The Man of God and the old Prophet

It was interesting, Mr. Keith gave a sermonette by just going through a story in the Bible. There are times when you're just going through a story. I mean, those stories are there for a reason, because they not only tell, of course, historically what's happened, but there's a lesson in those stories.

Well, today I'm going to go through a story also, a story in the Old Testament that is not mentioned very often. It's a story in which it involves three primary people, and two of them are not named. So we have two people in this story that we don't even know who their name is.

It's a time in the history of Israel that Israel and Judah have divided into two nations, and Jeroboam is the king over Israel. Rehoboam is the king over Judah.

So let's look at 1 Kings 12. We're going to read through this story, talk about it verse by verse, and then we're going to look at the lessons for today, because it would appear that the story has no lessons for today, but it does. A very simple one. In fact, this entire sermon is based on one very simple lesson. We're going to go through the story, but every verse that we're going to look at outside of this story will be in the New Testament, showing how it applies to us today, even though it would seem like in many ways it doesn't. So this gives us an idea of what this environment was like, and what the story took place. 1 Kings 12. Let's start in verse 26.

Jeroboam, who is the king over Israel, Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David.

He was afraid the people would go back to Jerusalem, because that's where the temple was.

It had been one nation under the kingship of David and his family, and now he's looking at it and saying, they're going to go back to the temple. They're going to go back to wanting the house of David ruling over them and ten tribes and followed him. And so he's got to come up with a plan.

If these people go up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord of Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their Lord, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah. So we know his motivation here.

It is to maintain political power. So he's the one person here that we actually know his name.

And what's going to happen is God's reaction to Jeroboam, with these two unnamed people.

Therefore, the king acted vice and made two calves of gold. So he got together his advisors, and this is the plan they came up with. Two calves of gold and said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. It's interesting that a golden calf was created by Aaron. Here's the god that brought you out of, not literally, not this statue. People who worship statues don't believe the statue is the god. They believe the power of the god comes through that statue.

That's always important to remember. I mean, when they created in the Roman times a statue of Zeus, or Jupiter in the Roman world, Zeus in the Greek world, they didn't think that was actually Jupiter because there's hundreds, there's thousands of statues of Jupiter all over the empire.

But there's special connection to him as he rules from Mount Olympus through that statue.

Just like people today who worship in front of a picture of Mary, they know that's not Mary, or a statue of Mary. They believe that the power of Mary comes through that, through this icon, or through the statue. And so here's your god, the god of Israel.

And he sent one up at Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made shrines of the high places, made priests from every class of people who were not the sons of Levi. He even went as far as to change the dates of the Feast of Tabernacles. They were still worshiping Yahweh. They were still worshiping God, but in a different form. His power was being revealed in a different way in these statues. That is the environment in which this story now takes place.

So let's go to 1 Kings 13, and see what lessons here, because it's not apparent at first.

What lessons we learned from this, a simple lesson that is very important in the world you and I live in today. Right? I mean, it's very difficult not to see the negative things happening in the world. I saw a meme the other day of a guy standing outside looking around, he said, oh, I just stepped outside today to see which chapter and revelation we're living.

You know, sort of feels that way, right? Verse 1, Behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. We have no idea what this man's name was.

He's just called a man of God. So here we have the other, you know, one of the other of the three players here in this whole scene. He is sent by God from Judah, and he is a man of God. He's called that throughout the entire passage. And he goes there to confront Jeroboam in the name of God. So it's important to understand this man isn't acting on his own. He's actually sent by God to do this. So he cried out against the altar. So if you will picture, here's the king and his entourage and soldiers and probably thousands of people, and they've got this altar, and here he is doing a sacrifice to the God of Israel. And this guy walks up and shouts so loud, everybody turns and looks at him, and he begins to condemn the king. He's by himself. He has no army with him. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, Oh, altar, altar, thus says the Lord, Behold a child, Josiah, by name shall be born to the house of David, and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense to you, and men's bones shall be burned on you. In other words, God's going to bring about another king, and all you worshippers here, you're going to be sacrificed and killed because of what you're doing. And he gave a sign the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord has spoken, surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out. He says, here's how you will know what I'm saying is true. This altar's going to literally just fall apart. All the ashes of all the sacrifices are just going to spill out and fly all over the place. God's going to destroy your altar. Now at this point, it didn't happen. He just said it.

