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The winner who lost, your message for the moment, is Dr. Bruce W. Thielman. Let us give reverent attention to the reading of God's word as it is recorded in the first book of Kings, the thirteenth chapter, beginning at the twenty-sixth verse. "And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, 'It is the man of God who was disobedient

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unto the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto a lion, which hath torn him and slain him according to the word of the Lord which he spake unto him.' And he spake to his sons, saying, 'Saddle me the ass.' And they saddled him. And he went and found his carcass cast in the way, and the ass of the lion standing by the carcass. The

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lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his own grave and mourned over him, saying, 'Alas, my brother!' And it came to pass after he had buried him that

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he spake to his sons, saying, 'When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulcher wherein the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.' For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Asmaria shall surely come to pass."

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And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his holy words. Let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In his magnificent tragedy, Othello, Shakespeare puts these words into the mouth of the treacherous Iago. "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, is the immediate jewel of their souls.

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Who steals my purse steals nothing. 'Tis something, nothing, 'tis mine, 'tis his, and has been slaved to thousands. But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed." In these well-measured words, Shakespeare asserts the truth, that a man's name comes to stand for his character. The Old Testament

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personality with whom we are concerned this morning does not have a name. At least the scripture nowhere notes it. If we were to give him a name, if we were to attach to him some designation which would, as a name does, come to some his personality and character, that name could only mean one thing. It would have to mean this was the name who won and

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then lost. Permit me to tell you his story. Jeroboam was a wicked and an evil king. He erected a pagan temple, he constructed in his own imagination a pagan god, he built a pagan altar, and he ordained a pagan priesthood. And all of his people were gathered together to worship what was latent idolatry. And suddenly in the midst of this scene of evil, there

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appeared a man of God, an unnamed, unknown prophet of the Lord. It's interesting to notice how many times in scripture, when the scene is very dark, and the tragedy of despair and night is all about, that suddenly there flashes from God's sky a comet-like character who touches with brightness the scene and transforms it. And that's precisely what happens here.

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For suddenly this man of God appears and stands before this pagan place and cries out, "O altar! O altar!" And goes on to prophesy that not too many years hence a new king will come, he will exhume the bones of all these false priests, he will cause those bones to be burned into nothing on the altar of this fake place of worship, and then he will level that place

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of worship to the surface of the earth so that it will never be known again by the sons of men. And of course Jeroboam is immediately enraged that any prophet would come into the midst of his holy city and his holy place and make such a prophecy. "Arrest that man!" he cries. And his arm, as he raises it, becomes frozen in this position. It becomes as rigid

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as his pride, it becomes as withered as his spirit, it becomes as paralyzed as his conscience. And not being able to move his arm, this man who can command thousands of troops but now cannot command his own limb, cries out to the prophet, not threatening this time but fearfully, "Remove this curse from me!" And at a word, the arm is released. Now recognizing

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that he is not going to be able to coerce the prophet by force, Jeroboam sets out to do it by favor. "Come to the palace, let's dine together, let's talk over the whole situation, perhaps there is a point at which we can compromise." And the prophet, standing before the multitudes and before the king, says, "Were you to give me one half of your kingdom, I would not return

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to your place. For the Lord has commanded me to come here and to bring this message, and then I am to return immediately to my own land and to my own people. And in obedience to my God, I go." And with that, he was gone. It's a magnificent scene. This prophet called into a place of evil, into a place of sin, into a place of darkness and tragedy, he goes.

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But in the midst of those circumstances, his ultimate allegiance is still God. As Christians, we are called upon to go to the sick and not to the well, to the needy, not to those in abundance. We are invited by our Savior to go to the place where sin is and minister there, to take Christ where men do not know Christ, to go into the very jaws of temptation

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with the gospel that alone is true. But that's a difficult assignment. For you see, there are many who, caught in the midst of this kind of situation, anxious to bring light where there is darkness, suddenly find themselves adopting the ways of darkness. How many clergymen that I know feel that in order to be one of the boys, they must be able to tell a dirtier

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story than anybody else in the group? How many clergymen I know who pepper their speech with profanity, believing that this somehow or other enables them to relate with those to whom they're trying to minister? Mark Van Doren, the great Columbia professor, said to his class on one occasion that Jesus Christ was far different from most Christians, who

