City of Defects (Part C)

It's not enough to listen to God.

It's not enough. God has designed it that way. Listening to God, yes, but not to people who contradict what has been said. And sometimes being led by God comes with the devil's decoys. Not that God is sending the decoys, He's allowing them of course, but you know, you're being led by the Lord and almost every time I deliver a topical, I really feel like this is what God wants me to say.

At some point, I'm waiting because here it comes. 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. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of 1 Kings chapter 13 as he continues his message, City of Defects. 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 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 has 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? Is it 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, Then he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him. And he wrote 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's eating ham and eggs 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 land mine 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 Weebo 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? 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.

But 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. 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, to churches in Galatia. Remember, the Galatian church was not one church like Corinth.

It was a region of churches. And he writes to them. He says, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach 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. Well, here in verse 18, saying, bring him back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water. And he was lying. God did not tell him to do any of this.

It's okay to offend people if they get offended by what, you know, you're telling them. If it's an honest, no, I don't want to do that. I don't have to do these things.

And here, of course, it's easy. I would rather be alone like Elijah was. Elijah was a prophet that liked to be alone. And I'd rather be alone like Elijah than be surrounded by a bunch of party animals like Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah.

How much did that cost Lot? Anyway, this, later on, this lying prophet is going to receive the Word of God to preach, to share. He's going to prophesy.

And so that will take some time to look at. Verse 19. Before we go to 19, when someone says God said this to me for you, if it's not a confirmation of something God's already been saying, then you probably don't need to listen to them. I'm not talking about a direct thing. I mean, if someone says thou shalt not steal, that's God. I mean, you know, so yeah, well, I've got to hear from God. Well, you just did. That's different.

And things like, I know I'm thinking about moving or taking this job or something like that. And somebody says, the Lord said to me, well, it better match what God's been saying to me, whether it's a no or a yes instead of, God says you go, you take it, you're going to find gold there. Anyway, verse 19. So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

Fatal mistake. 1 John chapter 4. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Wind back again to that man that says, I'm a Christian, but he's abusing his children and he wants to just be accepted nonetheless. He's not repenting. He's not changing. He's learned how to be a serpent. He sneaks through and only those who are looking for serpents can catch him. And this naiveness about, well, you know, he's a Christian.

You got to show him. No, he's a snake in a negative sense, which I don't think there is a positive sense for snakes. Kidding, not kidding. Everybody likes beating up on snakes.

Which would you rather? No snakes, no mosquitoes. That's a toughie. Anyway, coming back to that, then there's ticks, taxes. All right, let's go back. Keep going down the line. It's not enough to listen to God.

It's not enough. God has designed it that way. Listening to God, yes, but not to people who contradict what has been said. And sometimes being led by God comes with the devil's decoys. Not that God is sending the decoys. He's allowing them, of course, but you know, you're being led by the Lord. And almost every time I deliver a topical, I really feel like this is what God wants me to say. At some point, I'm waiting, because here it comes.

Maybe this isn't. And it's usually like an hour left or something. It's the Satan, you know.

He knows he's not going to sway me the other way, but he likes to harass. That's what he does. Verse 20. Now it happened as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back. Well, let's pause here for a minute. So here you are. You're having a meal.

You're just relaxing. And all of a sudden, you're going to get this message of doom that you're going to die. This does not exonerate the old prophet of Bethel or his behavior of lying, for example. It does bring out to the surface that the man of God had no excuse for this. This is not the first time that God has used somebody who's disobedient to deliver his message.

Balaam, for one, to which it endure is another one, and we have it here. God does this to demonstrate he overrules. Whatever's going on, he's still in control. And if he wants to use a stone to praise him, he'll do that.

He's sovereign. The point is, what is your relationship to God and his word? Saul would never have been in that situation had he not gone to the witch. This man of God would not be in this situation wondering if this is God or not had he just listened. Balaam would never have been slain by the Hebrews, the Jewish people, had he remained faithful to God. It's nothing about this is perplexing. It is maybe initially, but after you start boiling it down. And none of them introduced new information.

They were there to deliver established information. Or it may be the exception of Balaam, but the witch didn't light any candles in the dark. I mean, metaphorically speaking. Verse 21, and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah saying, Thus says Yahweh, because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, verse 32, but came back and ate bread and drank water in the place which Yahweh said to you, Eat no bread, drink no water. Your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. If that were me, there would have been a fistfight right on the spot.

All right, it would have been a pillow fight. I mean, come on, the guy has lied to you. Now it's going to cost you your life and you're having a meal and this prophecy comes out.

This is almost cartoonish, but it's real. Just briefly look at me at verse 32 of 1 Kings 13. For the saying, this is the old prophet speaking after the man of God is dead. For the saying which he cried out by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.

Looks like he might have been reignited. It looks like this is what it took, this grave mistake, the cost of this righteous man's life to save his life. We'll come back to that, but he makes this prophecy which the man of God could have said, how can I believe you? How do I know you're not lying this time? Let's see, God passed over you, you lied to me about God, now you're telling me I'm going to die. Well, I think he did know. I think that when God wants his point made, he gives not only the voice, but he reaches the ears of the listener too.

Lying about God is not harmless, and that's what we're seeing. And here in verse 32, his disobedience, the prophet, the man of God, his disobedience put his message in jeopardy, because he told the king he's not to stop and eat anywhere. And the king's going to find out, what? He's at the prophet's house?