And Jeroboam, of course, is absolutely furious.

Because here's what he does. So it came to pass in verse 4, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, arrest him, and his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered so that he could not pull it back to himself. So he shouts out, he wants to do violence against the man of God, he shouts out to arrest this man. He gives the command. And what happens? His hand withers, and it's interesting, San Sito Jewish commentary says that it's stiff and mean. He couldn't pull his arm back. His hand withers, and his arm stuck straight out. And there's nothing he could do.

So everybody is seeing this. The hundreds, maybe thousands of people are there, you know, celebrating with the king, doing this pagan worship service in the name of God.

He yells to arrest the man, and his hand withers, and his arm is stuck.

And the man of God just stands there. It's interesting. He didn't say, I will wither your hand. He just stood there. He had come in the power of God, inspired by God, spoken to by God. He did his job. He told them what he was supposed to tell them, and he stood there.

And this is what happens. And then notice next. The altar also was split apart, 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.

It happened exactly like God told him would happen. And he was just standing there.

You know, probably soldiers had started to move towards him, but everybody froze when the king started screaming, right? You have to visualize this. You know, he didn't just stand there and say, oh, look what happened to my hand. He's probably screaming in terror as his hand withers, his arm stiff. He can't do anything. Everybody stops. Nobody's arresting him. You know, if that's what happens to the king, what's going to happen to me, right?

And so everybody's just watching.

Then the king answered and said to the man of God, please entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.

So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as before.

So the man of God simply prays, and the king is healed immediately in front of everybody.

Now, no one's going to argue with him at this point.

Everybody agrees this man has come from God.

God spoke to him, and he's doing what he's supposed to do.

And then the king said something else. Verse 7.

Then the king said to the man of God, come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward. You know, I don't want to even arrest him anymore.

I just want to, you know, really give this man a big reward. Come to the palace.

We'll have a great banquet. Now, I don't know if he's trying to bribe him, or if he's trying to get him to come over and be a priest in his false religion, or if he's just acting out of fear. He just might be absolutely so afraid. Come, let me reward you.

And the man of God tells him, 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 or drink water in this place. He says, no, I won't take your bribe. I won't take your reward. You can offer me, you know, half the kingdom of Israel. And I will say no. And then he tells him what God had told him to do. For it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came. So it went another way, it did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. No, until I get back home, I'm not supposed to eat, drink, and when I go back home, I can't even come the way I came. So don't send out any, you know, probably came the easiest way, the easiest route. Don't send out anybody to assassinate me along the way, because you have no idea where I'm going. And he just leaves. The King Jeroboam standing there, thousands of people, the soldiers, probably all the leaders of Israel, and he just, off he goes.

He leaves. And we don't even know his name.

I mean, this is amazing what he did, or what God did through him. Now, there's another person in this story. So he could Jeroboam, we have the man of God. And that starts in 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 here's an old prophet there in Israel, and he, his sons came and said, you can't believe what we just saw. We were there at the king's sacrifice, and we're in the sacrifice. It's burning. Everybody's celebrating. Everybody's praying. You know, there's probably music being played. And suddenly this guy comes out of nowhere, just walks up, shouts out. We all stop.

He says he's, the king's going to be punished for what he's doing. The king says, arrest him. His hand withers. It's horrible. Everybody's screaming and hollering. The king asked the guy to please pray for him. He prays to God, and God heals him. Then the king offers him a huge reward, and he says, no, I will take your reward and leaves. This is amazing. You can imagine the stories. This is spreading all over Israel. The story of the strange event that had taken place.

So first of all, 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 Judas. And how did he head home then? So they told him.

And he said to his sons, saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he wrote on it. And they went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And when he said to him, are you the man who came from Judah? And he said, I am.

