(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Done! Nice! I want to see you again. Wow, so... Yeah! Is that cool? Yeah! Hehehehehehe I want to see you again. Wow, look at you. You're so funny. Wow! You can give me a good good view. Thank you. Oh! Thank you. Bye. Bye! Ah! Ah? Yeah. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Hah? Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow, wow! Wow, wow! Yeah, that's my big, my big champion, he's the real guy, you know, and I lived out in the country, you know, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, you know, broke up, you know, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up, broke up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Good evening, everybody. Welcome back for Sunday night service at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. It's great to have everybody back this evening, where you sing some great songs and hear the Bible preached, amen. So let's go ahead and open to the back of the hymn book to the Christmas section, 429 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Let's sing it out. All our hearts. 429 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord. Heave in time. Behold him come. Offspring of the virgin's birth. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord. Heave in time. Behold him come. Offspring of the virgin's birth. The herald angels sing. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. On the first one. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Let's pray to the newborn king, amen. Amen. Amen. It's good to be in church, amen? Amen. Let's go ahead and turn to song number 246, Redeemed How I Loved to Proclaim It, amen. Redeemed How I Loved to Proclaim It 246, Redeemed It. Amen. Now I love to proclaim, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am, Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am, Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, no language my rapture can tell, I know that the line of His presence with me doth continually dwell, Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am, I think of my blessed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long, I see where I cannot be sighs, His love is the theme of my song, Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am, I know I shall see in His beauty the King in whose law I delight, loving the Lord in my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night, Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am. Amen. Good singing. Alright, good evening. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin or something to write with, just raise your hand. We'll have one dropped off for you. So let's get into this now. Weekly church service time, Sunday mornings are at 10. We'll be right back. . . . . . More song before we receive the offer. Alright, let's go ahead and grab those hymn books again. We'll turn to song number 244. Great song, Amazing Grace. I'll sweep the sound. Probably don't need a hymn book. Oh, maybe. If you're like me, you do. 244, Amazing Grace, let's sing it out. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. What grace that taught my heart to fear, what grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear to me, how I first believed. Many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already got. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. We've been there ten thousand years, life shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. All right, amen. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to gather here this evening. It's a pretty blessed service, Lord, a fellowship to come, and bring us back again safely on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, please turn your Bibles to First Kings, chapter number 22. First Kings chapter number 22, and we're just going to read the first 40 verses. First Kings chapter number 22, and when you get there, starting at verse number 1, the Bible reads, and it continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours, and we be still, and taken not out of the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth and Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. And the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up, for the Lord shall deliver into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. And the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither, Micaiah the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, and a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Caneana made him horns of iron. And he said, Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver into the king's hand. And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the word of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth. Left eyeward, I pray thee be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, That will I speak. So he came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, Shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee, that thou tell me nothing but that which is true, in the name of the Lord? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master, let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand, and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said, On this manner, and another said, On that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also, go forth, and do so. Now therefore behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning me. But Zedekiah the son of Canaenah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of the Lord for me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Ammon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son, and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow into prison, and feed him with bread of affliction, and with water of affliction, till I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return it all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle, but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariot, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel, and they turned aside to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore, he sent him to the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day, and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even, and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. So the king died, and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his armor according to the word of the Lord which he spake. