1 Kings chapter 22, we're going
to get there. It's going to be a little bit
longer introduction, so stay with me. I need to bring us up
to what's going on in chapter 22, but we'll start in actually
chapter 16 in 1 Kings. We're going to look at Ahab,
and look at Ahab, a lesson in God's providence. So, we're introduced to this
king in 1 Kings 16. And look with me at verse 29.
This is our first record of king Ahab. In the 30th and 8th year
of Asa, king of Judah, began Ahab, the son of Omar, to reign
over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, Reigned
over Israel and Samaria 20 and 2 years. And this Ahab did evil
in the sight of the Lord. So he's a wicked king, right
off the bat. Did evil above all that were
before him. He walked in the sins of Jeroboam. served Baal, verse 31, and worshiped
Baal. He reared up altars for Baal
in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab, verse
32, made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God
of Israel to anger than all the king of Israel that were before
him. So this guy's He's the first,
and not in a good way. He did more to anger the Lord
than all the kings before him. That's in chapter 16. Chapter 17, basically, there
was a famine sent by God because of Ahab's evil reign and conduct. 1 Kings 18, and I'm just going
to go through these, until we get up to our verse and text,
there were godly prophets that hid themselves. They had to hide
about a hundred of them. They had to hide themselves from
this king, from slaughter. From him and his wife were introduced
to Jezebel. You remember that name? That's
never anything good with that name. That's chapters 18, verses
1-4. Verse 17 of 1 Kings chapter 18,
we see Ahab's disdain for Elijah. Verse 17, And it came to pass,
when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that
troubles Israel? And Elijah said, I have not troubled
Israel, but you have, and your father's house. You have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed Balaam. The truth and God's men, that's
that article back there on the table, 7,000, that article that
I think Henry wrote, excellent. God's people, God's preachers. Don't back down. It doesn't matter
if some of the old preachers of old got to preach to kings.
They just told the kings exactly what the Scripture says. And
this is what Elijah is doing. And before long, in several chapters,
he's going to be running for his life from Jezebel. As a matter of fact, in chapter
19, Jezebel seeks Elijah's life. She seeks revenge. She seeks
to murder him. But her sins will find her out,
as in 2 Kings 6, we see Jezebel's horrible death. In 1 Kings chapter 20, there's
a third party. There's Ahab, Elisha, and then
there's another party. There's a king of Syria. We see him. His name is Benadab.
He's full of lies, deception, and he's the sworn enemy of Israel.
Then a prophet of God orders Israel to war against Benadab. Ahab's disobedience to God is
seen. He commanded him to kill. When he caught Benadab, he was
commanded to kill him. He didn't. He knew it was him
and he let him go. And then in chapter 20 and verse
42, we see Ahab's death is prophesied. And he said unto him, Thus saith
the Lord, because you have let go out of thine hand the man
whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for
his life, and thy people for his people." And then 1 Kings chapter 21 and
in verse 19, It says, And thou shalt speak
unto him, this is the prophet speaking unto the king Ahab,
Thus saith the Lord, Thou hast killed, and thou hast also taken
possession. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith
the Lord, In the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth
shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. That's another prediction,
prophecy of Ahab's death. And then, further in chapter
21, there's more rebellion, there's more sin piled upon sin, piled
upon sin by Ahab and Jezebel. Now we get to chapter 22. In
chapter 22 is where we will stay, but in the first three verses,
Ahab, the wicked king, gets a godly king, Jehoshaphat to go to war with
him. Verses 5 and 6, this godly king,
Jehoshaphat, asks Ahab, before we go to war, inquire of the
Lord for us to see if we will be victorious. And he says, oh
yeah, I've got these 400 prophets and they've all said go to war.
Well, these are 400 false prophets. The godly king is leery about
these 400 prophets and so Jehoshaphat asks him again in verse 7 for
another prophet, a godly prophet, to again inquire of the Lord.
Verses 15 through 27, Ahab pulls Micah out of prison
for telling him the truth. Then he asks and inquires of
this godly prophet, and he says, I've told you, you're not going
to come back. You're going to die. And so Ahab, being the wicked
king that he was, throws Micah back into prison after he punches
him in the face. His servant there in the court
smacked him. He throws them back in prison
for once again telling men, or the king, what God has commissioned
him to do. He told this prophet, Micah,
to tell the truth. That's what we do when we stand
up here. When you go to work, if somebody asks you what hope
you have, you tell them the truth. Whether they smack you or whatever
they do. Matter of fact, this prophet
says, if you make it back from the battle alive, he says, I'm
no prophet of God. Then in verse 30, Ahab disguises
himself in battle. He disguises himself to look
like every other chariot driver. But he tells the godly king to
dress in your regal attire. And in verse 31, the king of
Assyria commanded his men to seek out the king, Ahab, to seek
out that chariot. If you're fighting and you see
this chariot, and you see this guy in his chariot full of regal
dress, you go after him. Stop what you're doing and go
after him. So what happens is he throws, in verse 32, he throws
Jehoshaphat under the bus. Jehoshaphat, you know, he has
his regal armor on. And they see him and they start
coming after him. But look at it in verse 32, 1 Kings 22. It came to pass when the captains
of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, surely this is
the king of Israel. No, He's the King of Judas, not the King
of Israel. They thought I was Ahab. And they turned aside to
fight against Him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. Now, it wasn't a cry
for fear. He's crying unto God. He's crying unto God. And we
know that God hears the righteous man's prayer. And so, He gets delivered. And
it came to pass, the captains of the chariots perceived that
this was not the King of Israel, And they turned back from pursuing
Him. The Lord turned their hearts to protect His godly man. Our God is blessed over all forever.