So this old prophet said, saddle my donkey. I've got to go find this man. I've got to talk to this man of God. And so he says to him, come home with me and eat bread. He says, you know, come to my house. Let's sit down. Let's talk. Let's talk about God and his ways and what he's doing. And this is amazing. And he said, I cannot return with you nor go with you. Neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the Lord, you shall not eat bread or drink water there nor return by going the way you came. He said, no, God gave me very specific instructions. Very specific instructions. Here's what I was going to do. Miracles was going to take place. I was going to stand before the king and be unharmed.

He said, so I did. And you know what? He couldn't harm me. And so I'm still fasting until I get home. And I can't go back to where you came from, which was somewhere around Bethel. I have to go home. That's what I was told to do. Okay. Now the story takes a strange turn. Verse 18.

So the prophet said to him, the old prophet, I too am a prophet as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. And in parenthesis in the English Bible it says, he was lying to him.

Now, you've got a younger man, because it stresses that this is the old prophet. You have a younger man, and you have an older man saying, I too am a prophet of God. We all worship God here.

We're the God of Israel, and I've spoken in his name all my life. And an angel came to me and said, no, I'm supposed to take care of you. Makes sense, doesn't it? You're hungry, you're thirsty, you're weak, you're probably exhausted, you've come all the way from Judah, you fasted and didn't drink water the whole way, and now you're going back a different way, that's why he was sitting under an oak tree. He's just resting on this journey.

And so he tells him that. And so he went with him, back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water. And now God speaks through the lying prophet. The false prophet here, now, I'm, this is my guess here, but for the first time in his life, God actually spoke to him.

He now actually gets a message from God. Now what happened is they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you. But you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place in which the Lord said to you, eat no bread and drink no water. Your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers." In other words, you won't be buried with your family. You will die and not be buried with your family. Now what seems strange here? The man who had bade God and was deceived is being judged by God through the false prophet and being punished with death for disobeying him. Now don't forget all the amazing things God did through this man.

Now there's the power of God, and He told everybody in Israel that was there, I have to do this. I cannot eat, I cannot drink, and I have to go back a different way.

One of the proofs of the prophet of God, he had just done something. God took very personal here.

And what He had done, it doesn't seem that bad. I mean, He was lied to, right? He was lied to.

Verse 23, So it was, after He had eaten bread, after He had drunk, that He saddled the donkey for Him and the prophet whom He had brought back. And when He was gone, this is the man of God, a lion met Him on the road and killed Him.

And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it, and the lion also stood by the corpse. Now understand how odd this is. A lion doesn't jump out of the brush, kill a man. The donkey is still standing there. He doesn't attack the donkey, and then stands there and guard over the corpse and the donkey, who's still alive. In other words, this is God's judgment. This is God's judgment. I told you, you will not be buried with your family. Now, I have to say here, there's nothing in this passage that says this is an eternal judgment, by the way. You know, all of us face, because of our sins, even with the mercy of God, temporary judgment and eternal judgment, right? We all know that.

This one was public, because it was to be known how serious God was on His judgment on Jeroboam.

The man sent to give the judgment has to be obedient to God. So, I say that because there's other cases in the Bible where God punishes somebody, but it's not necessarily eternal judgment, but it is the temporary judgment.

And he goes, what about the false prophet here?

That's why now the story even takes a different turn.

Now, when the prophet who had brought him back from the way he heard it, he said, it is the man of God. They came and said, there's this weird thing. There's a lion. He's not aggressive. He's not attacking anybody else. He's not even hungry. He just killed a man, and the donkey's still standing there. He didn't even run off, and it's just sort of sitting there.

And the old prophet said, it is the man of God who is disobedient to the word of the Lord.

Therefore, the Lord has delivered him to the lion which has torn him and killed him according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken to him. I mean, all of a sudden, he has to face, I, the pretender, was actually given a revelation by God, and it has just happened, and he calls him the man of God.

The righteous man sinned because I deceived him, and then God had me telling what was going to happen, and it has happened. You know, what is his response to that?

God's going to kill me? It's interesting. God didn't kill him.

God gave him a different punishment. And he spoke to his son, saying, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled it. And he went and found his corpse, thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. And 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, and brought it back. And so the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. He now has to live with the shame of what he's done.

