Now in this passage, 1 Kings
22, 1 through 40, Micaiah represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the true
prophet of God, the one true prophet of God. Jehoshaphat is
the believer and Ahab the unbeliever. We know from the scriptures that
Jehoshaphat did not do well in making an alliance here with
Ahab. This is made clear elsewhere in the scripture. We might have
judged that ourselves just knowing what we do about Ahab. Not a
good idea to get into this alliance with him, but God used this nevertheless
to bring about his sovereign and good purpose as he always
does. And see how that Jehoshaphat's
first word in this whole thing, after the alliance is made, And
the decision to go to war is made by the two men. The first
thing Jehoshaphat says after that is what? Let's find out
what God says. Let's find out what God says.
That is true of every believer. It must be true of every believer. How can we do anything? How can
we say anything? How can we decide anything until
we know what God said? And I wonder if this is us, is every
decision you make, consequential ones like this, is it informed by finding out
what God says? I believe that's a clear lesson
in this. And do you know how right now
in 2023, we can find out what God says? We're doing it right
now. We find out what God says from
his word, from studying his word, from hearing his gospel. And does his will determine your
actions? Does who he is cause everything
about you to fall into priority? What he's revealed about himself
is that you're guiding light in all that you do. Got to be, doesn't it? Got to
be. Maybe Jehoshaphat was already
having second thoughts about this. Maybe he didn't feel comfortable
once he met with Ahab here. Maybe he got to thinking about
who this idiot was, this godless, horrible reprobate. But for whatever
reason, he said, let's inquire of the Lord. Let's inquire of
the Lord. What he may or may not have realized
is that inquiring of the Lord meant something different to
Ahab than it did Micaiah. But we do surely act the way we act in this world,
may it be so because of who God is. God says don't lie to one
another. And by his grace, I don't want
to do that. I don't want to do that. Why?
Because God hates a lying tongue. But think about what a lie says.
A lie is told in order to manipulate outcomes. I told my mom a few lies, you
know, when I was little to manipulate the outcome so that it didn't
include a butt weapon for me. That's just the truth. That's
why we lie. To make things turn out the way
we want them to. It's a denial of God. He's the
one who determines outcomes. Do you think you're gonna stop
what God's gonna do by you manipulating with your lies and your deceit? Ahab wasn't able to do that,
and you won't be either. And I won't be either. A lie
is more than just, is it bad enough that God hates
it? But I think the big part of why he hates it is you're
trying to be God, only you're doing it with your evil. You're
trying to manipulate the outcome of something. You're trying to
have an influence on the way things pan out. How about appealing
to the one who determines all outcomes? You see how a lie is
just, it's subversive of that. We don't steal. We don't steal,
why? Well, of course, because God
has commanded us, thou shalt not steal. But what I'm saying here is that
if I take that, which doesn't belong to me if I steal something. I'll be richer. I'll benefit
from that. Believers hold up their hands
to God. That's not how we get ahead in
this life, by cheating and stealing. By God's grace, we don't. You
see, because of who he is, I must act the way I act. If I think,
oh, I'm gonna be a hit, that's gonna benefit me, that's gonna
benefit my family. Will we have the audacity to
suggest that God's providence for me is not good enough? I've
got to supplement that with my conniving and my evil? We could go on and on about that,
but you see how Jehoshaphat He seems to have been guilty here
of thinking that he needed Ahab's approval. He's trying to get
in good with Ahab. Ahab is powerful, he's over Israel. And Jehoshaphat seems to think
he needs him, but he didn't. He didn't need Ahab. And God took him away. I believe
he does that for us. When we make horrible decisions, We try to determine outcomes
in our favor. God blows it up, just blew it
up completely, killed Ahab, like he said he would. To show, for one reason, to show
Jehoshaphat, you don't need him. And so that's, from the word
of God, that wasn't a good idea. But in his dealings with Ahab,
he wanted to know what God said, and he wanted to act accordingly. Inconsistent, as all believers
are, but can we not learn from both his mistake and error? how God blessed him to do the
right thing. And then Ahab brings in these 400 prophets that are
just impostors. They tell Ahab what he wants
to hear. 400 of them said exactly the same thing. And it was exactly
what Ahab wanted to hear. And think about
this for a minute. We know that Ahab, he just wants
to hear good about himself. We see that in verse eight, he
just wants to hear good. I hate that prophet, I hate Micaiah,
because he doesn't tell me anything good about me. That's all he
wants to hear. And in that same verse, we see
that why he hates Micaiah is because he tells the truth. because he tells the truth. Ahab
may not have phrased it that way, I hate you because you tell
the truth, but that's why he hated him. The others he don't hate, he
loves them. Let's bring in the 400 prophets. Why? Because they tell him what he
wants to hear. And they had a history of that,
because he singled out Micaiah, didn't he? And said, he never
tells me anything good about myself. All these others do,
I don't hate any of them. This is the religious unbeliever.
