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learn something new. And Father, I just pray that you would speak to our hearts this morning and show us the truths that you have for us out of this great book. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Now, the sermon this morning is about a man named Jehoshaphat. Now this man was a great man, but he had one great downfall, and I'm going to show you what that is. I'm going to show you why he failed in life because of this great downfall. But first I want to lay a little bit of a foundation. Look, if you would, at 2 Chronicles 14. 2 Chronicles, chapter number 14, and verse number 1. Now, let me give you a little bit of the background of the story here. If you remember, King David became king of Israel, and God said that he would make him king of Israel forever, and that his throne would last for all generations all the way down to Jesus Christ, and then Jesus Christ's kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom. So if you remember, the first king that Israel ever had was Saul, and then God took it away from Saul and gave it to David because Saul had sinned against God grievously twice, two different occasions, and so David became the king, and then he had a son named Solomon. Now, Solomon was a great king, but toward the end of his life, he started to depart from the things of God. Toward the end of his life, because of all his strange wives that he had married, which was wrong for him to do that, he should have only had one wife, and it should have been somebody that was godly and not these strange women, but he had all these strange wives, and as he became old, these women started to take his heart away from the Lord and started to get him to fall after some other false religions and wicked things. You see, oftentimes people, when they get older, they have to take more heed and they have to be more vigilant, because as people get older, sometimes they don't want to fight anymore. If you notice that sometimes people that I know, people that I know, and they boy, they were tough as men, and they were just fighters. But what happens, they get old, you know, they get laid back, you know how grandparents always spoil their children, for example. You know, parents are a little more strict, and then grandparents just kind of let the kids do what they want, and so what happened with Solomon was he went soft in his old age, and because he went soft, he allowed these women to control him, and pretty soon he had the whole nation of Israel into idolatry. King Solomon did. Well, King Solomon had a son named Rabom. Rabom became king of Israel, and he wanted to kind of push the reset button a little bit and go back a little bit more straight down the line with the things of God, a little bit stricter, and the people rebelled against him. This was part of the punishment to Solomon for what he had done. The people rebelled against him, and the kingdom was split into ten upper tribes and two lower tribes that went with Rabom. The other ten went with Jeroboam the son of Nebat. So now you have a northern kingdom of Israel, which is the bigger kingdom, and then you have the southern kingdom of Judah which is capital city of Jerusalem, and that's where Rabom reigned. Well, the kingdom of Israel in the north just went totally wicked. Now that they were separated from Jerusalem and from Rabom and from the priests and the Levites that were there at the temple in Jerusalem, they just went totally off the deep end into wickedness. And so now you have this wicked upper kingdom of Israel, and then the kingdom of Judah that stayed a little bit with the things of God during the days of Rabom, and then he had a son named Abijah. Abijah started out a righteous man. This is in the southern kingdom now. He started out a righteous man. He started out just straight down the line with the things of God, and toward the end of his life again he changed a little bit, but still pretty decent guy. Well, then Abijah had another son, and his son was named Asa. Now, Asa was a very godly man. He was a very righteous man. Look if you would at chapter 14 there in 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 14 1, the Bible says, So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years, and Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away the altars of the strange gods in the high places, and break down the images, and cut down the groves, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. So here's a guy who comes from down the line from David, great man. Solomon, great man, but some problems, but Rabom, another good, fairly good guy. Abijah, another great man. Asa, a very great man, even greater than Abijah and Rabom had been, but now look, he had a son. Turn if you would to chapter number 17. This is Asa has just died, and the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 17, 1, And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel. And he placed forces in the fenced cities of Judah, and put garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken, and look at this, and the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Balaam, but sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. So try and follow me a little bit in the early part of the message, I'm just trying to