Revelation 18 is another example in scripture of, be separate, come out lest you share in their judgments. So, what about the victim?
What about the victim? Driving along and seeing you on the side, talking to somebody who's been abusing them and just giggling and shaking hands, I'll see you later. You know, you just got to leave the door open because God might want to, no, you're not bigger than God, cut it out. Clowning around with Satan is forbidden. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Kings.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. City of Defects is the title of Pastor Rick's message and today he'll be in 1 Kings chapter 13. Then the king answered and said to the man of God, please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored to me. So the man of God entreated Yahweh and the king's hand was restored to him and became as before.
Though the king wanted his arm back, but God wanted the king back because Jeroboam was a good king, a good man when he was serving in Jerusalem. That's why the prophet Ahijah was sent to him, but he became an apostate and we're going to hit that pretty hard in a minute. The treatment of apostates versus unbelievers, there is a difference. We don't have the same treatment for the two. Apostates get severe treatment for a good reason.
Super dangerous they are when it comes to souls, snatching souls. Anyway, here's his opportunity for repentance, but his heart was set on sin. The prophet did not smite the king. God again intervened, interfered, God struck him, but the prophet doesn't ask God to withdraw the strike, the smite. He asked the prophet to intercede on his behalf, which the prophet does. And we read, so the man of God entreated Yahweh and the king's hand was restored to him and he became as before. So the prophet's office is over the king when the prophet is on assignment. When the prophet is on assignment, he is higher than anybody in the land. After his assignment though, he goes back to being one of the subjects to the king. There are three miracles in just these few minutes of time, and yet no repentance.
The paralyzed arm, the split altar, and then the restored arm. You would think that the king would say, this is spooky. Facts don't matter to people who just love their sin and are determined not to submit to God. That's why they'll, anyway, verse seven, then the king said to the man of God, come home with me and refresh yourself and I will give you a reward. From arrest him to invite him. He should have said, Lord forgive me a sinner. He doesn't get there. So what we have here is Satan transforming himself in front of a prophet from lion into a fox.
From a lion into a fox. Balaam would have made an appointment to come back in a week. He'd say, I can't come right now, I was told to go back to Jerusalem, but I'll be back in a week.
You have the loot ready. And of course we know the story of Balaam the prophet. Anyway, offering gifts to prophets was not unheard of amongst these ancient people, even the Jews. We see it in the book of Samuel and we see it in the book of Kings. Nahum, you know, offering gifts to Elijah and Elijah said, no thank you and Gehazi.
I said, oh by the way. And of course he was smitten with leprosy too. Also not uncommon was the prophets refusing the gifts. Abraham told the king of Sodom and Gomorrah, you keep your gifts because you won't say, Abraham, I made Abraham.
Not a thread or a sandal strap do I want from you. I mean, it was scathing. And the king, of course, the character that is, he probably, you know, as those type of people are, you can insult them with the truth and it just bounces off of them. Try insulting a journalist. Say, ooh, why would anybody want to talk to you?
Just go look for somebody else. They won't say, you know what, you're right. We just go and make money off of other people's tragedies and horror and it's wrong. Now they won't do that. If you want to get nauseous, go to the Newseum.
I don't know if it's still there, but anyway, any chance I can get to rebuke that nasty center. It's a museum that the news media has in Washington, D.C. that shows all of their, you know, look at all the stories we reported on. Somebody else's sorrow, but we made a lot of money from it. You have no right to suffer privately with those guys. Anyway, Elijah, as I mentioned, Daniel, Daniel told Belshazzar, keep your gifts for yourself or give it to somebody else. I don't want it.
Here's what the handwriting means. You're done. And so the prophets were offered gifts that wasn't uncommon, but they were also able to refuse them from people who fraternized with the enemy. Now, verse 8. But the man of God said to the king, if you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you, nor would I eat bread, nor drink water in this place.
