Clean Transcript

Casting God Behind Your Back

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

• 1 Kings chapter 14, and we're going to read the first 12 verses. 1 Kings chapter 14, the first 12 verses. The title of the message is "Casting God Behind Your Back." Casting God behind your back. So, if you'll notice 1 Kings chapter 14, beginning there with verse 1: "At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, 'Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam. And get thee to Shiloh.'"

  #1 | 0:13 to 0:50 | cleaned

• "Behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child." And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age. And the Lord said unto Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shalt thou say unto her, for it shall be when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman." And it was so when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, "Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam. Why feignest thou thyself to be another? For I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee, and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments,'"

  #2 | 0:50 to 2:02 | cleaned

• "and who followed me with all of his heart, to do only that which was right in mine eyes. But thou hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back. Therefore will I bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and I will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat, for the Lord hath spoken it. Arise thou therefore and get thee to thine own house, and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die."

  #3 | 2:03 to 2:54 | cleaned

• Have you ever thrown away something that was absolutely useless and worthless to you? And I'm sure each of you have. But have you ever walked away from something that others consider valuable, but then again, you consider it worthless and something of no value? And someone would say, "How can you turn your back on such an object or such a good deal or such a good price?" And the truth of the matter is, we use this phrase "turning one's back" to indicate someone who is careless, thoughtless, uncaring, unloving, and unconcerned. Usually when a husband or a wife forsakes the other, we say that he or she turned their back upon their spouse. We use that all the time, because when a man just simply forsakes his family, we would say, "He just turned his back upon his family." We've had individuals who forsook their friends and we'd say, "Well, he just turned his back upon his friends," or someone who's left the church, "He turned his back upon his church."

  #4 | 2:55 to 4:06 | cleaned

• Well, actually the truth is, David, there are many who've actually turned their back upon God and literally cast God behind their backs in the sense of the word, because obviously they are not serving and worshiping the one true and the living God who has revealed himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the thing that I want to emphasize today is this: that it is not just individuals that cast God behind their backs. It is also families, churches, magistrates, rulers, governments, and even nations. And I believe that the fruit of having cast God behind our backs is evident on every hand. We've turned our back upon the Lord Jesus Christ when you consider governmental corruption and when you consider judicial wickedness and stupidity. And I will give

  #5 | 4:07 to 5:07 | cleaned

• you a good, clear illustration of that. Just recently in Cleveland, Ohio, one judge sentenced a 79-year-old woman to 10 days in jail for feeding stray cats. So when you think about governmental corruption and judicial wickedness and stupidity, when you think about the dumbing effects of government education, when you consider the destruction of the family and the deterioration and breakdown of society, as well as that of the church, and then an uncontrollable debt because of our own stupid and unbiblical economic policies.

  #6 | 5:07 to 5:51 | cleaned

• The only thing that you can say is that we are in deep trouble, and it looks as if God has left us to ourselves because we have basically cast Him behind our backs, and now we are reaping that which we have sown. Now in our text in 1 Kings chapter 14, God is condemning King Jeroboam. Jeroboam is known for his wickedness, his idolatry, and what I'm going to call is absolute stupidity. He was given an absolutely wonderful and gracious promise by God, and he refused either to believe or act upon that promise. Now God rent the kingdom apart under Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and God actually gave ten of the tribes to Jeroboam, and he left two for Rehoboam. One commentator said this—and by the way, you might consider this: Solomon, out of all the wives that he had and all the concubines that he had, only had one son, that was Rehoboam. And one commentator said Solomon had only one son and he was a fool, and that's the truth. And if you would read 1 Kings chapter 12, you would find out exactly where he was considered a fool, for he refused the counsel and the wisdom of the old men and chose to follow the

  #7 | 5:52 to 7:16 | cleaned

• younger men in their arrogance, in their pride, in their stupidity with whom he had grown up. Now Jeroboam was basically made king because Rehoboam refused to listen to the people when they asked him to lighten the burdens which Solomon had placed upon them. If you would go back in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 11—1 Kings chapter 11—and let's begin reading there with verse 29, and you're going to see where God is giving ten of the tribes to Jeroboam. 1 Kings 11 verse 29: "And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment, and

  #8 | 7:16 to 8:07 | cleaned

• they two were alone in the field. And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him and rent it in twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, 'Take thee ten pieces, for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee. But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.' Here's why.