lay a foundation. You start out with David, a great man of God, and there's a little bit of a decay down through Solomon, Rabom, Abijah, still great men, but just a little bit of a decay going on. Then Asa comes along, and he's a much better king, and then Jehoshaphat comes along, and the Bible says he is as great just like David. I mean, he's walking in the ways of David when he was in his glory days, in the first ways of David. And so this man Jehoshaphat is a great man of God. His father was a great man of God. He comes from a lineage of great men. Look, if you would, just quickly on a side note, turn over to 1 Kings. Put your finger there, because we're going to be in 2 Chronicles, but flip over to 1 Kings. Just two books back here, three books back. 1 Kings chapter 15. There's something that God particularly mentions about these two kings. I want to show you this. 1 Kings 15. Keep your finger in 2 Chronicles. But in 1 Kings 15, 11, the Bible reads, And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. Now keep in mind that the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings are one chronology. And then 1 and 2 Chronicles is the exact same stories that you'll find in 1, 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, just from a different perspective. Kind of like those four Gospels, God gives us the account in Kings and the account in Chronicles of the same events. Well, look what it says here. He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. And he took away the Sodomites out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. So here God makes a point of the fact that he had really cleaned house on the queers, is what he's saying here. Because if you read other places, during the days of Rehoboam, the Bible talks about how all this homosexuality started creeping in. Well, Asa said, no, we're going to straighten that out. We're going to get rid of all of them. Look if you would, flip a few pages over to 1 Kings 22. 1 Kings 22, look at verse number 45. For those of you who don't know, a Sodomite is a homosexual. That's what the Bible calls homos. He calls them Sodomites because the city of Sodom and Gomorrah that was totally given over to that sin. Look if you would at 1 Kings 22, 45, the Bible says, Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? And the remnant of the Sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land. So these guys were just progressively getting better. I mean, Asa said, we're going to go back to the way things were when David was king. We're going to live right. We're going to serve God. We're going to get rid of all these homos and the queers out of the land. And then his son Jehoshaphat said, I'm going to take it a step further. I'm going to get rid of all of them. So these are great men of God. But unfortunately Jehoshaphat had one great downfall. Go back to 2 Chronicles. I'm going to show you what that was. This was his great downfall. I mean, we're talking about a great man of God. We're talking about a man who is up on par with David in greatness. And I can show you pages and pages of how great this man was, but for the sake of time I just want you to get the idea. This is a righteous man. This is a godly man. And he comes from five generations of great godly men. Look, if you would, at verse number 1 of chapter 18 where we read the text. The Bible says, Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance. Now look, Jehoshaphat is a very successful man. He had riches, he had honor and abundance. Look at chapter 17 right before that. Look at verse number 9. The Bible says, And they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord, that's the Bible with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people, they're preaching the word of God all throughout the country, and the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. Now, does this man Jehoshaphat having a problem with war, people attacking him? No. I mean, God has given him complete safety. He has riches, he has honor, he has everything he needs. No one's attacking him. All the countries around him are afraid of him, the Bible says. Look at verse number 12 of chapter 17. And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly, and he built in Judah castles and cities of store, and he had much business in the cities of Judah, and the men of war, mighty men of valor, were in Jerusalem. And just on and on, God is just saying, he had it all. Riches, power, strength, safety, security, godliness, preaching, everything was right. But look at verse number 1 of chapter 18. