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

🎵Piano music plays🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church. It's very nice to see you all here on this Wednesday evening. If you don't, please find your seats now. We'll get started with our service. So go to Hymn 323 in your hymnals now. Hymn 323. We'll begin singing more about Jesus. Hymn number 323. Once you find your place, we'll lift it up together on that first verse. More about Jesus, from what I know. More of his grace, that other show. Hymn 323. We'll lift up our voices together on that first verse, number 323. 🎵More about Jesus, from what I know🎵 🎵More of his grace, you other show🎵 🎵More of his saving hope is seen🎵 🎵More of his love, you guide for me🎵 🎵More, more of Jesus🎵 🎵More, more of Jesus🎵 🎵More of his saving hope is seen🎵 🎵More of his love, you guide for me🎵 🎵More of Jesus, let me learn🎵 🎵More of his holy will is earned🎵 🎵Spirit of God, my King, join me🎵 🎵Showing the things of Christ to me🎵 🎵More, more about Jesus🎵 🎵More, more about Jesus🎵 🎵More of his saving hope is seen🎵 🎵More of his love, you guide for me🎵 🎵More about Jesus and his Word🎵 🎵Holy, Lord Jesus, in breath, my Lord🎵 🎵Hearing his voice in every line🎵 🎵Making his grateful saving mind🎵 🎵More, more about Jesus🎵 🎵More, more about Jesus🎵 🎵More of his saving hope is seen🎵 🎵More of his love, you guide for me🎵 🎵More about Jesus on his throne🎵 🎵Grace and glory, all his own🎵 🎵More of his kingdom sure in grace🎵 🎵More of his coming Prince of Peace🎵 🎵More, more about Jesus🎵 🎵More, more about Jesus🎵 🎵More of his saving hope is seen🎵 🎵More of his love, you guide for me🎵 Thank you so much for singing this evening. We want to go to the Lord in prayer for the service, so if you would bow your heads together with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening. We thank you for the privilege that we have to freely assemble here in your house this evening. We thank you for the safety you've given us to be able to be here. And Lord, we just ask your blessing upon us as we come to you and worship you and praise your name. And we just ask that you help us be edified and encouraged as we sing out these songs and hymns unto you. And we ask that you would just meet the needs of our church, whether that may be health or financial reasons or whatever personal reasons it may be. We just ask that you would help us with those and that we would also just take aside this time to look into your word and have open hearts and ears to receive the message tonight. Please fill pastor with your Holy Spirit, that he may come and preach boldly unto us and apply the message to our lives. And we'll thank you for everything in Jesus' name. Amen. Back to 310. Hymn 310. Footprints of Jesus. Hymn 310. We'll sing it out on that first. Sweetly Lord, have we heard the calling, come follow me. Hymn number 310. Lift it up on that first. Sweetly Lord, have we heard the calling, come follow me. And we see where thy footprints fall and lead us to thee. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. Though they lead o'er the cold, our mountain's seaming machine. For of love by so low, those mountains help lead the way. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. If they lead o'er the temple, holy preaching the Word. For in hopes of the poor and holy serving the Lord. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. Then at last when Almighty sees us, our journey done. We will rest where the steps of Jesus head at his throne. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Tonight we're in 2 Chronicles chapter 18. We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Congratulations to the Lee family on the birth of baby Giada. Born Tuesday, August 20th at 534 A.M. Six pounds, six ounces, 19 and a half inches long. Got a great picture there. Be sure to congratulate them. The ladies and teen girls already went to the baby shower on Sunday. Thank you to everyone who participated in that. This coming Sunday at 10 A.M. we will have donuts and coffee before the service. In honor of those celebrating their birthdays in September. On the back we've got the note about the don't go back to school party. That is this coming Monday at 4 o'clock. And it is just a half mile south of here at Svalb Park. So it's really easy to find. You just head south on 48th Street here. You just go left out of the parking lot, 48th Street. First light you come to, you take a left. Boom, it's right there. And so everybody with children that are ages K-5 through 12th grade. Whether they go to school, don't go to school, home school, public school, Christian school, charter school, you know, Jewish school. No, I'm just kidding. Then you just show up to this. And yeah, it's at 4 o'clock. And we have ice cream and water balloons. Small town soul winning is something that we always have going on here. There was a trip to central Arizona with 11 soul winners and 10 salvations. And so, no, I'm sorry. 11 soul winners and 10 salvations on the weekend trip to the Navajo reservation that already happened. The one that's coming up is in central Arizona. Excuse me. And that's this Saturday. It's just a one day only trip this Saturday. And the sign up and details for that are over here to my right. And then there's a Navajo soul winning trip. It's an overnighter. Leaving on Friday morning September 20th. Coming back Saturday evening September 21st. It will also feature a trip to canyon de chez which is a world class destination up there. A lot of beautiful scenery up there on the rez. And so if you're interested in that, we've got the details over here to my right. And you can see brother Raymond Cooper for more details about that. And he can answer any questions that you have. All right. And then other upcoming events. Below that we've got the missions conference, of course, coming in November. And there's going to be a missions trip in Jamaica in December. That's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. Going back to Monday. Anything to report from Monday? Okay. Anything else from Monday? How about Tuesday? Okay. Gotcha. All right. And then today Wednesday. I know we had two for the van today. Anything else? Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning with that. Let's sing our next song. Come lead us. If you don't have an instant, you can raise your hand. And we'll sing it out together on that first. To the regions beyond Dimasco. To the regions beyond Dimasco. To the regions beyond Dimasco. Dimasco, when the story has never been told To the millions who never have heard of his love Dimasco, what's his story of old? To the regions beyond Dimasco. Oh, I must go till the world, all the world, is salvation. Shalom to the hardest of places he calls me to go. God may be the comfort for dreams. What world may pronounce me a dreamer of hope? I'll be the fifth, the master, I'll cling to the regions beyond. I must go, I must go till the world, all the world, is salvation. Shalom. Oh, ye that are with me will be sure and proud, in pleasures so foolish and fond. Away from yourself, wish this holy and sin, and go to the regions beyond, to the regions beyond. I must go, I must go till the world, all the world, is salvation. Shalom. There, O brother, thou sheep that the master must bring, and in rain must the message be told. He sends me together, and out of all things, and welcome them back to his home, to the regions beyond. I must go. I must go till the world, all the world, is salvation. Shalom. Amen. Good singing, everybody. Let's go in your hymnals now to hymn 471, hymn 471. We'll sing 471 entitled, Cleanse Me. Hymn 471. Search me, O God, in all my hearts. Hymn 471. Sing it out together now. Search me, O God, sell my heart today. Try me, O Savior, Lord, my thoughts I pray. Sing with me, some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin. O fill my burden, make me through the pain. Fill me with time, where once I burn in shame. And I desire to magnify Thy name. Lord, take my life and make it holy thine. Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine. Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride. I now surrender, Lord, in Thee, our light. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee. Send the revival, start the working being. Thy working place, Thou will supply our being. Oh, blessing now, O Lord, I come to thee be. All right, this time, we'll go through our announcements together. Or excuse me, we already did the announcements. We will pass the offering plates at this time. And as the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 18. And we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1, 2 Chronicles 18. Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads. 2 Chronicles chapter 18. 2 Chronicles chapter 18. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and joined affinity with Ahab. And after certain years, he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and for the people that he had with him and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. And Ahab, king of Israel, said unto Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, wilt thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee in the war. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. Therefore, the king of Israel gathered together of prophets 400 men and said unto them, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, go up, for God will deliver it into the king's hand. But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil. The same is Micaiah, the son of Imlah. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. And the king of Israel called for one of his officers and said, fetch quickly Micaiah, the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, sat either of them on his throne, clothed in their robes. And they sat in a void place at the entering in of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Keoneah, had made him horns of iron, and said, thus sayeth the Lord, with these thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed. And all the prophets prophesied, saying, go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the messenger that went to Micaiah spake to him, saying, behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one assent. Let thy word, therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good. And Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth, even what my God sayeth, that will I speak. And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And he said, go ye up and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand. And the king said to him, how many times shall I adjure thee, that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the Lord? Then he said, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let them return, therefore, every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good unto me, but evil? Again he said, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spake saying, after this manner, and another saying, after that manner. Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail, go out, and do even so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee. Then Zedekiah, the son of Keoneah, came near and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said, which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, behold, thou shalt see on that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. Then the king of Israel said, take ye Micaiah, and carry him back to Ammon, 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 return in peace. And Micaiah said, if thou certainly return in peace, then hath not the Lord spoken by me. And he said, hearken, all you people. 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 will go to the battle. But put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went to the battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of the chariots that were with him, saying, fight ye not with small or great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, it is the king of Israel. Therefore, they compassed about him to fight. But Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him. And God moved them to depart from him. For it came to pass that when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back again from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Therefore, he said to his chariot man, turn thine hand, that thou mayest carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day, howbeit the king of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the Syrians until the even. And about the time of the sun going down, he died. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you, Lord, for this day. And we thank you for this time, Lord, that we can come together and hear your word. And we just ask, Lord, for your blessings on the service and be with our pastor as he preaches us the word. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. In 2 Chronicles, chapter number 18, we're continuing with Jehoshaphat. And just to kind of give a super quick review to kind of get you up to speed, if you remember, King Asa, at the end of his life, he'd been a great king. He'd been relying on God. He'd done a lot of great things. But then at the end of his life, if you remember, he was threatened by the northern kingdom of Israel. And he ended up joining forces with the Syrians, which was not the will of God. And that prophet came and preached against him. And he didn't receive the message well. So he kind of ended his life badly, OK? Then his son, Jehoshaphat, becomes king. And Jehoshaphat also realizes that the northern kingdom of Israel is a threat, OK? And so what he did, if you just flip back to chapter 17 super quickly, at the end of verse 1 of chapter 17, it says that Jehoshaphat, his son, strengthened himself against Israel. And so Jehoshaphat is a really godly man. And he does not make the mistake of teaming up with Syria. He ends up strengthening himself against Israel. And he ends up prospering. His heart's lifted up in serving the Lord. And he takes away the high places and the groves, gets rid of the idolatry. And so he's a godly, righteous king. He's doing all the right things in chapter 17. But when we get to chapter 18, verse number 1, it says, now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance. And that's all the success that we saw back in chapter 17. But now we see that he joined affinity with Ahab. Now, Ahab is the ungodly king of that northern kingdom of Israel. So we went from, in the days of Asa, the northern kingdom of Israel being a threat. And then it's a threat to Jehoshaphat. He strengthens himself against them. But then, obviously, the northern kingdom of Israel comes to a point where they realize we cannot defeat Judah. We're not going to be able to make any headway in any kind of a strife with them. So they have this mentality that says, well, if you can't beat them, join them. And so the northern kingdom of Israel now wants to be friends. And so here's the thing about Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat is a nice guy. He's a godly, righteous king. And he's a nice guy. So he thinks that this is OK to join forces with the northern kingdom of Israel. Of course, it's not OK because of the fact that the northern kingdom of Israel is worshipping Satan. If you remember, Ahab has the famous wife Jezebel. And she stirred him up to do evil. And they're worshipping Baal up there. They're ungodly as a sinful nation. And here's the thing. Just an easy thing to remember about the history of the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah during this period of the kings and the chronicles and so forth, here's the thing to remember is that the southern kingdom of Judah, sometimes they have a godly king. And sometimes they have an ungodly king. And it sort of goes back and forth between a righteous king and unrighteous king and stuff. But just remember, the northern kingdom of Israel never really has a king that does right in the sight of the Lord. It's always an ungodly king in that northern kingdom of Israel. And Ahab, of course, is one of the most wicked kings as far as what he does. And this is kind of a rabbit trail. But here's the interesting thing about Ahab. He's not really a super evil, like, reprobate, horrible person personally. But the Bible says that his wife Jezebel stirs him up to do evil. And so she's manipulating him. She's sort of the actual power behind the scenes, making decisions and stuff. So even though he is not just a super evil, rotten to the core person, his policies end up being super wicked. And at the end of the day, even if you're not super wicked in your heart, if you're doing a bunch of wicked stuff for whatever reason, you're considered wicked. And you end up getting punished and so forth. And so Jehoshaphat, he joins affinity with Ahab. This is