  #9 | 8:07 to 8:35 | cleaned

• "Because they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father. Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hands, and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes. And to his son will I give one tribe,

  #10 | 8:36 to 9:15 | cleaned

• that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to put my name there. And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and thou shalt be king over Israel." Now watch verse 38: "And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee." Now you talk about an absolute promise! God says, "If you will just simply obey me, I will build you an absolutely sure house." All Jeroboam had to do was obey. All he had to do was to honor the Lord, worship the Lord, walk in accordance to that which God demanded. So this great and gracious promise only basically had obedience attached to it for a condition. Now one of the very first things that Jeroboam did when he was king of Israel is he turned his back upon God who gave him his kingdom and turned his back upon this promise. His actions revealed and

  #11 | 9:16 to 10:45 | cleaned

• demonstrate his ungratefulness, his unthankfulness, and actually his unbelief in God's promise as well. I want you to notice that. Notice something—I'm going to show it to you from the Bible—but Jeroboam's concern when he became king was not God. Jeroboam's concern when he became king was not the people. Jeroboam's concern when he became king was not the nation. The only concern that Jeroboam had when he became king was that his kingdom should continue. And in other words, it was an absolutely, totally selfish concern that he had. And disregarding the word of God, disbelieving the promise of God, Jeroboam then turned to what he believed would extend and lengthen his kingdom, and that is idolatry. So if you look in 1 Kings chapter 12—1 Kings chapter 12—and let's begin reading there with verse 26. 1 Kings 12 verse 26, watch carefully: "And Jeroboam said in his heart, 'Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah. They shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.'" Now watch: "Wherefore the king took counsel." So this is no accident.

  #12 | 10:45 to 12:23 | cleaned

• This is purposeful. It was deliberate. It was premeditated. "Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah.

  #13 | 12:23 to 13:03 | cleaned

• And he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar and burnt incense."

  #14 | 13:04 to 13:29 | cleaned

• So Jeroboam said, "Look, if this people continue to go down to Jerusalem and worship in the house that God demanded that he be worshiped in, then they're going to turn back to Rehoboam and they'll kill me. So in order to preserve my life, in order to preserve my kingdom, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to make two golden calves and I'm going to tell them it's too much for you to go down there. You just worship God right here." Now, listen carefully: ignorance, stupidity, and rebellion are always the foundation for idolatry and tyranny. Jeroboam turned his back upon the promise of God. He turned his back upon God himself, and what he did in 1 Kings chapter 12 is he stupidly, wickedly, and rebelliously instituted what is known as a state religion. So now as king he is pushing his state religion upon the people. This state religion was not for the benefit of the people. It was not for the benefit of the nation. It was not for the worship and honor of God.

  #15 | 13:29 to 14:46 | cleaned

• This state religion was only for the benefit of Jeroboam and his kingdom. That was it. Whenever you find a state religion, you always find it is for the benefit of the state. It is for the benefit of the government. Let me point out the fact that if there is a state religion, there are state priests and state preachers as well. I want you to hold 1 Kings, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Amos chapter 7. Amos chapter 7. You have Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Look in Amos chapter 7 if you would please. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos chapter 7, and let's begin reading at verse 10. Now, let me tell you, Amos is from Judah. He's from the southern kingdom, and God sends him to preach in the northern kingdom. But I want you to see what the state priests tell Amos. Look in Amos chapter 7, beginning there with verse 10: "Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel"—remember that is where one of the golden calves was placed, Dan and Bethel—"Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam the king.

  #16 | 14:47 to 16:16 | cleaned

• This would be Jeroboam the second, Jeroboam the king of Israel, saying, 'Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. He's preaching against you. He's preaching against your kingdom. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.'" Look what else Amaziah said: "Also Amaziah said unto Amos, 'O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there.'" Let me just stop. Here is basically what Amaziah said to Amos: "Boy, if you want to live, get out of here. Go home. If you want to preach, you preach somebody down there. Don't come up here preaching to us. You go down there and eat your bread and drink your water.