And your chickens are ugly. He's very clear that, you know, he's got his orders, he's here to deliver his message and get out of there. He's not to have fellowship with flagrant sinners and where sin was rampant.
And the king had authority and ability to stop it and he did not. This is where it gets good for us. Matthew chapter 5. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. I mean, you know, anyway, Proverbs 25, 26. A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well. The message is murky.
It's not clear now. That's why he's going to be punished for his disobedience. And so he says, if you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you.
This is an idiom for no way. It shows up in Balaam. It's identical to Balaam using the same thing to Balak.
There's no way I can take that king, but again, Balak says, I'll come back later. And he becomes a full-blown apostate. He was never a prophet of the Hebrews, but he was a prophet. God spoke to him. God even spoke to him through a donkey.
That's pretty impressive stuff. You won't meet anybody like that. Anyway, he says, no, well, I eat bread, no drink water in this place. He was not to fraternize with the enemies of God. He was not to socialize with apostates.
That's the big difference. One person is an unbeliever, and we want to reach them. We can be patient with them, but the apostate or the Jehovah Witness or the Mormon that's coming through your neighborhood is bringing the devil's Bible and saying it's God's Bible.
And to invite them in and be chummy with them is a violation. And I'll get to some New Testament verses in case, you know, some people think that they're, you know, not ambassadors, but diplomats. The ambassador pretty much says, this is it.
The diplomat's trying to find a way. And spiritually speaking, diplomacy like that does not work. Jesus would not be seen yucking it up with Herod, the killer of John the baptizer. Even the only man in the Bible Jesus totally ignored.
So, verse 9, for so it was commanded by the word of Yahweh saying, you shall not eat bread nor drink water nor return the same way you came. You ever see someone chummy with somebody who is making havoc of another person's life? Well, how would you feel, you know, if you saw another Christian brother and he's just having a good old time with somebody who's a wife beater or a child abuser?
Would you applaud that? Paul says have no fellowship with the works of darkness, but rather expose them. And there are people who in Christ that they're just spiritually naive, but you can't tell them they're naive because they don't believe they are. They believe they have this great discernment and they're peacemakers, but that's fine to a point. Where is that point? 2 John chapter, 2 John verse 10, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
That's pretty heavy stuff. John is saying you better make a distinction. There are some people that are so evil in their present state that you cannot have anything to do with them. I've seen it over the years as a pastor and there are just, you know, cases where if I saw the person that was making victims, I wouldn't say hello to them if I passed by them. I wouldn't speak to them. I'd tell them get away from me if they came near me. I would not treat them with kindness. I would not sin, but I'd let them know a prophet's been amongst them and their wicked behavior will not be tolerated.
This lack of discernment is utter folly based on spiritual shortsightedness, not sure what your identity is. There is a time we Christians are to bear the rod of rebuke against the flagrant sinner. Did you imagine, you know, someone saying, you know, my husband's been beating me up.
Okay, you know what? I'll just take him out to coffee tomorrow. I might say I'll take him out.
I just won't say where. Revelation 18 is another example in Scripture of be separate, come out lest you share in their judgments. So, what about the victim?
What about the victim driving along and seeing you on the side, talking to somebody who's been abusing them and just giggling and shaking hands, I'll see you later. You know, you just got to leave the door open because God might want to. No, you're not bigger than God. Cut it out. Clowning around with Satan is forbidden. And that's pretty much hit that as hard as I should hit it. I asked, I said, Lord, can I be just kind when I do this? I don't know.
Did he answer? I want to be firm. I don't want to leave any room for you, but I'm the except.
No, you're not the exception on this one. There's someone out there preaching evil against Christ. There's someone, I remember years ago, there was this welder on a job and my brother John Connors and I, we were working the same job and the welder was fine with me, but he was into sorcery. And he was, anyway.
John tries to talk to him and we left the shanty. That guy is satanic. He is satanic. He was convinced and I didn't disagree either.
