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I was thinking about something today that I believe every Christian needs to seriously consider. We hear a lot about deception, but most of us probably think we would recognize it if we saw it. If somebody openly denied Jesus Christ or said the Bible was false, we would know something was wrong. But what if the person deceiving you carried a Bible, quoted Scripture, called himself a preacher and told you that God had spoken to him?
That is what makes the story in 1 Kings 13 so interesting to me.
Jeroboam had led Israel into idolatry, and God sent an unnamed man of God to Bethel with a message of judgment. The man obeyed. He stood before the king and delivered God's message. When Jeroboam ordered that he be seized, his hand dried up so that he could not pull it back. The altar was also split apart, just as the man of God had said. Jeroboam then asked him to pray for him, and God restored the king's hand.
Imagine being that man. You have just stood before a king without backing down and watched God confirm His Word right in front of you. Then the king invites you home and offers you a reward.
The man refuses because God had already given him specific instructions: "For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest" (1 Kings 13:9).
There wasn't any confusion. He knew exactly what God had told him.
Then another prophet showed up.
The old prophet found the man of God and invited him home to eat. Again the man refused and explained God's command. Then the old prophet said, "I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house" (1 Kings 13:18).
That sounds pretty convincing. Here was another prophet claiming that an angel had spoken to him and that his message came from God.
But Scripture immediately tells us what was really happening: "But he lied unto him."
Think about that. The old prophet didn't tell the man, "Disobey God." Instead, he claimed God had given him some new information. It sounded spiritual. It involved a prophet, an angel and supposedly a word from the Lord.
The problem was that it contradicted what God had already said.
The man of God went home with him and disobeyed God's command. It eventually cost him his life.
That is what makes this story so sobering. The man who was deceived wasn't ignorant of God. He had obeyed God, spoken God's Word, stood courageously before a king and witnessed God's power. Yet he was still deceived.
Sometimes some of the most dangerous words a Christian can hear are, "God told me." Someone can say, "The Lord showed me," or claim to have received a dream, vision or special revelation. But if what they are telling us contradicts what God has already said in Scripture, we already have our answer.
Paul takes this so far that he says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8).
Even an angel doesn't get to change what God has already revealed.
This becomes harder when the person teaching error is someone we like. It is easy to talk about false teachers when we are thinking about somebody else's favorite preacher. It becomes much harder when it is ours. Maybe we have listened to someone for years. Maybe we have learned good things from him. Maybe he knows Greek and Hebrew, has written books and has thousands of people listening to him.
None of that makes him the standard. Scripture is still the standard.
Jesus warned, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matthew 7:15). A wolf walking toward a flock looking like a wolf isn't going to fool many sheep. The danger is that he looks like one of them.
False teachers don't necessarily announce themselves as false teachers. They may sound biblical, quote Scripture and talk about Jesus. That is why we have to judge what is being taught by God's Word rather than by how much we like the person teaching it.
Jeremiah 23 gives us another picture of the same problem. God said of certain prophets, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" (Jeremiah 23:21).
They were speaking. People were listening. They were doing it in God's name. There was just one problem. God had not sent them.
God then says, "But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way" (Jeremiah 23:22). Instead, Jeremiah says these prophets strengthened "the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness" (Jeremiah 23:14).
Imagine going to a doctor who discovers that you have a deadly disease. He knows something is seriously wrong, but he doesn't want to upset you. So he smiles, pats you on the shoulder and tells you everything looks great.
You would probably leave feeling wonderful about your doctor, but his kindness didn't help you. It may have kept you from getting the treatment that could have saved your life. The loving thing would have been to tell you the truth.
The same is true when God's Word warns us about sin. A preacher isn't loving people when he hides what God has said because he doesn't want to offend them.
God specifically appointed Ezekiel as a watchman to Israel and told him, "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me" (Ezekiel 3:17).
We need to keep that in context. God was speaking directly to Ezekiel about the responsibility He had given him. But notice the principle: "hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me."
Ezekiel wasn't supposed to invent the message or soften it until people accepted it. He was supposed to faithfully deliver what God had said. He couldn't make the people repent, but he was responsible to give them God's warning.