Ahab represents the unbeliever, the antichrist religious. He had 400 prophets. He just wants to hear good things
about himself. And false prophets give them
what they want, don't they? They give them what they want.
It's all up to you. I'm so glad, you know, people
are so glad about that. It's all up to me. Well, that's
great. Not so great. Not so great. When you hear the
truth, you all have a spark of good deep down. You just need
to fan it into a flame. All you gotta do is walk this
out. The power is in your hands. If you just come down here, walk
this out, make a decision, repeat after me, everything's gonna
be good. You have the power. Your decision
is the only thing that matters. That's what they're telling.
Doesn't matter what God's done or doesn't done, it's all down
to you deciding for Jesus. Your will. They'll tell you this,
your will is inviolable. Even God in heaven can't thwart
or violate your free will. God loves you. Can you read the Bible and realize
what a horrible thing to say that is? Can you read the Bible
and understand what a horrible blasphemy it is to say that Christ
died for everybody? And if somebody comes along and
tells the truth, which is bad regarding man, it's not good
news at first. It's not good news about you
ever. The unbeliever will hate him
for it. It's not just, oh, well, you believe what you want and
I'll believe what I want. They hate you because they hate your
Lord. He said, they hated me first.
and they're gonna hate you next. He said, don't be surprised,
don't be shocked about it. Our Lord Jesus Christ did exactly that. He came along
and told the truth and they hated him for it. They absolutely hated
him for it. John 18, 37, Pilate therefore
said unto him, are you a king then? And Jesus answered, thou sayest
that I am a king. To this end was I born. And for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. And there he is saying, I came
here to bear witness unto the truth, and the fact that when
he said that, he's standing before Pilate, and we know why. And
we know the result of that. At that very moment, we know
what's fixing to happen. And all of that shows what those
who are not of the truth think of the Savior. and of his bearing witness to
the truth. They hated him. We hated him. What is the truth? Well, the truth about man is
found also in verse eight. But look at the wording of it
in verse 18. It's repeated again by Ahab himself. Ahab is the one that said this. He doesn't ever say anything
good about me. That's the one you want to listen to right there.
The king of Israel, verse 18, said unto Jehoshaphat, did I
not tell thee that he would prophesy? What? No good. What's the gospel
message to sinners? No good. There is none good.
No, not one. no good concerning me, only evil. Only evil, that's the truth now.
That's the truth about sinners. And so you see how this pictures
the message of Christ, the gospel of Christ to sinners. We need
him. We're evil. There's nothing good
about us. We can't do anything. We are
anything. We're wretched in the sight of
God. totally helpless. And the Lord Jesus alone, he's
the only one who will tell sinners that those who speak for him
say what he said. And he's the true prophet of
God that puts us to understanding what we are, totally and helplessly
depraved. And that word helplessly is a
key doctrine in the scripture. You can talk about how bad we
are and write big old books about it, unless you mention that,
the word helplessly depraved. Just as important as knowing
how evil we are is knowing how impotent we are to do anything
about it. With men, it is impossible. That's key, and you're not gonna
look to Christ until you run out of money. And only grow worse. And the
only way to get a glimpse of how evil we are is to look to
Calvary. To see beyond the cruel crown
of thorns. To see more than the nails piercing
his hands, to get a view of what he looked like when Pilate
said, behold, the man swollen and beaten, punched in the face, the tatters of his back. And yet to understand beyond
that, that the very wrath of God was poured out upon him there. All hell was unleashed upon our
savior. to torment and to punish. And in our evil nature, we imagine
that he was getting what he deserved. And from the very throne of God,
we're rebuked for that. And Isaiah 53, four, surely he
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. But, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. With His stripes
we are healed. The gospel of our Savior reveals
the condition from which He saved us, which is what Ahab said,
no good, only evil. God saw that the imagination
of man's heart was only evil continually. In the end, he determined to
pour out his wrath and he told Noah to build an ark. That's the gospel. The believer wants the truth
by God's grace. Jehoshaphat said, let's find
out what God says. He heard the false prophets.
Jehoshaphat heard all of them and it was evident to him. It
was clear as a bell. It wasn't hard to figure out
what they were doing. Is it now for you? Can you listen
to one of them? People, keep it nice. Can you listen to them for five
minutes and not see what they're up to? He heard the false prophets and
he wasn't buying it. He said, isn't there somebody
that we can, that we can call forward to tell us the truth?