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today are always ready to take a drink at a cocktail party or tell a more off-color story than anybody else in the room, just to become part of the group. And then having said this, Van Doren went on to say, "Perhaps that's the reason we hate them so much." For you see, the world is fickle. The world wants the gospel. Consciously or unconsciously,

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the world wants to know what's true. And when you go into the midst of darkness with that light, the world rejoices. But if you fail, if you fall, if you yield, if you succumb, if you surrender to the world, the world scorns you. The world wants to hear a prophet, but lets that prophet fall, and the world ridicules him. So it's a grand and a soul-stirring thing

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to see this man of God stand in this place of evil and remain true to his Father. I have a friend in the ministry who has written his life story, and in the story he tells of how on one occasion he was asked by a three-year-old, "Are you God?" He replied, "No, I'm not." And then the three-year-old said to him, "Well then, are you God's friend?" And that's what

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he is. And that's what this man of God was. In the midst of the place of darkness, he was still God's friend. And not only that, but he displayed in the midst of this place an awesome courage. Imagine to be standing in the king's city, in the king's court, in the king's center of worship, before the king, and all the legions of pagan priests ordained

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by that king. And there, to all of their faces, damned their undertaking. It was a courageous scene. I guess it thrills me because we do not see much courage or bravery in the Church today. The highest heights of courage we've seen to scale are perhaps to write a check this year, which is a little bit larger than it was last year. But sometimes something

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happens that does kind of unfurl the flag of your soul. Something like that is happening right here, right now. We went to some of our ladies some time ago and explained to them that there were a lot of young people in this city who did not have the spiritual and the cultural and the physical and the academic advantages which they deserved. And

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we wanted these ladies to go and to minister to these young people in the midst of their unfortunate and underprivileged circumstances. Now the ladies to whom we brought this challenge could have responded in any one of three ways. They could have had contempt for the suggestion, saying that they did not associate with this kind of individual, young or old. Or they

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could have played the angle that every pastor hears so often, what I call the "I'm ashamed" angle. "Oh I know I should go, I know it's my task, I really believe that Christ would have me go there, and I'm ashamed that I can't." As if adding the words "I'm ashamed" to an excuse from service suddenly made the whole thing all right. Or their third alternative

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was simply to say, "If this is where Christ would have me go, then I shall go." And they did. And nineteen of our ladies are going. They're working with young people that are different from the young people they've known, from the young people they've reared in their own homes. They're facing up to the challenge of a new area of ministry and responsibility,

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and it's not altogether easy, and although it may sound like a simple thing to you, I say it's an example of bravery being discovered by those who are willing to risk adventure in the Master's name. That's how bravery is discovered, you know. I had a friend with whom I graduated from high school. He was a star athlete, voted

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the best-looking man in the class, and the one most likely to succeed. He went on to college and fell into evil ways. He married a lovely girl and had two wonderful children, but unfortunately his life had taken on a turn, a bend, if you will, which led to greater difficulties and disappointments, so that he was a failure as a father and a failure

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as a husband. Indeed, all of his life was a collection of disappointments. And on one occasion Jack and his wife invited me to come to their home to talk with them about the difficulties they confronted. And after dinner we went into the living room, and the children were watching The Wizard of Oz on television. And Jack went to turn it off, and I said,

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"No, leave it on," and I think he thought I wanted it left on for the benefit of the children, which was partly true. But when the show was over and Joe, Joanne, was putting the children to bed, I preached a five-minute sermon to Jack, and the text of that sermon was The Wizard of Oz. And this is what I said to him. "My friend, The Wizard of Oz is the

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story about a cowardly lion, a tin woodsman without a heart, and a scarecrow without a brain, who want to go to the land of Oz there to gain from a wizard the things that they desire. So they set out to follow the yellow brick road, and they protect in their following it a little girl named Judy and her dog named Toto. And when at last they come to the place

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of Oz, they discover that there is no wizard, just a little old man hiding behind a great big illusion. But from this little old man they gained the things they were seeking, for he imparted to them a magnificent truth. He explained to them that the heart and the courage and the understanding they were seeking were always within them. But they were discovered

