Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-09-07
International gessotls.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
LESSON XII, THIRD QUARTER, INTER-
NATIONAL SERIES, SEPT. 1e.

NATIONAL SERIES, SEPT. 1e.
Text of the Lesson, II Kings xvii, 0-18.
Memory Verses, 13, 14-Golden Text,
I Chron. xviii, documentary by the
Rev. d. NJ. stearns.
9. "And the children of Israel did &C.
cretly those things that were not right
against the Lord their Cod" For $50
years God had borne with the continued
and increasing sin Of these ten tribes who
persisted in following in the steps of their
first king, Jeroboam, of whom 1t Is writ
ten so often that he made Israel to sin.
During these years they had 10 kings, but
not one who feared God. In Deut. iv, 25.
81, they had warning as to what would
come upon them If they sinned against
God, but in spite of all warnings and en-
treaties they persisted in their sins. With
such words as Ps. oxxxix, 1-12, before them
bow deceived by satan they were to think
that God could not see in secret!
10. "And they set them up images and
groves in every high hill, and under every
green tree" Even Solomon did this, and
Judah after Solomon's death Il Kings xi,
z, 8; xiv, %, 23), but Israel exceeded. See
the plain and express command forbid
ding these things in Deut. xii, 2-4, and xvi,
81, 22, with the added words in xii, SO,
"What thing soever I command you, OBJ
serve to do it; thou shall not add thereto
nor diminish from it," and the warning
in Deut. viii, 10, "If thou do at all forget
the Lord thy God, and walk after other
gods, and serve them and worship them,
I testify against you this day, that ye shall
surely perish. "
II. "Apd there they burnt incense In
all the high places, as did the heathen
whom the Lord carried away before them. !"
In the days of Samuel they insisted upon
having king that they might be like 9th
er nations II Sam. viii, 1929, thus reject
ing the Lord who was their King and turn
ing their backs upon Him who loved them
and had done all things for them. They
sacrificed unto their net and burned in
cense unto their drag (Hab. !, 16), think
ing that their blessings came through them
instead Of from God.
10. "For they served idols, whereof the
Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do
this thing" See Ex. TX, 3-5; Lev. XVI,
!, and consider how the devil stirs people
to 20 directly against God even as when
God said, ain the day thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die," and the devil said,
aye shall not surely die" (Gen. II, II; Ill,
4). One Is our Master, even Christ, and
we should be able to say, "Whose I am,
and whom I serve" (Msth. xiii, 8, TO-;
Acts xvii, 29), for we cannot serve
God and Mammon, but Notwithstanding
that we are assured that the friendship OF
the world is enmity with God and that we
are not to be conformed to this world (Jas
iv, 4; Rom. xii, %, yet many who bear the
name of Christ conform to the world as
persistently as Israel served idols.
1S. "Yet the Lord testified against Is
rael and against Judah by all the prophets
and by all the seers, saying, Turn 70 from
your evil ways" Consider lisa. 1, 18; Jer.
i'll, 10; XIV, s; Eek. xviii, 81; xx1iii, IL;
Hos. xiv, /, and compare with II Pet. la,
8; John Ill, 16, and see how from the day
that God sought Adam and Eve in their
hiding place in Eden until the story OF
Rev. tx, 90, 81, how He is ever seeking to
have His wandering ones return to Him.
He even puts the words in their mouth
which they shall say when they return to
Him (Hos. xiv, q. In the story of the
prodigal in Luke XIV He teaches us how
the wanderer is loved and sought for by
God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit. g.
IA. notwithstanding they would not
hear" In Lsa. xxx, Is, He cries, "ln re-
turning and rest shall ye be saved; in
quietness and confidence shall be your
strength, and ye would not" In Math.
xiii, 81, He says, "How often would l.,
and ye would not" In Ps. l1xxi, 13, II, He
says, "Oh, that my people had hearkened
unto me, and Israel had walked in my
ways, but my people would not hearken to
my voice and Israel would none of me. "
He ever longs to save and bless, but has
to CRY, "Ye will not come unto me-" He
came unto His own and His own received
Him rot; He was in the world and the
world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not; He only asks US to have
faith in Him, to yield to Him, trust Him
and follow Him. Why will we not9
IS. "They followed vanity and became
vain and went after the heathen that were
round about them" In Jer. x, s, Is,
speaking of idols and their worship, the
Spirit, through the prophet, says, 1.-THE
stock 10 doctrine Of vanities; craven and
molten images are vanity and the work of
errors" The same chapter says that the
Lord is the true God, the living God and
King of eternity, the Creator of heaven
and earth. In Jer. il, 13, He says that His
people have forsaken Him, the fountain of
living waters, and have hewn them out
cisterns that can hold no water. The
whole book of Ecclesiastes teaches that all
under the sun is vanity, but in the Song
of Solomon we learn of Him who is alto
gether lovely, who alone can satisfy the
soul
16. "rhey left all the commandments Of
the Lord their God and made them molten
images" He brought them out of Egypt
that He might be their God and they His
people, that other nations seeing God in
and through them might turn from the
folly of idolatry to the God Of Israel, the
only living and true God. But when Israel
turns away from the true God to worship
the idols of the heathen what can the
heathen conclude but that the God of Israel
is not as good as their gods? Thus Israel
dishonored their God.
II. "They sold themselves to do evil In
the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to
anger" In Kings xxi, 20, 25, Elijah said
to Ahab, "Thou hast sold thyself to work
evil in the sight Of the Lord" See also