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son, ran in his stead. Brother Jeff, would you pray for us? All right, amen. First Kings chapter number 22. So obviously we're gonna just roll right into Second Kings next week, but just to quickly recap last week, remember one of the things that we talked about were, what does it take to move God? Obviously we know faith. When a person responds and places their faith on Christ, you're born again, you're in the family forever, obviously God responds to that. But as believers, how do we get results from God? How do we improve that area? And we saw that it was humility, right? When you're reading chapter 21, God pronounces judgment on Ahab, because he would not fulfill his kingly duties. He would not destroy his enemies. And so God sent to him a message saying, basically, it's gonna be your life for his. What does Ahab do? He actually humbles himself on the side of the Lord. And God tells Elijah, and he says, hey, have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? This is a good thing. This is a great thing. And so God basically decides to change his course of action and says, okay, I'm not gonna destroy Ahab in this time, I'm gonna basically bring this judgment that I pronounced onto his children. And that's important to understand because we're rolling right into this chapter number 22 here, where if you look down at verse number one, it says, and they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. So that's a great lesson there, a continuation of last week's lesson for us. How do we get peace as a believer? Well, we stay humble. Now does that mean you're not gonna have conflict? Absolutely not. Does that mean you're not gonna have people coming against you, people coming against our church? Of course not. But how do we find peace in that because we know that God fights our battles for us, okay? And we're seeing that live in action with our church right now. And so I just wanted to bring that up there in verse number one. Now today's sermon, I titled it Try It and See What Happens, okay? Try It and See What Happens. And you're gonna see that Ahab does exactly that. And basically another way to put this is mess around and find out, okay? That's kind of, you know, there's another, you know, way to say that. Obviously I'm not gonna say that, I'm not gonna get into that. But that's what we're talking about today. You know, if you wanna mess around with God's word and push the envelope and go against what he said, you're gonna find out one way or the other that his word is true and you're gonna get bit every single time when we go against it. And so what you're gonna see tonight as we go through this chapter, you're gonna see an example of how being ecumenical can get you killed, okay? We're gonna see that very clearly. If you've never heard that word, basically what that means, being ecumenical. For example, let's say our church was like, you know what, maybe the community is right. Maybe we've been too mean. Let's just go and basically yoke up with this church over here despite our doctrinal differences. Let's go down the street here to this Catholic church. Let's just try to be friends with everybody. Let's just put doctrine aside and come together for the sake of unity, okay? That's basically being ecumenical when we just despite truth, lay truth aside, and just come together. And you're kind of gonna see that and the effects of that with King Jehoshaphat and Ahab in this story, okay? Now remember, you say, well, how is that an example of being ecumenical? Remember where we're at in history here, okay? The nation of Israel is no longer just 12 tribes. Now you have two tribes, or I'm sorry, two nations out of that nation. So you've got the northern kingdom of Israel made up of 10, and you've got the southern kingdom of Judah made up of two, basically. That's basically how it works, okay? Now obviously people from the northern kingdom have come down and so on and so forth. You've got Levites mixed in. But basically the southern kingdom of Judah, they have their own king now. And the northern kingdom of Israel, they have their own king, okay? And they're doing their own things. But remember when the northern kingdom of Israel started, God meant it for good, okay? God told Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and said, you know, as long as you follow me, follow my statutes, I'll basically take care of you. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what he'd said. What does Jeroboam do? He decides to go and basically say, well, you know what Aaron did back in the day, you know, when Moses was gone, wasn't really that bad, okay? We ought to try that again. So he sets up the golden calves, you know, and he brings back Nadab and Abihu. You see that there, and it's just like, Jeroboam, what in the world are you doing? But the people fell for this false religion. And then fast forward a few years, you get this king named Ahab, who's married to Jezebel, who is basically a priestess of Baal. I mean, she's like that satanic girl outside there, I mean, just hates God. You know, every chance Jezebel gets, she attacks the man of God. She attacks God's people, tries to kill the prophets. And so Ahab's going, you know, back and forth, back and forth, making bad decisions, getting, you know, prophets sent to him, so on and so forth. He's getting all these, I mean, God's been very merciful to Ahab, if you've been following the story. I mean, I don't have time to recap it, but I mean, God has been more than patient. You're going to see, I mean, in this whole chapter, God is just extremely patient, extremely merciful to Ahab, despite everything that he's done. But you have a problem, okay? You have a problem in that you have the southern king of Judah basically coming up, and you're going to see that he forms an affinity, if you will. He forms a friendship, a bond with Israel, and you're going to see why that's such a problem. And you're going to see that's why we never want to forsake what is written down in the Bible, the hard truths of the Bible. We never want to forsake our doctrine just to get along with somebody, okay? That's not how this works. Either you believe the Bible or we're not talking, okay? We're not friends. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm going to shun every single person in the world, okay? We had a group of people who identify as Christians who don't believe like us on just about anything I'd imagine, but they came here a couple of weeks ago and they stood outside and they just wanted to support our church even though there's differences, okay? That's fine, you know, for the time that it served its purpose, whatever. But what we would never do is say, you know what? We like want to really establish an ongoing relationship with you. Why? Because they don't believe the doctrine. They're not King James only. And based on their language, and I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest here, I don't think that they're saved, okay? I mean, based on conversations, I think you guys all agree with me, you know? I didn't get a clear understanding of the gospel from them. That's not a knock on them. That's not me being rude. That's just simply an obstacle, something that needs to be corrected before there could ever be true fellowship between us and that group. Now, we could be friendly. There's no problem with that, you know, be friendly with them, okay? But we're not going to come together and work on missions together is what I'm saying. We're not going to go down to the drag queen santa today. We're not going to go down to the abortion clinics and protest. We're going to keep preaching. We're going to go knocking on doors. Then we're going to do what we do because we follow the Bible. So hopefully that's clear. Hopefully that makes some sense. Now let's get into this chapter here because there's a lot of verses and I think we can get through most of it. So let's look down at verse number two. So and it came to pass in the third year, the Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah