THIS IS WHAT HE SAID!

Beware of the Old Prophet of Bethel:

A Sermon preached by DR. IAN R. K. PAISLEY

We want to look at the character, at the Crime and at the Condemnation of the man of God from - Judah.
This man of God had a commission from the Lord in a day of political and religious unrest in the history of God's earthly people.
Solomon died. Rehoboam came to the throne. Rehoboam adopted a wrong philosophy. There was a rebellion. Jeroboam led this rebellion and became king of Israel. The kingdom divided into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Judah. Then Jeroboam, in order to reinforce his hold upon the people, decided that they should not go yearly to the Passover at Jerusalem for if they did their hearts would return to their former [10] allegiance to the house of David. So he decided to set up a counterfeit religion. He decided to erect counterfeit altars. He decreed to have a religion established that was peculiar to the northern kingdom. Now, of course in doing so he was rebelling against the Lord Jehovah.
On one special day when Jeroboam was going to dedicate his new altar at Bethel (and Bethel, of course, means the house of God - Not every place that calls itself the house of God is the house of God) God sent this man to do a job.

ONE: HIS CHARACTER
Now the first thing I want you to notice about his character was that he stood up to the test of danger. It was no easy job to go and cry against the apostate king. Those of us who have cried out against apostasy know that! it was no easy job to cry against apostate priests. We have cried out against apostate clergymen and we know that it is no easy task. It was no easy job to defy the common people. If you turn back to a previous chapter, I Kings chapter twelve and verse eighteen, there was a man who went to do a job for king Rehoboam called Adoram, and when he went to the northern kingdom they stoned him to death. So this was a dangerous task.
I want to say that those of us who are called to witness for Christ in this twentieth century will find it is a dangerous task we are called to do. We live in a day. of religious and political agitation and upheaval through the world, and God's man never had a palatable or pleasing message to proclaim.
This man of God stood up to the danger test. He was prepared, no matter what happened to him personally, to discharge God's commission.

THE TEST OF REVENGE
The second thing we notice about his character is that he stood up to the test of revenge.
You see when he delivered the message the king said "Seize him! Arrest him!" But when the king put forth his hand God smote the hand and he was unable to do the job he wanted to do.
Thank God, when we are serving God, He can restrain the hands of evil men who would reach out after us. We have proved that in our ministry. Men reached out their hands against us and God paralysed their hands. They could not do the job which they wanted to do.
The old king prayed and said, "Call upon God for me." I want you to notice he did not say, "Call upon my God." He had set up a false religion and a false altar, but he acknowledged that there was only one true God.
I tell you when men really get into a corner and their backs are against the wall they do not then call upon the gods of apostasy. They call upon the true and living God.
There is a story told during the war of an old sergeant standing in a canteen calling for liquor and as he called for liquor he shouted "There is no God!" There was a young soldier boy in the canteen and he looked at him, and he [11] said to him, "Sergeant, if there is no God who were you praying to at Dunkirk, I saw you on your knees. If there is no God who were you praying to?"
I tell you when men get their backs against the wall, when they come to the end of themselves then they know there is a God.
That prophet from Judah, the man of God, could well have said "You can have your paralysed hand, I am not going to lift a hand to help you." But his character stood up to the test of revenge. He prayed for his enemies!
It is our duty, no matter how we have been hated and maltreated by men, that when they ask for our prayers and our help, we give them our prayers and our help. The test of true sterling Christian character is to stand up to the test of revenge.

THE TEST OF FELLOWSHIP
I want you to notice that he stood up to the test of fellowship. This is the big test today, is it not? Who shall we fellowship with? The king said to the man of God, "Come home!" Look at it! That is what the pope is saying to us: "Come home you separated brethren, Come home." That is what the whole World Council of Churches is about: "Why do we not come under the same roof and why do we not refresh ourselves together?" they say.
The prophet's character stood up to the fellowship test! God said "You will not eat bread nor drink water, nor go under a roof in this apostate place. You have neither part nor lot in this thing." So he stood up to the fellowship test.