  #17 | 16:16 to 17:15 | cleaned

• If you stay around here, we'll kill you." Ah. Watch carefully now verse 12: "Also Amaziah said unto Amos, 'O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.'" The chapel and the court have become one. It is indeed the state religion, and there is no such thing as religious freedom under a state religion. I don't know if you have been noticing or listening, but have you considered all the attacks that are being waged against preachers who are politically incorrect? How about denominations?

  #18 | 17:15 to 18:15 | cleaned

• How about churches that take a stand for the scripture and they refuse to bow the knee to humanism and political correctness? And they're being lied about and slandered and persecuted and some even prosecuted. So the state has its state religion. And by the way, I don't know if you remember it, but you can check it out on the internet. Years ago I preached a message on the religion of political correctness, and it is a religion. It is the religion of humanism, and that is what is sweeping this country right at this particular time. The state religion has now combined the chapel and the court as well. And here's the truth: the state religion must be held up at all costs, because when the state religion falls, so does the empire. So does the state.

  #19 | 18:15 to 19:17 | cleaned

• Let me give you an illustration. Everyone in this room knows that Christians were put to death during the Roman Empire. They were slain by lions, they were slain by swords, by fire, by all kinds of means. But Christians in the Roman Empire were not put to death just simply because they were Christians. You see, in the Roman Empire you could believe whatever you wanted to believe. If you wanted to worship Jesus Christ, Caesar could care less. If you wanted to worship Aphrodite, go for it. If you wanted to worship Baal, bow to him. Caesar didn't care. Just so once a year you swore by the genius of Caesar and you said, "Caesar is Lord," that is, he gives me the right to worship and believe like I believe. And Christians refused to do that, because the Christians would say, "Jesus Christ is Lord, not Caesar." And thus Christians were put to death not simply because they were Christians, but because they were now considered traitors and treasonous to the Roman cult and the Roman state religion is what it amounted to.

  #20 | 19:17 to 20:26 | cleaned

• So basically that is what you're seeing even in the persecution of Christians and churches today. Those who will not conform are being persecuted.

  #21 | 20:26 to 20:37 | cleaned

• Now if you look back in 1 Kings chapter 14, notice if you would please verse 9. Verse 9, God says to Jeroboam, "But thou hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back." Now this expression "cast me behind thy back" is a very strong and rare expression. It only occurs one other time in the scripture exactly like this, and I want to show it to you. I want you to turn to Ezekiel chapter 23 and look at verse 35. Ezekiel 23 and verse 35. Here's the second time this expression occurs in the Bible. Ezekiel 23 verse 35, watch it: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms." Now, I want you

  #22 | 20:37 to 22:01 | cleaned

• to hold that passage, don't let it mark. I want to come back there before I close. But now, here's a second time that God has said, "Thou hast cast me behind thy back."

  #23 | 22:01 to 22:14 | cleaned

• Now, let me ask this question. What does it mean to cast God behind your back? Well, I want to give you four short quotes from four different Puritan expositors. They're explaining what it means to cast God behind one's back. John Trapp said this: "Hast laid me aside and set light by me, as if I were nobody with thee, nor had power to punish thee. Thou hast both despised and despised me." Matthew Poole: "Cast me behind thy back—despised and disregarded and forsaken me and my commands and my worship, as we do things which we cast behind our backs." Then John Gill: "And hast cast me behind thy back, as unworthy of thy regard, of my worship which he neglected and showed no concern for." And then listen to what Matthew Henry said: "Thou hast cast me behind my back. My law, my fear, thou hast neglected me, forgotten me, and preferred thy policies over my precepts." In other words, you preferred your policy over my word. You preferred what you thought over what I commanded. Now, it should be obvious that turning one's back upon God and

  #24 | 22:14 to 23:54 | cleaned

• casting God behind one's back, it's not just an insult. It's also a provocation, because he said in verse 9, "But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back."

