Okie dokie, well, if you got your Bibles, let's jump in. We're gonna be looking at... Another area, well, I say, we're not even gonna get to one of the paths yet in the pathways of life. We know that this life is, it's like walking a trail. It's like finding that path that God has us on. He'll make His word a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, but, you know, In this walk of life, there are many different types of paths that He's gonna take us on, and some of them are smooth and some of them are not. Last Sunday night, we dealt with the guidance that God gives and how understanding the guidance that He gives throughout life as we walk this path that is lit by the Word of God showing us how to walk and how to live in this life. And he gives guidance all along the way. Tonight, I was originally thinking we would start off looking at one of those types of paths that we'll run across, but Thursday night I went to an IBFA preacher's meeting and Brother Thad Endicott was teaching and preaching, and in that time frame of preaching, Brother Endicott came across this passage of scripture that really made me think, and I realized we're not going to go on to a path just yet. If you ever noticed, that there are paths that you're gonna take. And if you go into a particular area of walking a trail or a path, have y'all ever noticed that before you actually begin to walk that path, many times what you will find is a sign. and that sign that is there will either show you a rough understanding of where the path might go, or that sign is going to possibly even give you some warnings. Y'all ever been on a trail where you had to read the warnings? You ever been on a trail that told you, before you went to walk that trail, it said, watch for slippery rocks. Do not veer from the trail. Y'all ever seen that one? That's kind of like taking a sign and putting on the wall, wet paint, don't touch. Do not veer from the trail. What's off the trail? Yeah, that's exactly it. You see a little area where you think somebody else has gone and actually what you don't realize is that's probably a bobcat or something that you don't want to find on the trail and they cut their own path and you think somebody else cut you a new path. No, just something that's hoping that you will follow the trail to the trap so it can eat. But as a whole, there are many times when you go to walk, especially the more dangerous the path is going to be. And as we've said, when you're walking, walking in life is kind of like taking some different trails that you can walk and enjoy. The walk itself is not always enjoyable, but your goal is to get to what's at the end of the trail. whether it's a waterfall or something there, maybe it's a particular overlook that has a beautiful view, or if you talk to the Walls, he was telling me, sharing with me the great idea they had of a, well, it was his idea, it's his fault. but he went and saw a beautiful area, and so he wanted to take his family later on, and he took them up there, and by the time they finally got all the way up, it was just nothing but foggy, and you couldn't see anything. Needless to say, they weren't happy with him. But regardless, when you're walking, especially some of the more dangerous trails, people say, listen, I know it's gonna be a long hike, it's gonna be a difficult walk, but if you'll see it through, if you get to the end, it is gorgeous, it is worth it. the trail that you travel to get there. And so that's the goal. You're wanting to get to that prize. By the way, now we can actually go back and look at what Paul said. I press toward the mark of the high calling of God. I'm pressing towards that which I'm hoping to see. You just don't know what all you're going to face along the way. But when you're looking at those more glamorous sights that you're hoping to see, typically they're only experienced after you have gone through some of the most rugged trails you're ever going to find. Some of the hardest trails to walk end up giving you some of the best experiences in the end. But then you gotta go back. That's the fun part. But here's the thing. Every time I've noticed we've gone, if we've gone to any of those, and if they're more well-traveled, more well-known, typically, there will be some signs that might be posted because of experiences people have had, or if it's somebody's property, they definitely post some signs. And they probably give several warnings about if you're going to take this trail, here are things you need to watch for. You know, snakes. Slippering rocks, yeah, bears. But they're, and especially going to Tennessee and stuff like that, they will have signs all over warning you to watch out for certain things. And some of them, they will tell you, do not veer from the trail. It is clearly marked and it is that way on purpose. More than one person has veered and then forgotten where they went and ended up in the depths of the woods trying to get themselves out. And many a person has gotten lost thinking that they're just getting off the trail a little ways because they thought they saw something. They wanna go see what it was. Next thing you know, they didn't mark a way back and now they're lost. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna take us back to the children of Israel. And the neat thing is this ties into what brought Israel to the need of returning to their land, like we're seeing in the book of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls and all. The book of 2 Kings is where we're gonna go. So if you wanna go with me to 2 Kings 17. And in the book of 2 Kings, you see some of the descriptions of what took place with the children of Israel that led to God placing them into captivity. Some dealing with Syria and some dealing with Babylon, but as a whole God's people are going to go into captivity and they are going to deal with a whole bunch of heartache and trouble for hundreds of years, and then the Lord is going to let them return, which is why we're looking at Nehemiah, let them go back by his hand, by his work, he brought his people back into the land, let them rebuild the temple, let them rebuild the walls, as we'll see through the book of Nehemiah. But 2 Kings gives us a picture of why all that happened in the first place. And the way this ties in with our pathways of life is before we ever even look at some of the paths that God takes us on, we have to understand that it's important to heed the warning sign. heed the warning sign. God wants to guide, God wants to lead us through life, but he gives us some very clear understanding of what the warning signs are concerning this life. As we walk in this life, as we walk allowing God to lead, there's still the ability for us to be tempted to veer from the trail. to veer from where God is taking us, especially when things get tough, when things get hard, when it's not very comfortable. It might look like going over and blazing my own trail over there is gonna be a more comfortable walk versus the stuff I'm gonna have to cross if I stay on this path here. But we are warned many times in God's word not to veer from the trail, from the path that God is taking us on. Doesn't mean it's gonna be smooth, doesn't mean it's gonna be easy, but of course even salvation it talks about broad is the way that lead it to destruction. But narrow, hard, less traveled is the way that lead it to life everlasting. And we know that, of course, dealing with Christ himself, he is the way, the truth, the life. There's only one. It's a very narrow-minded way of salvation. It's Jesus and Jesus alone. And so as we are looking at this, I want us to heed the warning sign about this spiritual walk and this spiritual life that we have. And let's see what happens to Israel. I'm gonna get you, and I don't know if you have a problem with underlining in your Bible or not, If you don't, I'm going to encourage you to underline several different phrases in several different verses here in just a moment that will show you exactly what happened to the children of Israel that led them to have to be placed into captivity. So let's look very quickly at 2 Kings 17. I'm gonna read verse six to verse number eight, then we'll pray, and I'm gonna give you, in a very quick rundown, these things that took place that led them to captivity and so much trouble. Look at verse number six with me in 2 Kings 17. It says, in the ninth year of Hoshea, The king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halab and in Habor by the river Gozan and in the cities of Medes. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt and had feared other gods and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel and the kings of Israel, which they had made. Now I'm going to, we're gonna continue on in these other verses here in just a moment, but the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord. They began to follow other gods. They began to walk under the statutes of the heathen. We're gonna see more very specific statements that it's gonna reveal to us the clear warning sign of what led to their demise. And in our lives, as we follow this path of letting God lead and letting God show us how to walk and how to live our lives in order to please Him, there is a warning sign that we see here that is telling us, beware, beware. Because others who called themselves the people of God have fallen prey to the traps of Satan, and God has had to put them into, as the Bible would call it, great derision. and great trouble and great heartache because of the consequences of their sin. So here's the warning sign as we begin to step into this path of following the Lord. Let's pray and then we'll look at what happened to the children of Israel. Heavenly Father, we thank you for tonight. I pray that you'd give us clarity as we look at your word. Pray that you would do what only you can and we'll trust you for it. Help us not to soon forget the warnings that we receive by watching the failures and seeing the failures of the children of Israel. Help us not to be repeaters of the same problems. Lord, I ask you just to help us as only you can. We ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. So let me just give you these. There are six things. I'm just gonna give them to you quickly and have you, if you would, underline some specific statements that are very telling as to what happened. In verse number nine, this is, point number one, this would be, this is very alliterated, so y'all can be happy about, hopefully you can memorize it maybe even, who knows. But Brother Bob Sanders would be very pleased with me on this one. All right, the start, the start. And this is probably one of the, if we were being honest, this is not probably, it's absolutely one of the key things we have got to be aware of in our personal lives. Where did it start with the children of Israel in their decline and where they ended up that God had to bring such judgment by them getting away from his guidance. Well, in verse number nine, the Bible says, and the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. I want you to underline, did secretly. Where did it start? It started with individuals doing things in secret. It started with the children of Israel hiding and secretly just doing a little here and a little there that they knew was forbidden by God Almighty. You're not to have idols. You're not to worship. You're not to fellowship with those who are worshiping idols. And so what they did is they would not openly do it. No, no, no, no. It started off in just little secret sins. By the way, warning sign, warning sign, you find yourself, and it goes for all of us, you find yourself willfully qualifying the secret sins. You're already in danger. It starts with secrets. In Proverbs, I think it might have even been mentioned today, I can't remember, but in Proverbs chapter, was it chapter 15? I did with the school. The Bible talks about the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. We