Paul tells Timothy something similar: "Preach the word...reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2). Then he explains why: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Timothy 4:3).
Sometimes the problem isn't that people cannot find the truth. The problem is that they keep looking until they find somebody willing to tell them what they already wanted to believe.
The internet has made that incredibly easy. I can pick up my phone and within an hour listen to ten people teaching ten different things about the same passage. If I don't like what one person says, I can keep scrolling until I find somebody who agrees with me.
Suppose Scripture says something I don't like. Instead of allowing Scripture to correct me, I start searching. Eventually somebody tells me, "That verse doesn't really mean what you think." Another tells me Christians have misunderstood it for centuries. Someone else says the Greek or Hebrew actually means something completely different.
Before long I may find exactly what I was looking for. But maybe I wasn't really looking for truth. Maybe I was looking for an excuse.
That is why I like the example of the Bereans. When Paul preached to them, they "searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).
Think about that. They checked Paul.
If Paul's preaching was examined by Scripture, why would we put some preacher on television, YouTube, Facebook or behind a pulpit beyond examination?
John tells us, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). We aren't told to believe everything that sounds Christian. We are told to test it.
That brings us back to the man sitting under the tree in 1 Kings 13. God had told him one thing, and a prophet told him something different. There should never have been a contest because God had already spoken.
There is something about that story that really stays with me. This man was strong enough to stand before a king, but he was deceived by a prophet. Maybe he expected opposition from the king but didn't expect deception from somebody who appeared to be on his side.
We should think about that.
The voice most likely to deceive us may not be someone standing outside Christianity attacking the Bible. It may be somebody standing inside Christianity holding one.
That is why our confidence cannot ultimately rest in a preacher, teacher, ministry, denomination, website or even this forum. It has to rest in the Word of God.
Jeremiah puts it plainly: "He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:28).
That is what we should want. Give us God's Word, and then let God's Word correct us wherever we are wrong.
So here is something I think all of us should seriously consider. If one of our favorite Christian teachers began teaching something that we discovered clearly contradicted Scripture, would God's Word be enough for us to reject that teaching, even if we really liked and respected the person teaching it?
That is what makes the story in 1 Kings 13 so interesting to me.
Jeroboam had led Israel into idolatry, and God sent an unnamed man of God to Bethel with a message of judgment. The man obeyed. He stood before the king and delivered God's message. When Jeroboam ordered that he be seized, his hand dried up so that he could not pull it back. The altar was also split apart, just as the man of God had said. Jeroboam then asked him to pray for him, and God restored the king's hand.
Imagine being that man. You have just stood before a king without backing down and watched God confirm His Word right in front of you. Then the king invites you home and offers you a reward.
The man refuses because God had already given him specific instructions: "For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest" (1 Kings 13:9).
There wasn't any confusion. He knew exactly what God had told him.
Then another prophet showed up.
The old prophet found the man of God and invited him home to eat. Again the man refused and explained God's command. Then the old prophet said, "I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house" (1 Kings 13:18).
That sounds pretty convincing. Here was another prophet claiming that an angel had spoken to him and that his message came from God.
But Scripture immediately tells us what was really happening: "But he lied unto him."
Think about that. The old prophet didn't tell the man, "Disobey God." Instead, he claimed God had given him some new information. It sounded spiritual. It involved a prophet, an angel and supposedly a word from the Lord.
The problem was that it contradicted what God had already said.
The man of God went home with him and disobeyed God's command. It eventually cost him his life.
That is what makes this story so sobering. The man who was deceived wasn't ignorant of God. He had obeyed God, spoken God's Word, stood courageously before a king and witnessed God's power. Yet he was still deceived.
Sometimes some of the most dangerous words a Christian can hear are, "God told me." Someone can say, "The Lord showed me," or claim to have received a dream, vision or special revelation. But if what they are telling us contradicts what God has already said in Scripture, we already have our answer.
Paul takes this so far that he says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8).
Even an angel doesn't get to change what God has already revealed.