  #25 | 23:54 to 24:15 | cleaned

• Now, let me ask you a question. If you were talking to me, and you are very passionate about what you're talking about, maybe you're explaining something to me, you might be beseeching me and with great fervor you're explaining and beseeching me, and as you do, I just turn my back to you and walk away. Would you be insulted? Of course. And here's what you would say: "He doesn't care anything about me. He doesn't care what I'm thinking. He doesn't care what I'm saying."

  #26 | 24:16 to 25:00 | cleaned

• And it would not only be an insult to you, you would get angry. Now, if something like that would bother you—and it would—what do you think it will do to the thrice holy God? In fact, the Hebrew word here literally means to excite to indignation, to provoke to anger and wrath. And so casting God behind your back is like slapping God in the face or spitting in his face and turning your back to him and walking away.

  #27 | 25:02 to 25:37 | cleaned

• The Bible tells you in the book of Numbers chapter 14 and verse 22 that Israel, while God was leading them through the wilderness, provoked God ten different times. You can read in the Old Testament on how God judged them, how His wrath fell upon them. So provoking the eternal, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign God of heaven and earth is not a wise choice for a mere mortal, I can assure you. All you have to do is read biblical history. Read world history. You will find that the wisest, the strongest, and the most influential men have suffered defeat at the hands of the sovereign God of heaven and earth.

  #28 | 25:38 to 26:23 | cleaned

• Just witness the testimonies of Ahab, and Jeroboam, Herod, and Pilate, and all the Caesars. And you're going to find that they were absolutely, totally defeated and destroyed. Now, Jeroboam made himself two golden calves, and he literally forced the people into idolatry. In fact, over and over in scripture, usually when the name Jeroboam is mentioned, it always has reference or there's something added: "He made Israel to sin." For instance, one of those passages is 1 Kings 14 in verse 16.

  #29 | 26:23 to 27:06 | cleaned

• If you want to look at it: "And he shall give Israel up because of all the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin and who made Israel to sin." However, there is a very pivotal passage that you're going to find in 2 Kings 17. And I want you to turn there, 2 Kings 17. 2 Kings 17 and look if you would please at verse 21. 2 Kings 17 verse 21: "For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin." Now the word "drave" here is a very strong word.

  #30 | 27:06 to 27:58 | cleaned

• It means to thrust forward, to thrust into, and to impel. So here Jeroboam the king impelled, he drove the people into idolatry. How do you drive a people into idolatry? Well, just stop and think. This man is king. He is the one that issues his laws, his edicts. He is the one that issues threats. He's the one that prosecutes, persecutes, propagandizes, executes. Moreover, you can drive someone into idolatry with either royal or governmental benefits. When someone gets on the dole, on the take, on the welfare system, and he finds out that he can live off the labor of others without lifting a finger, usually what he's going to do is whatever's necessary to keep being blessed and benefited by the king or by the government. That's exactly it. And so he drove these people into idolatry. Now, let me explain something. It has to be understood that a government can not only become idolatrous, it also can become an idol in and of itself. And this was certainly true in relationship to Jeroboam and his kingdom.

  #31 | 27:58 to 29:31 | cleaned

• He instituted his own religion. Now, let me speak very pointedly in this matter. Any government that rejects God and His law is idolatrous. Any government that rejects God and His law is idolatrous, and that government becomes a god to itself. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 94. Psalm 94, and I want you to look at verses 20 and 21. Hold 2 Kings now, but look in Psalm 94 and let's begin reading there with verse 20, verse 21. Verse 20 is what I want. Psalm 94, look at what the scripture says. Psalm 94 and verse 20: "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?" So we're talking about a throne, which is a governmental power, and it is a throne of iniquity. It is a wicked governmental power. "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?"—that is, with God—"when that wicked throne of iniquity frameth mischief by a law?" Now the word "mischief" is another word for sin in the Bible.

  #32 | 29:31 to 30:54 | cleaned

• So literally here's the question: shall a wicked government have fellowship with God when that wicked government makes sin legal? And the answer is no, because what they have done, they have rejected God. They rejected God's law. They're now instituting their own law. And verse 21 gives you the result: "They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood." Wow. So a government can become an idol and idolatrous, just like anything else.