came down to the King of Israel. Verse three, and the King of Israel said unto his servants, know ye that Ramoth Gilead is ours. And we be still and take it not out of the hand of the King of Syria. Okay, now keep your place there in first Kings 22, but go forward in your Bible to second Chronicles and go to second Chronicles chapter number 18, excuse me, second Chronicles chapter number 18. And I want to answer a question that you might have, which is how did Ahab convince Jehoshaphat to actually go to this? How did this kind of come to be? And this is basically the parallel passage here of what we're studying tonight. And I think this sheds some light on that question. I think we need to understand this because this really does picture the world that we live in today. You know, a lot of times people will try this in churches and they'll maybe send somebody in here, right? And they'll be very friendly. They might even give us something very large, give us a gift or something in hopes for something in return. Okay. And they're not going to fall for it like Jehoshaphat did. So first, I'm sorry, second Chronicles 18, look at verse number one, it said, now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance and joined affinity with Ahab. Now look at verse two, and after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance. You see that? Okay, Ahab's like, oh, this is my chance here to try to soften him up, to try to get him to see that I'm about peace, I'm about love and just friendship here, right? We're all Hebrews here. Okay. Look at the rest of the verse. And for the people that he had with him, so Ahab's like, I'm going to take care of you, Jehoshaphat, and all the people that are with you, and he says, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. Okay. Now go back to first Kings 22. And so you see there what Ahab did. Okay. He's trying to persuade and not trying. He did persuade Jehoshaphat. And look, one of the lessons that we need to remember here, we're going through Kings. And you need to think about it like this. Okay. It's not just, oh, we're just learning about the Kings. We're learning about the Kings and the relationship with God. Okay. That's very important to understand. God wants us to see something here in this passage. And one of the things that he wants us to see here is we ought not to let people persuade us just so that we can stand on common ground or maybe just have the same feelings or what have us. Okay. We want to always be about the love of the truth, and that's going to come up here in a little bit. Okay. So now with that understanding, look at verse number three, and the king of Israel said unto his servants, know ye that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and we be still and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria. Verse four, and he said unto Jehoshaphat, wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. I've had the unfortunate privilege to sit in a, I don't know, Calvary Church, I suppose, and go through these books. And oftentimes when I'm reading this, some of the things that they would teach and say there, stick with me, and I think about them. And I remember going through this several years ago now in just a, you know, a new King James Church, just, you know, reading this passage here, and I remember the pastor was like, see, what Jehoshaphat did is he said, Ahab, you're a Jew, and I'm a Jew, let's just put our differences aside and go forth to war. Now the pastor taught correctly that Jehoshaphat shouldn't have yoked up with him, but his whole, his whole reason was, well, you know, the reason why Jehoshaphat fell for it is because they were Jews. That's not true. Ahab is a Hebrew, okay, they're all Hebrews, remember this, okay? Not all Hebrews are Jews, but all Jews are Hebrews, okay? So just keep your thinking straight as we go through this here. So Jehoshaphat, you know, he's just taken back by this, you know, this offering and he's just like probably having visions, like, oh man, we can maybe get back to, you know, this one nation, who knows? It doesn't say that, but he's definitely taken the bait from Ahab here, okay? So he says, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses, and you're going to see that a prophet comes to him later on after this and rebukes him for all of this, okay? Verse 5, and Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today, okay? So again, you know, where is truth at this time by and large? It was in the nation of Judah. They had the temple, they had the Levites, they had everything that God had prescribed, whereas in the northern kingdom of Israel, now you've got Ahab and you've got his wife who's, you know, all about Baal worship, Baal worship, whatever you want to call it, devil worship, basically, and you have this mixture, you have some people that Elijah was able to persuade and to win to the Lord, Ahab took a part of that sacrificial meal. We talked about that a few weeks ago, but they don't, you know, they got Samaria, they're not interested in truth. That's why it's Jehoshaphat that even brings that up. So definitely a good thing that Jehoshaphat does here, but look what happens next, okay? Look at verse 6, then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said unto them, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall I forbear? They said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Now you're reading this here and you need to understand this is going on today, like right now, okay? And this is one of the ways you can identify a false prophet. You have a preacher, okay, and he's all about the numbers. Look at how many people we have. Look at all the people that agree with me, okay? Red flag here, okay? Because I mean, think about it, we just read most of the chapter and many of you are already familiar with this story here, okay? Ahab's got 400 guys, you know, that will tell him what he wants to hear. What eventually happens to him? Still gets smoked, okay? Because no matter how many people believe the truth or reject the truth, the truth always comes out and the truth always prevails, okay? We need to remember that here. So of course these guys are agreeing, they're like, you're going to do great, Ahab, you're a blessing. Look at verse 7, Jehoshaphat said, so Jehoshaphat's like, something's not right here. There's just something not quite right here. Verse 7, Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him, okay? And look, you know, look at Ahab's response, Ahab's like, he knows too, he knows something's not right. Even though he wants this good news, he wants these people to tell him, 400 of these guys are in agreement. Look what he says in verse number 8, and the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But there's a problem, he says this, but I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so, okay? Now let's stop right there for a second. As you go through this here, keep asking yourself this question, who is it that's really influencing who here, and whose will wins? Because a lot of times, well-hearted, you know, seemingly good-meaning Christians think that they can latch on to somebody like Ahab and persuade them, okay? It never works that way. That's always going to bite you in the backside every single time. What's going to happen is your manners are going to get corrupted, and that's kind of what you're going to see here with Jehoshaphat. So look at verse 9. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. Verse 10, and the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, sat each on his throne, having put on the robes, and a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them, okay? So they're putting on this dog and pony show, that's what we would call it in the military, putting on a dog and pony show, just basically making everything seem like it's okay, like there's nothing to look at here, we're going to win, everything is good to go. Look at verse 11. And Zedekiah the son of Canaena made him horns of iron, and he said, Thus saith the Lord, with these shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them. Now look at the extent that these false prophets are willing to go to just to make a show, right? This guy, I mean, think about this, he goes and he makes these horns and he puts them on his head, and he probably rams like a, I don't know, a bale of hay or something. Just like, oh, this is how it's going to go down. This is what the battle's going to look like. We're going to win. God is on our side, you know? That's literally, I mean, if you think about it, you know, go look up, I don't know, Steven Furtick's YouTube channel. Go look up Joel Osteen's YouTube channel, who's that other guy, Greg Groeschel. You know, go look up some of these really popular New Evangelical Christians YouTube channels. And I mean, it's like Hollywood's working for these guys. They've got millions and millions of dollars. And again, there's nothing wrong with YouTube, we're on there, you know, we don't spend a whole lot of time on there, we've got some ideas, we want to make a documentary, we're going to do that. But, I mean, these guys, I mean, that's all they're about. They're all about the visual, right? They're all about the show. And why is that? Because that's what works on shallow people, okay, and Ahab is a shallow person, and his prophets are shallow prophets. His prophets are false, and they gravitate towards stuff like that, and that's literally what you're seeing here. Look at verse 12. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the king's hand. Verse 13. And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth. Let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. Now, isn't that what our church is told constantly, you know? I mean, it's the same thing every single day, every single week. Hey, everyone else in Boise sees it this way. Everyone else in the Treasury, everyone else in America, everyone else in the world is starting to see it this way. Love is love. You need to, Jesus loves everyone, okay? Is that what we saw this morning? Did you love the Pharisees? You know what I mean? It's like, come on here, okay? But there's always that external pressure on us to conform to the message of the world, the message of the false prophets, okay? And I love this guy here, okay? This guy literally represent our type of people, you know? Just born again, Bible believing Christians, we all got issues, but you know what? One of them is not neglecting the truth, okay? Here in verse number 14, look at this prophet's response, and keep in mind where this guy just came from, okay? Ahab keeps him tucked away, away from where he can infect and influence people with the truth. So look at verse 14, and Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak, okay? And so you have to understand this, and we're gonna break this down here, but God told him to say what he's about to say first, okay? And this is, remember, this is all geared to teach Ahab a lesson, and to give Ahab a chance to hear the truth, and obviously he's gonna reject it, but look at verse 15. So he came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Okay? And you can tell, based on Ahab's response here, a lot. You can tell a lot about Ahab here, by how Ahab responds. Look at verse 16. And the king said unto him, how many times shall I adjure thee, that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? So what's the first thing you get there, right? Well, you know these guys have a history together, okay? You know, Micaiah has, I just envision him kinda like a lot of us, where we're just kinda like sarcastic. Like, yeah, God does love everybody, and we're just like trying to get out, like, fine, whatever, oh yeah, yeah, have that, you know? You know, like, just, I've been prophesying to you, I've been teaching you the Bible, you reject it over and over again, so sometimes, you know, we're like that, right? Like, oh yeah, sure, yeah, whatever. You know? But in this instance here, Ahab, in his heart, right, he knows that the prophet is literally just basically mocking him, just telling him what he wants to hear, like the rest of his prophets, okay? And you're gonna see this as a lesson to him. And so he says, how many times shall I adjure thee? Right, so he's trying to put this guy under oath and saying, how many times do I have to make you swear and tell me the actual truth? Verse 17, and he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, these have no master, let them return every man to his house in peace. So this is the second thing that this prophet tells him. So number one, he just kind of sarcastically tells him what he wants to hear, okay? And the way I read this, it's almost like, you know, the prophet knows, like knows Ahab, because he got this history together, right? So he just tells him what he wants to hear, Ahab doesn't buy it, though. Isn't that weird? It's like this is 401, you know, 401 people that told you what you wanted to hear, but Ahab knows in his heart that it's not true, that he shouldn't go to battle, but he just wants it to be so, so bad, you know? It's just, it's insane here. Look at verse 18. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, did I not tell thee that he would prophesy, no good concerning me but evil? Okay, so after he forces the truth out of the prophet, after the prophet's like, no, I saw a vision, and it's basically you gone, your nation just basically fleeing, going back to their homes. They have no shepherd to lead them, you know, what happens? Ahab gets offended. I mean, look, we've said this before, if you want an example of a spoiled rotten person, it's Ahab, okay, because he knows what the truth is. He knows he shouldn't go to battle. He's being told this. He can feel it in his inner being, and at the same time, when he gets the full truth, what does he do? He gets mad. He gets mad, and he's just like, see, Jehoshaphat, I told you this guy was no good. He always speaks evil. He always talks about me getting destroyed and getting losing and this and that, and I hate him. I hate his guts. Look at verse 19, and he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. So let's stop right there. Here's the interesting thing, right, so you have this council on earth. You've got Jehoshaphat, you've got Ahab, and you've got their prophets, okay, and they're all prophesying, and they're trying to figure out this thing. Is this good? Is the Lord going to bless us here? And obviously Jehoshaphat's kind of like, eh, I'm not sure, isn't there like a real