going to be condemned by God in chapter 19. In chapter 19, we're going to find out, of course, that God does not approve of this union. It says in verse number 2, after certain years, he went down to Ahab to Samaria. Now, Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. Why did he go down? Well, obviously, you know, well, north, everybody knows north is up, right? No, what it is is that Jerusalem is at a higher point in elevation. So when it says he went down to Samaria, there's a descent when it comes to elevation, OK? Also, though, in the Bible, symbolically, when we talk about people going down, there's often a symbolic issue there of the fact that they're going somewhere bad or they're going somewhere that they shouldn't go. Like if you remember from Sunday, Jonah went down to Joppa to flee from the Lord. And then he went down into the ship. And then he goes down into the depths of the sea and so forth. So there's a symbolic thing there. But what we're literally talking about is just a lower elevation in Samaria. It is to the north, OK? And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance. So Ahab's rolling out the red carpet for Jehoshaphat because Jehoshaphat's a super powerful king. He's got riches, wealth, honor, and abundance. He's so powerful that the northern kingdom has given up on fighting him. And now they want to be his buddy. So they bring him over. They roll out the red carpet. They wine him and dine him. And it says that Ahab gave him all this food. And for the people that he had with him, verse 2 at the end there, persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. And Ahab, king of Israel, said unto Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, wilt thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people. And we will be with thee in the war. Now here's what you have to understand. Getting along with the heathen is a virtue. Getting along with the people who live in your neighborhood is a virtue. Getting along with people at work is a virtue. We're not supposed to be just out there having strife with all the unsaved people of this world. We should, as much as is possible, as much as lieth in us, seek to dwell peaceably with all men. And so Jehoshaphat making peace with the northern kingdom of Israel would be great. There's no issue there. God does not demand that the southern kingdom of Judah be at war with the northern kingdom of Israel. Peace is fine, okay? Obviously we should strive to get along with people. But there's a crossing of a line where you're not just getting along with the unsaved or just having necessary commerce with the unsaved, but where you actually become yoked up together with the unsaved. The Bible says that we should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, okay? And so when the northern kingdom of Israel has a war that he's fighting, it's his issue, it's his thing, and Jehoshaphat is now just gonna get involved in some battle that has nothing to do with him just to please this ungodly king and just, he's becoming best buddies with this king now. I am as you are. Well, no, you're not, Jehoshaphat. You are not as Ahab. But that's the mentality here, you know? I am as thou art, my people as thy people will be with thee in the war. So he's getting too buddy-buddy with the king of Israel. That's the issue, okay? And we need to be careful in our lives. Obviously we wanna get along with people. We're gonna deal with unsaved people at our jobs, in our neighborhoods, at school, whatever. You're gonna end up dealing with unsaved people and we should try to get along with people. But we don't wanna cross that line of becoming unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Here's some obvious things. Do not date someone if you're a young single or an old single or whatever. Do not date unsaved people. And don't think like, oh well, I'm gonna get this girl saved later. I'm gonna get this guy saved later. No, you should not ever become romantically involved or be dating until they're saved. Make sure that you only date someone who is a saved Christian because otherwise you get all romantically attached and involved and then the person ends up not getting saved and you're already just too sucked in at that point. You're already too committed at that point. Or you just maybe pretend that they're saved or they can just kinda go through the motions and pretend to get saved and you're not really noticing the red flags that they don't actually believe in Christ. You do not want to make the mistake of marrying an unsaved person. If you've already made that mistake and you're already married to an unsaved person, the Bible's crystal clear. You're supposed to stay with that person and make that marriage work to the best of your ability. But if you're single, don't make that mistake. Only date someone who is saved. Do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever when it comes to the most important yoke or union in your entire life. But beyond that, we should not be best friends and best buddies with unsaved people. Our closest friends, our closest people should be people that are saved. Because that's gonna be what we have the most in common with the most fellowship. So we don't wanna get super buddy buddy with unsaved people otherwise they're gonna lead us into sin. They're gonna lead us astray. They have totally different values than we have. So you wanna try to have your closest friends be like-minded Christians. And obviously you're gonna have acquaintances and colleagues and people that you're loosely friends with that are not saved. And hopefully you're trying to reach those people with the gospel, evangelize them, be a good influence on them. But when it comes to our close relationships in life, we wanna make sure that they're safe. Also as a church, we don't wanna be unequally yoked together with unbelievers in the sense that we're not gonna join the ministerial association. Obviously I would probably never even be allowed to join something like that. But the ministerial association where all the pastors kind of join together or hey, we're gonna team up with the Catholics on abortion or we're all gonna get teamed up to be against the homos or something. It's like the thing is, I don't know if there's much of a team there with most of these liberal denominations. But the thing about that is that we should not work together with unsaved people or unsaved denominations in order to move forward the work of God or morality or the Christian right or whatever political or moral agenda. We need to work with people who are saved. Now obviously some people, they get a little too strict about who they fellowship with and they just think everybody's not saved if they're not like a King James or a straight laced independent fundamental Baptist. Obviously there are a lot of people out there that are saved in non-denominational churches, other kinds of Baptist churches and I believe that there are people that are saved in Presbyterian churches. Look, the vast majority of Presbyterians are like lesbians and they're not saved. I mean, you pass by some of these Presbyterian churches, they got the rainbow flag, they got all kinds of crazy stuff and look, obviously it's a jungle out there. But what I'm saying is that there are saved people out there in these other churches depending, I don't believe that Roman Catholics are saved because obviously everything about Roman Catholicism is contrary to the gospel. Everything about the Greek Orthodox Church is totally contrary to the gospel. But there are other denominations that at least give lip service to faith alone and so you'll find some people that are saved, some people that are not. It's a mixed bag but when it comes to doing the work of God, we don't wanna team up with some church that doesn't believe the gospel. Like let's face it, Pentecostal churches believe that you can lose your salvation. They're trusting in works for salvation. They claim they're not but when you're saying that if you don't live right, you're gonna lose your salvation, that's a workspace salvation. So we don't wanna team up with Pentecostal churches for any reason, we don't wanna team up with any unsaved workspace, salvation denominations. We don't wanna team up with Islam and Judaism and Hinduism and Buddhism and have some kind of a presidential prayer breakfast or something. I mean look, the presidential prayer breakfast that John