  #33 | 30:54 to 31:34 | cleaned

• Now when most Christians and even non-Christians, when they hear a message like this, they're going to say something in their mind like, "Well, I'm not an idolater. I don't bow down before idols. I know better than that." I suppose because we have such a limited concept of idolatry, we also have a limited concept of casting God behind our backs. We don't really understand it. When you think about idolatry, there is an active idolatry, there is a passive idolatry, and there is even an ignorant idolatry. Now, an active idolatry is very easy to discern in one sense of the word. An active idolatry is easily seen and identified because someone is worshiping and bowing down before and serving and believing in a pagan idol or a pagan god. Let me say this again: any worship that is not given to the one true and the living God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is idolatry. Now, let me show you another aspect of active idolatry.

  #34 | 31:35 to 32:57 | cleaned

• I want you to turn back to 2 Kings chapter 17. This is exactly where all of this leads. When you reject God's word, God's law. Look in 2 Kings 17, beginning there with verse 7. 2 Kings 17 verse 7: "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." Now if you're fearing other gods, you're an idolater. Okay. So how do they become idolaters? Now watch: "For so it was, when 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"—or the laws—"of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made." So they rejected God's law and walked in the laws of the heathen that God had driven out, or they walked in the laws of the kings of Israel. And there was not one godly king in all of

  #35 | 32:57 to 34:12 | cleaned

• the northern kingdom. Every one of them were idolaters and perverts, every one of them. So they're rejecting God's law. They're following man's law. And look what happens. I want you to see this. Verse 9: "And the children of Israel did secretly"—that is, at first—"those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves." And this is open now, in public. "They set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree. And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: for they served idols. Wherefore the Lord

  #36 | 34:12 to 35:06 | cleaned

• had said to them, 'Ye shall not do this thing.' Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, 'Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.' Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity"—that is, idolatry and idols—"and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal."

  #37 | 35:06 to 36:05 | cleaned

• That is an active idolatry. But it all began by rejecting God's word and God's law and following man's law.

  #38 | 36:07 to 36:19 | cleaned

• Now, I want to show you something. Look in your Bibles, hold if you would, especially 1 Kings, but look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I made the statement: if you're not worshiping the one true and the living God through the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are an idolater. And look if you would what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning there with verse 20. He makes it very, very plain. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, note if you would please verse 20: "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice"—that is, the unsaved—"the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." Obviously, so someone who's trying to worship God, but they're not worshiping Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, is an idolater.

  #39 | 36:21 to 37:31 | cleaned

• Now, that would be an active idolatry. There is also a passive idolatry. A passive idolatry does not involve an active worship of idols. In fact, it remains silent in the presence of active idolatry. It does not seek to rebuke, reprove, reprimand, or even remove idolatry. A good example of this is when Elijah challenged the people on Mount Carmel. You remember where he had that showdown and he actually beheaded 400 prophets of Baal. But before he got to that, 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 21, Elijah told Ahab the king, "You get all the people here and you get all the prophets of Baal here," and he did. Let me read this to you: 1 Kings 18:18-21. "And Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said," listen now, here's what he said:

  #40 | 37:32 to 38:42 | cleaned

• "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him." And the people answered him not a word. They weren't going to speak out for God, but they weren't going to speak out against Baal either. So a passive idolatry is just when you tolerate and you put up with it and you never ever try to rebuke it or renounce it. And you see, these people in 1 Kings chapter 18 were not ready and willing or able to declare with absolute certainty who God was. Passive idolatry always seeks to equalize all religions. Passive idolatry will come out with some stupid statement like this: "Well, it really doesn't matter what you believe, who you believe in, just so you're genuine and sincere." Well, I will tell you something: if you really believe that it really doesn't matter what you believe, just so you're genuine and sincere,