prophet and isn't there an independent fundamental Baptist around here that can like tell us the truth? Is there somebody with King James only that could just come here and kind of give us, you know, the straight blast of truth here? And then obviously this guy shows up, he gives the, you know, the truth here. He tells them, you know, basically this is what I actually saw from God, and now he's taking it a step further, and he's talking about a council that was happening in heaven while their council was going on down here on earth. And so verse 19, and he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. Verse 20, and the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner and another said on that manner. So understand what's going on here, okay? This is kind of confuse a lot of people here, but basically you have the whole angelic host, good and bad. Okay? There are evil spirits present here. Remember all these, these, these devils, these demons, they are subject unto God. When he says, come here and tell me this, they have to respond to him. Okay? A lot of people have this false idea that like a devil, like he's just this rogue agent, you know, that he's the opposite of God. That's not true. God could squash him in a second, okay? The devil is not like the opposite here. He's not like just as powerful and there's like this real big struggle. Like God's like worried about him. God's not worried about a thing, okay? You read through the book of Job, you see a very similar situation to this. You see the devil, you know, being called up, you know, before God and God asks him, you know, have you noticed my servant, Job? And what is the devil's basic response? He's like, yeah, I noticed him. You know, he's got that hedge of protection around him now. Okay? Well, guess what? Because he has sawed and destroyed his hedge of protection, it's now going to fall. And God is asking this angelic host here, hey, what are your suggestions? Does anybody have a way to make Ahab fall at Ramoth Gilead? Why? Because God is sick and tired of him. Okay? He is a bad example to, he's a bad testimony to God. He's a bad example for the nation, obviously, and furthermore now he's starting to contaminate Jehoshaphat in the southern kingdom of Judah, which is going to lead to a whole host of issues that we're going to have to get into. And so Micaiah is giving a glimpse into that council that took place in heaven. Look at verse 21, and there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. Okay? So this is, this idea that you're about to read here, okay? This isn't God's idea. This is the evil spirit's idea, and God is going to allow it. Okay? And the Lord said unto him, now who's the him? Well, it's this spirit here who's actually a devil. Okay? And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shall persuade him and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Okay? So that there explains why all of those prophets prophesied the way that they did with the intensity that they did to Ahab. When you read, and we don't have time to go there, but when you read 2 Chronicles chapter 18, you know, the spirit basically says, and the passage says, that the spirit went into the mouths of those prophets and they lied, they prophesied falsely to Ahab. Keep your place there real quickly. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. In the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. So right past Ephesians and Philippians, Colossians, go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. And I just want to kind of bring this up because we're going to start to really break this type of stuff down on Wednesdays. And really what we're reading here in 1 Kings chapter 22 is a perfect example of what we're seeing now and what's coming on the earth, which is what's called strong delusion. And we need to know who's behind that strong delusion so that we aren't taken by surprise. We're commanded as believers to watch and to discern the sign of the times. And so just real quickly, just so you can see this here, look at verse 7. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7. I'm talking about the Antichrist, right? For the mystery of iniquity, verse 7, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. So obviously when Christ comes back, he will destroy the Antichrist and his armies, verse 9. Even him whose coming is after, look at this, the working of Satan with all power and signs. And look at this, and lying wonders. I believe in the end times, we'll get into this later on through our midweek study. You're going to start to see these Pentecostals, in my opinion, probably get some validation. They're probably going to start, or somebody, somewhere along the line is going to start doing lying signs and wonders, which are basically going to get people's attention. I mean, you've got to really think about this. In today's day and age, with our technology and everything that we have going on, and the pride in how people are just into this self-worship, how is a man going to come on the scene and actually get people to give their volition to him? To basically say, yes, you are God and I will give my soul to you, basically. How is that going to happen? This guy's going to have to have the working of Satan behind him in full force, okay? And you know what? Because of what we're about to read is why God's going to allow that to happen. Let's get into it. Look at verse 10. It says this. So we see this here, okay? Satan is obviously the one working this stuff through lying signs and wonders. Verse 10, and with all, look at this, deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish. Look at this, because, and here's the whole reason. This is why Ahab falls. This is why most of the world is going to fall. This is why we're seeing a falling away now, okay? Verse 10, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish, because, look at this, they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, okay? Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So again, you know, the deception in the end times, we're told, is going to be so strong that if it were even possible, it would save the very elect, okay? Which is why we have to be on our game so that we're not distraught, so that our hearts aren't failing us for looking on those things that are coming on this earth. But look at verse 11 real quick. It says, and for this cause, God shall send them, and here it is, strong delusion that they should believe a lie. You know, if you were to go back just, I don't know, 15 years, let's just say 15, 20 years back into the past, okay? And say, I'm from the future, and I'm from a time where parents willingly, willingly take their children to a drag Santa in Boise, Idaho. People would laugh you out of the state. They would be like, you're nuts. You're on drugs. And I'd say the same thing if somebody said they were from the future. But you got to play my scenario game, okay? Just give me a break here, all right? You get the point. I mean, I'm starting, and we are starting to see how this is going to be possible. I mean, what in the world are people thinking exposing their children to this filth? To the Stone Time story hour? How? How can this be? How can we be living in these times? It's absolutely insane, but