the Baptist was invited to, he was literally on the menu. His head was literally brought on a platter. That's the presidential prayer breakfast in the Bible. And so we're not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And so obviously we're gonna interact with them, we're gonna have acquaintances, colleagues, we wanna get along with people, we wanna have good relationships with people in this world around us and be at peace but there's a line that you cross when you become just best buddies and you start to lose your distinctives as a Christian. And so the Bible says here in verse number four, Jehoshaphat, I gotta hurry because there's a lot of good stuff here, Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord today. So Jehoshaphat's trying to be a good influence on his new buddy Ahab so he's like hey, let's inquire at the word of the Lord. Let's go to church, he's trying to be a good influence here. And so he says hey, let's inquire of the Lord. So therefore the king of Israel gathered together of prophets 400 men. Okay, so the king of Israel, his choice of prophets though is he gets 400 prophets together, they're all false prophets. Okay, so none of these is a legitimate prophet of God. Now this shouldn't really surprise us because how hard would it be for me to find like 400 false prophets in America or something? Or 400 false prophets in Arizona? Like it wouldn't be that hard to find these guys, just get 400 Catholic priests, done, easy, next. Okay, so he rounds up these 400 prophets and here's what we need to understand. These 400 prophets, okay, these are the prophets of the Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Does that mean that they're actually men of God? Does that mean that they're actually preaching the word of God? No, well guess what? Just because something's called Christian, just because something's the name, I mean look, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, they're gonna say it's Christian, it's Jesus, the Trinity, right? Does that mean that they're actually preaching the word of God? No, and so just because something has the name of Christian doesn't make it Christian because the Bible warns of another Jesus in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Another spirit, another Jesus, another gospel, okay? And so here these guys are claiming to be representing Jehovah God here, specifically the God of Israel, not Baal. These are not the prophets of Baal. I just wanted to make sure you understand. We're not talking about the prophets of Baal here. We're talking about bogus so-called prophets of the Lord, okay, because if you remember, in the northern kingdom of Israel, there is a messed up spinoff on worshiping the Lord where you've got the golden calves in Bethel and Dan. That religion calls itself the worship of the Lord, okay? And yet we know it's idolatry, it's pagan, it's false, it's wrong. The sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat is what that's called. Okay, and so these 400 prophets, even though they're prophesying in the name of the Lord, they are 100% bogus, 100% false prophets. Now here's the thing, you'd think that 400 preachers, Jehoshaphat would say like, okay, we've heard from the Lord here. We've heard 400 opinions, we're done here. But look what Jehoshaphat responds in verse six because all these prophets are just giving a positive message, go up, it's gonna be delivered into your hand Ahab, God's on your side, you know, whatever. But look what Jehoshaphat says in verse six. Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we may inquire of him? It's not because he just wants to talk to 401 guys. 400's not enough, I want 401. It's that Jehoshaphat can tell, hey, wait a minute, there's something wrong with these prophets. He knows these prophets aren't legit, they all got the collar, turn around backwards or whatever. He looks at them and says, hey, something's wrong here. These are not the real prophets of God that we're looking for, okay. So he's being polite, he's a nice guy. So instead of just saying like, who are these idiots? He's just like, hey, is there like another prophet of God maybe that we could listen to? You know, maybe like one that's Baptist? And so Ahab kind of know, Ahab catches his drift. Says in verse seven, the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord but I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me but always evil, the same as Micaiah the son of Imlah. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. So again, Jehoshaphat's a real nice guy but you know what, being too nice can be your downfall. I mean, Jehoshaphat's a great man, super godly, wonderful guy, but he ends up making a mistake and actually in 2 Chronicles 19 verse two, God is wroth with him. God is angry, burning with wrath toward Jehoshaphat, a good guy, why? Because he's helping the ungodly and loving those who hate the Lord, okay. And that's the issue that we have here. And so nice guy is good but we wanna make sure we're not too nice, so nice that we're helping the ungodly and loving those who hate the Lord. And so Jehoshaphat's a nice guy because when Ahab says, oh, this guy, I hate this guy because he's always preaching against me. Jehoshaphat gives him this kind answer like, oh, don't be like that. Let not the king say so, don't be that way, let's listen to the guy, you know, don't act that way. Let not the king say so. And the king of Israel called for one of his officers and said, fetch quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah because even in the northern kingdom, like I said, the king up there is always bad but there are a lot of godly prophets up there that are preaching the truth throughout this whole period. In fact, if you read the books of first and second kings, the emphasis is on the northern kingdom. Whereas in the book of second Chronicles, the emphasis is on the southern kingdom, okay? Northern kingdoms perspective is more what we get in first and second kings. So we have guys like Elijah and Elisha, those guys are operating in the northern kingdom. If you look at the books of the minor prophets, there are minor prophets that are focusing on the northern kingdom, like Amos, for example, and so forth. So they have godly prophets up there, the righteous remnant that's preaching the word of God, it's just not the mainstream religion up there. The government's religion and the mainstream religion up there is typically apostate, whether it's worshiping Baal or whether it's a twisted worship of the Lord that involves idolatry, okay? Those are the two mainstream religions up there in the northern kingdom but you still have godly preachers like Micaiah the son of Imlah, you know? And everybody knows about him, you know? He's been preaching against Ahab and so forth. And here's the thing, whenever a righteous prophet is preaching the truth, people that are not right with God, they have this attitude of, oh, everything he preaches is negative, it's all negative. That's what a lot of people will say about us, that we're just super negative, just always preaching negative sermons, always mean, always hateful, but that's just simply not true. I mean, we're constantly preaching positive, loving sermons but that's not what they hear because they're not right with God. And here's the thing, God, to us who are saved and worshiping him and following him and love him, we think of God as being kind and gracious and merciful and loving and we're just constantly talking about how good God is. But that's because we're on God's good side. But you get on God's bad side and then God seems bad to you, not because he's intrinsically bad, but because you're on his bad side. You're on the side of his wrath and judgment and just when you're on the side of his love and affection and mercy, then that's what you're gonna be focused on. And so when you're in church and you're listening to preaching, you're as a saved Christian who loves the Lord, you're hearing the positive, you're enjoying the positive preaching, you're enjoying the negative preaching, you're enjoying positive scripture, you're enjoying negative scripture. Whether you're reading about heaven or hell, you're just like, amen. You know, you read about the end times and you're like, even so, come Lord Jesus, whatever. Because you know that whatever happens, you're gonna be fine. Because all things work together for good to those who love God. But