THE TEST OF BRIBERY
He stood up to the bribery test. The old king said "I will reward you." There is many a man in Ulster today and he is in the apostasy. It is so many thousands of pounds a year and a house which keeps him in apostasy. Bribery! But the man that has character says "No, I will not take your bribes. I will not have fellowship with you. I have no feelings of revenge against you. There is no hatred against you, but I hate the things you do and detest your evil practices." This man had character. God give us the character that this man had.

TWO: HIS CRIME
Let us look at his crime. We come now to the sad part of the story. "Him that standeth take heed lest he fall." Every fundamentalist preacher across the world should read this chapter and ask God to apply its warning to his heart. Every fundamentalist church, that takes a separatist stand against the awful apostasy of our day, should read this chapter and heed its awful warning.
Alas, we have the sad crime of this man.
We had an illustration of this when we travelled to New Luce. We saw the old parish church where Alexander Peden ministered. The day that the drunken Parliament of Edinburgh closed the pulpits of Scotland's Kirks to the [12] Covenanters, old Peden shut the door of his pulpit and took his Bible and knocked three times upon the closed door and said "I arrest thee that no one enters thee except he enters as I have done by the door." Yes and for the whole time of the covenanting struggle the pulpit of Alexander Peden was vacant.
No apostate curate under Sharp ever entered that pulpit to preach another gospel. But in the passing of the years the Church of Scotland had its great apostasy and then its disruption under Chalmers. Chalmers came out and formed the Free Church of Scotland and in that village I took the people to see the Peden Memorial Free Church.

A SAD STORY
The Free Church of Scotland succumbed to the apostasy with the United Presbyterians. The large group of the Free Church, as it then was, united with the United Presbyterians, has gone back into the Church of Scotland. There is still a remnant of the Free Church of Scotland witnessing but the vast majority went back to the Church of Scotland. What is the result? That Free Church in New Luce is now closed. It is boarded up, the weeds growing round it and the windows bricked up. A silent, eloquent and sad commentary on compromise.
The best preacher can fall. The greatest fundamentalist leader can compromise.

HE STOPPED ON THE WAY BACK
Let us look at this book of I Kings chapter thirteen. What did this man of God do? The first thing, "He stopped on the way back," that was his crime. God said "Keep going," but this man stopped. I believe that he stopped to consider how well he had done. I think he said "I have done well. I went down among the king and the priests and the people. I really rebuked them."
He smiled as he reflected "The old king put out his hand and he could not touch me. The altar was broken and the ashes were poured out. I did a good job!
Then he said to himself "Ay, and when the king offered me money, I would not take it. I would not go to his palace or fellowship with him."
My friend, if you stop in the path of duty and start to think about your achievements, you are ready for a fall.
"He stopped on the way back."

HE LINGERED
Then the next thing he did, he lingered too near the place of temptation. You know friend, when temptation comes you have to flee from it. You have to put the greatest distance between yourself and the temptation. "Flee youthful lusts." We have to flee away from the place of temptation. This man stopped too near the dangerous place.
I tell you friend, there are many Christians who are too near the world for safety. There are many Christians who are too near to evil practices for safety.
This man of God lingered too near the place of temptation.

HE ENTERED INTO DIALOGUE WITH AN APOSTATE
I want you to look down that chapter. You know the basis of dialogue is this, [13] that I will admit that a Roman Catholic priest, a modernist preacher, and a liberal professor are true Christians, that they are in the same position and on the same plain as I am. So I can talk to them. It is not debate. Debate is a different thing. When I debate with a person I debate because I disagree with him. I condemn his Position. I seek to publicly refute it and overthrow it and if needs be convince him of his error. Dialogue starts with the idea that we are all Christians, we are all servants of Christ, all churches are part of Christ's body, and so we should discuss together.