tend to think that just because Other humans don't know, no one knows. And I'm not preaching to you, I'm preaching even to me. We tend to forget, though no one else knows, God never not knows. That probably is not good English, but it is good sense. God's never in a point where he is not aware. His eyes go throughout and beholding the evil and the good. God is aware of everything that we do. There is nothing, the omniscient God, there is nothing in our lives that others have no clue about. There is nothing though in our lives that we do in secret that God is not aware of. Now here's the one thing that really kind of could mess all of us up if we really thought about it too much. And that is, if God showed up tonight and said, I have a list of secrets to reveal, how many of us would leave before the service was over? I'm the first one to leave, all right? But as a whole, you say, preacher, that means you're horrible. No, I'm just like you. I've had anger go through my mind. I've had thoughts go through my mind. I've had things that I've allowed, and I've had dwellings of things that I've allowed, just like you do. And then we show up to church, and we seem real spiritual. We seem really good. Boy, we can even witness to somebody, and we have a good feeling about witnessing, but here's the thing. If I'm not careful, I'll qualify the secret things that nobody knows about because of the good things that I do that a child of God should do. And here's the problem. Life is not about weighing everything on a scale. Well, God's gonna overlook all of that because look who I led to the Lord today. Look the witness I was today. That's wonderful. What if we were to eliminate the secrets and just have the living for God? How much more powerful would that be? By the way, I didn't warn y'all this wasn't a comfortable message, did I? Where did it start for Israel? They did secretly. those things that were not right against the Lord their God. By the way, that is probably, if not certainly, the number one problem within God's people today. Doing secretly those things that are not right against the Lord their God. But then it goes on, so that's the start, here's the step, okay? Here's the first step they take in open. So secretly leads to an initial small step openly. And it's further in the latter part there in verse number nine, it says, and they built them high places in all their cities. You could underline high places in all their cities. They built them high places in all their cities from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city. So not only now are they doing it in secret, but now they're not really getting out everywhere, they're keeping it contained. It's just in their cities. They're not going everywhere with it, but it's the first outward step of what's already been going on in a secret life. And so they take that step in all their cities, setting up high places. Then number three, you see the strengthening. The secret is the start. The first move in openness is the step. The strengthening is found in verse number 10. It says, and they set them up images and groves underline in every high hill and then underline under every green tree. Now think about that. every high hill and every green tree. If we set up images and set up idols in every high hill and under every green tree in our area of Alabama, just how widespread would our openness against God become? So it's no longer in secret. It's no longer just contained within the small group of, within the city, within just, you know, it's just us. We're not affecting anybody else. Now it's open throughout the area and now it's a widespread thing. And on every high hill and under every green tree, they are strengthening their wickedness against God. Then in verse number 11, You have the stumble, the stumble. It says, and there they burnt incense in all the high places, and underline this, as did the heathen. So they're doing, and who are they following in their operations? Well, now they're not seeking what the Lord would have them do. Now they're looking around and once again, what is everybody else doing? How is everybody else do their religious services? How does everybody else do all of their worship of stuff? How does everybody else do all their different things? We wanna be like everyone else. We're already, we got our high places, we got our images, we got all these things and all these different, these areas, we become very superstitious with all of our stuff, but now how do we go about this? Who do we learn from? Let's look to the heathen. That sounds like a great idea. Let's look to everyone that's around us, that by the way, God said they were to be a peculiar people. They are to be different. He's claimed the same thing for us today. We are chosen generation. We're to be a peculiar people. We're to be set apart, separated. There should be a distinguishing difference between the world's way of religious operation and God's people serving God. But now here we are, we've been doing some things in secret. We've been, you know, listening to some individuals that we, I know, I know I probably shouldn't be listening to that guy preach, but you know, I just, he says some good things every now and then. Well, here's the thing. If you've got to dig through a garbage pail of garbage to find one little piece of meat, you might ought to reconsider who it is you're letting your ears be attentive to. There are some good public speakers out there, but yet they are garbage when it comes to the content they're speaking about. If they cause you to question God, if they cause you to doubt God, or better yet, if they fluff up your feelings about everything, but it brings no conviction from the word of God, or I'll even go one step further, there are even good preachers out there, quote-unquote, good preachers out there, and I'm not saying they're not good men, I'm not saying they don't have good ministries in that sense, but I've seen some good Baptist preachers out there, and