What an honor. What an honor. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. We have this treasure in trash. Who's sufficient? Thank you very much for the invite.
Thank you all for listening so well. I've been in numerous situations
as I'm sure all the pastors have and preachers have, it has not
always been that way. If looks could kill. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Kings chapter Well, if you
want to turn to 1 Kings chapter 16, actually the message is going
to begin in 1 Kings chapter 22. So I'm just going to do an overview. I'll try to keep the introduction
as short as possible. We're going to look at Ahab,
a lesson in God's absolute sovereignty. Ahab. a lesson in God's absolute
sovereignty. I'm sure you remember who Ahab
was, the husband of Jezebel. They both were wicked, evil folks. They were
like us by nature. But in 1 Kings, in chapter 16,
is where we first meet this king, Ahab. And it says in verse 29 of 1 Kings chapter 16, In the
30th and 8th year of Asa king of Judah
began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned
over Israel and Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab, the
son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above," this
is kind of a character trait, above all that were before him. Above all that were before him. Chapter 17. We see Ahab, a famine is sent
because of Ahab's evil ways. Chapter 18, the godly prophet
Obadiah hid prophets from this wicked man, hid from his vile
wife Jezebel. In chapter 18 and verse 17, we
see Ahab's disdain for the prophet of God, Elijah. Verse 18, truth never bows to
air or lies or falsehoods. Elijah stood his ground. Chapter
19 of 1 Kings, Jezebel seeks Elijah's life, which she's trying
to murder him. Her sins will find her out, and
then if you look in 2 Kings chapter 6, we see her death. chapter 20 of 1 Kings. Benadab,
the king of Syria, we see his lies and deception,
and then a godly prophet stands up and orders Israel to protect
itself against this Gentile king. We see a war, a victory, And
Ahab's disobedience on the heels of God's sent victories. This
is just a rolodex of this man's life. Chapter 20, his death is prophesied. Look with me at chapter 21 and
verse 19. Chapter 21 and verse 19. Thou shalt speak unto him, that
is Ahab, saying, Thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also
taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him,
saying, Thus shall the Lord, in the place where dogs lick
the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. So his death is prophesied. And in the rest of chapter 21,
there's more sin and rebellion just piled up. The whore-headed
sinner, the scripture talks about, just piled up one after another. And then in chapter 22, verses 1 through 4, they continued
three years without war between Syria and Israel, and it came
to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, He's a godly man,
godly king, but he's the king of Judah. Came down to the king
of Israel, Ahab, and the king of Israel said unto his servants,
Know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours, and we shall steal and
take it, not out of the hand of the king of Syria. And he
said unto Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to battle Ramoth-Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king
of Israel, I am as thou art, and my people as your people,
and my horses as thy horses. So Ahab persuades the godly king,
Jehoshaphat, to go to war with him against Syria. Verses five and six. Then Jehoshaphat
said unto the king of Israel, inquire I pray thee at the word
of the Lord today. Then the king of Israel, Ahab
gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and he said unto
them, shall I go against Raimeth Gilead to battle, or shall I
forbear? And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it
into the hand of the king. Jehoshaphat, suspicious of these
400 prophets who were in the back pocket of this wicked king,
Well, let's look at what he says in verse seven. The king in Jehoshaphat
said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we may
inquire of him? Then in verse 15 through 27,
Ahab reluctantly pulls out Micaiah out of prison for telling the
truth. I wonder sometimes how far we
are from that. And he asks him what's going
to happen. Are we going to have victory?
He tells him the truth, Micaiah. Ahab throws him back in the prison
and punches him in the face for good measure for once again standing
for the truth of God. And basically what he says is
found in verse 28. He says, and Micaiah said, if
thou return at all in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.
And he said, hearken, O people, every one of you. So he says
basically the prophet of God, he told Ahab, if you make it
back alive from battle, I'm no prophet. Now look at this, look at this
treachery in verse 30. The king of Israel, Ahab, he
said to Jehoshaphat, the other king, I will disguise myself
and enter into battle. But you go ahead and put on the
regal robes, the royal robes, and the king of Israel disguised
himself and went into battle. But the enemy, 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. So he had commanded them, if
you see somebody driving around in a chariot in regal attire,
you attack them. Verse 32, it came to pass, when
the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said,
they thought, surely this is the king of Israel, this is Ahab,
and they turned aside to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat
cried out. The Lord hears the cries of the
righteous. And it came to pass that the
captains of the chariots, verse 33, perceived that it was not
the king of Israel, and they turned back from pursuing him.
