to Judah but this guy there's no record of him wanting to move or wanting to leave his area he seems to just want to stay there there's no indication that he's preaching against this current system or anything like that verse 12 says I'm sorry verse 13 and he said unto his son saddle me the ass so they saddled in 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 came us from Judah and he said I am verse 15 then he said unto him come home with me and eat bread verse 16 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 okay this is a good lesson here for us on discernment in conversation okay so you have the certain prophet you have the new prophet sitting under a note okay and then you have this old prophet come to him and say are you that guy are you the prophet that prophesied against the altar and he's like yes I am I'm that guy he says come home and eat with me okay it's like okay then the prophet says no I can't hey he puts up a little bit of resistance okay now after the resistance is where we need to really dial in here and pay attention okay look at verse 15 then he said unto him come home with me and eat bread verse 16 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 said 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 so again he puts up the resistance which is the Word of God which is his mission verse 18 he said unto him I am a prophet also as thou art okay oh he's got to establish that credibility hey I'm good to go to I've done what you're doing I've got a school here look I've got all these credentials I've got these certificates you know I've been to Bible College right I've read the Bible 300 times from front to back I've listened to every sermon on YouTube you you you know what this guy is saying here verse 18 and he said unto him I am 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 thine house that he may eat bread and drink water but look what the narrator tells you but he lied unto him okay now look however the Word of God actually came to the certain prophet from Judah is probably the same mode of communication that would have communicated to him any amount of change okay that's the first thing we should probably understand but number two why didn't he come up to him and say this at the first that's what he should have done okay if this was true you know he should have came up and said you know an angel showed us some kind of a sign because it's a pretty direct mission from God okay go preach against this altar let Jeroboam know that you know what he's doing is wrong he's gonna get some punishment all of that stuff don't drink water there don't eat there don't he's like don't even come don't even come back to Judah the same way that you came right that whole thing is meant to be a testimony unto the northern kingdom of Israel which is basically this we do not serve a god of ecumenicalism okay God is saying hey I am not endorsing this new religion in any way shape or form and so he doesn't even want his prophets dabbling in the northern kingdom of Israel and of course you know Jehoshaphat and that whole debacle we'll get into later on where they actually do become ecumenical so on and so forth but you know notice that you know when you put up resistance sometimes people like oh wait a second no no the boss actually told me it's like hmm really the boss told me to clean under your desk after I told you what he told me to do from the beginning you know what I mean it did this this sort of thing happens to us all the time okay look at verse 20 and it came to pass as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord this is interesting here that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back so now this old prophet is like gonna be prophesying the Word of God right now he being an old prophet is actually getting the Word of God and he is now quote unquote the the good prophet and the other ones the disobedient prophet verse 21 and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah saying thus saith the Lord for as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and has not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee but camest back and has eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee eat no bread drink no water thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulcher of thy fathers so notice what God says through the Prophet to the Prophet from Judah he says clearly that you disobeyed okay so again this goes back to a little bit what we talked about this morning about how people reason within themselves right we have a conscience and we reason with ourselves and our thoughts either accuse or excuse you know different ideas that pop up into our heads so my guess is here that this guy wanted to go back right he just wanted to go back with his prophet maybe he wanted to eat it's hard to say but I mean it he shouldn't have fell for this trap God was clear God clearly told the prophet of Judah what he was supposed to do and he fell for this trap but God looks at that as disobedience okay God looks at that as disobedient and guess what that's gonna also answer the question because a lot of people have this question I've always had this question like why does this guy eventually get what's coming to him which we're about to read which is the lion but the prophet that lied he gets to prophesy again he just kind of goes on about his life you know it's because obviously disobeying the Word of God getting a direct message from God it's kind of like what we talked about this morning okay you know it's all bad you know being a false prophet a lying prophet you know lying things like that obviously bad right but this guy from Judah had the greater sin okay he had the greater sin because he was told by God exactly what he was supposed to do and he knew in his heart that he wasn't supposed to listen to anyone right it's kind of like the verse you know that Paul you know brought up in the New Testament though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you right Galatians 1 let him be accursed you know let him be accursed we have the Word of God so when