If you would turn with me in
the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 22. 1 Kings chapter 22. This morning I want to talk to
you about truth. Such a short word, truth, that
entails so much. What is truth? Our English dictionary
defines the word truth as the quality or the state of being
true. Truth is a fact or belief that
is accepted as true. Well, I think most of you probably
knew that. You know, I was quite surprised
that the Thesaurus Dictionary actually gives the word gospel
as a synonym for the word truth. That meaning the gospel truth. That meaning God's truth. Truth
is the truth about God. Truth is the truth about man. And truth is about how God and
man can be reconciled together. We call it salvation. How can
God and man be reconciled? You discover that, God shows
you that, you've discovered and found the truth. And it's because
God revealed it to you. Is there such a thing as truth?
Oh, yes. Yes, there is. You better believe
it. I did a word search in the Bible for the word truth and
the words used 237 times. Our God is a God of truth. He is the rock. His work is perfect
for all His ways. Our judgment, a God of truth
and without iniquity, just and right is He. Deuteronomy 32,
four. Jesus Christ is the truth. Our Lord himself said in John
chapter 14, verse six, I am the way and the truth and the life
and no man cometh to the father, but by me. The Holy Spirit is
the spirit of truth. Our Lord Jesus said in John chapter
15, verse 26, but when the comforter, even the spirit of truth is come,
he shall testify of me. And then in chapter 16, verse
13, our Lord said, how be it when he, the spirit of truth,
is come, he'll guide you into all truth. That's what the spirit
of truth does. He guides us into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak. What will the spirit of truth
speak? Well, we know from those two verses that he'll testify
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He'll speak the truth that He
hears from God. Jesus Christ is the Word of God,
so the Word of God has to be truth. In John 17, verse 17,
the Lord said, sanctify them, those that God gave Him, He said
sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth. It's important
to know the truth. Can we know it? Well, only if
God is pleased to reveal it. Is it important to know the truth?
Oh yes, it's a matter of life and death. Without the truth,
we cannot call upon God, for we must call upon the Lord in
truth to live. Psalm 145, 18. The Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him
in truth. You can't call on the Lord in
error. Without the truth, we cannot serve the Lord, for we
must serve the Lord in truth. Only fear the Lord and serve
Him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things
have He done for you. 1 Samuel 12, 24. Everything that
I'm telling you is backed up by scripture. Without the truth,
we cannot walk before the Lord. Teach me thy way, O Lord. I will
walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name.
Without the truth, we cannot worship the Lord. Our Lord told
that Samaritan woman at the well, he said, but the hour cometh
and now is when the true worshipers, there are true worshipers and
there are false worshipers. But when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father, how? In spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is a spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Solomon,
the wisest man other than Christ that ever lived, said, buy the
truth and sell it not. Also wisdom and instruction and
understanding. Proverbs 23, 23. Now, you know
that the truth can't be bought or it can't be earned. It can't
be merited. There's no price set upon the
gospel. It's free. Solomon, when he says,
buy the truth, he means that the truth is to be had at any
cost. The truth's excellency, its usefulness,
its importance is worth selling and forsaking all in order to
possess. The truth is not to be slighted,
it's not to be neglected. Not if you desire life eternal,
it's not. The truth must not be parted
with. Not for the riches nor the honor
of the world, not for the pleasures of this life, not for anything. Solomon is saying that having
truth is having wisdom, that having truth is by the instruction
of God and that it's divinely revealed, it's the divinely revealed
understanding of God. Truth is the wisdom, instruction
and understanding of God. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. And it just goes on and
on and on. And then there's another side,
the side of not knowing the truth, the side of not knowing Christ
who is the truth. Paul wrote in Romans 1, for the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The wrath of God abides on those
who change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the
creature more than the creators. Here in 1 Kings chapter 22, we
have such a story. The story is also told pretty
much word for word in 2 Chronicles chapter 18, but we'll look at
the 1 Kings 22 passage. And it's a story where we see
four attitudes toward truth. I wish we had time to read the
whole chapter, but we'll cover a big part of it either by reading
or me commenting. There are four principal characters
in this narrative here in 1 Kings chapter 22. There's Ahab, the
wicked and unbelieving king of Israel. There's Jehoshaphat,
the believing king of Judah. Then there are 400 of the prophets
of Israel. And then there is a prophet by
the name of Micaiah, who's God's true prophet. And each of these
characters manifest a different attitude toward truth. And they're
written here on these pages to provide us with a mirror to look
into so that we can see what our attitude toward truth is.