This becomes harder when the person teaching error is someone we like. It is easy to talk about false teachers when we are thinking about somebody else's favorite preacher. It becomes much harder when it is ours. Maybe we have listened to someone for years. Maybe we have learned good things from him. Maybe he knows Greek and Hebrew, has written books and has thousands of people listening to him.
None of that makes him the standard. Scripture is still the standard.
Jesus warned, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matthew 7:15). A wolf walking toward a flock looking like a wolf isn't going to fool many sheep. The danger is that he looks like one of them.
False teachers don't necessarily announce themselves as false teachers. They may sound biblical, quote Scripture and talk about Jesus. That is why we have to judge what is being taught by God's Word rather than by how much we like the person teaching it.
Jeremiah 23 gives us another picture of the same problem. God said of certain prophets, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" (Jeremiah 23:21).
They were speaking. People were listening. They were doing it in God's name. There was just one problem. God had not sent them.
God then says, "But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way" (Jeremiah 23:22). Instead, Jeremiah says these prophets strengthened "the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness" (Jeremiah 23:14).
Imagine going to a doctor who discovers that you have a deadly disease. He knows something is seriously wrong, but he doesn't want to upset you. So he smiles, pats you on the shoulder and tells you everything looks great.
You would probably leave feeling wonderful about your doctor, but his kindness didn't help you. It may have kept you from getting the treatment that could have saved your life. The loving thing would have been to tell you the truth.
The same is true when God's Word warns us about sin. A preacher isn't loving people when he hides what God has said because he doesn't want to offend them.
God specifically appointed Ezekiel as a watchman to Israel and told him, "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me" (Ezekiel 3:17).
We need to keep that in context. God was speaking directly to Ezekiel about the responsibility He had given him. But notice the principle: "hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me."
Ezekiel wasn't supposed to invent the message or soften it until people accepted it. He was supposed to faithfully deliver what God had said. He couldn't make the people repent, but he was responsible to give them God's warning.
Paul tells Timothy something similar: "Preach the word...reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2). Then he explains why: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Timothy 4:3).
Sometimes the problem isn't that people cannot find the truth. The problem is that they keep looking until they find somebody willing to tell them what they already wanted to believe.
The internet has made that incredibly easy. I can pick up my phone and within an hour listen to ten people teaching ten different things about the same passage. If I don't like what one person says, I can keep scrolling until I find somebody who agrees with me.
Suppose Scripture says something I don't like. Instead of allowing Scripture to correct me, I start searching. Eventually somebody tells me, "That verse doesn't really mean what you think." Another tells me Christians have misunderstood it for centuries. Someone else says the Greek or Hebrew actually means something completely different.
Before long I may find exactly what I was looking for. But maybe I wasn't really looking for truth. Maybe I was looking for an excuse.
That is why I like the example of the Bereans. When Paul preached to them, they "searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).
Think about that. They checked Paul.
If Paul's preaching was examined by Scripture, why would we put some preacher on television, YouTube, Facebook or behind a pulpit beyond examination?
John tells us, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). We aren't told to believe everything that sounds Christian. We are told to test it.
That brings us back to the man sitting under the tree in 1 Kings 13. God had told him one thing, and a prophet told him something different. There should never have been a contest because God had already spoken.
There is something about that story that really stays with me. This man was strong enough to stand before a king, but he was deceived by a prophet. Maybe he expected opposition from the king but didn't expect deception from somebody who appeared to be on his side.
We should think about that.
The voice most likely to deceive us may not be someone standing outside Christianity attacking the Bible. It may be somebody standing inside Christianity holding one.
That is why our confidence cannot ultimately rest in a preacher, teacher, ministry, denomination, website or even this forum. It has to rest in the Word of God.
Jeremiah puts it plainly: "He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:28).
That is what we should want. Give us God's Word, and then let God's Word correct us wherever we are wrong.
So here is something I think all of us should seriously consider. If one of our favorite Christian teachers began teaching something that we discovered clearly contradicted Scripture, would God's Word be enough for us to reject that teaching, even if we really liked and respected the person teaching it?