people come around saying an angel told me I guess not the whole thing with the Mormon religion you know the angel Moroni came to Joseph Smith and said here's these 5,000 billion pound you know golden tablets you know and he had gave him the strength to pick those things up or whatever obviously I'm joking about the weight but the point is a lot of these false religions today and a lot of you know false denominations that are out there today what do they always say well an angel told me an angel appeared into me and told me that we all need to write checks for X amount of money you know it happens all the time no the Word of God goes above that okay so the prophet from Judah however you want to slice it he was disobedient this other guy is just envious okay he's just like man how come God didn't use me he doesn't get it he doesn't understand because he's out of the will of the Lord he's an old prophet people are moving out they don't like this new system but he stays put you know so of course he hears this guy coming to town and really doing a great work doing a good thing here's about it he's like what about me why don't I get to do that this doesn't make any sense so what does he do he just lies makes up a story because he really wants to fellowship with this guy and so of course it winds up being bad or worse rather for the prophet from Judah so let's look at verse 23 and it came to pass after he had eaten bread and I mean look this is crazy he's just gonna go through and eat this meal you know it's like so weird you just got told that you're not gonna be buried in the sepulcher of your father's which basically means you're not even gonna make it back to Judah now okay yeah you're you're taking a whole nother another way back here and it's called the grave so it says and it came to pass verse 23 after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk that he saddled for him the ass to it for the prophet whom he had brought back verse 24 and when he was gone a lion met him by the way and slew him and his carcass was cast in the way and the ass stood by it the lion also stood by the carcass verse 25 and behold men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and the lion standing by the carcass and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt now first of all back to 23 you know most of us were told something harsh like that I probably wouldn't be wanting to eat the rest of the meal you know I'd be like man how am I gonna eat this you know yeah I must have been pretty hungry must have been pretty thirsty or he just figured I don't really quite get what that means I'm probably not gonna get devoured by a lion you know what whatever it is he went through and ate the meal it just just blows my mind how he's just like yeah to each his own right so let's talk about this here okay what is this picture here okay cuz look at verse 24 says when he was gone a lion met him by the way and slew him and his carcass was cast in the way and the ass stood by it the lion also stood by the carcass so people are walking by this site you got a dead body on the ground here if that's not bad enough you've got a lion it's just standing there okay turn to Psalm 104 turn to Psalm 104 and let's talk about some application here what this pictures actually pictures a lot but imagine seeing this site here you got this dead body okay and people know who this guy is they know the story here and you see a lion he's not the Lions not even going after the ass or the dead carcass so people know like wait wait a second here this is strange this is this has got to be of God there's got to be something going on other than you know just a lion just killed a guy maybe he didn't taste good okay because the lion would you do think would finish the meal here but here's something that I want to talk about Psalm 104 look at verse 21 it says the young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God okay so what does that mean their food from God okay so this lion that we're reading about first of all could be a picture of obviously the lion of the tribe of Judah which we're going to talk about here in a second in being that Jesus is referred to in Revelation 5 as the lion of the tribe of Judah and we are in him is almost pictures us here okay the young lions roar after their prey what would be our prey our prey would be wisdom our prey would be you know souls you know giving you know devouring false doctrine and things of that nature and look what it says and seek their meat from God so we seek our meat as young lions from the big line from the lion of the tribe of Judah from God so if you would go to Proverbs chapter number 28 Proverbs chapter number 28 and so because we seek our meat from above from the Word of God from the lion of the tribe of Judah look at Proverbs 28 in verse number one so the Bible says this the wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a lion so how do we being righteous because it's been imputed unto us from God how do we who are saved how do we obtain boldness boldness as a lion well because we get our meat from God from the lion of the tribe of Judah okay now go if you would just a couple chapters over go to chapter number 30 Proverbs chapter number 30 and this will give us here some more insight on the lion that we serve whom we are in look at verse 30 it says a lion which is strongest among beasts and turneth not away for any you know if you watch little you know documentaries about lions you'll notice that even when they're outnumbered by hyenas they're outnumbered by doesn't matter what it is okay they will not turn away they will not give up their back so to speak okay they will continue to attack even if they know they're not gonna survive okay they will not back down that is how we are supposed to be okay and notice that this lion comes from well he comes from just from right there but obviously the situation is here okay you've got two prophets okay and they're both disobedient honestly they're none of them are good okay go to Revelation chapter 5 we'll move on here to the next picture so both of these prophets