I thought he told me he would. How could I believe his prophecy now? Just because he did the altar thing, that didn't go over well. He was disobedient himself and compromised his own witness. The king would have grounds to scoff at God's message. God was not going to have that. The disobedient of the prophet did not cancel the message.

That's another interesting point out of the story. Just because he didn't listen to the whole thing God said, the message was delivered and the message stands. And the judgment on him retains the integrity of the message. Well, Proverbs and Peter, Proverbs 11, if the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner? The Proverbs says if God's going to deal with the righteous people, if he disciplines righteous people, how much worse is it going to be for the person that's unrighteous? Peter picks that up in his first letter. He quotes that verse, but before he quotes it, he says, so the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? So, verse 23, so it was after he had eaten bread and had drunk that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. Verse 24, when he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him and the corpse was thrown on the road and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.

Four times we read about in scripture lions confronting, being used to confront disobedience. Samson was in the vineyard of Timna. Well, he was a Nazarite. He wasn't supposed to have anything to do with the vine. What was he doing in the vineyard?

Well, it's a nice shortcut. He's probably munching on the grapes. The man of Bethel here. Then there's the man of the sons of the prophets in 1 Kings 20, which is probably Micaiah. He also says, strike me, and the man says, I'm not striking you. He says, a lion is going to get you for that, and a lion kills him for that because it was a prophetic word.

It was an order. And then when Samaria is taken by Assyria and then resettled with pagans, lions then become a big problem. That's in 2 Kings.

Well, come to all of that in Kings. Anyway, his corpse was thrown on the road. It reads as though the lion killed him with a violent toss.

Three times the word cast or tossed is used to describe it. So, not so much, you know, chewing on him. I'm sure the mouth was involved. I don't think the lion had a gun.

But, you know, he probably threw him up in the air and broke his neck or something. Anyway, there he is. Verse 25. I have to speed this up a little bit.

We're almost out of time. And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. Well, this kind of reminds us of the judgment for Nadab and Abihu, you know, Sapphir and Ananias.

God sometimes is very firm in his judgment. But here is a lion killing a man from Judah. It's ironic because Judah's emblem is the lion.

And that comes up in Genesis 49 and again in Revelation 5. But, again, the lion did not eat him. And the fact that the lion is standing next to the donkey is just weird because this is not a coincidence.

He's not a hungry lion. There's no explanation except the prophecy. It makes it clear that this is fulfillment of God's word.

And if it came true there, it will come true everywhere else. Verse 26. Now when the prophet had gone, when the prophet who had brought him back from the way he heard it, he said, it is the man of God who is disobedient to the word of Yahweh. Therefore, Yahweh has delivered him to the lion which has torn him and killed him according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke.

He conveniently leaves out the part about he got him to do this. I want to read three verses, but I don't have time. I'll take one. Paul writing to the church at Colossae, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. Take heed. Jesus, Mark chapter 13, 5, take heed. Second Chronicles 29, the king Hezekiah speaking to the priests, he says, my sons do not be negligent now for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that you should minister to him and burn incense.

And he says, do it. And so there are other verses, time again we're out of. Moving to verse 27, he spoke to his son saying, saddle a donkey for me.

So they saddled it. Verse 28, and then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. The mourning was probably very sincere and heartfelt. There's no reason to doubt that this was a serious lamentation that he knew he played a role in this. Verse 30, then he laid the corpse in his own tomb and they mourned over him saying, alas my brother.

Yeah, it's kind of hollow on one point. What makes, what makes it a little bit more meaningful is if this old prophet is revived. About 80 years from now, there's going to be a school of the prophets here in Bethel. Is there a connection? Did he have something to do with it?

How did that happen? He's the only link that we know about. Well, he's not the only, but he would be the first one that we would go to. This promise within this story. So it was after he buried him that he spoke to his son saying, when I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.

What would the epitaph read? Here lies the victim of his liar. I mean, that would be, that would not be, that would be unkind. But you can't lose sight of it. How can you?

You know, you caused this whole thing. The guy would be back in Judah with his, whatever he was doing. Probably had an ice cream stand. Verse 32. For the saying which he cried out by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass. And so there he is agreeing that these places are evil and they need to be dealt with.

And he doesn't dismiss this, and I think this is good. Well, his mention of Samaria. Samaria did not become a city for another 50 years by name. But then it was another 200 years before that region would be called Samaria. So the historian, taking the notes from his predecessors, he puts that in there so his readers can say, oh, okay, he's talking about Samaria by its present name.

No corruption there at all. In fact, a very positive amendment. Verse 33. After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priest from every class of people on the high places whoever wished. He consecrated him and he became one of the priests of the high places.

Not Jeroboam becoming the priest, but whoever he consecrated became the priest. And that is, of course, a sin. Verse 34. For the sin for the Jews. And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

That is the house of Jeroboam. That begins in the next chapter. And again, we meet the prophet Ahijah.

He's old and he's blind by this time, but he can still see spiritually. Let's pray. Now Father, again, we always, at least I'm always hopeful that I do something more with the lessons you give to me. And I would think that would be a shared sentiment from all your people. We ask you in Jesus' name.

Amen. 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.

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