What is the truth to you? What does truth mean for you? Now, in verse one here, 1 Kings
chapter 22, we see that for three years, there had been peace between
the kingdoms of Israel and Syria. And in verse two, we're told,
and it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king
of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. This was King Ahab.
When Jehoshaphat came to visit Israel's king, Ahab, boy, he
really put on the writs, as they say. He threw an event that was
fit for a king. He had a party with an abundance
of good food and entertainment. In 2 Chronicles 18, in that account,
we're told that Ahab killed sheep and oxen for Jehoshaphat in abundance
and for the people that he had with him. There was no shortage
of food at this event. There was plenty of food and
plenty of entertainment. But it's important to understand
that Ahab, the wicked king that he was, he had an ulterior motive. He always did. And his motives
always served his own greedy and lustful intentions. Ahab
reveals his strong feelings of entitlement to his servants in
verse three. He says, know ye that Ramoth
and Gilead is ours. And we be still and take it not
out of the hand of the king of Syria. This was a land dispute. Ahab has this ulterior motive
to talk Jehoshaphat into joining him and going against the king
of Syria to take this land back. He says, do we just sit around
and let them keep what is rightfully ours? Then in verse four, Ahab
asked Jehoshaphat, he said, would thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead? Now I want you to see what Jehoshaphat
says here in the middle of verse four. Without seeking God, he
aligns himself with Ahab and he says, I am is thou art. My people is thy people. My horses
is thy horses. Ahab, I'm with you, buddy. I'm
behind you in this. What's mine is yours. My soldiers
are yours. My horses are yours. My chariots
and their riders, it's all yours. You and I are one in this thing. We believe alike. We are the
same religion. We're the same beliefs. We serve
the same God. But did they? Did they both believe
the truth? Verse five, and Jehoshaphat said
unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the
Lord today. Now, no doubt that Jehoshaphat
here got caught up in the moment. King Ahab throws this big party. He tells Jehoshaphat how important
he and Judah are to him and Israel. And Ahab gives a heartfelt political
speech on how Ramoth Gilead belonged to Israel. and he got the crowd
worked up, and Jehoshaphat got worked up with him. You get a
bunch of men together, and I'm telling you, oftentimes the testosterone
goes through the roof. They all agreed together, let's
go take what belongs to us. But it seems here that Jehoshaphat
realizes that he's gotten caught up in that moment, and as a godly
king, he feels some conviction. And in verse five, we see that
he says to the King of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the
word of the Lord today. In other words, before we get
too carried away with the glory of this conquest that we're talking
about, maybe we ought to find out what God thinks about. So
what does Ahab do? Verse six, we see that he gathered
the prophets together, about 400 men, and he said unto them,
shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall I forbear
or should I not go? And they said, go, go up for
the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Now these
400 prophets told King Ahab what he wanted to hear. They said,
go, the victory's yours, the Lord shall deliver it to you.
In other words, Ahab, you're the man, you're the man, you
go take it, you're the one to do it. And Ahab had already decided
what he was going to do anyway. He never considered seeking the
Lord's will at all. And it's here that we see that
first attitude toward truth. Ahab, he hated the truth. He
made up his mind what he wanted to do, and that's what he did.
He never even thought about consulting the truth. He never thought about
consulting the Lord who is truth. It's ours, let us go, let's go
take it. So we see that the first attitude
toward truth seen here is concerning those who do what they want to
do without even a thought of God. Did you hear me? That's how many look at truth
in our day. The world and its religion says,
it all belongs to you. Go, take it, have a successful
life. Go for the gusto. Just do it. That's what God wants for you.
You deserve the best in life. And they never, ever once, consider
God. Ahab didn't. He did what he wanted
to do. He didn't consult God at all.
Do you consult God in your life? At the request of Jehoshaphat,
Ahab consulted with the prophets only because he knew that they
would approve of what he was going to do. If men and women
today don't like what they hear from one preacher, they'll soon
find another that they do like to hear. They'll find one who
agrees with them. They'll determine that a real
preacher of truth is the one who agrees with them. Here we
see the second attitude toward truth very quickly, that many
today, like the 400 prophets of Ahab, have perverted the truth. That's what these prophets did.