he got one the old prophet he lied okay then eventually because the other one was disobedient God uses him to basically execute punishment or chastening if you will on the other prophet okay both of these guys are jacked up so what happens well the lion of the tribe of Judah has to show up and make truth prevail okay that's the teacher there that's the picture there okay and so let's move on to the next picture again so you have basically you're gonna see you got two lions in the story okay you've got two lions so the Bible describes Jesus as the lion of the tribe of Judah let's take a look here okay Revelation 5 look at verse 2 it says and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to lose the seals thereof verse 3 and no man in heaven nor an earth neither under the earth was able to open the book neither to look thereon verse 4 and I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book neither to look thereon you know thinking back to the story here in first Kings it's like neither prophet was worthy at the end of the day to have anything you know it was it's a privilege for us to be able to carry truth to other people to give the Word of God okay so they picture no man being worthy okay so who shows up the lion of the tribe of Judah okay because at this point in time in Kings truth is now centered the seed of truth is now centered solely in the kingdom of Judah so look at verse 5 it says and one of the elders saith unto me weep not behold the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals there of okay you can go back if you would to first Kings so you see two pictures right you see a little bit of wisdom here in regards to the lion okay we get we're young lions because we are literally of the lion of the tribe of Judah we get our meat from him that makes us bold and we don't turn back for any okay so if we're getting our meat our food from God from the the lion of the tribe of Judah we have boldness we're not going to turn back because people want to cancel us or they want to destroy the church or whatever they want to do it's not going to happen okay but also being that the Lord is the lion of the tribe of Judah he is the primary voice in the world we talked about that this morning the invisible things like the eternal power of God the Godhead they are clearly seen by what you observe in nature okay we talked about that this morning but isn't there another voice in the world in that voice also comes from a lion and just because we go to church doesn't necessarily keep that lion out that's the lion of first Peter chapter 5 verse 8 the lion that walketh about seeking whom he may devour right that's what you see here also in this chapter so you have these two voices and it's interesting you have these two prophets okay two voices same thing what happens well the lion shows up devours the certain prophet there and what does the Bible say about say what does Jesus say about say well says he's a murderer is a liar he abode not in the truth he doesn't savor the things that be of God he savors the things that be of man okay so again this is our battle today right we're battling I mean which lion is lying okay well it's the first Peter 5a lie it's the same you know he lies okay what did the old prophet do he lied to the prophet from Judah okay I say this all the time just because we're saved we have the truth doesn't mean we can't fall prey to lies people lie to us all the time hey people lied to us at the door you know like oh an angel told me I was saved that's how I know I'm going to heaven it's like no that didn't happen and you just know in your heart because of what you read in the word you can't get saved any other way than is written down in this book but yet today you have people that are listening to the roar they're listening to the the the lies coming from the devil okay so hopefully all that there makes sense so verse 25 and behold men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and the lion standing by the carcass and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwell verse 26 and when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof he said it is the man of God who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion which hath torn him and slain him according to the word of the Lord which he spake unto him I mean how's that for a friend you know how's that for a friend you know he hears this news he instantly knows what happened and he's just like yeah that's the guy that was disobedient right he's right he's right he's probably thinking his head I'm glad I just lied you know God didn't tell me anything in fact I didn't really quite bring God into what I said an angel you know I put God like third right God told the angel to come tell me so I'm safe I'm good to go here but now he's just like trying to speak truth and be relevant and so on and so forth verse 27 now all of a sudden he's got some urgency look at look at this and he spake to his son saying saddle me the ass and he saddled him verse 28 and he went and found his carcass cast in the way and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass and the lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the ass again testifying a sign okay God wants his truth to prevail and he's gonna get what he wants that's just how it is he's like look if this prophet that I ordained and sent isn't gonna do it fine I'll make a statement this way and so that's what happened verse 29 it says and the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back in the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him so you know interesting there you know it just this this prophet lies to him you know all of a sudden he's his best friend man he was great and obviously probably feel hopefully he felt some some guilt and that's why he's remorse you know hopefully he had the conversation with himself you know he probably wouldn't be in this position if I didn't entice him if I didn't lie to him if I didn't insert you know my trap form just because I wanted a fellowship I wanted to be relevant so verse 31 and it came to pass after he had