  #41 | 38:43 to 40:07 | cleaned

• let me give you a dose of strychnine, and you genuinely and sincerely believe that it's cough syrup. You will soon be genuinely and sincerely dead. Genuineness and sincerity does not mean diddly-squat. It doesn't. But that's what passive idolatry is going for. Ignorant idolatry is very simple. You've heard me quote this so many times in Colossians 3 and verse 5, where God says, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." So anytime you try to place your desires, your will, your way above God, what you're doing in essence is dethroning God and enthroning yourself. You're saying, "I'm God. I can do what I want to do. It doesn't matter what God commands." Now I want you to go back to 1 Kings chapter 14. I want you to see this again, because this is what it means to cast God behind your back. Note, if you would please, verse 8 says, "And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee." So God took the kingdom away from the house of David and gave

  #42 | 40:08 to 41:30 | cleaned

• it to Jeroboam. And he says, "Yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes." Now, we need to ask a question. How did David please God? We could ask this question another way: How was Jeroboam unlike David?

  #43 | 41:30 to 41:57 | cleaned

• Now the answer is very clear in verse 8. David was one who kept God's commandments. David was one who followed God with all of his heart. David was one who was obedient.

  #44 | 41:57 to 42:10 | cleaned

• Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "But David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the children of Ammon." That is true. But let me tell you what the Bible says in 1 Kings 15. If you want to look there, turn over just one page. 1 Kings 15 and verse 5. Look what he says: "Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." So David's life was one of obedience, generally speaking. Obedience and honor and worship of God was the rule. What happened with Bathsheba and Uriah was the exception. And so what you have here is God saying, "Here's my servant, David. He obeyed me. He kept my law. He kept my commandments.

  #45 | 42:11 to 43:10 | cleaned

• Jeroboam, you didn't believe me. You didn't listen to me. You didn't keep my commandments. And the evidence of that is that you made two golden calves. You are an idolater, and in making those golden calves and in refusing my word and refusing my promise, in refusing my worship, you've cast me behind your back." Now let me ask you: if I were to ask you, if I were to ask Christians, if I were to ask those religious people who are not real Christians but are very religious, "Would you ever cast God behind your back?" Most would be horrified and they would say, "Absolutely not." Well, let me ask you some questions, and I want you to answer them in your mind. Here they are: Do you read your Bible? Do you study your Bible? Do you meditate upon the Word of God? Do you understand the principles and the precepts of the Word of God?

  #46 | 43:11 to 44:34 | cleaned

• Do you apply the scriptures to your life? Do you obey the Word of God? Do you listen to your pastor? Do you respect and honor your pastor? Do you take his preaching and teaching and counsel seriously? Are you willing to listen to others as they expound and explain and apply the word of God so that you might be instructed and edified and become more obedient? Now what you're going to say is this: "What in the world do those questions have to do with casting God behind your back?" Well, let's let the scriptures answer that. I want you to turn, first of all, to Nehemiah chapter 9 and then Psalm 50. So you're going to have to turn over a few books. Right after 1st and 2nd Kings, you have 1st and 2nd Chronicles.

  #47 | 44:36 to 45:30 | cleaned

• Then you have the book of Esther and Ezra. Esther is after Nehemiah. It's Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. So look at Nehemiah chapter 9. Nehemiah chapter 9. Then we'll go to Psalm 50. I want to show you exactly what all those questions have to do with casting God behind your back. Watch very carefully. Here it is. Nehemiah 9, and let's begin reading there with verse 24. Nehemiah 9 verse 24. Nehemiah is talking about how God gave Israel the promised land. Nehemiah 9 verse 24: "So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would." So God enabled them to conquer. He gave them all the land. He gave them all the people. Look what else he gave them in verse 25: "And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods,

  #48 | 45:30 to 46:50 | cleaned

• wells digged, vineyards and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

  #49 | 46:50 to 47:03 | cleaned

• Now, look, God has given them everything. Verse 26: "Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations." Now, how did they cast God behind their back? Well, they were unthankful. They were ungrateful. They were unappreciative. And then they said, "We don't want his law. We don't want to obey him. We don't want to listen to what he says. We don't even want to listen to those preachers who are telling us that we're sinning against him. No, no, no. We'll deal with those preachers as well." Now, look in your Bibles to Psalm 50 and verses 16 and 17. Psalm 50, verses 16 and 17. Psalm 50, notice verse 16: "But unto the wicked God saith, 'What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.'" See, when we refuse to hear instruction, God's instructions, we're acting as the wicked.