They perverted the truth. You know, Paul warned Timothy
of that. He said, for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own
lusts, they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, the truth,
and shall be turned into fables. Now verse seven here, Jehoshaphat
said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides? You got
400 of them here, I ain't convinced that one of them knows God. Is
there another prophet that we can consult, that we might inquire
of him? It's obvious that Jehoshaphat's
not convinced that these 400 prophets are speaking for God,
so he asked Ahab if there's a prophet of the Lord. They need a prophet
of the Lord, not a man-made prophet, not a king-appointed prophet.
They need a prophet of the Lord. That's what we all need. It's
by the foolishness of preaching that God is pleased to save those
that believe. Verse 8, And the king of Israel
said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son
of Emlaw, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him.
I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. That's because evil was all Ahab
ever did. He was an evil king. Now look
at verse 9. Then the king of Israel called
an officer, and I can just hear his lack of enthusiasm here,
and he said, Hasten, go get Micaiah the son of Embla. Verse 10, and
the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, set each on
his throne, having put on their robes in a void place in the
entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied
before them. Now, here they are, Ahab and
Jehoshaphat, setting up on their thrones, and all these prophets
are prophesying and telling them how God's gonna mightily use
them. And basically, what we've got is just a big show of religion.
And then comes the featured speaker of the evening. Look at verse
11. And Zedekiah, the son of Chinnanah, made him horns of
iron. And he said, thus saith the Lord,
with thee shalt thou push the Syrians until thou hast consumed
them. As I said, a ridiculous show
of religion here with visual aids, I might add. What a picture
of modern day religion. It's just pathetic entertainment.
And picture this, Zedekiah has made horns of iron. And by the
way, those horns of iron, they represent and picture the works
and will of man in our day. That's the way salvation's pictured
today. Man puts on these horns of iron and he lowers his head
and he plows right through on his own work and his own will
and his own worth and way. I can just picture Zedekiah with
these horns of iron strapped on his head. He's lowered his
head and he's running, saying, this is how you're going to drive
them out. And the crowd roared and the
crowd cheered and the crowd clapped their hands. 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. These prophets,
like the self-proclaimed ones that we have today, are nothing
more than just a bunch of religious cheerleaders encouraging these
soldiers to go to war and to conquer in the name of God. There's
only one problem with that. They go without God. God's not
with them. God never told them to go. Verse
13, and the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto
him, before they get back to the big shindig here, this messenger
speaks to Micaiah and he says, behold now, the words of the
prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth, so let thy
word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them and speak
that which is good. And the messenger, probably an
officer in Ahab's army, is basically saying all the other prophets
have already given their blessings to the king. And you know how
Ahab is. They've already said to take Ramoth Gilead, the Lord's
behind it. And it'd be good for you, Micaiah,
to do the same thing. I had a preacher friend of mine,
who knew a Southern Baptist pastor who believed in the solemnity
of God. At least said he did. But he didn't preach it. And
one day, my friend asked him, why? Why don't you preach what
you say you believe? And he said, well, I'm only four
years away from retirement. He knew that he'd be fired if
he preached the truth. But Micaiah was concerned only
with the truth. You see, a true messenger of
God is concerned with one thing, the truth. Verse 14, and Micaiah
said, as the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that
will I speak. I'm going to preach and I'm going
to say what God says. Verse 15, so he came to the king
and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go up against Ramoth
Gilead to battle or shall we not? Shall we forbear? And he
answered him with sarcasm, dripping from his lips. He says, go, go
and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the
king. He just being as sarcastic as
he can be. The messenger said, tell him
the same thing that the prophets told him. And that's exactly
what he's doing. But you see Ahab, he knows Micaiah all too
well. Remember, Micaiah never agrees,
never prophesies anything good concerning King Ahab. And you
know why? Because King Ahab never did anything
good. He was an evil king. So Ahab
recognizes his sarcasm, and he then says to Micaiah in verse
16, how many times shall I adjure you that you tell me nothing
but that which is true in the name of the Lord? So in verse
17, Micaiah tells Ahab the truth. Now look at this. Let's read
a few verses here. And he, Micaiah, said, I saw
all Israel scattered upon the hill 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 you that he would prophesy no good
thing concerning me but evil? And he said, hear thou therefore
the word of the Lord. Micaiah talking again. He said,
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 matter,
and another said on that manner, and there came forth a spirit
and stood before the Lord and said, I'll persuade him. And
the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I'll 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. Sometimes God has enough and
he sends men and women strong delusion that they may believe
a lie. And that's exactly what God has
done here. Look at verse 23. Now therefore
behold, the Lord had put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these
prophets, all 400 of them. And the Lord has spoken evil
concerning me. And it's here that we see the
third attitude toward truth. Now Jehoshaphat wanted truth
on his side. He's a godly man. He loves the
Lord. He's concerned about the truth.