when you're Ahab, it's just, oh man, that preaching is so negative. He's always preaching against me. Well then quit being such an idiot and he won't be preaching against you all the time. You're getting preached against because you're a bozo, because your wife's a monster. So he says, you know, let not the king say so. And the king of Israel called for one of his officers and said, fetch quickly Micaiah, the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Josaphat, king of Judah, sat either of them on his throne, clothed in their robes, and they sat in a void place, void just means what? You know, empty, it's kind of like an open space. They sat in a void place at the entering in of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. And the idea here of mentioning, let me just say something about the Bible. The style of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is not the style of reading a novel that just came out in 2024. So let's say you read a novel that came out in 2024, you know what you're gonna get? A lot of descriptions of places, descriptions of people, right? And you know, I remember one time my dad said to my mom, oh, you should be a novelist, because whenever you tell a story, you're always just giving all this detail that isn't necessarily relevant to the story. You're just kind of like describing people and places and everything. Because that's what it's like when you write a book in our culture, in our day, that's what people expect when they read a book. They wanna hear physical descriptions of all the characters, the room, the building, just all kinds of detail to kind of get a visual image. The Bible is not written this way, okay? Is there any physical description of Micaiah the son of In-law? No. In fact, is there a physical description of Jesus Christ? Nothing, okay? So here's the thing about the Bible. The Bible does not tend to describe places or people at all unless the description of that place or the description of that person is relevant to the plot. Any physical descriptions of people is because that is relevant to the plot. You know, if we find out that, oh, this woman's really beautiful, there's a reason why the Bible's telling you that. Her beauty is gonna come into play. If Absalom's really handsome, if Absalom has long hair, it's not just, hey, by the way, let me just explain to you, fashion in ancient Israel, you know, Absalom has long hair. No, it's because Absalom's gonna get his head stuck in a tree and be hanging by his long hair. Samson's hair has a reason. Anytime you have descriptions of people and places, this is just like a tip for reading the Bible. Understand that the Bible does not normally describe people or places, and so if it does, it's relevant to the plot, there's a reason. So the reason for saying, and of course, sometimes there are symbolic reasons and symbolism and allegory and things like that, and that's great too, but right here, just right on the surface, the reason why it says that they're sitting in a void place is so that we can understand that 400 prophets are literally before them, okay? What the Bible is telling us is that all 400 of them are there, and the reason why it says they're in a void place is it's explaining how you can fit 400 people in their presence. They're not all jammed into some throne room or something, they're outside, that's how they can have 400 prophets present at once. Because if they, I mean, 400 people's a lot of people. On Sunday mornings, our church usually has about 350 people, and obviously, it's a lot of people, okay? 400 prophets is a lot, they're outside, they're in an open space, everybody's there, that's the reason for that detail. There's always a reason for those kind of details. Obviously, there could be other, you know, allegorical meanings and so forth, and the Bible's very deep in that regard. So the point is, they're all sitting out there, the prophets prophesied before them, Zedekiah, the son of Kenanna, this guy gets real into it, he made him horns of iron and said, dost sayeth the Lord, with these shalt thou push Syria until they be consumed. So he's got the object lesson with the horns and everything. And all the prophets prophesied saying, go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the messenger that went to call Micah spake to him, saying, behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one assent. Let thy word, therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good. This is hilarious to me, how the guy who's bringing Micah in is like giving him tips on how he needs to preach, and what he needs to say. He's just like, hey, let me give you a little heads up. 400 preachers are in there, and they've all said the same thing. So if you're smart, you'll say the same thing, otherwise it's you against 400 people. He's giving him this little tip. Of course, Micah doesn't care, because Micah tells him, no, I'm gonna preach what God tells me to preach, and I'm gonna preach the word of God. It doesn't matter if 400 people all agree 400 preachers can be wrong. And if I'm standing alone, I'm gonna stand alone for the word of God. So real men of God, they don't care what the consensus is. They don't care what the mainstream view is. Here's what they care, what does the Bible say? That's all that matters. What does the Bible say? Well, we can't just ignore 2,000 years of church history. You know, we kinda can, actually. We actually kinda can. Because you know who wrote that history book? The Roman Catholics, pretty much. We can't just ignore all these councils and theologians. Yeah, we kinda can, actually. We got the Holy Spirit, we got the word of God, and we have actual teachers and preachers and parents and grandparents that we know in real life, and we can actually know them by their fruits. We can actually do the fruit inspection, and we can listen to grandpa and dad and pastor so-and-so and this pastor and this preacher and this grandma and this mother and this aunt and these people that we actually know in real life, and we actually know the fruit, not just, oh, this guy wrote a book 400 years ago. It's like, well, okay. And by the way, the Catholic church, they burned a lot of books. And so in a lot of cases, the stuff that survives is the stuff they want to survive. The people that have access to printing on expensive materials back before the printing press, where are these documents even being created? They're being created by the people with the money and the power and so forth. And so don't get sucked into this, well, what's the historical view or what's the mainstream view? Look, if somebody writes a history about Christianity in the 20th century, okay? Is it gonna be the right men of God that they feature or is it mainly gonna be false prophets? What about the 21st century? Who are they gonna be writing about if we were to just write a history of the 21st century? It's gonna be Joyce Meyer, it's gonna be Kenneth Copeland, it's gonna be Benny Hinn, it's gonna be John MacArthur. You know these people would all be in the book. Joel Osteen would be in the book. Rick Warren would be in the book. Bill Hybels will be in the book. You know who's not gonna be in that book? Steven Anderson, Roger Jimenez, right? Jonathan Shelley, David Berzins, Aaron Thompson. You think these people are gonna be in this book? I'm sure Pastor Jason Robinson in Fairmont, West Virginia is gonna get a whole chapter in this book, right? Of course, of course not, okay, why? Because of the fact that the ones that will be featured are gonna be Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, you know, it's all gonna be these big name preachers. And isn't it interesting that the big name preachers of our day are bogus? The televangelists, the radio preachers, the TV preachers, they're virtually all bogus. So why would we think it was different 100 years ago or 200 years ago or 300 years ago? Why would it be that three, 400 years ago all the big names were good? Now all the big names are bad. How does that work exactly? Wouldn't it make more sense to think, well, broad is the way that leads to destruction, many there be which go in there at, straight is the gain and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. And that, yeah, the 400 prophets that are preaching garbage, they're the ones that people are gonna focus on when they write the history, the religious history. And here's the thing, it's