  #50 | 47:03 to 48:42 | cleaned

• We're casting God's word behind our backs. Just like they did in Nehemiah chapter 9, you cast God behind your back by refusing to hear and heed and apply the word of God. You cast God behind your back by refusing his instruction. You cast God behind your back by refusing to listen to him. You cast God behind your back and you not only insult him, the Bible says that you provoke him. When you stop and think of all the multitude of his blessings that God has given us, just like he did those people in Nehemiah chapter 9, and we are ungrateful and unthankful and unappreciative, we ignore him. It's an insult to God. You cast God behind your back by being ungrateful and unthankful, unappreciative.

  #51 | 48:42 to 49:37 | cleaned

• The average professing Christian is no better than the heathen and the pagan in this regard. The average professing Christian is no better than wicked Jeroboam in this regard. You're doing exactly that which Jeroboam did. You may not be building a golden calf. You may not be bowing down to a golden calf, but you're casting his word behind your back, and in doing so you're casting God behind your back. Casting God behind your back brings destruction and devastation. I want you to go back to 1 Kings chapter 14. I want to show you this. 1 Kings chapter 14, let's begin reading at verse 9, because God is now condemning Jeroboam. He says, "But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back. Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall"—which is an expression just means he's going to kill every male. Now watch this. That's not all he's done.

  #52 | 49:38 to 51:02 | cleaned

• I'm going to kill all the men. He said, "and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. And him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the Lord hath spoken it."

  #53 | 51:02 to 51:21 | cleaned

• Now, when God says he's going to cut off all the males, what does that mean? It means that's the end of the lineage. There aren't going to be any more Jeroboam descendants down the line. God's going to kill them all. In other words, God says, "I'm going to destroy you. I'll destroy your rule. You won't have any descendants. No, it's over for you. And all of you who die in the city, the dogs are going to eat, and those who die in the field, the buzzards are going to get." Why? Because they provoked God, cast him behind their backs.

  #54 | 51:21 to 52:02 | cleaned

• Now, I want you to go back to that one passage in Ezekiel chapter 23. I told you we would come back there. Here's the second passage that speaks of casting God behind your back. Ezekiel chapter 23 and verse 35. I want you to look very carefully at what God says in verse 35: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms." Whoa. You know what God says? When you cast me behind your back, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to leave you alone. I'm going to let you reap what you sow. Do you realize one of the greatest and most severe judgments that can fall on a man, a family, a church, a society, or a nation is when God leaves us alone? Remember in Matthew 15, our Lord was preaching, and when he got through, the disciples came and said to him, "Knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended at this saying?" You remember what our Lord said? "Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead

  #55 | 52:03 to 53:51 | cleaned

• the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Let them alone. One of the most severe judgments is when God says, "All right. You want it. You got it. I will let you alone. And you will reap everything that you have sown." If you are wondering why there are so many drug addictions, why there are so many families that are falling apart—divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce—why there are so many churches that are breaking up, closing their doors, if you're wondering why there is so much corruption in government, if you're wondering why everything is going wrong in our society, in our nation, and people are turning their backs upon truth and righteousness and principle, wonder no more. Because we've cast God behind our backs and we're reaping that which we have sown. I was reading through 1st and 2nd Kings this past week, and it would say when such-and-such king of Israel died, he was buried with the kings of Israel. And I thought, "I don't want to be buried with the kings of Israel.

  #56 | 53:51 to 55:26 | cleaned

• I don't want to be buried with the ungodly." And what we need is we need to listen to God's call to repentance and faith and obedience. When we cast God behind our backs, He leaves us to suffer our choice. And that choice always brings death and destruction. Do not cast God behind your back. Honor his word, read it, study it, apply it, use it, follow it, obey it.

  #57 | 55:26 to 56:16 | cleaned

• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to you this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. And we ask, Father, that you would help us to honor thee and to glorify thee and do that which is right, as David, thy servant, did. Lord, I pray that you will protect us from sinning against thee and help us, Father, to be obedient and holy. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

  #58 | 56:18 to 57:21 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T16:46:27Z