DIALOGUE
Look at this chapter thirteen of I Kings verse eighteen. The old apostate said to the man of God: "I am a prophet also as thou art." That is the basis of dialogue. "We are all together in this, I am a prophet just like you." He could not have been a prophet just like the man of God. If he had been a man of God there would have been no need for the man of God to travel from Judah. If he had been a faithful man of God, God would have used him.
We have the dialogue! Once you start to hob nob with the agents of Satan you are going to be in real trouble. Once you start to try and find some common ground between the doctrines of hell and the doctrines of heaven you are in trouble.
The mighty man that did the job for God started to dialogue with apostasy. How sad this story is.

DISOBEYED GOD
Then you will notice he disobeyed God's command. God said to him "Go and cry out against the altar." And he did it. God said "I will show you a sign, the altar will be rent and the ashes poured out." And God did that. God signally owned him when He heard his prayer and healed the king's arm.
Now this old apostasy comes and look what he says, (mark it well), verse eighteen, "An angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying," This angel, he contended, said the very opposite to what God said! That is what is happening today. Men are looked upon as angels. The Bible says that even Satan himself will be transformed into an angel of light. Yes, Sir! They come and tell us to do the very opposite to what the Bible says.
This Bible tells me: "Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you."
The men in the apostasy say "Stay in. Do not leave the churches. We will get so many young evangelical preachers into them and we will clean them up." They have been doing that for fifty years, and they are more filthy now than ever they were!
You go out today and try to lift yourself with your own shoe laces and see how far you will lift yourself. God says "Come out." They say "Stay in." Who is right? "Oh, but an angel of the Lord has spoken to us. These, Mr. Paisley, are great men. And God is blessing them and they are winning souls. They are [14] wonderful people!" The angel has told them to do the very opposite to what God says! They say "I am the same sort of preacher as you, come back to my house. Let us all fellowship together.

BILLY GRAHAM
We had this at Billy Graham's Switzerland conference. I got a copy of what he said. Billy Graham said he had the warmest relations with the World Council of Churches. Men in the World Council of Churches say that Jesus Christ is the bastard child of Joseph and Mary. He has the warmest relations with these men. Men like Nels Ferre who say that Jesus Christ was the bastard child of Mary and an unknown mercenary German soldier, and Billy Graham has the warmest relationships with the World Council of Churches. Let me tell you friend, I have no relationship with the World Council of Churches' This church has no relationship with it. I would not even give them a spider's web in this church. We are outside this apostasy and, please God, we will be outside it forever, God helping us.
Then Billy Graham says that there is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working across the world today, and that the three evidences of the Holy Spirit's workings are, number one, the great change in the Roman Catholic Church.
Of course, the old whore of Babylon has had a facelift. Of course, she has put on the nice gloves on her bony, persecuting hands. The hand that put the Reformers to the death and the hand that persecuted the Martyrs: It is not the old bloody hand outwardly, it is a velvet hand today; a nice velvet hand of friendship.
"Let us all be together. Let bygones be bygones!" That is not what the saints say under the throne, Sir! Do you know what the martyrs cry out to God? "How long O Lord Holy and True, wilt Thou not avenge our blood upon the earth." These people that talk about letting bygones be bygones are emissaries of the devil. "No peace with Rome till Rome makes peace with God!" That is what J. C. Ryle said, the first Protestant Bishop of Liverpool. And Rome will never make peace with God!
They say there is a great change in the Roman Catholic Church. And at Billy Graham's conference the Roman Catholic priests were there "taking part in evangelising or finding a way to evangelise the world." So you can blaspheme the finished work of Christ in the Mass on Sunday and be with Billy Graham on Monday, eating and drinking and having fellowship.
Billy Graham then went on to say that the Charismatic movement was another evidence.

THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT
I have been making a study of this movement. The leader of it in this city, a Roman Catholic, says in his book that he got the Holy Spirit at a Pentecostal meeting but it has made him a better Roman Catholic than ever he was before. He goes to the mass more regularly. He counts his beads more often, and he [15] sprinkles himself with holy water more often than ever before. I want to say, friend, that the Charismatic movement is the movement of the false prophet leading people out to worship another Christ. Some of God's people are so confused. I am not confused, I have the Word of God! I am not a bit confused about it! If a man tells me he has got the Holy Ghost and power and disobeys the Holy Ghost's Book, then he is a liar. Yes, and what he has is not the Holy Ghost but another spirit. It is as plain as that. The Holy Ghost never leads you to disobey God's Word. Now get It straight!
"JESUS FREAKS"
These "Jesus freaks" with their long hair! They are a sign the Holy Ghost is working, according to Billy Graham. Well I want to tell you Sir, when God works in your heart He will not only wash your heart but He will make you ready for soap and water. You will get your outside washed as well, and you will get your hair cut in a reasonable length, and to look respectable and decent in God's house. Let me tell you that!

MY FATHER'S PREACHING
I remember my father preaching and the more I think of my father's ministry the more I realise what it has meant to me in my ministry. A woman came to his tent meetings and she was the dirtiest woman in the neighbourhood. She was a monument to her own filth as was her house and her children. They had layers of filth on their faces like the skins of an onion. Yes! One night this woman got saved. And I remember after my father led her to the Lord, he said, "Now dear woman if God has really washed the inside you have got to wash the outside." He said "I will supply you with soap and you start scrubbing your house from top to bottom, and scrub your family from top to bottom." Yes and she said "I will do it."
That woman's home became proverbial in the neighbourhood. It became the cleanest and most spotless home in the locality. God saved her husband and her family as well. That is real New Testament Christianity. It works! It works!
The Lord Jesus does not make a freak of you when He saves you. You are clothed and in your right mind at the feet of Jesus. That is what the Lord does when He receives you.

THE DECEIVER
That old apostate in I Kings chapter thirteen tried to link himself up with the man of God. He said to him "I am like you. I am in the same business as you. I am a preacher like you. You just come back with me." What did the man of God do? He disobeyed God's command.
The saddest thing you can do is to disobey God and put yourself outside God's blessing. I must be careful that I obey the Lord no matter who I offend. I have offended thousands of people in my ministry, and I will probably offend a few people here this morning. It will not worry me, I will eat a good dinner when [16] I go home. I must not disobey God. It must not be done.

HE RETRACED HIS STEPS
The man of God out of Judah returned again. He retraced his steps. There is nothing so sad as to see a preacher or a church retracing its steps. Once it stood for God but now it is weakened. Once it would not tolerate worldliness but now it has weakened. Once it insisted on separation but now it has compromised. There is nothing as sad as that! The man of God turned again. When I studied this chapter I discovered that he failed in the very place he should have triumphed.

FALSE GODS BURIED UNDER THE OAK TREE
"He sat down under an oak on the way to Bethel." Under an oak: in the scriptures there are five references to the oak before this time. The man of God knew about these things. If he is a man of God he knows something about the history of God's people.
The first mention of the oak tree on the way to Bethel you will find in Genesis 35 : 4: And when Jacob was going to Bethel he said to his family "Get me all your false gods and all your earrings, and I am going to dig a grave." And he buried them under the oak tree.
When the man of God from Judah sat down under the oak tree as a man who knew the scriptures, he remembered that before he could work for God he had to have a clean-cut separation. Idolatry in all its forms must be buried under the oak tree.

DEBORAH BURIED UNDER THE OAK TREE
Secondly, in the same chapter of Genesis and in verse eight - Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak. Let me tell you something, my friend, Deborah was the last link with the past. She was the woman that came all the way from the house of Rebekah, the idolatrous house of Bethuel and Laban. The last link with the past was cut when Deborah was buried. And that prophet as he sat there ought to have been thinking that under the oak tree the last link with the old has got to be cut.

JOSHUA AT THE OAK TREE
Thirdly, He must have thought about Joshua 24: 26; where at this very place or near to it there was a stone set up under the oak tree, a witness to the people that they ought to obey God's Word. And Joshua said "This stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the Words of the Lord which He spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you." And that should have strengthened the man of God to obey God's Word.
Continued next issue