And he says, no, you don't get off easy.

Back, we're going to write this down. We won't mention you because you're not worthy of being mentioned. The old prophet, the false prophet, who now has to mourn because he is the...

He's not the one who did it because the man of God just... He should have known.

If God tells you something directly, he doesn't change it with an angel through somebody else. He comes and tells you. He should have known that. He let himself be deceived for whatever reason, naiveté, whatever it was. But he was deceived and God punished him for it. Like I said, there's nothing here that says this is an eternal punishment. It was his temporary punishment.

The old prophet lives with his mourning because it says in verse 30, and he laid the corpse in his own tomb. He said he will be buried in my tomb, the place of honor in my family. Then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried, and lay my bones beside him, he says, when I am dead. In fact, it's interesting in verse 30, I missed something. He says, he laid the corpse in his own tomb and they mourned over him, saying, alas, my brother. I deceived this man and he's my brother.

So you make sure he gets the place of honor in our family, and you bury me beside him when I die.

For the saying which he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against the shrines on the high place, which are the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass. He says, now I realize he really was a man of God. I realize, just like he split that altar, what's going to happen to Jeroboam and Israel is going to happen because he truly was of God, and I deceived him. That's how the story ends. The story ends with the no-named man of God dying for not following through everything, not enduring what God had given him to do. Now, I want you to understand how difficult this must be, not eating, not drinking, and walking for miles and miles to show up in an extremely stressful situation and have the courage to do everything he was supposed to do, having the courage to turn down a huge reward, a huge physical reward, walking home, sitting down resting, probably dehydrated, famished, and in that moment, someone came along and deceived him. Is there another story in your mind that comes to point? Remember when Jesus was exhausted and famished and dehydrated on the verge of death because of a lack of food?

That's when Satan said, I got him, and that's when he came.

Don't judge this man too harshly, because this is what happens to all of us. It's in these moments of weakness that Satan comes after us. Jesus succeeded numerous times we don't. Numerous times we don't. But God held both of these men responsible.

The old prophet, we don't know what his name is either, it just left as a shameful man who suddenly realizes this was a true prophet and what he said is going to happen. What did Jeroboam learn? Verse 33. After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places, whoever wished, he consecrated them, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, and here's what was going to happen to him and his family, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth. The house of Jeroboam, God said, will be exterminated from the face of the earth, and it was.

Okay, what does this story mean to us? What in the world? What in the world are the lessons we learn? I mean, the man of God was a special man of God. We're not like that. I mean, God doesn't talk to us directly.

We're not going around doing miracles, right? Withering hands.

But what is the lesson? The lesson is that, or number of lessons, the lesson is that, or number of lessons, we need to learn. The lesson of the lesson is that, or the lesson of the lesson is that, or number of lessons, or number of lessons. But this took place at a time when Israel was degrading and collapsing into absolute rebellion against God.

You and I live in a time when our nation and the entire world is degrading into He had to go the whole journey. He had to do what God told him to do and go the whole journey back. You know, going back, he had to be excited. Wow! Did you see what God did as he stumbled along, thinking, I won't make it back. I'm going to die out here in Judah someplace because I can't make it back. And God kept, yes you can, yes you can. In that moment, someone came along and lied to him.

It deceived him. It deceived him. Okay, what in the New Testament is there for us and this kind of story? Well, let's go to Luke 12. Luke 12. Luke 12 is an entire sermon in itself in this parable. So I'm going to go through it rather quickly, but just to give you the highlights of it. Here's what Jesus tells his disciples, and this comes down to us today as his disciples.

Verse 35, let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. In other words, don't get weary in the journey. Do not get weary in the journey. God has been with you all this time. So when you're weak and you're tired, when it appears, I can't do this journey anymore, remember, he's got to get you home because he said he would. He had told us, I'll get you home. You just got to take it away home, and he can't eat or drink.

Can you imagine being in today's heat and not being able to... Judea was famous in that part of what was Israel at the time, for its oppressive heat at times. The journey was wearing him out. And so for whatever reason, because his reason wasn't evil, he decided, wait a minute, an angel came to you, and he said that God's instructions to me were somehow wrong?