You would have thought they would have been just anybody that looked
that important. God is so immaculately sovereign,
they couldn't touch him. But here's our text, these several
verses for tonight. And a certain man drew a bow
at a venture, and smote the king of Israel, Ahab, 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. And the battle increased that
day, and the king was stayed up on his chariot against the
Syrians and died at even. And the blood ran out of the
wound in 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, Ahab, died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the
king in Samaria. In our last verse, and one washed
the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood,
and they washed his armor according, according, according, under the
word of the Lord, which he spake. Any man, verse 34, a certain
man, that's us preachers, Jim, Lance,
Tim, Alan, that's us. A certain man, there's not even
a name. We labor and labor and preach
and preach. When we're gone, we're gone. Just a certain man. Just a nobody. That's us preachers. He says he drew back the bow. Just pulled it back. That's the
gospel. That's what we preach. Pull it
back. At a venture. That word is in the margin, if
you've got a marginal reading, is in simplicity. Are we not
to proclaim the simplicity that's in Christ? And another rendering
is innocence. We're not to take, we're not,
we just preach. We're not responsible for the
effects, the results, and I will, I'm guilty, I've been guilty
of this in my earlier ministry. You get aggravated at somebody
and you may shoot at them. We're not to do that. That's
not God honoring. Just draw it back. No aim. No real direction, just
up in the air towards the battle fray. God will hit the mark. God will hit the mark. And it
hits someone. Someone between the seams of
his armor. God never misses. Now, if you
look at this in the Hebrew, and scholarly folks, they say it
basically got the helmet. It hit right here. I mean, just
right where there was a seam. It didn't hit just anyone, specifically
a king called Ahab. All hail sovereign and absolute
purpose of grace in Christ. I'm wounded, he said, yes, and
that mortally, with no means of recovery. Here's our lesson. And this is for everybody here,
obviously. We may try to hide our sins from
God, but He views everything. What are you hiding from? Why
are you hiding from? There's no escape. There's no
escape if we've seen the justice of God. You can't do it. All is, as the scripture says,
naked and undone, guilty, unclean. We're fallen in hell. Matter
of fact, we're so bad, it says in Genesis 6 that every thought
of our imagination is evil continually. From the head to the foot, no
soundness. No soundness. Secondly, we see a certain man,
a preacher, a godly person used of God to tell sinners of the
Savior. It's not really important, not
of any human notice. And I will take my seat below
any of these men. And it's such an honor to be
able to tell you what the Lord has taught me. I will take I
will be less than the least. I will be back because it doesn't
matter. It really doesn't matter. It's
what's being preached. Do you believe this? Do you believe
this? Yet God is pleased to use this
certain one, a certain man, to tell of the holiness and righteousness
and greatness of God in the person of Jesus Christ, which we've
heard. Scott Richardson said, a preacher
is a nobody who tells everybody about somebody who could save
anybody. We like to skip ahead. A preacher
is a nobody. A nobody. I did a funeral, assisted in
a funeral, been a while back, and nobody, they didn't really
know me. It was over in Springfield, Missouri. And somebody wanted
to know who I was reading the scripture, and I said, I'm nobody.
I'm just a guy from Jackson. I wish I meant that more. This
is not a competition. I get nervous, I get concerned,
but this is not a competition. Nobody. Ephesians says that after
you heard the word of truth, after you believed, after you
heard the word of truth. In Acts chapter 8, an Ethiopian
was reading, an Ethiopian was reading the book out loud. Philip, do you understand what
you're reading? How can I, unless some man? Tell me. Isaiah 53.1, who hath
believed our report, our hearing, or announcement? Who hath believed
that? And I'll tell you, I do get discouraged with the few
folks that I see coming to genuinely know Christ. But I remember reading
an article by Jack Shanks, and he said, he was talking about
Isaiah 53, and he says, who has to believe every part? Nobody,
nobody. And he just looked out, and he
just kind of tossed his ear up, and he said, you believe it. You believe it. How amazing. What grace bestowed upon us. Oh my, may we rejoice that God
stooped to our level to bring this message of grace and peace.
And I tell you, as I tell our folks, may we be happily found
in attendance whilst being preached. There's nothing, and I, the streaming,
the phones, what a blessing to live in a day and age, but I'm
telling you, there is no substitute. Shaking my hand. I'm a touchy-feely
kind of guy. I need that hug this morning.
Oh, what a... I need it. May we be happily found every
time it's preached. as we can. I know things happen.
I understand that. But oh, to be in the presence
when the gospel hymns are sung. When the word of God is read,
I figure if I get up here and mess up, at least you heard the
truth from Tim as he read. That's what we're doing. This
is fully canonized. The canonization of scriptures
is complete. All we are doing is telling back. That's all we're
doing. Now the third point, we get to
this arrow, the gospel spoken. It's drawn at a venture. Woe to that preacher who tries
to, by intelligence or wisdom or his own cunning, to direct
the arrow. Spurgeon said one time he was
walking down the street and there was a guy, a drunk, in the street.
And when Spurgeon walked by, he said, hey, aren't you Spurgeon?
He says, yes, I am. He goes, well, I'm one of your
converts. What do you think of that? He
says, you look like one of mine, but not one of the Lord's. We don't want a bunch of us running
around. We want genuine, true salvation,
and that's only had in Christ, in Christ alone. Someone may
say, well, what are the odds of such a thing ever happening?
What are the odds of that arrow being just shot and hitting and
killing this guy, what are the odds? Humanly, never, not very
much. Humanly, it's impossible. But
with God, all things are possible. We're in Joshua on Wednesday,
and they're getting ready to go in to save Rahab the harlot,
Jericho, and they're just walking around. Walking around. Walking
around. Walking around. Making noise. That's what we do. Wednesday. Sunday. Wednesday. Sunday. Walk around. Walk around again.