I wasn't as matured in Christ yet and the guy was always nice to me, but I agree. You just come across some people. They're just out there doing the devil's work, man. Anyhow, nor return by the same way you came. Disfellowship by God of the land. God says, I don't want you to have a second look at this place. I don't want you familiar with this place. I want you out of there.
Their sins have separated me from them and I want you to have nothing to do with them. Okay, well that's going to be pretty clear and that sets us up for what's coming. We're not there yet, but we will be in verse 10. So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel. The alternate route has booby traps. Don't be naive.
Maybe I should have worked that into the title. You take the alternate route. Don't think Satan doesn't follow you. He's following this man. He has a servant ready to go. God does not want this man tricked or pressured away from the word and the clear direction he received.
And because he is going to go away from that clear directive, he's going to pay with his life. Verse 11. Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel.
They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. So between these two characters now which come to the front of the story, we have the prophet and the man of God and that's how they're addressed. That's very interesting. You have the churchgoer and you have the Christian. A person can go to church for years and not be a Christian and go the whole lifetime. There are whole churches out there as I mentioned at the beginning.
They've compromised. They don't give God's word so God doesn't speak to them. But they still go ahead saying, hey, we're a church just like this old man was saying, hey, I'm still a prophet. Well, if you are, why aren't you at the altar rebuking Jeroboam? Why are your sons over there?
Because they're the ones that bring the story to him. He says now the old prophet dwelt in Bethel, the house of God, and could not be sent to Jeroboam. I would be, I mean, how would you feel if you were passed over for an assignment in your city? I would be, you know, I've told you, you know, times and early on we figure, well, you know what, maybe I'll just not try to talk to church here, just getting slammed. Maybe I'll just go away and find a church and be a good usher. And the thought hit me, and I think it was from God, well, fine, I'll get somebody else. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, you won't. You will not get somebody else, Lord. So help me you. Just a thought, I mean, again, if you are a, I don't know, auto mechanic and you hear about somebody being a very good pastor, you probably say, man, right on, and then that same person says, let me tell you about this wonderful auto mechanic, and it's not you. He's talking about, the antenna goes out. How come I'm not the best one? I'm not promoting this.
I'm not saying I do it, but I know you all do it. So here we have it here. If I were this prophet, I think I'd be pretty disturbed that God had to import a messenger in my theater of operation, and this is part of the story. Oh, imagine in the workplace, you're a Christian, and all of a sudden a new guy shows up who's a Christian, and he's starting to lead people to Christ, and you haven't been saying anything for years.
Man, that would be, how would you, I would adjust by this. Look, I just want to join sides with you now. Maybe the Lord will cut me some slack on this one. Anyway, he lacked integrity.
That's what we're going to find out, and that's one of the reasons why he's bypassed. We've already seen that his kids are around the falls altar, and they're probably young men, and so he's not living like the man of God, and so he could not be assigned to the same role as the man of God was assigned, for the same reason that God would raise up Josiah King and Judah to come up north to Bethel to deal with their idols. He couldn't find a king in the northern kingdom. None of the kings of the north were ever good.
They were all bad, some worse than others, but they were all bad. Ezekiel again, chapter 22, So I sought for a man among them, who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Well, his inaction disqualified him also, continuing in verse 11, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. How would you feel if, you know, someone, your sons came and told you that there was somebody doing your job? They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.
That means the instructions about, I'm not going to stay here, I've got to get out. You would think that this prophet would honor that. He does not. He brings about the death of this man. I don't like this old prophet at this point in the story. I never get keen on him, but he does seem to show like the flame is ignited again.
We'll get to that eventually. Verse 12, And their father said to them, Which way did he go? For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah.
And that is stressed, that he's imported. Why is he interested? He's a spiritual colleague.
Is it envy? Is it that he had hope that maybe this man could reignite the flame that he lost? He's going to go after the man of God.
He becomes the temptation on the alternate route. Verse 13, And then he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him. And he rode on it. Verse 14, And went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.