not, and you know, you say, well, you know, the reason that you and your pastor friends wouldn't be mentioned is because you guys aren't significant. But we actually are very significant because we've actually preached to literally millions of people. So even though we've literally preached to tens of millions of people, okay, literally, tens of millions of people have heard our preaching and we've gone out and knocked the doors of millions of people all over America, we've got all over the world. I mean, we have evangelized literally hundreds of thousands of people, right? But we just don't matter? No, but to a secular historian or to a Roman Catholic historian, we don't matter. Does everybody understand? So let me ask this, do you think that maybe a thousand years ago there was a guy like Steven Anderson and a guy like Roger E. Menes, a thousand years ago there was a guy like Pastor Berzins, and also do you think there was a guy like Joel Osteen a thousand years ago, and a guy like Rick Warren, and a guy like Joyce Meyer, a guy like Joyce Meyer, or something, I don't know. A guy like Michelle Obama, you know? I mean, you know, there's nothing new under the sun. The same type of people that are living now are the same type of people that were living a thousand years ago, and two thousand years ago, and three thousand years ago. You know what, it's just people. There are always gonna be people like me, there are always gonna be people like you, there's always gonna be people like them, there's always gonna be people like the Pope. It's just the way the world is. But somehow people just think the past is just totally different. You know, is the most popular mainstream preacher in America today a good man of God that we should be listening to? Okay, then why would we think that the most popular mainstream pastor in England a hundred years ago is a great man of God and we should all listen to him? The guy with the biggest church in England or something, a hundred years ago, yeah, but back then. No, it's just that what happens is, these people from the past, you know, they get enshrined because of the fact that the good guys, we forget about them. They're unknown, they're unnamed. Even a lot of the righteous prophets in the Bible are totally unnamed. We happen to know Micaiah's name, but other prophets, they preach great sermons, they do great works, and the Bible's just like, a certain man of God, certain prophet, you hear the guy's name. You're gonna get to heaven and some guy's gonna be like, yeah, that was me, you know. I was that guy, I was that certain prophet, remember that? You remember that part? And you're like, sorry, I don't remember that part, man. He's like, dang it, I'm just kidding. But the thing is, let's get back to the text, because I gotta hurry up for sake of time here. So Micaiah's brought out, he's given advice that he needs to preach like everybody else is preaching, and he's like, nah, man, I'm gonna preach whatever the Lord tells me to preach. So he comes in, and he says in verse 13, Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth, even what my God sayeth, that will I speak. And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And he said, go ye up and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand. Now, I'm wondering here if this is said in like a sarcastic manner. Obviously, when we're reading it as a text, we may not be able to pick this up, but it seems to have been delivered in maybe a sarcastic or ironic manner, because then, instead of just being happy that he said something positive, the king said to him, how many times shall I adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the Lord? He's like, look, man, don't make fun of me. Tell me the truth. This is not a joke. Be serious and tell me the truth. Do I have to adjure you, you know, to do this in the name of the Lord? Then said he, I did see all Israel, this is verse 16, scattered upon the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd, and the Lord said, these have no master. Let them return, therefore, every man to his house in peace. So basically, the idea here is, well, everybody's gonna be okay, except you, is what he's saying, right? Like, hey, let these people go to their house in peace. In general, Israel is gonna come out of this thing okay, except you're gonna die. They're gonna be like sheep having no shepherd, because you're the shepherd, you're the king, and you're gonna be toast. So obviously, this is not what the king wants to hear. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good unto me, but evil? He's like, I told you this would happen. Again, he said, and this is Micaiah, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spake after this manner, another saying after that manner. Then there came out a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I'll go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail, go out and do even so. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord had spoken evil against thee, okay. Now, this is a passage that some people struggle with. It seems a little problematic on the surface. Like, why is God sending out a lying spirit into the mouth of these preachers? Like, is God just responsible for all the evil in the world? Is God just responsible for all the bad preaching in the world, because he's just, you know, sending out all this bad preaching and he's just leading people to preach? Of course not. So we need to put this passage in its proper context of what we know from the rest of the Bible, okay. And here's the best way to understand this passage, is to realize the fact that the devil and his minions, they're wicked, they do evil, they do things that God would never do and cannot do, because God is perfect and holy and righteous. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. But that God allows these evil entities to exist, because ultimately, ultimately in the grand scheme of things it's part of his plan to have these evil entities out there and to basically do various things that ultimately do fulfill the will of God. God is not controlling them. God is not the author of wicked, evil, sinful, perverted things. He just isn't. And you know, of course, I don't wanna make this a big sermon against Calvinism, because that's a whole sermon in and of itself, but let me tell you something, Calvinism is garbage. And this fatalistic sort of predestination doctrine that acts like everything that happens is God's will and that, you know, God's controlling everything is stupid. Let alone being totally unbiblical, it's also just stupid. It's also absurd, it's borderline insane. I mean, to think that God is the one controlling all the perverse, wicked, evil things that are going on in this world, of course he's not. But God does allow these things to exist. God does, and I think that the best way to understand this chapter is to think about Revelation chapter 20. We don't have to turn there for sake of time, but Revelation chapter 20 is the best example of this. I feel like if you can really grasp Revelation 20, then you'll have no problem with this chapter, what we just read. It'll all click with you and make sense. And here's why I say that, because in Revelation chapter 20, if you remember, after the second coming of Christ, Christ rules and reigns for 1,000 years on this earth. So Christ returns, he rules and reigns for 1,000 years, and during that 1,000 years, Satan is bound in hell, right? He's thrown into hell by the angel of the bottomless pit, and he's locked up, he's shut away, he's in prison, and he has no access to this world for 1,000 years. He's not deceiving anybody, he's not involved in anything, he is in hell. He's totally out of the picture. Now wouldn't you think that if the devil's in hell, we should just leave him there? But yet, in Revelation 20, after the millennium is over, God specifically unlocks the bottomless pit and allows Satan out of the bottomless pit for the express purpose so that he can go around and deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea, and they went upon the breadth of the earth, and they compassed the camp of the saints about in the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. So God had a plan that at the end of the millennium, he's gonna take out the trash one last time. And the trash man is Satan, Satan is the trash man. And so he allows the trash man to come out of hell so he