Isn't there anybody? And these religious bozos that
claim to speak for God in our day, they're not fooling us.
That's by the grace of God. By God's grace, they're not fooling
us. It's evident to us as it was
to Jehoshaphat here. He insisted on hearing from Christ
himself. The man who pictured Christ in
the spiritual version of this story, Jehoshaphat said, we need
to hear from the Lord. We need to hear from the Lord. That's what you're doing when
you listen to a preacher who says what God said. You're hearing
from the Lord, not from me. I didn't come here to tell you
what I think. I came here to tell you what
God said. And that's how the Lord speaks
to sinners. How can I accept some man should
guide me? And look at verse 11 with me. And Zedekiah, the son of Chanaanah,
one of the false prophets, made him horns of iron, and he said,
thus saith the Lord, with these shalt thou push the Syrians until
you have consumed them. Thus saith the Lord. No, he didn't.
God never said that. He's a liar. He's telling Ahab
what he wants to hear. He said, thus saith the Lord,
but it was obvious to Jehoshaphat that the Lord did not thus say. It's that way now. By the grace
of God, we have some discernment that when we hear a lie told
about our Savior, we know we haven't heard from Him. And all we want is to hear from
Him. This is Etikai. What a picture. of false religion, he used visual
aids. They still do. They still do. If it's on a chalkboard, if I
started putting stuff on a chalkboard up here, it's gotta be right,
huh? Because the teacher always put, you know, what the teacher
put on the chalkboard was law. A lot of people using chalkboards.
Crosses and chalices and beads and statues and thus saith the
Lord But it's ridiculous on the face
of it iron horns Okay, I was pressured to say
what I have wanted to hear I The messenger that went to Micaiah
said, Matt, this is what all of God's preachers are saying.
And we need you to say the same thing. And there was a clear
threat insinuated if Micaiah didn't say exactly what all the
false prophets had said. But look at Micaiah's response
in verse 14. What I'm gonna say is what God
said. That's what a preacher does. You can see that. We stick to the word, don't we?
We stick close. We don't use the scriptures to
support our message. The scriptures are the message.
The word of God is the message. I'm gonna say what God said.
Listen to John 8, 28. Then said Jesus unto them, when
you have lifted up the son of man, then shall you know that
I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my father hath
taught me, I speak these things. You see how Micaiah represents
the prophet of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to say
what God said. That's what our Lord did. That's
what our Lord said over and over. Listen to John 8, 38. I speak
that which I have seen with my father, and you do that which you have
seen with your father. John 12, 49, the Lord Jesus said,
I have not spoken of myself, but the father which sent me,
he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should
speak. And I know that his commandment
is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak, therefore,
even as the father said unto me, so I speak." Micaiah was
not going to be influenced. A true gospel preacher is not
going to be influenced by the pressure from this world
and whoever to say what people want to hear. It's not what God's
people want to hear. I thank God for that. With one mouth, it says, with
one mouth, the false preachers said the same thing. And with
one mouth, the false preachers of this religious world brag
on men. They violate the very character
of God. They'll make God a sniveling,
impotent, hope-so-wish, hiding in the corner, waiting on you in order to not violate their
own will. And they do it with one mouth.
It's all the same message, isn't it? It's the same thing. It's
you, you, you. The mark of the beast is man,
man, man. but God's preacher is an ambassador
of Jesus Christ. We don't have a message of our
own. We bring the message of God,
an ambassador. He dare not add, he dare not
take away from the message that's been delivered unto him to bring to the one intended
to hear it. Now look at verse 15, now don't
be confused about Micaiah saying what he did in verse 15 when
he said, go up and the Lord be with you. It's all gonna be fine.
He was being sarcastic, clearly. He didn't change his mind about
what to say. He was being sarcastic because that's what everybody
else, and he knew what Ahab wanted to hear. And Ahab knew, he didn't
say it in a way where you had to wonder whether he was being
sarcastic or not. Because Ahab said, that's not,
you're not telling me the truth. He knew what he was doing, very
clear. He didn't hide the fact that
it was sarcasm. And Ahab knew exactly, verse
16, what was happening. And look at the false piety of
Ahab. Haven't I always told you to
tell me the truth? He didn't want to hear the truth. He made
that clear. I hate what Micaiah always tells me. I hate him because he never tells
me anything good about me. He didn't want to hear the truth.