buried him that he spake to his son saying when I am dead then bury me in the sepulcher were in the man of God is buried lay my bones beside his bones interesting right he's not concerned about being buried with his family necessary necessarily he's concerned about one thing bury me with this prophet here you know it's a little too late to love this guy though because he is gone he is done and you know again let me let me just talk about this question here again and just just make sure we all understand it okay why did the old prophet basically get away with you know lying whereas the disobedient prophet got torn by the line because he disobeyed the Word of God plain and simple you know and also understand this is a new thing okay this is a new thing obviously the nation of Israel is not new but having two kingdoms now the split is new Jeroboam set up a new religion okay and God wants to make a statement you know you see this all the time in the Bible go back to the days of Moses right when people disobeyed right Moses comes down from the mountain God's like hey they're already turned aside and he's like ah everything's fine right he goes down there breaks the commandments he takes the tablets boom right what is it who's on the Lord's side you know and people lost their lives think about at the start up of the church the New Testament era the beginning of the New Testament churches what happens Ananias and Sapphira they lie to the Holy Ghost right God kills him now does that happen every single day in every single church today no no but in the beginning God's gonna make a statement here so that we can learn from their mistakes okay so hopefully that kind of helps it but it's worse to be disobedient than to just lie because you want to fellowship with a guy and get the inside scoop they're both bad okay but remember not all sin is equal okay not all sin is equal we need to keep that in mind and that takes care of that question so verse 32 for the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass now he believes the word of God they're just lied because he wanted that fellowship verse 33 after this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way but 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 so again Jeroboam after hearing all this after seeing I mean just I mean how much more proof do you need how much more of a sign do you need to get right with God and Jeroboam doesn't care he wants it his way okay and so really as we go through the rest of Kings and we study these things you know what you're gonna see you're gonna see this phrase go up every Kings gonna be basically from Judah's gonna be a judge based off of David you know you'll see this phrase come up he walked not in the ways of David or he kind of half walk things like that you know all the kings of Israel it's like you know he excelled you know he exceeded the sins of Jeroboam or he followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat so Jeroboam is literally like like the marker like the measure for how evil all the kings are gonna be so you can gauge how evil a king was based off of Jeroboam and obviously Jeroboam I believe is the worst I know Ahab's pretty bad and there's some real bad ones after that but I mean Jeroboam literally turned a whole nation turned like most of these ten tribes away from serving God okay that's that's that's terrible that that's worse that's like on the same level as Solomon that's worse than Solomon Solomon didn't start I mean yeah okay he tried to please his wives by compromising right but he didn't stand in the temple and be like all right you know I'm gonna change everything in here I'm gonna take out the cherubims let's lose these pomegranates put up pineapples you know things like that he didn't do that and whereas Jeroboam's like hey behold all things are new we're a new creature we got a new nation I got new priests we've got equality we got coexist like if you can think it you can do it okay as long as you don't go down to to the kingdom of Judah as long as you don't go up to the temple in Jerusalem it'll all be well with you okay and obviously God hates that and God does not want his name stamped and that whatsoever verse 34 and this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth and so that is where we are going to leave it for today and we will pick it up next week in chapter number 14 so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer thank you so much Lord for this church and I thank you for this great truth in the Bible just pray that you would help us to remember these things Lord teach them to others in Jesus name I pray amen all right please grab your hymnals out one more time this evening and turn the song 183 Oh how I love Jesus song 183 on the first there is a name I love to hear I love to see its worth it sounds like music in my ear the sweetest name on earth Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me it tells me of a Savior's love died to set me free it tells me of his precious blood the sinners perfectly Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me it tells me what my father had in store for every day and though I tread a darksong path he'll sunshine all the way Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me on last it tells of one whose loving heart can feel my deepest love when each sorrow bears apart and none can bear below Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me amen let's close in a word of prayer dear Lord God we just thank you for the service this this evening Lord and for the truce and in your word Lord where we asked for discernment Lord and vigilance especially during these times and we also want to pray for all those who couldn't make it today and this evening Lord you'd be with all the families that are part of this church Lord that you'd heal everyone who's sick and going through any allergies or any or any colds Lord and we also want to pray for a little brother Josiah Lord that you be with him and be with brother Victor and his family Lord and we just pray for a good health for them Lord in Jesus name of pray amen you you