can go do his job and gather all the trash, because here's the thing, the only people that are going to be deceived by Satan after the millennium are the trash. So this is a way to collect the trash. He goes around to deceive the nations, guess what? Only the trash are gonna be deceived. And then they get deceived, they follow Satan to their own destruction, and they end up getting torched. Okay, look, don't you think that if God wanted to, he could just put the devil in hell right now? And he wouldn't even have to wait till the second coming. God could literally just snap his fingers right now and just send the devil and all his demons to hell. Why does he allow the devils and the demons to just run free, to go? I mean, what does the devil say in Job? He says, I'm just walking to and fro in the earth and I'm just going up and down in it. What are you up to, Satan? Oh man, I'm just going all over the place. He's even going to heaven, because Satan goes to heaven and talks to God in the book of Job. He's going all over the earth, he walked the bough as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Okay, and so this is what Satan does, this is what God allows him to do, because God wants people to have a choice and to make a choice. And so in order for people to have a choice and to make a choice, there has to exist in this world the preaching of the truth and the preaching of lies. Now, God's not a liar, God's not gonna lie to people. God only tells the truth. The Bible says God cannot lie. But here's what God can do, God can allow the devil and his minions to exist and to lie, thereby allowing people to have a choice and to basically hear both sides, the truth and the lie. Why, because he is basically not making it, he wants it to be easy for people to be saved, but he's also giving people an alternative so that the choice is real, right? So that it's not just everybody's just believing on Christ because it's just obvious and clear, whatever. He wants the choice to be real so that what? So that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Look what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion that they would believe a lie that they all might be damned to believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Notice, God does not tell the lie, God does not send the lie it's the devil and the antichrist and them that do the lying, right? But God basically puts people in a position where they can be lied to and believe the lie. And so here's the thing, you know, this lying spirit that says this to God, and first of all, let me say this, there's really two ways to understand this passage. I don't think it really makes any difference, ultimately, which way you understand this. One way you can understand this is that this is a very literal occurrence that Micaiah is preaching about and that literally, you know, the host of heaven is gathered together and this lying spirit literally comes before God and God tells him, yeah, you know, that's what you're gonna do. That's one way of understanding it and that's how I would understand this passage, you know. But another legitimate way of understanding this is that this could possibly be just a metaphor or just a vision. A lot of times prophets are seeing things in a vision that are true but they're not necessarily literal. They're symbolic of the truth. Like for example, you say, what are you talking about? Well, like when John sees a woman, you know, clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, you're not gonna believe this but that's not literal. There's not really a woman standing on the moon clothed in the sun or whatever. But John literally saw that but what he was seeing wasn't a literal reality. He was seeing a spiritual reality. There's truth there but it's allegorical, okay. So it's, you know, you could also read this that way and I think that that could be a legitimate way to read this and it could be, in fact, the right way to read it. But I would tend to default toward a more literal interpretation here and just say that yeah, you know, basically this demon, because this lying spirit is a demon. Just like the devil goes to heaven in the book of Job and talks to God or whatever, this demon basically says to God, hey, I'm gonna go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets because basically, here's what God's saying. God wants Ahab to get destroyed. God wants the king of Israel to get punished. So God's thinking, well, I want him to go and fight this battle where he's gonna get killed. And so basically, there's more than one way to get him there. God could have chosen another way to get him there but instead, what he does is he just, he allows this lying spirit who, the lying spirit is the one who comes to him with the idea. This is a, God's not like, hey, I need somebody to do some lying for me. I can't lie so I need somebody else to do my lying for me. That's not the way this is happening. It's more like God is just allowing evil to exist. He's allowing liars to exist. He's allowing Satan and his minions to exist. He could put them in hell whenever he wants but yet he lets them run amok because ultimately, it's a tool in his toolbox of just how things need to work in this world. And so therefore, he says, okay, I'm listening to ideas and then one of them, there's some demon comes to him and says, hey, I'm gonna go be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets. He says, yep, you know what? That's gonna work. That's what you're gonna do. It's not a thing of like, hey, I want you to do that and I'm sending you to do that, whatever. It's his idea. He's basically just letting it happen. He's basically just approving it and basically just ordaining that, yeah, that's gonna happen. Like I approve that of that. Not, obviously, he doesn't approve of the sin but I'm saying he approves of basically sitting back and letting evil run its course so that these prophets and Ahab and them will all be deceived and damned because that's what they deserve. Now, here's the important thing to realize and I hope this is making sense because I know this can be difficult maybe but here's what I want to make sure we understand about this, okay, is that notice how Micaiah, the son of Imlah is not part of this program. You see that? The 400 guys, when the demon says like, oh, I'm gonna be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets, he's only gonna be a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets. These 400 guys, it's not like these are 400 good guys and it's like, oh, it's not my fault the devil made me do it. The reason that these guys are open to a demon controlling them is because they are of the devil in the first place. Do you understand what I'm saying? These guys are of the devil and so therefore they're open to a demon coming and being a lying spirit in their mouth. Micaiah's not open to this at all. Micaiah's in no danger of being controlled by Satan, okay? And so it's the same thing today. Wicked people, ungodly people can and will be manipulated by the devil. Saved Christians will not be possessed or manipulated by the devil. And so it's key to understand that these 400 guys are bad guys in the first place, okay? And they're just the devil's pawns, whether they know it or not. So Micaiah explains this picture up in heaven about how the spirit came and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith, verse 21, he said, I'll go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets because his prophets are bad. And the Lord said, thou shalt entice him, which is not a commandment. It is just a future tense statement about what's gonna happen. Like this, he's basically just saying, yup, this is gonna work and I'm gonna allow you to do this. That's the idea here. Just like when the devil wants to attack Job and God says to Satan, like, okay, you can attack Job, you can do this, okay? So here's the bottom line that God has the devil on a leash. The devil can only do what God allows him to do. When God wants to put the devil in hell, he will. When he wants to let him out, he will. And the devil has limitations on what he can do and God can restrain him and not allow him to do things or he can give him free reign. Like when he says to Job, or when he says to the devil about Job, he says, you know, okay, you can take away his stuff but don't hurt him personally. But then the devil comes back and says, well, this