We cry unto God, not like Ahab. We don't curse God. Now let's
get to our text. Verses 34, 35, and 36. Now this
is in here. This is a matter of historical
record. But I think it's very interesting.
It came to pass that the chariots of the chariots perceived that
it was not the king of Israel, so they turned back from pursuing
him. Verse 34, And a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote
the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore
Ahab said to the driver of the chariot, turn thy hand and carry
me out of the host, out of the battle fray, for I am wounded.'
And the battle increased that day, and the king stayed up on
his chariot against the Syrians and died uneven, 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, was brought
to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. This is all
we're going to look at. I'm going to read it slowly, or say
a few things slowly. A certain man, any man, No name,
just a nobody. He drew a bow back, his bow and
arrow. It says, at a venture. That word means innocently, just,
you know, the battle's going on. But he didn't say, I got,
he didn't know what a king, he looked like everybody else. I
used to do that when I was a kid, had a recurve, just shoot it. Shoot it. No aim, no real direction,
just up in the air towards the battle fray. And he hits someone
between the seams of armor. Now there are those who are more
scholarly than I and they look at the Hebrew and they said it
would basically be between the helmet And were the, I mean you
can't, if you aimed there you couldn't hit it. Right there. It didn't just hit anyone, it
hit Ahab. He's wounded, mortally wounded,
with no means of recovery. Now let's look at the Gospel
in these several verses. First thing is, Ahab's trying
to hide. He's trying to disguise himself
so nobody knows who he is. If you're here
this morning without Christ, you may be hiding in the church
pew. You may be hiding from your neighbors. You may be hiding from your co-workers.
But I can tell you this, God knows your every move. He sees
you as Hebrews 4 says, He sees you as naked, open, everything
you do. And what we do is described in
Genesis chapter 6, 5, when God looked down amongst the inhabitants
of man and saw that every imagination of their thoughts of their heart
was evil continually. That's us. We can hide? How foolish, when we think about
the God of the Scriptures and the God that has been revealed
to us, how foolish to think that we can hide or cover our sins
before omnipotence or omniscience. We can't do it. We can't do it. So, His scheme, like all of free
will, false religion scheme, they think God's impressed with
them, they think that they're They're hiding from God, they
go home and the pastor doesn't see, the preacher doesn't see,
maybe the spouse doesn't see, but God sees. God sees. The second thing is, a certain
man. He doesn't even have a name.
A certain man. That could be likened to the
preacher of the gospel. It doesn't matter. We're not
important. There's no name. None at all. It could be a godly man, it could
be a godly woman, it could be a godly person, like that little
maid, Nehemiah, you know, the Lord used her to speak, said,
tell my master, oh, if he knew there was only a prophet in Israel
that would recover him of his leprosy. The Lord, He may say
one thing at work, And ten or twenty years later, we'd like
to see things happen now because that's our nature. We want to
see more people. Whatever, more is not good. Better
is it when there is peace in a little. A certain man, just a person,
but God will use this person to tell sinners about God's holiness,
His righteousness, the greatness of God. As Scott Richardson says,
a preacher is a nobody who tells everybody about somebody who
can save anybody. That's exactly it. I don't see
any name here. It's a certain man. He uses means, and I'm glad he
does these things. In this visible church, I'm glad
that these things are so. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. He's speaking who first trusted
in Christ. He's speaking to the Ephesians,
verse 12 of Ephesians 1, who first trusted in Christ. But
look at verse 13, in whom, Christ, you also trusted after you heard
the word of truth. You can't believe anybody unless
you know who you're listening to. You just can't do it. You can't trust an unknown Savior. The gospel of your salvation.
Oh, you heard the truth. No, you're going to hear the
gospel of God's grace. There's only one gospel. There's
only one baptism. There's only one faith. After you heard the Word, we
don't return to Acts chapter 8, but the Ethiopian eunuch,
he was reading the Word. He was reading the Word. He didn't
understand. a certain man. We have his name. Do you understand what you're
reading? How can I unless some man tell me? So you can kick
it, and I know I used to buy, you know, you're kind of limiting
God. No, God limits. He tells us this
is His means, His ordinance. You're going to hear. You're
going to hear. The Ethiopian heard from Philip. Romans 10.