And unlike Ahab, he wanted to consult and he wanted to consider
the truth of what God's prophet said here. But his attitude toward
the truth was yet flawed and imperfect. And it was so for
two reasons. First, Jehoshaphat had already
decided what he was going to do before he suggested that they
even inquire of the Lord. He had already aligned himself
with Ahab. He had already promised Ahab
that he'd go with him. Remember what he said? My men
are yours. My soldiers are yours. My horses are yours. My chariots
are yours. I'm in this with you. And then secondly, he was unwilling
to change his practice to conform to the truth that he just heard
from God. Despite the warning, Jehoshaphat
joined Ahab in battle anyway. Jehoshaphat was interested in
the truth only if it supported what he already believed and
wanted to do. He would have been no doubt delighted
if he could have confirmed his going with Ahab before he promised
as being the truth as to what the Lord wanted, yet he was unwilling
to change his position to conform to the truth There are many today
much the same way. They seek the Lord's will. They
desire the Lord's will. But if and when they find the
Lord's will to be opposed to what they have their hearts set
upon, they go ahead and pursue the desires of their heart anyway.
Over the years, I haven't been a pastor all that long, 13, 14
years now, but I've had people along the way come and say, what
do you think I should do concerning this or that? And I'm always
reluctant to give anyone advice like that. Preachers are not
counselors. We're preachers of the gospel.
But if you do have a scripture or something that you share with
someone, try endeavoring to show them that what they're wanting
to do is not scriptural, not of the Lord, most of the time,
if not all the time, they go ahead and do what they want to
do anyway. Sad, but true. And then fourthly, and lastly,
we have the fourth attitude toward truth. And that's the right attitude
toward it. This is the attitude that Micaiah
had. Micaiah wanted to be on the side
of truth. Ahab hated the truth. The 400 prophets perverted the
truth. Jehoshaphat wanted truth on his
side, but Micaiah, he wanted to be on the side of truth. And
there's a big, big difference. Big difference. Micaiah's attitude
toward truth was the right attitude for at least two reasons. First,
he was willing to speak the truth regardless of the sacrifice,
regardless of the pain that it might cause, regardless of the
consequences that it might bring. And what I'm about to say is
very important. Preaching the truth and love
does not mean to tell people what they want to hear. Preaching
the truth and love is preaching. It's reporting what God says. If you love someone, you tell
them the truth, don't you? Sometimes it makes them mad.
You've experienced that. But if you love someone, you
tell them the truth. Look what happened to Micaiah
after he reported the truth that came from God, verse 24. But
Zedekiah, you remember him, the guy with the horns of iron, the
son of Chinnonah, he went near and he smoked Micaiah on the
cheek and he 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 to Amon, the governor of the
city, and to 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. 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, you better listen to
what God says. God's very clear on the matter.
And then secondly, Micaiah spoke the truth, even though he had
to pay the price for doing so. Zedekiah struck him and mocked
him. King Ahab put him into prison. He was given only bread and water
to drink and eat, but the truth was all that mattered to him.
It's all that matters. In the end, that's all that will
matter, the truth. Those today who love the truth,
those who love Christ who is the truth, they'll speak the
truth, no matter the sacrifice, no matter the pain, no matter
the consequences. But you can be assured that being
on the side of truth, there's a price to pay, but well worth
the price. So I suppose the real question
I have for you this morning is what's your attitude toward truth?