isn't really fair because, you know, he's still so healthy. So then God says, okay, you can actually hurt him personally, you can actually hurt his body, but don't kill him. There's always a limitation where the devil can only do what God allows him to do. And we need to understand that God allows the devil to exist and it might be hard to wrap your mind around that. If God's good, why does he allow this evil entity to exist and go around lying to people? And look, we all wish that the Mormon church would just die. But yet the Mormon church is supposed to exist, you know, because like God allows it to exist to suck people in. It's to separate the wheat from the goats. I mean, you know, the Roman Catholic church is allowed to exist. Islam is allowed by God to exist. Even though these religions are trash, they're allowed by God to exist. Judaism is trash, Hinduism is trash, but God allows them to exist. This is the way the world works. So he says, thou shalt entice him, thou should also prevail. Go out and do even so. He's given, again, this is not commandment, this is permission, okay? Permission, because the devil has to have permission before he can do stuff like this. Because ultimately God has authority even over the unclean spirits. That's why Jesus could just say, hey, you know, come out of him, thou unclean spirit. He commanded the unclean spirits and they obeyed him in the book of Mark. So he says this, and then the response from the guy with the object lesson with the horns, Zedekiah, the son of Canaena, remember him? The guy with the horns. Then Zedekiah, verse 23, we'll close on this. Then Zedekiah, the son of Canaena, came near and smote Micaiah upon the cheek. He's just like, whoosh, and said, which way went the spirit of the Lord for me to speak unto thee? So I guess what he's asking here, I mean, it's kind of a weird question, but I guess what he's asking here is like, well, I know God's spirit. I know I've got the spirit of God. I know I'm a real man of God. So, you know, I guess it's like, which way did the Holy Spirit go when he went from me to you? You know, or whatever. It's kind of a weird question. So I don't really know what he's getting at. But the, you know, one thing he's saying for sure is that like, I'm preaching by the spirit of God. I'm not, I ain't preaching by no demon, is basically what he's saying. Like, I'm not, I don't have an unclean spirit. It's the spirit of the Lord. Which way went the spirit of the Lord for me to speak unto thee? And then I don't know what the slap in the face had to do with that question. I don't know what's going on here, but he's slapping him and asking a weird question. And then the answer doesn't seem to quite fit the question either, but it's just a little bit of smack talk is what's going on here. Hey, you know, which way went the spirit of the Lord for me when he went to talk to you? And then Micaiah's like, oh yeah? Well, thou shall see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And it's like, oh man, that was cold. And so of course, then the king says, all right, enough smack talk. That was enough of a battle there between you guys. So he says, take Micaiah, put him in prison, feed him with the bread of water, the bread and water of affliction until I come back in peace. And Micaiah on his way to be, Micaiah's like being dragged out by the police. And as he's being dragged out, he says, hey, if you come back in peace, then the Lord didn't even send me. So I hope I'm not actually going to prison until you come back in peace because you ain't coming back in peace. And so the bottom line is with the story that, you know, I don't have time, of course, because we already read it before the sermon, but of course they go to battle. And you know, the king of Israel, I mean, Jehoshaphat's such a nice guy, but he's just such a nice guy that he's just so gullible too though. Because Jehoshaphat is just sitting there just falling for everything that the, like he thinks the king of Israel is really his buddy because he's just too nice of a guy. He's just too gullible. So basically the king of Israel has this really bright idea. Like, hey, I have an idea. I'm going to dress like an ordinary soldier and you're going to put on all your regalia and go into battle. And then the enemy is getting together and talking and they're saying to each other, hey everybody, don't kill anyone except the king of Israel. Only kill the king of Israel. And you know, this is outside the scope of the sermon, but I think that there's a lot of biblical evidence that there's some collusion going on here because it's a little weird that on that side, they're saying shoot neither small or great only at the king of Israel. And then the king of Israel seems to have like a foreknowledge of that because he's like, hey, I'm going to dress like a normal guy and you put on your robes. And Joshua's like, okay, yeah, great idea. What kind of stupid idea? He used to be like, no man, if I'm going to be shiny and bright and a big target, so are you. Here, why don't you put on this big colorful puffy outfit, big shiny crown on your head too. I'm just going to dress like a normal guy. Is that cool? Sure, whatever. So then they go into battle, all the bad guys, they come after Jehoshaphat because they were instructed go after the king of Israel, assassinate the king of Israel. It seems to me like maybe the king of Israel wants Jehoshaphat to get assassinated and maybe they're actually working together, you know, and there is a lot of evidence for that. It's a whole nother story. But, and again, it's kind of speculation too, right, on my part a little bit. But the point is that when they go after Jehoshaphat, they realize, first of all, God protects Jehoshaphat, the Bible tells us, and then they end up realizing that he's not actually the king of Israel, that he's actually a decoy. Now, the actual king of Israel ends up getting killed, not because they eventually figure out who he is. He remains anonymous, he remains incognito, okay. But one of the enemy literally just draws a bow at a venture, so he basically just, just kind of randomly like, ah! You know, he just kind of panics and just fires his weapon. Right, ah! Because obviously in battle, you have people just kind of just shooting arrows. So basically, here's the idea, God's not really aiming at anything, okay. And he just ends up just hitting a bullseye on the king of Israel, why? Because God wants the king of Israel dead, he's gonna die. And so just some random dude just fires into nothing, just fires at nothing in particular, and kills the king of Israel, God's word comes to pass. We don't ever hear about Micaiah son of Imlah again, it's kind of just a one-off deal with the story. But the point is that the majority is not necessarily right, in fact, the majority is almost never right. And so it doesn't matter what the mainstream view is today, and it doesn't matter what the mainstream view has been throughout history, if it's contrary to the Bible, it's contrary to the Bible. At the end of the day, the Bible is king, not any kind of a mainstream view or consensus or all the 400 preachers agree, you know, why can't you just be like them? Well, because it's my job to preach the word of God, right? That's what Micaiah said, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, we pray that you would bless us now as we go our separate ways and bring us back safely on Sunday for church. And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Amen, take your song books, please go to hymn 152. Hymn 152. 152 will be dismissed singing security. Hymn 152, more secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the savior. God is our God, high and mighty, Lord, the burning hope that's mighty. God is our God, tender and nourished, in His holy name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Of course they flourish, like a follower. God, He bears them in His loving arms. He bears them, neither life nor death, never from the Lord His children sever. For His love and deep compassion comfort them in tribulation. With no flaw to join them yielding, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. We're secure with His defender, and His will all for surrender. What He takes or what He gives us shows the Father's love so precious. He may trust His purpose wholly, His children help their soul weep. Amen. Good things tonight. We are special. Amen. Amen.