We've gone there. Verse 14, 15, 16, 17. How shall
they call on Him whom they've not heard? You're going to have
to hear. 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. Chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 4 and
5, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. For our
gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and
the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sakes. You heard the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1. We could spend
all day with this point. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 20-24. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. You may read
a message by Whitefield, a sermon by Spurgeon. You're going to
hear, you're going to hear. And then, you're going to seek
out a place where there's brethren, and where this gospel is preached,
and hold fast to it. What about in Luke where the
two talked, Matt shared back in the back room, Luke chapter
24, where the two brethren were walking and Christ revealed Himself
to them. So even believers have to be,
the Scriptures have to be revealed. The two on the road to Emmaus. Who hath believed our report?
Isaiah 53 verse 1. Who hath believed our report?
That word report is doctrine or literally hearing or announcement. That's old-fashioned. I don't
care. I'm just a certain man. As long as the Lord gives us
a gathering place and a hearing, this is what I'm called to do.
Oh, may we rejoice in this, His means, His ordinance, to be found
delighting in attendance, sweet is the fellowship of like-minded
souls. Because tomorrow, some of you will go to work, I mean,
I guess you could say something, but they're going to look at
you like you've got three or four eyes. They don't understand. Why? Because
they don't understand the Gospel. Well, tell them. Or invite them.
Give them a car. Whatever. Back in our text, the next thing
is, a certain man drew a bow and arrow at a venture. What are the odds of such a thing
ever happening. It's just a little opening. What are the odds? Humanly, we
would say that it was bad luck, Ahab. What a rotten bit of chance. Now, you don't talk like that
if you understand the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Not if you have been taught by the unerring Holy Spirit that
each arrow in God's quiver shall find its mark no matter how impossible
the mark. This is we are speaking in the
realm of reality to the believer, the truth to the believer, absolute
certainty. We're speaking of the sovereignty
of God. The prophecy was several chapters before. This is what's
going to happen. It's not exactly what's going
to happen, but you're just going to die, and then the dogs are going to
lick up your blood, and that's exactly what happened. You look
ahead. Whether it's between the armor,
the joints, or a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl's hard heart. I don't preach by the grace of
God. I try not to, and I'm human. I try not to prepare a message
for anybody specifically. I just, shoot, and let the Lord,
let the Lord, the Lord will have His, He's got the mark already. This arrow, the gospel of free
grace of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, it's going to find
its mark. It never misses. and it will bring about the results
always expected by our majestic Lord." And it made, you know,
Noah, how many years did he preach? Eight people. We've got more
than that. How discouraging. Yeah, but just
remember, we're just a certain man, certain woman, we're nobody. And it's okay. It's okay. There is a sinner, a seller of
purple and thigh attire, her name was Lydia. The Lord will
send a messenger to her and He'll send a message and open her heart. In Acts chapter 2, that's Acts
chapter 16 with Lydia, Acts chapter 2, the Lord ordained those who
would believe. Such as should be saved. What about here in Jackson? What
about in this place right here? Why not? Why not? We gather together, Lord your
will be done, such as should be saved. But it's not for me
to determine. Me is to simply draw back this
venture. Draw back this arrow at a venture. The last thing is, So the king died. So the king died. We're going to die. One way or the other. We're all,
as they said in the Old Testament, I go the way of Jacob, I go the
way of Joseph, I go the way of the earth. We don't know when
we're going to die. We're going to die. We're either
going to die in mercy or die in wrath. In mercy, God will kill our nature
through His preached Word. He will kill, or that is, take
out the old heart and create a new one in salvation. But there's
always death. Death to the old man. Death to
the flesh. Death to self. Death to sin. A live, new life in Christ. We'll either die that way or
we will die, the Scripture says, the second death. Remember, in
Isaiah 55 verse 11, His Word will not return void. It is so... When you speak the Word, if you've
got family who doesn't believe, and you've talked to them, and
it gets easily discouraged. But His Word will not come back
void. It will do that which He intended.
Life unto life, as I said last week, or death unto death? Who's
sufficient for these things? What he's saying there is, I'm
just a certain man, Paul. Who's sufficient for these things?
I'm just a certain man. So my thought would be to myself
and to you, don't run, don't hide, God sees everything. You can't go anywhere. You can't
go anywhere. Pray God will shoot you dead
now to self, sin, and the lust of the flesh and create through
the truth spoken new life full and free. You cannot hide. You cannot hide from God. May
His arrow of the gospel of the grace of God that tells us who
He is, what He has done, and where He's at now May you be
convinced that you are naked and you need to flee to Him.
Flee towards Christ, not away. I remember growing up, people
would start talking about religion, and I was just like, I don't
want to hear it. And I've had friends at work, and they said,
well, you don't talk about politics, religion, and whatever. That's their opinion. desires
everybody to know what we know, who we know. Whether it's a daughter,
whether it's a son, whether it's a mother, a father, it doesn't
matter. Well, I'm going to make them mad. Good. They need to
get mad. They need to be killed. Christ said, you hate me because
I tell you the truth. And that's what we heard in Bible
class. The world will hate you, but
marvel not. Marvel not. So, that's all we are. We're nobodies. And we're just
shooting it. We're just shooting it. But we
know God's will and way and purpose will not be defeated. That's
encouraging. There's this little story right
in the middle of this. I just love it when this Lord reveals
these things. That's what we're about. To God
be the glory. Matt, would you close us?