God had changed his instructions to me, but God didn't tell me that. I've got my instructions directed over God. Who is this angel, by the way? And his weakness, he just went nate and drank. So he says here, we have to be ready on this journey, and we have to be prepared all the time. And you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding, and when he comes and knocks, that they may open to him immediately. He says, just think how if you're the servant of a rich man, and he goes off to get married, that means he's bringing his bride back, and so all the servants are prepared to receive the bride and bring him into his house, and that's what they're preparing for.

He says, why don't you look at life that way? You're preparing for the return of... Some people try to mix this with other metaphors. This metaphor is pretty obviously. Let's not try to mix it with something else. Who's the bride? Who's the servant? That's not the point here. The point here is, you're the servant to this one. You're the bride in other ones, in other of the parables. And if you should come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants. Why? Because they're completing the journey. But know this, if the master of the house had known the hour, the thief would come.

He would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect. Now how can we not expect the return of Jesus Christ when we look at all the prophecies? The four horsemen, the tribulation, the rise of the beast. All that's going to happen.

And when it happens, it's not going to be like, wow, we didn't expect that, or we didn't know that had happened. It's all going to happen. These are huge events. Peter didn't know what he was meant because Peter says, Lord, do you speak this parable only to us or is it for everybody? Is this like just for us? Is it for the world? Is it for the other Jews? We don't understand what you're talking about. And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will make him ruler over all that he has. Now there's what he says. It's, I'm talking to you. You're the ones I'm working with right now for the return, for when the master comes back, which is himself. Verse 45, but if that servant, and this is the great warning to us, we have to think of that man of God who in the weakness, exhaustion, just sort of let himself get deceived.

But if that servant says in his heart, My master is delaying his coming, begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards. Two things here. They begin to simply live lifestyles like the world. Lifestyles like the world. Interesting, he didn't say they give up all the doctrines. They just give lifestyles like the world. Two, they abuse and mistreat other Christians. He says that is what's going to happen.

Servants are going to do that. And then this is a frightening statement. Sometimes we almost take the teaching of eternal judgments and create a universal salvation. There is no universal salvation. We're very serious about who becomes part of his family. And judgment is now on the house of God. So, sinful lifestyles and just beating and mistreating fellow Christians. This is where we are. These servants. He says, the master of that servant when he comes on a day when he's not looking for him, and in an hour when he's not aware, it will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

In other words, he will be thrown out of the kingdom of God. So this warning is very, very powerful. And then he says something else. And that servant who knew his master's will did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

In other words, he says now there's other servants who sort of had the knowledge, but they didn't know how to live it. They didn't work properly. They didn't develop properly. They stayed, they believed in the master, stayed sort of faithful to the master, but they weren't prepared for the master. He says they're not thrown out, but boy are they going to have a hard time because they're going to be corrected.

They're going to be beaten. In other words, in this life, these people will suffer greatly in order to be in the kingdom. So there's service like that. But he doesn't say they'll be thrown out with the unbelievers. It says they will be beaten. That's a little uncomfortable, isn't it? Because this is Jesus talking about his servants. They'll be beaten. And then, verse 48, But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few.

He says now there's other servants who, for whatever reason, they only had limited knowledge, limited understanding. Yeah, they'll have to be corrected. But it won't be near as much correction as the one who knew and didn't do it. And it sure won't be like the one who knew and just lived totally sinful lifestyles and beat other Christians. Now, they receive a different judgment.

And then listen to the rest of this. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed, to him they will ask the more. A lot has been given to us. I believe that. I don't know why. It wasn't because we're special. It's because the mercy of God. A lot has been given to us. And we will be judged by what we understand and do and know. On the journey home, after the great work, is when the man of God was deceived.

He did not endure quite to the end. Like I said, I do not believe that falls into the category of being cast in with the unbelievers. But it was a hard judgment, wasn't it? Because as he got on his donkey and started riding home, he knew God was going to kill him. When he heard that lion come out of the brush, he probably simply prayed.