But he's rebuking Micaiah for being sarcastic here. Let's look
at verses 17 through 23. And he said, I saw
all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not
a shepherd. People of Israel are scattered
with no leader because God's gonna kill Ahab, the king. 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? No matter what, you tell him
a lie and he's like, I wanted you to tell me the truth. You
tell him the truth, see there, he never says anything good about
me. And he said, hear thou therefore
the word of the Lord. What does God have to say to
you tonight? He's on the throne. You see how all encompassing
that is in speaking to Ahab. Here is what God has to say to you,
Ahab. You're not God. There's somebody
sitting on the throne of glory in this universe, and it's not
you. How many times have we seen that
in the scriptures? That's the gospel message. It's
not up to you. Your decision is meaningless.
It's evil, in fact. Your will is horribly depraved. If you ever decide anything,
it'll be sin. Everything you do is sin. Everything
you say is sin. Everything you are is sin. If
you're gonna be saved, salvation's in the Lord. He's on the throne. With men it's impossible, you're
impotent. Peter said, I'll stay with you,
I will stand up for you, I will die with you. No, Simon, not
only are you not gonna do that, but you're gonna, You're gonna
curse me. You're gonna deny me. But I will go and prepare a place
for you. That's the gospel message. I
saw the Lord sitting on the throne. Have you seen him there? When you see him there, you won't
see any use whatsoever in walking down to an altar and making a
decision. It'll just be, it'll be, it'll
sound ridiculous. Well, it'll sound ridiculous. All of the lies of religion,
when you understand who's sitting on the throne and all the hosts
of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left,
in other words, they're just sitting there waiting, say the
word. So not only does he have all
authority, but he commands all power. Everything that happens,
happens at his will. He may use an angel, he may use
a man, he may not use anybody, but it all happens at his go
ahead. And the Lord said, who shall
persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead
And you see, you remember this scenario here, the Lord saying,
who's gonna carry out my purpose? And somebody said, I'll do it,
I'll do it. And he was a lying spirit in
the mouths of the false prophets. Do you
think it's beyond the pale of God's control
that people lie about God? Do you think false religion is
just like, well, there's a great battle between good and evil
going on in the world? No, there's not. No, there's not. Do you see that?
Could that be plainer? It was according to God's will.
Listen to 2 Thessalonians 2.10. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie. He does it deliberately. He doesn't
consult anybody about it. Why would God do that? Because
we're evil, because we deserve it, because we hate God. Why
wouldn't he do that? That they all might be damned.
God loves everybody. He does it so people will go
to hell. That's why he does it. We have to realize who we're
dealing with now. that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks all way to God for you. Brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because you're smarter than that. Oh, this is so beautiful, isn't
it? Because you decided to believe. No. because God chose you. We're
not congratulating you for this, we're thanking God for it. Because
from the beginning, he chose you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. You believe the truth
because God picked you out and said, you're mine, I love you. The difference in them that do
not perish is not that they were somehow better or made better
decisions than the ones that did. They were chosen through
faith in the truth. God, per adventure, gave them
repentance because he wanted to. That they might acknowledge the
truth, that they might hear the gospel and say, that's God's
truth. I saw the Lord sitting on his
throne. Here's the bad news, Ahab. It
just keeps getting worse, doesn't it, for Ahab? Somebody's on the
throne and it's not you. You're acting like it's you,
but it ain't you. Turns out making your own God Bail and worshiping however you
want to, whoever you want to, is not something that you had
the authority to do. It's not something that you had
the right to do, turns out. Turns out rejecting Christ, everything
that honored and pictured and set forth and exalted Christ,
he did away with it. All the things that taught of
Him and exalted Him and the worship of God in Him, that's not something
that was your prerogative to do. The God you hate is on the throne
and you're a goner. That was the message. And to this wretched, religious,
false, prophet-filled world, Salvation, it turns out, is not
up to you. Your will is not free, and God
doesn't need you to do anything for Him. I saw Him on the throne, and
I've just got to tell you that. By God's grace, It's so clear
in the scriptures, in the word of God, that he's on the throne,
that he has mercy on whom he will, that he decides who lives
and who don't. He quickeneth whom he will, that
he is to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. That he's to be approached as
the leopard did in Matthew 8, acknowledging that all of it
hangs upon his will and not mine. Verse 24, we'll try to hurry. Verses 24 and 25. But Zedekiah,
the son of Chanaan, 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 the inner chamber
to hide thyself. I suspect Chanaan remembered
that word at some point later in his life. And this is false
religion's response always to the truth. Mr. Ironhorns here was offended and
violent about it, just as they smote our savior on the face
and spit on him thousands of years later. It's nothing new. People have been hating Christ
long before he was ever born into this world. It wasn't harlots
or criminals that punched our Lord in the face either. It was
Baptists and Catholics, et cetera, et cetera. That's who it was.