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only as these individuals followed the yellow brick road, as they invested themselves in the service of someone else, there, precisely there, and nowhere else but there. They discovered what it was to be brave, and what it was to stand tall. Some of the ladies in our church are discovering that more and more every day right now. When this unknown, unnamed prophet

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went up to Bethel, he was afraid. When he stood before Jeroboam and all of his soldiers, he was afraid. But in the assertion of what was true, he found his courage. I think it's a thrilling thing to consider him in the morning of this day. And that's what makes it all the more sad to consider him in the evening. For this prophet who won so much now loses

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it all. He is returning home. And the false prophet, who has heard of the way in which the man of God resisted Jeroboam, decides that he will try to lure this man of God from returning to his homeland. And so he goes to him, and invites him to his home for lunch, and he gets the same response the king got. And so he resorts to a dodge. He lies. He

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twists the truth. He says to the man of God, "Oh, I know that you have had a vision of the Lord telling you to return to your own people, but you see, I've had a vision too, and in this vision God has said to me, 'Tell this man to come and dine at your house, for I would have him spend some time with you before he returns to his own people.'" And

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the man of God hears this word, and he believes it, and he goes to his home. And while they are breaking bread, suddenly the word of the Lord is heard. And the word of the Lord is this, "Because you have disobeyed me, because you have not returned to your people as I have told you to return to your people, you shall surely die, and your body will not be

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taken to the land of your father." It may seem to us to be a harsh and unreasoning judgment, but consider this. This man of God knew the faithfulness of God. He knew that God was not fickle. He understood that the promises of God were "Yea" and "Amen." He fully comprehended the fact that Almighty God, who knows all things from the beginning, is not led to change

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his mind. He understood the nature of God, the finality of the promise and the word and the command of God. He understood all of these things, and still permitted himself to be led astray by a lying old fool. And he died because of the testimony of his false promise. There's no tallying the damage that false prophets do. I hope you will not misconstrue

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what I'm about to say. I'm a United Presbyterian by conviction, not just by circumstance or convenience, not by those things, but by conviction. One of my seminary professors said to me on one occasion, "Theomann, if I were to cut your veins, I would discover not blood that was A, B, or O, it would be U.P." Now maybe that's so. If that's so, I'm not ashamed of

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it. And it's out of my love for the Church that I say to you this morning that at some point in our fellowship we are hearing the words of false prophets. We are hearing the words of those who expound their own philosophy and not the word that is true. We are hearing the words of those who develop theories which are concomitant with their own understanding

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but not with the word of God. We are hearing sometimes prophets of hatred and not prophets of love. And we are discovering, particularly amongst the young men in the service of the Church, a contempt, and I use that word advisedly, a contempt for the glorious privilege of preaching the gospel which is now and forever true. For six years it was my responsibility to

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examine young men who were preparing to be ordained in our ministry. And I found in them almost without exception a kind of disdain for the act of preaching. And I went to one of our seminary presidents, to the president of the largest seminary that we have, and I asked him, "Why is it that there is no love for preaching the word of God, for preaching

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with power, for proclaiming the truth to a world that needs to hear it?" And he said, "I do not know, but our students do not want to learn of it and our professors do not want to teach it." And I say to you this morning that I thank God for an age professor I had who led me to see the agony and the ecstasy of preaching. The awful agony of coming to

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a place like this where you're high and lifted up and subject to all of the temptations which go with such exultation. And you come into this place and you sweat so that every Sunday morning this pulpit runs wet with my perspiration. And there, in the midst of the agony of dynamic and tremendous encounter, when some individuals have come here with hearts open, you are permitted,

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by the power of God's Spirit, to put your fingers into the midst of that heart. And I tell you that the temptations and the terrors that are associated with that are almost more than a heart and mind can bear week after week after week. But there's an ecstasy to it too. There's the glorious truth of knowing sometimes that the Holy Spirit is moving through

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you with such power that you can fold your arms and stand aside and listen to the voice without yourself even speaking. There's the exhaustion of feeling used, and there's no feeling on earth that can match it. Let me say something to you which I've never said before. Let me say something to you as a pastor to his people. As a man who walks the road