I don't know. He didn't run off and join Jeroboam. He simply went home. Went home. Waiting for the punishment that he knew would come from God. He didn't even defend himself, it appears, before God that we know. Of course, I don't know what he was praying about all the time. In Ephesians 5, Paul points out all kinds of sins. All kinds of sins in the world. And then he says, don't be deceived by empty words.

He tells the church there, don't be deceived by empty words. Where people come along and tell you things that you know aren't right. But somehow they convince you, just like... He was convinced that an angel had talked to this guy and told him to do something the opposite of what God had told him to do. That's why in 1 John 4, 1, we're told to try the spirits. In other words, when someone tells us to do something, and the world is going to keep telling us, it doesn't matter.

If you love, if you truly love, LGBTQ doesn't matter. If you truly follow God, then you know that all paths lead to God because God loves everyone. Those lies will seep into our lives, and they are lies from false prophets. And we have to recognize that, and we can't get, allow ourselves in our tiredness on this journey, on the oppressiveness of this journey.

We can allow ourselves to let our guard down. The man of God just did not discern the dishonest intent of the old prophet. Oh, a fellow prophet! Somebody who's trying to obey God. We can't be deceived by somebody who's trying, quote-unquote, to obey God. As I said, I believe we're watching the events that will lead to the coming tribulation. Now, I'm not saying it's happening tomorrow. There's a lot of stuff that has to happen before the beast actually rises out of the sea in Revelation 13, and those things haven't happened yet.

But they could. They could. You know, if East Trump is coming up, we'll be talking about some of those things, rehearsing things that we all know. But sometimes we forget. On this journey, we have to remember to get back to Judah. We can't get distracted. He was supposed to go back to Judah by lies. So let's go to Matthew 24, and let's look at, really, the whole summation of this sermon for us, where we can learn what the man of God lost for a little bit, and what the old prophet learned through his terrible sin.

Jesus talks about what's going to happen in the time he calls the beginning of sorrows. Before the tribulation, the beginning of sorrows. And the beginning of sorrows is the total disintegration of the entire world into chaos. And that chaos is going to come into the people of God if we're not careful, because we live in it. We live in it. Verse 8 says, all these are the beginning of sorrows. He just told all these things are going to be happening in the world.

And now he switches to the church. And it's all of that prophecy he switches to the church. That they shall deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. This is actually the beginning of the tribulation then.

It's the fifth seal when the actual martyrdom of the church begins. Not all the church, but part of the church. So this is the beginning of the tribulation, after the beginning of sorrows. So this isn't here yet. And then many will be offended. Who's the day here? The world? Offended by what? They're already rebelling against God. He's talking here about the church being offended. And many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another.

That's what he says will happen to the people of God. And we can't let that happen to ourselves. It's going to happen to some, because he said it would. But like the man of God, what he didn't do was stay focused on this simple, you know, don't eat, don't drink, and go home.

After all the great things, he lost that simple idea, really what it comes down to for us. Daily living the life as a Christian. Daily living what God wants of us. Daily living being part of the body of Christ. That's what's required.

Not withering the hands of kings. That's where he lost it. He lost his focus. That many false prophets will rise up and seceive many. Religious confusion is going to be part of the great end time. The false prophet is just one facet of the religious confusion that's going to go on. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will go cold. And lawlessness is just throughout our society, isn't it?

It's a lawless society with no real justice. But he who adores to the end shall be saved. And there it is. There it is. The man of God didn't adore to the end. It cost him his life. Not his salvation. I don't think it does appear it cost him his salvation. It cost him his life. You and I have to endure to the end. As I've said before, that means we have to disengage from all the negativeness. But it will be oppressive to us.

You can't help it. As we try to live righteous lives, we are oppressed by the world we live in. That's what it is to be a Christian. You and I must endure to the end. And with the man of God, it was the simple things. That's where he lost his focus. Our focus every day is on our prayer, our study with the Bible, our living every day to live the positive way of God.

Every day where we are kind, we are obedient, we are faithful to God. We practice what we preach every day in the little things. That's what it's all about now. So I encourage all of you to be aware more and more of the deception that is in the world. Stay close to God and remember that promise, because understand, it is a promise. It says, if you adore to the end, Christ said, you will be saved.