they preach a whole bunch more of their personal experience, and their stories, and what they've come to realize is how to do it, and they don't show you hardly anything from Scripture anymore. They preach so long, they just preach and they never read the word of God. They never tie it to the word of God. They just, they tell you story after story after story of this ministry here and what happened over here and how they worked this person over here. And they might even give you some good ideas. But listen, if a preacher is not pointing you to the word of God, he's not doing his job. You gotta be careful who you're listening to. But the children of Israel, I don't know how I got off on that one, but you're welcome. But as a whole, what did they do? They stumbled in this area of, instead of seeking to serve God as he has laid out for them, they began to look around and say, oh, hey, look, that's how they worship, let's do some of that. Oh, that's how they worship, let's do some of that. Oh, that's how they burn their incense. Oh, that's how they do their singing. Oh, that's how they do, oh, look, everybody loves this stuff, everybody want, This is wonderful. It draws people. Man, people are excited. They walk out bebopping all over the place. Well, that's wonderful and great for them. But my question is, how is their walk with God? How is their witness for God? It's one thing to be emotionally stirred because everything around you and surrounding you is driving you to a move in emotion. But is there any depth? Is there any grounding and rooting in truth? Now again, I'm not being accusative. What I'm saying is the children of Israel already were doing in secret. They began to let it move forward and step forward in a little more openness, and then they begin to spread it, and now they're looking around. How can we fit in with everyone around us? By this time, their heart was already being removed from serving God. They're not worried about worshiping God. They're just worried about having religion. And this strengthening of this religious stuff led them to stumble in the area of they did as did the heathen. Well, what good is their religious work and all that they're doing in a religiosity, what good is it if it's nothing but heathen worship? And through that, we see the next area. It became the standard for them. They started off with secrets. They grew with that first step of, well, we got it contained. We got it contained. It's just us. We're not affecting anybody else. Then they openly spread it into every single place they possibly could. And then to get their understanding of how to do it best, they look to the world and to let the world teach them what to worship. Let the world teach them what matters. Let the world teach them what they should focus on. And then in verse number 12 and verse 14 and 15 and 16, let me show you these. Verse number 12, for they, underline, served idols. They served idols. Now they're not even serving God. They're serving idols. They're idolaters. Well, that's not what they started out being, but they are now. Why? They've learned from the heathen. And they didn't learn how to worship God. They learned how to worship football. They learned how to, let me just spread it out. They learned how to worship sports. They learned how to worship pop stars. They learn how to make idols out of American, go figure, American idol. You think it's coincidence that the world has put the very things that are exactly what God said stay away from? You think it's coincidence that they use those very words and put them together to make our society around us worship things that are apart from God? It's not coincidence. The things, they worship money, worship fame, and then we throw in spirituality into it all and make it sound and feel really good because we visit church on a semi-often basis. By the way, going to church, you gotta be careful how you say it. because people will say, we'll take you wrong. Going to church doesn't fix a thing. People tend to think that going to church is being a good Christian. Well, no, because you're supposed to be the church. You're supposed to be part of the church. Gathering together is just the command of God and it's for our benefit. But going to church doesn't raise children. It just helps guide them while you raise them. Going to church doesn't fix marital problems. It just helps you put your mind, if you're in the right place, around the right preaching with the word of God, it helps you fix your mind and your heart in the right place so you can deal with marital problems. And you get surrounded by people who can support you in all that. Going to church doesn't take away all of your personal issues. If you have secrets that you're hiding, going to church doesn't take care of them. But if you're not surrounded by the people of God and the word of God and the preaching of the word of God, if you're not around those things, you're definitely not gonna be any better off. I believe it is important, but sometimes we almost make going to church something we worship. Now be careful with me, understand, we almost make going to church like that, I came to church, God is pleased with me. It fixes everything I've done in a week. I've lived like a heathen all week, but I come to church and God's happy. That's not how, again, that is the way the world thinks. I go to church to soothe my conscience. No, how about a child of God lives like a child of God Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and not just on Sunday? I'm preaching to the choir, I know, but I'm just sharing because we all need it. It's the warning sign. Heed the warning sign. I'll never be that person. Oh, I'm pretty sure that Israel, oh, by the way, I remember back when Joshua said, you can't serve God, he's a jealous. Oh no, we will serve God, we will. Let me show you what they did. So they served idols. This became the standard, okay? They served idols. Look at verse number 14. The very first part