Make some noise. Declare. Like you read. Not with wisdom of men's words. No. Simply preach the truth. Each arrow in God's quiver shall
find its mark, no matter how impossible the mark." This, brethren,
is real and truth and absolutes. Tim has always mentioned he loves
absolutes. The more I grow older, I agree. I love God's absolutes. Because tomorrow or Monday, when
you go to work, there's no absolutes. But here, here, which speaks
of our refuge, there's this absolute, absolute. God will and is having
his way among the children of men always. Hard hearts are being
removed, stiff necks are broken, and pliable and soft ones placed
in his place, whether it's done to a man, a woman, a boy, or
a girl. Who can resist his will? Turn with me to Habakkuk chapter
2. Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 2 and 3. Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 2 and
3. And the Lord answered me, he's
talking to Habakkuk, the prophet of God, the preacher of God,
and said, write the vision, make it plain, upon tables that he
may run that readeth it, for the vision is yet for a pointed
time, just like that arrow, but at the end it shall speak and
shall not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will
surely come, it will not tarry. And you young folks, I don't
want to wait. I don't like to wait, and I'm
old. Wait on the Lord. Wait, I say,
on the Lord. This arrow, the gospel of the
free and sovereign grace of God, shall find its mark and bring
the expected result that Jehovah has purposed, decreed, and designed. We just simply pull it back. Ruin, redemption, regeneration. You've heard that, I know you've
heard that from this pulpit. Ruined, ruined by the fall, fallen,
we cannot get up, we cannot help ourselves, we cannot save ourselves. Redemption by blood, the righteousness,
the righteousness that we need is supplied in Christ. and regeneration
by the Spirit. Ruin, redemption, regeneration. Isaiah 55, 11. So shall my word be that goes
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. Shall, shall, shall. I like those two. Acts chapter
two. Acts chapter two, verses 41 through
47. Then they, that gladly received his word
were baptized, and the same day were added unto them about 3,000
souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers, and fear came upon every soul, and many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed
were together and had all things common. and sold their possessions
and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking of bread from house
to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness
of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And the
Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." We don't have to be marksmen.
Just let it fly. Just let it fly. Back to our text. Lastly, in
verse 37, the king died. He died. And we're all going
to die of uncertainty. I'm not trying to be morbid,
I'm not trying, we're gonna die. either in mercy or in wrath. This gospel we preach, this arrow
that we shoot, it's a saver of life unto life or death unto
death. God will and must kill our old
nature through his declared truth. And he will remove the old heart
and give us a new heart as salvation comes. This didn't happen here,
but that's what happens when it hits its mark. What am I saying? I'm saying every gospel preacher
wants to hear the words in verse 34, I'm wounded. I'm wounded. That's what we want
to hear. And we want to see in verse 37,
the old flesh die. That's what we want. It's a lot different what's being
preached today. I was told that Ralph Barnard
said, if I'm going to introduce you to my God, I'm going to have
to kill your God. My, what a salvation. What a salvation had, what a
salvation wrought in the Lamb of God, the great martyr Lamb. Jim, when we were back there
in the men, where Ron was reading and praying, he made a comment, and it reminded
me of a story. He said, it's good. He said,
it's good. It's good, it's all good, is
what you said. Well, I will try to tell a story that I remember
Jack Shanks telling me, and I'll try to be as accurate as I can. In tribal Africa, probably 1800s
or so, There was a chieftain, and his right-hand man was a good
guide, and he loaded his armament. The chieftain loved to hunt.
He'd go out, and he knew the territory, his best friend knew
the territory, he knew the scout. He would find, they had to kill
every day, enough food for the tribe. Well, one day when he
got everything loaded, went out, and the chieftain saw something,
the flintlock backfired, blew his thumb right off. This right-hand man, this guide,
also before, years before, a missionary came through and was emphasizing
Romans 8.28, all things work together for good. And so he
latched on to that, and everything that happened, all he could say
was, it is good. It is good. And that's what he
would say. They'd go hunting, they'd get a successful hunt.
It is good. Well, when this happened, he
said it is good. And the chieftain didn't agree. And he put him as we would call
house arrest. Put him in the hut. You're not going anywhere.
Angry with him. Went back out several months
later hunting with a new guide. Didn't come back. Didn't come
back. Didn't come back. Did not come
back. And then the chieftain comes
wandering into the village by himself. He had a hunting party
with him. He walked straight over to the
hut, opened the door, and embraced his friend. because they got
too far out of their territory and went into a cannibalistic
tribe, and this tribe believed they ate, which you had to have
all your digits. And he lost his thumb. And so
he says, yes, it is good. You bet it is. So I implore you,
don't run, don't hide. God sees everything. Pray to
God that he would shoot you dead to self and to sin, and create
within you a new life, a new heart, and that more abundantly.
Flee towards Christ, not away. Not away. Lord bless you.