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of life alone, I am very conscious of my need to be loved. I am painfully aware of the desire that is always within me to be liked. But I promise to you, with any little effort, with any little bit of conviction I can muster, that I will never preach to you anything from this pulpit that is designed to gain your love or liking for me. I will proclaim as

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much as God gives me the power, "What is the truth?" And if that leads to love, then so be it. And if that leads to contempt and to rejection, then so be it. For this pulpit will be a place where the prophecy is true. So the man of God mounts his ass and sets out for his home, and on the way he meets

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his death. And when the one who led him astray hears of it, he rushes to the spot and picks up the dead body and says, "Alas, my brother." And from three thousand years removed, I can say, too, "Alas, my brother." And any one of you who's experienced the persistence of temptation can say it also. That's the tragedy of this man who won and then lost, that he

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could stand before Jeroboam and say, "No." The major temptation comes, the alarm bell of conscience rings, and he resists triumphantly. And then an old fool, a lying old fool, comes and slithers into his consciousness, a subtle, simple deceit. And the alarm bell of conscience only clinks, and he falls. Isn't that what happens to so many of us? We do not commit

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adultery, but we rape with the eyes. We do not bear false witness. We're just compromising ourselves. We do not worship false gods. Who knows that we are Christians? We do not kill, and with a tongue that's on fire, we crucify another spirit. Blondin, the great tightrope walker, went across Niagara Falls on a rope, and do you

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know how he died? He slipped on a banana peel and hit his head on a fire hydrant. John Glenn goes sailing through space and then falls in the bathtub and is never able to fly again. We resist the great challenges which come before us, and then we collapse and are defeated by subtle persistency in evil. And make no mistake about it, that's the only attribute

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Satan has. He is persistent. Even with the Lord Christ, he was persistent, leading him into temptation for forty days, then departing from him for a season, coming again and again, until that moment when he hung on Calvary's cross, Satan cries out, "Ye shall be the Son of God! Come down from the cross, and we will believe you!" Even then, in his moment of

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dying, he would not leave him alone. And just so, he never leaves any of us alone. And at the moment when we feel most satisfied, most secure, most courageous, most brave, most loyal, most committed, most determined, most victorious, then he hits us again. As he hits this unknown prophet. This unknown prophet who in the morning we were ready to put in

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a niche beside Moses and Elijah, and who in the evening we discovered dead in a ditch by the side of the road. Please turn your cassette to the other side. Do you remember the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice? Eurydice had been taken from Orpheus

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into Hades by Pluto, and Orpheus goes seeking her out, and as he goes, he plays upon his stone, and the music is so beautiful, so sorrowful, so mournful, so lovely, that all of hell pauses to listen. The sisters of the Danes turn aside from their futile efforts to hear Orpheus. Sisyphus pauses for a moment and sits upon his stone, listening to the lost young man.

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Antilus stops reaching out for the water to watch a sorrowing youth go by. The vulture moves away from tearing at the liver of Prometheus and wonders at the pleading of the boy. And even the cheeks of the fury were wet with tears. And finally Orpheus finds Eurydice, and Pluto says to him, "You may take her from this hell

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if you will promise not to look upon her until you are free of this place." And so together they go, Eurydice behind Orpheus, through portal after portal, gate after gate, chamber after chamber, until only one barrier stands between them and life. And at that moment, the last moment in hell, the last moment before heaven, in that moment, Orpheus looks at Eurydice,

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and she vanishes in an instant, and is lost to him forever. Our Christ has said, "He that endures till the end will be saved." But our Christ has also said that whosoever comes to him in forgiveness, he will not turn away. Oh Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end. Be thou forever near me, my master and my friend.

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Oh Christ, take us by the hand and hold us fast, lest at any moment, even the last moment, we lose it all. Gracious God, on every hand we encounter temptation, treachery, disappointment, and that which would tear us away from thee. In knowing thee, we are not afraid to die. On every hand we encounter temptation, treachery, disappointment, and that which

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would tear us away from thee. In knowing thee, we've won so much. Grant that through the forgiveness of sin, we may never lose it all. Grant by thy providence that we may endure until the end, and thus be saved. And the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up

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the light of his countenance upon you and give to you and to all those whom you love and worship. Amen.