there, notwithstanding, they would not hear, okay? And then underline this part, but hardened their necks. They worshiped idols, and then they hardened, they became stiff-necked. They hardened their necks, stubborn. like the neck of, excuse me, the neck of their fathers that did not believe in the Lord their God. Look at verse number 15. Underline two areas in verse number 15. Underline rejected his statutes and then underline his covenants. They rejected his statutes and his covenants. So here became the standard. They served idols. They hardened their necks. They rejected his statutes and his covenants. Look at the last part of verse number 15. I say about middle way. It says, and they followed vanity. Underlied that, they followed vanity. Instead of following God, they followed the vain things of the flesh. This became the standard. Look at verse number 16, the very first part, and it says, and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God. Now, there are several other things we could focus on and underline, but those are the key things. They served idols, hardened their necks, rejected his statutes and his covenant, followed vanity, and left all of the commandments. They did in secret. They did in slight openness. They did in complete openness. Then they looked to the heathen for how to do it the best way they could. And they did after the ways of the heathen. And then it became the standard to serve idols, harden their necks, reject his statutes and covenants, follow vanity and leave the commandments of God and just walk away. They became a reprobate. And it started with secrets. Now here's, I got one more, but here's the warning sign. As you walk with God on this pathway of life, heed the warning, don't veer from the path. Don't harbor secretly the desires to wanna go over here, the desire to try that or try this. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. He had something he was harboring on the inside and it finally took over. As you stay on this path, be careful with the secrets. because the secrets will eventually lead to a standard way of life that will supersede everything God has ever laid out for us in his word and it will overstep and take control and we'll follow vanity and fleshly desire and we'll turn our back on everything we said used to mean the world to us. Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. And one day we'll say, Christ is what I don't want. Christ is what I don't want. You say, a child of God can feel that way? Oh, a child of God may not have to say it, but they can live it. I don't care what the Bible says anymore. I wanna do what I wanna do. I don't care what God wanted me to do. I wanna have more fun like everybody else is having fun. I've been looking all around me and look at all the things they get to do. I wanna do what they're doing. Okay, go look to the heathen for how to live life. Just remember, what you see is not always the full reality of what they're living. Satan paints a beautiful picture. Can I show you the startling aspect? So you have the start, the step, the strengthening, the stumble, the standard it became, and then you have the startling aspect in verse number 17. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire and use divination and enchantments. They turned to witchcraft. The people of God turned to witchcraft. And I want you to underline this. This describes the entirety of it. And sold themselves to do evil. in the sight of the Lord and provoked him to anger. How did the children of Israel end up in bondage and in captivity to Assyria and to Babylon? Well, you see the horrible, startling end of how they were living and selling themselves to do evil. In other words, they sold out to Satan, though they knew the God of creation. They said, we don't care, we want what everybody else has got. God had a plan for them and they said, we don't care, we wanna make our own plan. But how did they get there? Started off at the very beginning in verse number nine, the start. They did in secret those things that were not right against the Lord their God. How do people who once preached the gospel, shared the gospel, saw individuals saved and were more concerned about getting missionaries in the gospel around the world. How did those individuals go from having a heart for the things of Christ to one day being so cold, so callous, they could care less and their kids are going to the world and their kids are being destroyed and they just don't care. How do you get there? You start by when you take that step, say, I'm gonna follow God in this life. I'm gonna let him direct my path. And along the way, we begin to do some things in secret. While we're following God, but we're secretly harboring some plans. We're secretly harboring things that we are beginning to put at a higher point of importance in our life than following God. listening to His will, letting Him guide. And those things, then we just, we kind of keep them contained, but we kind of open the can of worms a little bit, but we keep it contained. And then next thing you know, we're spreading it around. All of a sudden, we're looking to the world as to, so how are y'all doing all that you do? We wanna have your kind of fun. Next thing you know, forget God, forget His way, forget His guidance. I'm gonna blaze my own trail over here. This is a much better path, I think. And they end up in ruin and destruction. It happens time and time and time again. Different people, different scenarios, same problem, same end. The Bible is true. You can see it happen over and over again in people in God's word. And the same thing will happen to us if we're not careful. As you follow God, as you say, I want to let him guide, him lead, walking this path of life, no matter what kind of paths he takes me on to deal with, I want to follow him. All right, then heed the warning sign. Watch out for the things you do in secret. they will lead to destruction. That goes for every single one of us. Heavenly Father.