Are you like Ahab and hate the truth? Are you like the false
prophets and prefer the truth? Are you like Jehoshaphat who
wants the truth on your side? Do you want what matters to you
or do you want what matters to God? Is your word truth or is
God's word truth? Or are you more like Micaiah
who wanted to be on the side of truth? I want to be on Christ's
side. I do. Why? Because He's the way,
He's the truth, and He's the life. And that's the only way
that I can come to God by Him. I know what I am. God has been
gracious to reveal it to me. I am sin. Sin's what I am. Not just what I do, I sin because
of what I am. I know sin is what I am. I know
that the wages of sin is death. You know how I know? Because
the word of truth tells me that. The God of truth tells me that
the wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. I know that's true. I know it
is. The law says he sinned and he must die. The soul that sins,
it shall die. I know that's true. I know that
it's true. But I also know that it's true that if Christ, who
is the truth, died in my place and put away my sin, then it
can be no longer on me. It can't be on me and on my Savior
both. No, sir. I know that's true.
That's the truth if I ever heard it. He took all my sin, as we
saw in the first hour. Every bit of it. He took it and
He put it all away. And if Christ, my substitute,
does not give me His perfect righteousness, His perfect holiness,
even though He put my sin away, I still cannot be accepted by
God. Why? Because it's got to be perfect
to be accepted. I know that's true. I know that's
true. And I can only be perfect in
Christ. He's the only perfect one. Do you know that's true?
I know that is truth. Do you believe that's true? Do
you believe in the truth? Let God be true and every man
a liar. We must believe what God says
in His word. After all, His word is truth.
Now, do you remember what happened to Ahab? Do you remember this
story? He died just like God said he would. During this battle,
Ahab came up with this idea that he would disguise himself as
a common soldier. He knew that the Syrian army
would be out to kill him, because if you kill the king, you've
won the battle. So he dressed as a common soldier
because he knew that. Yet in verse 30, we find Ahab
encouraging Jehoshaphat to wear his Kili apparel. Well, what
a freak. He's thinking, I'll be dressed
like a common soldier, Jehoshaphat, will look like the king, and
they'll kill him instead of me." Wicked. This was a wicked, wicked
man. You know, at first, the army
of Syria, you can read through the rest of this chapter, and
at first, the army of Syria thought Jehoshaphat to be king, so they
chased after him, endeavored to kill him, and the scripture
says he cries. Now, I like to think that he
cried out to God. Maybe he just cried out and said,
I ain't the king. But anyway, God delivered him,
and they didn't pursue him, but not Ahab. God had already purposed
His end. And what God purposes, God always
does. He always does. To those who
believe that this world is governed by chance, fate, and luck, as
if there's no God who rules it, we see here, again, that a sovereign,
omnipotent God is upon His throne, and He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. Now look at verse 34, and I'll
finish up. And a certain man drew a bow
adventure. There was a fellow in the Syrian
army. We're not given his name. It's not important. But he just
takes his bow and his arrow, and he just shoots an arrow into
the air without any aim. Not directed at anyone, just
by venture, it says. Just let her fly. And it smote
the king of Israel. Smote the king of Israel between
the joints of the harness, where his breastplate and other armor
went. Just a very small area. That's exactly where the arrow
hit. How could that be? God sent that arrow. God sent
it. Just a small area where the king's
armor was vulnerable. Wonder what the folks in Vegas
would, wonder what the odds of that would be. 10 million to
one? God just shoots an arrow in the air and it just so happens
to strike the king right in that little spot wherever it was.
But God doesn't deal in wagers and God doesn't deal in odds.
His purpose is always precise and accurate. Every single time. Every single time. What a picture
this is of gospel preaching when you think about it. You know,
we shoot the arrow of God's truth without aim, praying that the
Lord God will make it effectual to some sinner, that it will
somehow pierce the armored heart of an unbeliever. The arrow of
God's Word always strikes precisely where God sends it. It never
returns to Him. Boy, isn't that how God saves
sinners? according to His will and purpose.
Only God can make His Word effectual to you. Only God can enable you
to see His truth. If you're here and yet without
Christ, may God be pleased to do just that. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the truth. No man comes to the Father but
by Him. of the Holy Spirit in the heart
is a work in us in truth. May the Lord be pleased to bless
his holy word to us. And may we say with the scriptures,
Lord sanctify us through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Amen.