Well, this man of God, a little naive, and it's going to, again, cost him. We don't have the right. I mean, we goof.
We all goof. How did I miss that? But we should be watching.
I had a platoon sergeant who spent serious time in Vietnam and he would boast, I've been on 78 point missions. He survived. Now he's home. He's safe. He digs again, out of a frying pan, not a can.
And he's, you know, I didn't like him then, but looking back, I'm older and I appreciate what was happening. He was like, I survived. All of the walking point means you're the first guy. You're the one that steps on the landmine first. You're the one that gets shot in the ambush first.
And to survive point is, in a hostile environment like that, is noble. So I don't know why that comes up in the story. Except that he walked like Weeba Wobble. And that was his nickname. But wouldn't tell him to his face.
Anyway, verse 15. Then he said, come home with me and eat bread. Why, why, why should he take him seriously?
Well, we better take the story seriously. He's thinking of himself. He knows that he, the sons have said, we heard what he said to the king, and he said, amongst other things to the king, that he's not to stay here.
He's to go home a different route. They tell that to their father. He takes this information. He confronts the man of God as a prophet. He throws those credentials, I too am a prophet.
And the man of God falls for that line. If someone were to come up to me and say, I'm a pastor, I wouldn't say, okay, so we're buddies. It would be like, I don't know, what do you believe? Just so you know, what are your thoughts on the Trinity? What do you think about the word of God being the word of God? There would be a lot of questions that would have to take place before we could even smile at each other.
Well, he might be doing the smiling, but I'll be doing the watching. Anyway, verse 16. And he said, I cannot return with you or go in with you, neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. Verse 17, For I have been told by the word of Yahweh, you shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came. Okay, so now he gets it right out, straight out. He's told that the man of God clearly understands his instructions.
And, but he's going to, he's going to be distracted to the point where he takes this detour. And the mission forbade social visits with anyone. God didn't say, and leave, don't stay and eat, except the prophet comes to you. There was no footnote added to the commandment. He wasn't to mingle with the people of the land.
Verse 18, He said to him, I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. He was lying to him. Man. So, again, parentheses do not mean unimportant information.
Parentheses mean this is important. And there we have it. He's lying. The man of God does not know it yet. Where's the discernment? He's a bit naive with this whole thing. All he had to do is say, nope, sorry, you're not God.
If God tells me, I'll listen to you. But he's pressured by this, or he may be tired. Evidently, he had a donkey, but he's tired, and he's sitting by the oak. That's not an excuse. Well, the devil came with the temptation when he was tired.
And the angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh. Again, lying about God and about God's word to a man of God. This persistent type, who refuses to take no for an answer, needs to be shut down. At some point in the conversation, it's okay to say, listen, this doesn't work for me.
No. It's one of the hardest words for a human being to have to deal with, is when someone tells them no. And if it comes, who would you rather tell no to, God or the persistent person? And in ministry, for me, I know many times when God's telling me to do something, I'm not even interested in protests or anything. This is what I'm supposed to do. But then most of the time, it's not that way.
I'm interested in what confidants have to say and contribute. But there are those times where, no, I know what I'm supposed to do here. So here he is, nothing to like about this old prophet of Bethel at this point. Paul said it this way to a whole slew of churches, the churches in Galatia. Remember, the Galatian church was not one church like Corinth.
It was a region of churches. And he writes to them. And he says, but even if we or an angel from heaven preached any other gospel to you that we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Anathema. That's pretty heavy stuff. Let him go to hell, then.
That's the bottom line with that. And he says it twice, Paul does. In case you misunderstood what I said, in the same chapter, he says it again. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 1 Kings has had a lasting imprint on your life. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit crossreferenceradio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's crossreferenceradio.com. Our time with you today is about up, but we hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the word of God. Join us again as Pastor Rick covers more in the book of 1 Kings. on Cross-Reference Radio.
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