Once more it is even-tied and we,
Oppressed with various ills drawn near.
What if thy voice we cannot hear?
What if thy face we cannot see?
We know, we feel, that thou art here.
Thy touch is still, is ancient power.
No word from thee can footless fall.
Here, in this solemn evening hour, and in
thy mercy, Heal us all, for Jesus' sake,
Amen.
And the chapter that we are going to
be thinking about Is the 13th chapter of
1 Kings.
Now at first glance, this is a very
unusual story.
A very unusual story indeed.
It's a very long chapter.
The verses themselves are long.
And there are 34 of these verses.
So in effect, we have really a four
column Write up on this one story, concerning
this one young prophet.
And we never hear of him again.
He comes on to the stage unheralded.
We know nothing about him before he comes.
But he comes with a very definite word
from God.
He fulfills that word.
Obviously, his heart's passion is to do the
will of God in all its fullness.
Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
And yet, after having fulfilled God's commission perfectly,
He falls, he falters, he fails, he is
misled.
His eyes for one moment are distracted from
the main aim.
And that is why I call our message
tonight, the tragedy of deflected aims.
One of the wonders of the Bible is
the way it's so full of humanity.
It's full of human interests, stories.
Every phase of life you'll find here.
And the controlling motives behind these stories.
The deepest desires and the pathetic tragedies.
The hidden conflicts, the creative joys and sorrows.
They're all revealed to us with amazing likeness
to our own experience.
I have been many a time surprised at
the way in which young people have come
to me and said, Just what is the
meaning of the Old Testament to us today?
Isn't this something that we have gone long
past?
Is there any need for us to go
back to the Old Testament when we have
all the wonder of the New Testament here?
I have really been surprised at this kind
of question.
Because in actual fact, the Old Testament is
the illustration book, if you like, of the
great New Testament truths.
If you like, the New Testament is the
textbook.
But the Old Testament is the picture book.
And in a very real sense, we see
every one of the great principles of the
New Testament carried out and illustrated in a
very remarkable way in the Old Testament.
And this is exactly what we see in
this chapter.
It's told in very great detail.
And that in itself singles it out as
a unique story.
When the Holy Spirit sets himself to record
an incident in great length and in very
exact detail, we can be sure that he
has some very special purpose in doing so.
And this is exactly what happens in this
thirtieth chapter of 1 Kings.
It's very similar to many other stories.
As a matter of fact, it's paralleled almost
in the occasion when Aaron turned aside with
Moses up on the mountaintop.
And Aaron turned aside to idolatry, unthinkable idolatry,
and led the people in that idolatry.
Or when Samson was turned aside through the
wiles of Delilah to his own destruction.
Or when Solomon was turned aside from great
wisdom to great vanity.
Or when Judas was turned aside from being
one of the disciples of the Master to
the one who betrayed him for thirty pieces
of silver.
Or like Demas who forsook Paul, having loved
this present world.
Or like the Galatians themselves, the Galatian church
who were bewitched by some enchantment that turned
them from their Lord.
It happened in all these cases and it's
happening still today.
And it may well be that there are
men and women in this congregation here tonight
of whom this is true.
If we were to write the human interest
story of your life tonight, if it were
possible for us to see it, this is
what we would say.
That your life as of now is an
exemplar of a tragedy, of a deflected aim.
That your life has been turned aside from
seeing and from following God's best.
Now this is the kind of thing that
we see in this story of this prophet.
Obviously a young man and he is anonymous.
We do not know what his name was.
And he was sent by God with a
very definite message to King Jeroboam.
Now who was King Jeroboam?
Jeroboam was the first king of the northern
kingdom.
You know the story and I haven't time
tonight to go into the story of how
the kingdom was divided.
And there came to be two kingdoms, the
northern and the south.
It's a fascinating story.
Why just two weeks ago when I was
down in Schenectady, I was asked if I
would speak to the university and college group
at half past nine in the morning.
And we did so.
And it was just fascinating to see the
way in which their eyes and minds were
riveted on this story as we began the
development of the history and the breakdown of
the kingdom.
