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University SDA Church of Los Angeles

Dwayne Lemon

Persecution Within

I'm grateful for the opportunity for us to once again come together where we can hear God speak to us.

He can make his words very, very plain to yours and my heart, amen?

Now we know that the sun has set, another Sabbath has gone into eternity, but brothers and sisters just because the sun has set we must make sure that the son of righteousness, Jesus Christ, is still shining, bright and beautiful within our hearts, amen?

And so it is that I know many of you, you do not have your lighting with you or what have you, so we're going to do the best that we can during this evening to go through the Word of God as we look at phase 2 of what we've been studying throughout this weekend thus far.

We have been looking at not simply persecution without, but tonight's message is persecution within.

This is a very solemn message, brothers and sisters.

It is not something that brings joy to my heart to share this with you, but at the same time, I know that God's ministers are commissioned to tell the people the truth because it's the truth that makes people free amen and so it is that my mission is not to lie to you because the scripture says no lie is of the truth no lie is connected to Jesus And therefore it is not my desire to tell you lies but I want to tell you the truth.

And it's a most solemn truth indeed and I pray that as we get ready to pray that we will be able to hear the voice of God speaking to our hearts to help us understand how we can make sure that we remain persuaded over the fact that Christ can keep us all the way until the end.

So before we do that, let us bow our heads for a word of prayer as we approach the throne of grace.

Father in heaven, Lord, I'm grateful for the opportunity to share this message with your people.

And Father, I know that this message has liberating power, But Lord, I know it also breaks your heart because what's being presented tonight was never your desire to be a reality.

But Father, we know that you give us these words of inspiration that we might learn from them, that we might be warned and that we might understand the times in which we live, and that we know how to fight the good fight of faith.

So dear God, we simply once again invite your presence in a marked manner, not simply within this campgrounds, but Father, within our hearts.

We come to you as David, your servant, came to you, praying the same prayer he prayed when he said, Lord, open thou mine eyes and help us to behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Let not myself be seen in the midst of this presentation.

May we behold Christ our Savior and as we behold him, by your grace may we all become changed.

For this is our prayer and our thanksgiving that we give in the worthy name of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior.

There will be many outside of the faith, many outside of God's church that will try to cause our minds to turn away from Jesus.

And we saw that earlier today, the various methods that Satan uses through these outside influences.

But there is a story in the Bible that told a very most marked point that I thought to myself as a father, this is perfect to share with your people to really get this point across.

And this story is found in the book of 1 Kings, the 13th chapter.

And in 1 Kings chapter 13, I want to read something to you and I want you to consider the point that is being pressed here because God wants us to understand that there's another great danger.

Just because you and I have had the victory by the grace of God over the outside influences of this world, when they are trying to distract us and cause us to fall away or fall aside and turn away from God's truth.

There is another point that God wants to bring out to us and it's found in the book of 1 Kings, the 13th chapter.

And the Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 13, I'm gonna start at verse 1.

It says, and behold, there came a man of God.

It says, And behold, there came a man of God.

It says, and behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel.

And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

It says, and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and 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.

And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken.

Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

And it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar saying, lay hold on him.

And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

Verse 5, the altar also was rent 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.

And the king answered and said unto the man, unto the man of God, entreat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again.

And the man of God besought the Lord and the king's hand was what?

Restored him again and became as it was before.

Thus far, the man of God comes and he comes giving a prophetic utterance.

The king, he did not like what he heard, so therefore the king tried to stop him.

And when the king tried to stop him, all of a sudden his hand became messed up.

He got so scared by this incident that the king now says, listen, please pray to your God.

Ask him to please help my hand turn back to its normal state.

The man goes ahead and he decides to do it.

Now, if you were the king, would you be happy or sad that your hand has been restored?

So here it is, the king's hand is now restored.

Now notice what the king says to the man of God in the next verse.

In verse 7 it says, and the king said unto the man of God, come home with me and refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward.

It says, and the man of God said unto the king, if thou will give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place.

It says, for so was it charged me by the what?

By the word of the Lord saying eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.

So why did the man refuse to go to the king's house?

Was it because the king was a bad, wicked man?

Because he was being obedient to the word of the Lord.

He knew that the word of God came to him and gave him instruction, do not stop.

So therefore this king, who was a wicked king, here it is that the man says, I'm not gonna go inside of your house because the word of the Lord told me not to.

Now notice what takes place next in the story.

Going now to verse 10 it says, so he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.

Now, watch the transition, now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, watch this, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel.

The words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

And their father said unto them, what way went he?

For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.

And he said unto his son, saddle me the ass.

So they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon.

And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak.

And he said unto him, aren't thou the man of God that camest from Judah?

Then he said unto him, come home with me and eat bread.

Now here goes, remember first the king was saying, come home with me, right?

Now notice what happens here, this is so deep.

And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place.

For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest." So here it is that even though the old prophet has come his way, he still says, listen, I cannot come to you to your house because of the what?

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Persecution Within

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