it's going on. And why is it going on? Because people don't have a love of the truth. They're not safe, and Satan is obviously working overtime. But look at verse 12 real quickly, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And that's the times we're living in. Now go back to our text. Go back to 1 Kings chapter number 22, and let's keep reading. And so basically, you know, you're going to kind of see that God says, I'm going to send them strong delusion in the end times. And you're seeing basically a shadow fulfillment of that right here during Ahab's day, where this spirit comes in before God and says, hey, I've got no problem lying. I'll go down there and mess with all these guys. And God says, go for it. Now what happened when the devil wanted to do that to Job? Yeah, he had to get that permission, okay? No permission required. God says, go for it. Why? Look at Ahab's life, right? God wants to place a hedge of protection around us. But when we neglect the truth and we take out that hedge trimmer, we're just like, ah, I like the cafeteria style better, right? I want to kind of fit in. You just start, I'm going to lose my sports scholarship if I quilt Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13. You just start hacking that thing up. You're the one limiting God at that point. We're the ones limiting God at that point. This is Ahab's fault, okay? And when we lose our hedge of protection, it's because of us. David, again, he sawed a hole in his. You know, all of us have probably done this to a certain degree, but the point is here, that's what's going on. God says, because of that, I'm going to send you some delusion here and I'm going to use these lying spirits. And of course, we know in the end times, which we're living in here, and as we get closer to that day, there's going to be an explosion of demonic activity on the earth, okay? Well, where does that come from? It comes from there. God is saying, I'm going to send this to you just like he sent this lying spirit to basically destroy Ahab and to lead him astray, okay? Think about it. We never want to get to this point here where God's like, I want to destroy you, okay? I want to cause you to fall in battle. So let's move on. Look at verse 23. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. Oh, God would never do anything evil. God never does anything wicked, okay? Evil just simply means to hurt, and God does hurt people. You know what? When you read Matthew chapter 7 and Jesus is throwing people who have rejected him, thinking they're Christians, into hell, guess what? That's evil. God's just hurting them. Why? Because they hurt themselves, okay? God does this act here and it says that God or the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. Okay? Again, it's not sin. Keep that in mind when you're reading the King James Bible. Just because you see the word evil doesn't necessarily mean it's sin. God can't sin. This is not a sinful thing that God's doing here, but you'll get your guy with the NIV, you know, Captain Scholar, you know, and he'll be like, well, we need to change this language here because we know that God doesn't do evil. The King James translators must have been stupid. You know, and we talk about this all the time in this church, okay? God is not evil. God does evil because he has to fulfill righteousness, okay? And so what I'm saying here is that God is using this as judgment. God is going to hurt Ahab. That's what he's doing. So God has pronounced hurt to Ahab and he's allowing this spirit to come down and lie and basically make him go forth with this. Look at verse 24. It says, But Zedekiah, the son of Canaena, went near and smote Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? And of course, okay, when our enemies, when the false prophets can tell that we know what we're talking about, they get mad and they want to hit us back with all sorts of things, and so that's what you have going on here, verse 25. And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And I can imagine, because this does get fulfilled, that Zedekiah, when he realizes that Ahab's done for, and he's like, uh-oh, I guess Micaiah was right. I bet he had just a terrible bout of extreme anxiety. Verse 26, And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and carry him back to Ammon, the governor of the city, into Joash the king's son, and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. Well, it's about to be short-lived, because we know that Ahab is not going to come in peace, okay? But let's just stop for a second here again and take a look at this, because Ahab is about to go forth to battle anyways. Think about this. Micaiah shows up. After these 400 prophets tell him, You're going to be victorious. They put on a great display. They put on a great show, okay? Ahab and Jehoshaphat both know in their hearts something's not right, so they call up a real man of God. He shows up. First thing he does is he plays their game. He's like, Yeah, go ahead and you're going to prosper, right? Ahab knows that he has something else to say, and so what does he do? He tells him the truth. Basically, you're going to die in battle, and your nation's going to be like sheep without a shepherd. They're going to be scattered. He gets mad, and Micaiah says, I'm going to take it a step further, and I'm going to show you what happened in the heavenly concerning this. So he gets these three bouts of truth here, and guess what? He still ignores it and goes into battle anyways. Verse 28. Micaiah said, If thou were turned at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Harken, O people, every one of you. So I wonder how many of those people, when Ahab died, were like, Ooh, we better go get Micaiah out of prison, because he definitely is sent from God. Verse 29. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead. After all of this, okay, now again, I want to insert this here. Who's influencing who? Jehoshaphat said, hey, isn't there a real man of God? I mean, Jehoshaphat should have been able to discern this and said, you know what, I'm out of here, okay? Because this just really isn't going well here. I think I should just leave. But what does he do? No, he follows Ahab's lead, and he goes into battle, and he's about to pay for it here. Look at this. Verse 30. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle. Put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. Okay? Bad idea. Now you have the person who is representing Christians basically listening to the ecumenical guy. Never a good thing, okay? Like, Ahab's like, okay, I'll hide, and you just basically stand out there with your robes on, okay? They just want me. They don't want you. Verse 31. But the king of Syria commanded his 32 captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. Verse 32. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, surely it is the king of Israel, and they turned aside to fight against him. Now look at this. And Jehoshaphat cried out. Okay? Keep your place there, but go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 18. 