How it happened.
God never intended that the kingdom should be
divided.
But the kingdom was divided.
And the first king of the northern kingdom
was Jeroboam.
And after Jeroboam came to the throne, he
saw to it that the people in the
northern kingdom should not travel south to Jerusalem
at the times of high festival.
There was great danger if they went there
because there was always the possibility that their
hearts might be turned again to follow Judah.
And so Jeroboam made golden casts.
And at Dan in the north and Bethel
in the south, that's the south of the
northern kingdom, just at the borderline, away up
there north at Dan and then at Bethel,
he established two great centers of religious worship.
And there he made a calf so that
they were to worship the people.
And he said, these will be your gods,
O Israel.
Jeroboam wasn't the first man to use religion
in the game of politics.
And he won't be the last.
It's still being used.
It's still being used very greatly in our
own country of Canada.
At the present time.
But it certainly was his objective at this
point.
The people must not go south of the
border.
Because if they go south of the border,
they might not want to come back again.
And yet there was the impulsion, compulsion and
impulse within their hearts to worship.
You see, there is the God-shaped blank
in every life and the necessity for worship.
And if the true God be taken away,
man will still make for himself gods.
Well, Jeroboam set himself as king, was established
as king.
And he, having done this and having ordained
that there should be these places of worship
for Dan and Bethel, God sent a messenger
to him.
And it's this messenger with whom we are
concerned, this young prophet.
There came a man of God out of
Judah, from the southern kingdom, Judah.
There came a man out of Judah by
the word of the Lord to Bethel.
And Jeroboam was standing there by the altar
to burn incense.
And this young man cried, O altar, altar,
thus saith the Lord.
Behold, a child shall be born to the
house of David, Josiah by name.
Now this is prophecy, because Josiah is not
going to be born for many years yet.
But Josiah is going to be born.
And he says, continuing his message, 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.
Now imagine Jeroboam listening to this.
This young upstart prophet, daring and deigning to
make a proclamation like this in his presence.
It came to pass when the king heard
the saying of this man of God, that
he cried against the altar.
He put forth his hand from the altar
saying, Lay hold of him!
Lay hold of him!
And the hand that King Jeroboam stretched out,
pointing to this prophet, suddenly withered up.
It became like a leprous hand, so that
he could not pull it again.
To him.
And in the very moment in which that
happened to the king, the altar was wrecked.
And ashes were poured out from the altar,
just as the prophet had said.
Now here was a dreadful condition of things.
What did Jeroboam do?
Let us not forget that Jeroboam had known
the truth in his earlier days.
And Jeroboam asked this prophet, Pray for me.
Entreat the face of the Lord thy God,
that my hand may be restored again.
And the man of God, besought the Lord.
And miracle happened.
Now you may get the impression that the
whole of the Old Testament is full of
miracle.
But in actual fact, not so.
There is miracle in the first, second, third
chapters of the book of Genesis.
There is a great record of miracle in
the days of the deliverance of the children
of Israel from Egypt.
And there is a great record of miracle
in the time when prophecy began.
God sealed the word of the prophet with
miracle.
And so in the lives of Elijah and
Elijah, we have many instances of unusual miracle.
And this happens immediately.
He besought the Lord and the king's hand
was restored him again and became as it
was before.
And the king said to the man of
God, Come home with me and refresh thyself.
And I will give thee a reward.
And the man of God said to the
king, If you will give me half of
your house, I won't go in with thee.
Neither will I eat bread nor drink water
in this place.
Because I was charged by my Lord, Eat
no bread, drink no water, nor turn again
by the same way that thou camest.
And so when the king, having failed to
terrorize this prophet, and having failed now by
flattery and by the promise of reward to
woo him over to his side and to
take him home to supper, so to speak,
we are left with the prophet.
Jeroboam for the moment is set aside.
And this young prophet who had been sent
by the Lord from the kingdom of Judah
north to Israel and who had come to
Bethel and so wonderfully fulfilled this commandment as
it was commanded unto him to declare, This
young prophet goes back to Judah another way.