They didn't call themselves that then, but it's them. It's them. But like this man in our text,
one day they're gonna see the truth. You're gonna understand
one of these days. Verse 26, and the king of Israel
said, take Micaiah and carry him back unto Ammon, the governor
of the city, to Joash, the king's son, and say, thus saith the
king, put this fellow in the prison, feed him with bread of
affliction and with water of affliction until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, if thou return
at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said,
hearken, O people, Every one of you, I believe that's Micaiah
saying that, don't you? Hearken, O people, every one
of you, everybody that was in that chamber, all of the king's
men and servants, those who pledged allegiance to that evil king,
he said, listen to me, listen to me. Listen to the truth of
God, hearken unto the truth. You're in on a losing venture.
The one you call King is a pawn in the hands of the King of heaven. Our Lord ate the bread of affliction
and drank the water of affliction for us. Isaiah 63, seven, I will
mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the
Lord according to all that the Lord has bestowed upon us. and
the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath
bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to
the multitude of his loving kindness. For he said, surely they are
my people, children that will not lie. So he was their savior.
In all their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel of his
presence saved them. In his love and in his pity,
he redeemed them and he bared them. and carried them all the
days of old. Verse 29 through 33 in our text,
let's look at it. I know I'm going long here. We should finish this chapter,
not the chapter, but this passage. Verse 29. 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 30 and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying,
fight neither with small nor great, save only with the King
of Israel. He put a cross on his head, a
target on his back. 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, and Jehoshaphat cried out. Do you think he was
calling for his mama or knowing a little bit about Jehoshaphat,
you think he cried out to God, God help me, God help me. His concern all along was what
God said, what God was going to do, not what we've decided
to do. What is God going to do? 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. Even though Jehoshaphat was in
a place that he never should have been, even though because
of his own bad decisions, he found himself in the valley of
the shadow of death. Just as David said, the Lord
was with him. The Lord was with him. Jehoshaphat
cried out. and whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord. God will save you. Verse 34, a certain man drew
a bow at a venture 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 hose
for I am wounded. A certain man, This is the gospel
preacher. He's not the true prophet. In
fact, we don't even know his name. Doesn't matter. Doesn't
make any difference who it is. The Ethiopian eunuch said, how
can I know what I'm reading unless some man, just whoever God sends,
should guide me. He's the gospel preacher. or
all who tell the truth of our savior and his word. He's used
to carry out the word of the Lord. What he did resulted in God's
purposes being carried out. This is the means that God uses
to carry out his purposes of grace toward his people, the
preaching of the gospel. His church, he loved his church
and gave himself for it. He's used to carry out the word
of the Lord, the truth that Christ spoke. The true prophet comes
to pass by means of this man. But he's just some man. The good
news and the bad. It was all bad for Ahab, but
Ahab's death was good for everybody else, everybody that loved God
especially. It's the saver of life and death.
And this certain man, no name man, is instrumental in the very
purpose of God concerning who lives and who dies. How shall
they hear without a preacher? Just a nobody. God's purpose
didn't come true because this man was a great marksman. You know why God's purpose did
come true and it came to pass? Not because then this man said,
boy, I'm gonna have to hit right in between that armor. I'm gonna
have to really put a good shot on this one. And he was able
to do that because he was so good at archery. No, that's not why. All that
God has ordained in the bestowing of eternal life and eternal death
by the preaching of Christ. You know how and why all that
is fulfilled? just exactly as Christ revealed
and that we declare by his grace, it's because of what Micaiah
saw in verse 19, the Lord's on the throne. It's gonna happen just the way
God said it did, not by any skill that we have. God deliberately
picked his worst enemy on this earth at the time, Saul of Tarsus
to tell forth. the glories of the one who he
hated so badly before. The arrow shot at a venture pierces
hearts, and it's the saver of death unto some, but to those
whom the Lord has ordained to eternal life, the piercing of
their heart is life. And the one who judges, the one
who determines both, both outcomes, sits on the throne. For as the father raiseth up
the dead and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom
he will. For the father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment. On to the side. The Lord decided
Ahab dies. Jehoshaphat lives, even though everybody that the king of Syria
sent out, he said, don't even worry about anybody else. You
just kill the king of Israel. And they thought he was it. They
all went after him, but God said he lives. The Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. And may that be the response
of our hearts by his grace. when we see this beautiful story
of our Savior, His word, the power of His will, His sovereignty
and salvation, His sovereignty concerning life and death. May our response be to honor
Him, honor the Son, who alone is worthy.