2 Chronicles chapter number 18. Let's read a couple of verses here. Because, again, we want to answer the question here. And I told you at the beginning of the sermon, I was going to show you an example of how being ecumenical can destroy you. How it could possibly kill you. And let's take a look at this here. Okay? So, when you're reading this here in 1 Kings, it just says that Jehoshaphat cried out. Okay? Well, what exactly does that mean here? Okay? Well, if you would, if you're in 2 Chronicles 18, look at verse 30. It says, now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of the chariots that were with him, saying, fight ye not with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. Now look at verse 31. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, it is the king of Israel, therefore they compassed about him to fight. But Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God moved them to depart from him. So, again, you know, these ecumenical guys out here in these Ahab churches, they have no problem with going to churches and saying, hey, let's just unite, you know, but at the same time, I'm just going to kind of chill out over here, and you keep doing you. You keep being you and kind of take the heat from me. They've got no problems with that. But what they fail to understand is that the devil wants to destroy everything and everyone. And so they're going to have their day of battle as well. And being a coward and being weak on this stuff isn't going to save them at that time. But back to the story here, look at Jehoshaphat. Now he's in a position where he's about to be killed. And so he cries out and he's like, what do we do? But God helps him. But here's what we need to remember. He should never have been in this situation to begin with. He should not have been fighting this battle. And you say, well, prove it. Well, let's do that. Look at verse 32. For it came to pass when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back again from pursuing him. Guess what? That came from God. God saved him. God caused that to happen. Now let's just fast forward for sake of time. Go to chapter number 19 and let's look at verse number two here. In verse number two, we're going to see how God feels about us yoking up with those that are not about the truth. Look at verse number two. So it says, And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, this is Jehoshaphat, this is after this battle takes place, and said to king Jehoshaphat, and this is a great quote here. We say this all the time. Look at the application here. Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? And that's a rhetorical question. What does that mean for us? That means we should not help the ungodly. We should not yoke up with the ungodly and them that hate the Lord. And here's the thing. It's talking about the Satanists. No, it's talking about your new evangelical Christian that preaches you've got to repent of your sins to be saved. That is a wicked person. That is an ungodly church. That is an ungodly ministry. And we don't want to attach ourselves to them because maybe they view some things that we view as wicked. No, no, we don't want to do that. That is wrong. And here's what could happen to us. Look at the rest of the verse. Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. So here's what the prophet told Jehoshaphat. He said, Hey, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? He's saying, Hey, guess what? These people you're helping here, they hate the Lord. Okay, so what about us? We need to plug ourselves into Jehoshaphat's feet and ask ourselves, and I know the answer to this. You guys know the answer to this. Should we help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? No, not at all. Is that what David did? Absolutely not. Right? David, and you all know how he feels about this, said, I hate them with perfect hatred. So go back to 1 Kings and we'll keep going here. Okay? So just wanted to get that out of the way here. Jehoshaphat is totally in this situation solely because he decided that he was strong enough to be ecumenical and that he could unite somehow with Ahab, that it wouldn't have any damaging effects on him. But think about this. This whole process, the dude become blind. He has not been able to discern the fact that this is dangerous. You know, and you say, well, yeah, okay. Well, again, what does that mean for today? Well, here's the thing. You know, in today's day and age, if you go to a church that allows sodomites to even enter the building, you're putting your children at risk. Severe risk. Severe risk. There are molestations that take place all the time. Okay? Because that is what these people do. That is who they are. The Bible tells you that over and over and over and over and over again and over again. How many lives can we protect by having and developing and fostering an environment where the truth prevails despite outside adversity? Okay? You go to those churches, you're taking a huge risk. Say that you're just doing that to control people. No, I'm just doing that to warn people. That's all. We're just trying to be the Micaiahs. We're just trying to warn our community and warn people and warn other believers that, you know, if you want to play that ecumenical game, you're going to get destroyed. You're going to go down with them. And you're not going to have the tools to fight. So let's look at verse 33, back at 1 Kings 22. It says, And it came to pass when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at adventure and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore, he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. So in that moment, he realized he messed around too much with the truth and found out. Try it and see what happens. This is what happens. If we take on this attitude that we want to just try to follow how we want things to turn out. Because remember, Ahab was just told by Micaiah, Hey, this is not going to work out well for you. Right? He knows Micaiah is telling him the truth, but he's like, I got to try it anyways because I just want this so bad. Just like he wanted Naboth's vineyard so bad. He just had to have it. It always comes back to kill. So he's sore wounded. He says, Turn thine hand and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. Verse 35, And the battle increased that day. And the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians and died at even. And the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to a city and every man to his own country. You know what that is? That's a fulfillment of verse 17. That's exactly what Micaiah said would happen. Go back to verse 17 real quick. And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace. And that's what happened in this day, in this moment. The true man of God was validated by God. Verse 37. So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. Verse 38. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood. And they washed his armor according to the word of the Lord, which he spake. So again, you're seeing fulfillment of prophecy or of scripture that was prophesied. Ahab was warned about these things, and it finally came to pass. Verse 39. And the rest of the acts of Ahab, all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And of course, we've looked at some of that tonight. Let's look at verse 40. So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his stead. Verse 41. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. So just real quickly, we're just going to go through the rest of this kind of quickly. Give us some insight onto Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. And you're going to see here, you know, it wasn't a horrible dude, okay? He had a heart for God to a certain degree. Definitely not a David. Definitely, you know, not great in that aspect here. But he does something that you're going to see here that's amazing, that's very good, that we need done today. But we don't have anybody willing to do it, okay? Let's see here. Look at verse 43. And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father. He turned out aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away for the people offered in burnt incense, yet in the high places, okay? So again, a little bit of a black eye for him there, okay? But notice what it says about Jehoshaphat, that he does ultimately what is right in the eyes of the Lord. So do we have another example of what he did that was right? What are some of the great accolades that he did? Well, not verse 44. Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. It says, verse 45, now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how he warred. Are they not written in the books or the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Verse 46, here it is. Here's my favorite part of this guy right here. And this is your favorite part too. And the remnant of the Sodomites which remained in the days of his father, Asa, he took out of the land. So look, even though Jehoshaphat's ecumenical, right? I like him still because of this here. I like this guy. I mean, yeah, he's got some issues. We all do. But look, dealing with this was not an issue for him. He's like, yeah, I know Asa, you know, my father here, he got him out of the land but there's still some holdouts. There's still some secret spots and I'm going to go find them and get them all out of here, okay? And that's what he does. And notice what it said about him, the same thing that was said about his father. You know, when he took the Sodomites out, it's right in the eyes of the Lord. And all I'm saying is if our government said, you know what? You know what? We've been reading the Bible, right? And we've studied Asa and we've studied Jehoshaphat. We actually want to do what's right in the eyes of the Lord. Sodomites are out. This country would just, I mean, it would flourish again. It would just be amazing. But, you know, we're headed towards the end times and we have the opposite of that. Verse 47, there was then no king in Edom, a deputy was king. Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they went not, for the ships were broken at ease on Gebir. And, of course, you know, what this is teaching us here is that when we take on this ecumenical spirit, you know, the wrath of God is on us. And God is working against us and we're not going to be as prosperous as we could had we just abode by the truth. Verse 49, then said, Ayaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. And Jehoshaphat would not. So it's like he's kind of waking up like, yeah, I just got roasted. I just got rebuked again. I don't think this is a good idea that I do this with you. Verse 50, Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His father, Jehoram, his son, reigned in his stead. Verse 51, Ayaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel and Samaria. The 17th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father and in the ways of his mother. Right, Jezebel. And in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, for he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel according to all that his father had done. So it just gives us kind of a quick recap. We'll go over a lot of this here as time goes on, but I just wanted to kind of cover the rest of the verses there. And so there you see it. Really the big lesson here for us is to not be persuaded to get into this ecumenical mindset. Okay, it's dangerous. And we've had some young guys come in here and, you know, we're not mad at them, we don't hate them, but they ultimately came to the decision that it would be better to go to one of these more tolerant, loving churches because they accept everyone. That's a very dangerous mindset. And from what we just saw today, the wrath of God is upon you. I'm not saying that because I want control. I don't need to have control over people, okay? I've got myself and my family to worry about, okay? All we're doing is simply stating facts from the Bible. If you want to be ecumenical and you want to put aside truth, God's like, that doesn't make me happy. I can't use that. You're actually working against me. Now you're scattering abroad. And now we've got a problem and guess what? Now you're going to pay for it. In some way, shape, or form, people that go that route always, always, always get taken down in some way, shape, or form. I have seen it so many times in my life, okay? It's a tragedy, it's sad, but it's what we have to deal with today, okay? But look, we're here. We don't have to allow that to be us. We can remain persuaded by the truth and not by these outside influences, despite how many sheep and oxen they want to slay for us and try to lure us in. Doesn't matter, right? We're not going to allow ourselves to be succumbed by these physical, pleasurable things, okay? We're going to stick to loving the truth and God's going to keep taking care of us and we're going to keep witnessing his awesome power in this church and it's going to be great. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you again so much, Lord, for these great truths that you have preserved for us. I pray that you help us to remember these things and to preach these things and to teach these things to everyone. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Alright, so for our final hymn this evening, let's turn to number 428. One of my favorites, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. Great song, 428. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. On the first. It came upon the midnight clear That glorious song of old From angels bending near the earth Don't touch their hearts of old A son who will to mend From heaven's all gracious crew The world in solemn slitherness led To hear the angels sing Still through the cloven skies They come with peaceful wings unfurled And still their heavenly music flows O'er all the weary world Above the silvery plains They bend on the ring ring And ever o'er its babble sounds The blessed angels sing And ye beneath life's crushing load Whose forms are bending low Whose toil along the climbing wind April's steps explode Look now, for as old an hour Comes swiftly on the way Rest beside the weary heart And hear the angels sing For though the days are hissing on I'm proud of a part or two When with the ever circling ears Comes round the age of old When he's with us o'er all the earth His ancient splendors cling And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing Alright, good job everybody. Brother Anthony, would you close this? Word prayer, please. Dear Lord, thank you for this church. We pray that you be with us for the rest of the week. We bring it back safely on Wednesday Amen. See you later. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.