Because God has said, Eat no meat, drink
no water, and come not back by the
way that you came.
And so we read, He returned not by
the way that he came to Bethel.
Now, this is where we begin to pass
into the realm of shadowed tragedy of another
sort.
The history of Jeroboam itself is one of
terrible tragedy.
And yet there's a sense in which there's
a measure of grandeur about Jeroboam.
He was a man's man.
He was unafraid.
He was a great leader of men.
And there's no doubt about it that he
had occupied a significant place in history.
Though he made Israel to sin, and though
the epitaph that is read continually throughout these
writings is that Jeroboam who made Israel to
sin is his epitaph.
Yet nonetheless, there's a certain grandeur about his
figure.
But now another man steals out of the
shadows and creeps for a moment into the
light.
And I want to read this to you.
And I know you're listening intently.
Now, there was dwelling an old prophet in
Bethel.
If he was old, it means that he
had at one time known the truth.
He knew God's way.
But he had stayed on in Bethel after
the institution of false worship and false gods.
There was living an old prophet in Bethel.
And his sons came and told him everything
that had happened to the king.
All the works that the man of God
had done that day in Bethel, the words
he had spoken to the king, them they
told also to their father.
Now he was an old prophet.
Probably by this time he was inactive.
It may well be that he wasn't able
to go as fast as once he could.
But he had his sons to help him.
And their father said to them, how did
he go?
Which way went he?
His sons had seen the way that the
man of God went, who came from Judah.
It's interesting to note how the world is
always watching the people of God.
And they know what we're doing.
He said to his sons, saddle me the
ass, saddle me the horse.
And so they saddled him the horse and
he rode their arm.
And he went after the man of God.
And he found him sitting under an oak.
And he said to him, are you the
man that came from Judah, the prophet?
And he said, yes.
Then he said to him, come home with
me and eat bread.
And he said, that's the prophet, the young
prophet.
I may not return with thee, nor go
in with thee.
Neither will I eat bread nor drink water
with thee in this place.
Because it was said to me by the
word of the Lord, you mustn't eat bread
or drink water or turn to go by
the way that you came.
And up to this point, everything is right.
But listen, this old prophet said to him,
I am a prophet too, just as you
are.
And an angel spoke to me saying, bring
him back with thee to your house, so
that he may eat bread and drink water.
What do you do?
He is an aged servant, an old prophet
who says, I've heard the voice of an
angel.
And this angel said to me, you have
to come back.
But you know, the last five words of
verse 18 are these.
But he lied to him.
God help the minister.
God help the priest who has to turn
to lying in order to try and influence
a younger preacher.
I tell you, men and women, their pride
has not died from the earth.
We still have them.
And when I think of some men who
should have known much better, some men who
in their earlier days knew what it was
to be within the true fellowship of God
and rejoiced therein and took part in the
ministry.
But as time went on and they married
and settled down and the family came, and
bit by bit, they began to lose their
enthusiasms.
And bit by bit, they began to make
this particular plan to play with the world
around them.
And bit by bit, they gradually slipped away
from the absolutely razor edge of the true
ethic of God as revealed in the Holy
Scriptures.
And then pass this on to other younger
men in the name of truth.
You've seen this happen.
I've seen this happen.
Over and over and over again, he lied
to him.
But what was the young prophet to do?
We read in verse 19, So he went
back with him and ate bread in his
house and drank water.
Now remember, God had told him that he
should not do this.
And is God a God who changes his
word?
Is God a God who is changeable, like
the variableness of the weather?
Is our God like that?
I want to tell you that when God
reveals to you his perfect will, he won't
change that will, even though the voice comes
through others who say that they have heard
a voice from above declaring to them what
is right for you.
You get your commission direct from God and
from no one else.
And the first great lesson really comes to
me out of this tremendous passage is this,
that once a man knows the will of
God, he must do that will and nothing
else, nothing else.
Turn neither to the right nor to the
left.
With fingers stop your ears and never mind
their jeers.
Just keep along the middle of the king's
highway.
This is what we are summoned to do,
to do the will of God and to
fulfill his commandment.
But here this old prophet came and he
lied to him.
And the young prophet went back and ate
meat in his house.
And drank.
There is one standard that you and I
should observe and it's this, the will of
God, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
That's the call that comes to us from
God.
And God's will is really very clear, very
clear indeed.
You may say to me, how am I
to know the will of God?
Well, what are you to do tomorrow?
You've got your place of business to go
to, have you?
You go to work tomorrow and you know
that one of the first things that you
have to do in business is to be
absolutely truthful.
Who taught you that?
The word of God taught you that.
You know that the word of God teaches
you to be considerate of others.
You know that the word of God teaches
you that love thinketh no evil and that
love doesn't rejoice in iniquity.
That love bears all things, forbears all things.
That when true love is within our heart
and when the love of God has been
shed abroad in our heart, then it is
possible for us to encompass others and to
live and work beside others.
Even if their dispositions are sharp and rugged
and edgy, it is possible for us to
live and to work beside them and to
show the Spirit of Jesus Christ to them.
There is no question as to what the
will of God is.
You are commanded in the word of God
to honor your parents.
Honor thy father and thy mother, for this
is the first commandment with promise.
And you say to me, my father and
my mother, they do things that I just
feel completely wrong.
They do things that I just can't understand
and could never follow.
Nonetheless, nonetheless, recognize that your parents have a
particular place in the economy of God in
your life and that in the measure in
which you honor them, there is going to
be blessing poured back into your life.
Sometimes you will honor your parents by saying
absolutely no to what they request of you.
That is very, very possible because they can
be pursuing a course that is very wrong
as this old prophet was.
And sometimes it is very necessary for you
to say, I will not eat, I will
not drink, for thus it was commanded me
by my Lord.
You see, you go out into business tomorrow,
absolutes, the absolutes of the moral law, the
great absolutes.
Ah, you are working together with other people.
Can you play fast and loose with other
people?
You're a married man, you're a married woman.
Can you be easy and easygoing in your
attitude with the other sex?
Can you, if you're truly a Christian?
Of course not.
The law of God is absolute.
The law of God is clear.
There is no question about it.
For this cause shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto
his wife and they twain shall be one
flesh.
This is the law of Christian marriage.
And so on.
Right down the line the will of God
is made absolutely clear.
In all these great ethical imperatives, the categorical
imperative of God reaches to your heart and
conscience and you know what you ought to
do.
You know it.
But above that there is the specific will
of God for you.
The particular will of God, the particular plan,
the particular blueprint that God has for your
life.
God had a blueprint for the life of
this young prophet.
And from all eternity I believe God had
planned that this young prophet should declare the
testimony that he did.
And he did it.
And he fulfilled the word and the will
of God.
And God had planned that it should be
so.
And God has his own plan for you.
And I tell you there is only one
thing in life worth doing.
And that is the will of God.
Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
And when once God has revealed his will,
do it regardless of consequences.
Regardless.
Of consequences.
Once a man knows the will of God,
he must do that.
But we must read on.
You know there's a second thing just to
note.
And let's note it as we pass by.
Let's note it.
I see our time is gone.
But I must say this.
Do you know this story teaches me that
temptations once overcome have a habit of coming
back.
Have you ever noticed that?
No doubt this young prophet felt.
That he had done what was asked of
him when he said to the king.
I will not go back to your palace.
I will not enter into your palace.
I will not eat.
I will not drink.
I will not go back the way that
I came.
I'm out to do the will of God.
And Jeroboam for some reason or other let
him go.
But you see temptations once overcome have a
habit of coming back.
And that's what happened to this young prophet.
Winning in the case of the king and
losing in respect to this old sinner of
a preacher.
Perhaps the guard of the young prophet was
down.
Because he was found under an oak tree.
Perhaps he was in a moment of reaction
from high endeavor.
And that so very often is the devil's
opportunity.
And the devil tempted him again.
And the devil won the second time.
There is no time in life in which
we can relax our watchfulness.
Perhaps you're getting on in business.
It's good.
You've got promotion.
And in the act of it you've thanked
God for his goodness.
But perhaps you fail to see the temptation
that this very promotion has brought.
You've got different types of people now.
You've come up into an echelon let's say
in this promotion.
In which you're now on a first name
basis with the president.
Okay.
You know the devil will attack you at
that level with the identical temptation that he
attacked you.
When you're on the first rung of the
ladder.
And what at one time you won you
may lose.
If you don't watch and pray.
You see the world will often set us
in such a way as to draw us
to itself.
The world will so very often forge their
will around us.
And we'll find ourselves selling our soul for
money.
It may well be that we say to
one another well this is a family trait.
We'll do anything.
Anything for money.
God deliver us from the curse of money.
God save us from ever becoming attached to
money.
God has sometimes had to do some terrifying
things.
When I think of some of the things
that have happened within this congregation.
In the past 15 years the men who
made a lot of money.
And in the making of a lot of
money for God.
God.
I tell you I tremble.
I tremble and so should you.
From the love of money may God deliver
us.
The devil will tempt you along that line.
But whatever line is most likely to win
he will tempt you.
He will tempt.
He will try.
And he will test.
And temptations that once you thought had been
put completely behind you.
Have a way of resurrection.
And you find yourself being attacked all over
again.
Now there's one final thing I want to
say.
And if you want to be with us
at the continuation of this story.
You'll need to come up to Elam Lodge.
But the final thing I want to say
is this.
That some of our souls most searching trials
very often come over little things.
After all what's wrong in going in to
take a meal with a king.
Or what's wrong in going in to drink
water with an aged prophet.
What's wrong?
Very simple thing.
And yet this is how life works.
And he that is faithful in that which
is least is faithful also in that which
is great.
And when God can trust us in the
little things.
He can trust us in the big things.
He can put us anywhere he likes.
Once we have demonstrated that we can be
true to him in the things that are
least.
The temptation to this young prophet as I've
said came just over the eating of a
meal.
A tiny thing and there may be some
very small thing in your life.
Some very small thing.
Something you'd like to do and you're not
sure about it.
By all means discover for yourself.
Listen to what others have to say.
Young people listen to parents.
Listen to what they have to say.
But in the end of the day you
have to make up your own mind.
And your parents if they are wise they
will insist that you make up your own
mind on these things.
Sometimes it's a very little thing.
Just a very very little thing on which
temptation will win.
What did God do?
Do you know what God did with this
young prophet?
God took this young prophet right out of
this mortal scene.
As we would say in modern times his
life was snuffed out on the highway.
It didn't exactly happen that way.
But when he was gone a lion met
him in the way and slew him.
It's the same thing.
And God speaks to us tonight.
And I believe that God speaks to us
in the person of Jesus Christ his son.
To whom all the scriptures give testimony.
And God says to us tonight.
It is only in the power of my
son that you will be able to overcome.
He will keep you from falling.
He is able to deliver you from temptation.
He is able to present you faultless before
the presence of the glory of God.
He is able.
He can.
He is able.
Oh turn then to him and let Jesus
Christ be the center and circumference of your
life.
And begin to live for God.
Begin to live for God with such a
dimension of strength that you will come all
things but lost for the excellency of the
knowledge of your Savior.
This to you will be life and life
eternal.
This to you will be the life more
abundant.
And this is the life that is offered
unto you through Jesus Christ.
Go in for God's best.
Choose his will and do it.
Our Father and our God we thank you
for the way in which there is so
much of revelation here of the will of
our Father.
We want to know and to do that
will.
We pray that by the Holy Spirit's power
you will break through the barricades that we
have erected in the heart of our personalities.
And that you will come to us yourself
tonight in all your glory.
And that you will show to us that
there is a way.
The way of holiness.
And on that way you want us to
walk, help us to walk.
Upon it we pray through Jesus Christ, Amen.