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab. This is the downfall right here. This is the first negative thing we see happen in his life. Ahab was the king in the north. Now remember I gave you that chronology in the southern kingdom, where it went from Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat. Well in the northern kingdom we've had a succession of wicked kings, ungodly men, who were progressively getting worse and worse. And the Bible says that there was a man named Omri, and he took it to the next level in the northern kingdom. He brought in what was called Baal worship, which we talked about I believe on Wednesday night, is Satan worship, just full blown worshipping of Satan. And I show you that in the Bible. The name Beelzebub comes from Baal Zebub. And so Baal worship was brought in by Omri. Then Omri had a son named Ahab, and the Bible says that Ahab was more wicked than anybody that had been before him. He was ungodly, he caused his own children to be burnt in the fire to a false god. I mean this was a satanic evil man. Ahab, wicked man, and look what Jehoshaphat's doing. He joined affinity with Ahab. You see Jehoshaphat's great downfall was his lack of separation from an ungodly person. His willingness to be friends with an ungodly, unsafe person. It says he 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, so Ahab prepares this great meal for him and for the people that he had with him and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. See he wants Jehoshaphat to go on this joint venture with Ahab. Ahab has a battle that he needs to fight in Ramoth Gilead. He had lost some land to Syria. He'd lost some battles. And he says Jehoshaphat I want you to go with me to fight in Ramoth Gilead. I want you to partner and team up with me. Now look, did Jehoshaphat need Ahab? No. He doesn't need him. He had everything he needed. Everything's great. Does Ahab need Jehoshaphat? Oh yeah. He wants to tap into some of that power. He wants to tap into some of these resources. How did Jehoshaphat get these resources? By serving God. The Bible says God blessed him with these things. And so Ahab wants to grab on to that power of God and tap into that power and go somewhere with him. Jehoshaphat, because Jehoshaphat has the power, Jehoshaphat has the resources, Ahab does not. So he persuaded him to go up to him with Ramoth Gilead and in verse 3 it says 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. What? Can you believe that? Can you believe that this man Jehoshaphat goes to this ungodly Satan worshiper. He's a godly man. He's a righteous man who loves God. He loves preaching. He loves the Bible. And he says I am as thou art. No you're not Jehoshaphat. You're not like the world Jehoshaphat. You're different. You're a child of God. You love God. You're not like them. But I just want to tell Jehoshaphat you are not like that crowd. What are you doing there? He said I am as thou art and my people is thy people. And we will be with thee in the war. Boy wait until you see what happens. Here's Jehoshaphat. Great man. Everything going for him. One mistake. And I think that Jehoshaphat here, I don't think that he's trying to be wicked or ungodly here. I think that Jehoshaphat has his heart in the right place in this verse here. I think he thinks to himself boy he used to be united. You know he used to be one big happy family. It used to be the twelve tribes of Israel. And now we're separated into the ten tribes up here and the two tribes down here. We just need to, you know, I wish we could just get along. And boy look, here's my distant relative up here. Ahab and he's having a hard time. I want to help him. I want to be a friend to him. I want to be a friend to this ungodly man Ahab. I don't think his heart's in the wrong place at all. I'll prove to you that his heart's not in the wrong place. Look at verse 4. It says, and Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel inquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord today. Jehoshaphat says okay, I'm going to go with you. We're going to fight this battle against Syria who's an ungodly nation. And he says, but let's ask God what he thinks about it first. Is that alright? He says to Ahab, he says why don't we inquire at the Lord? Because I mean Jehoshaphat's a good guy. He loves God. He says look, and he's trying to influence your buddy Ahab toward the things of God. Great, right? He says, let's inquire at the Lord. So Ahab says okay, so therefore the king of Israel gathered together of prophets, 400 men. So he gets together these 400 preachers 400 preachers that are supposed to be preaching the things of God and he asks them, it says in verse number 5, he said shall we go to Rhema of Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? He says go up, for God will deliver it into the king's hand. Now, here they are, they're preaching, just go for it. God is with you. God's going to bless you. God wants your best, his best in your life now. And he just really is with you. God's going to bless you. He loves you. And then look what Jehoshaphat said. See, Jehoshaphat right away, this isn't really the kind of preaching that he's used to. So Jehoshaphat says, is there not a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? I mean, you've got 400 preachers, Jehoshaphat, but he just sees these guys and they're wearing a pink tie and they've got their hair all done up and he's listening to these guys preach just this real positive message and he says, are you sure there's not another preacher around that we can listen to? And look what the king of Israel says. The king of Israel said in Jehoshaphat, this is verse 7, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord. He says, I know of one other preacher in this area. But I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil. He's always preaching negative. He never preaches all the, I mean, we're talking about a guy who worships Satan, literally. Don't forget who we're talking about, Ahab. We're talking about a murderer, an evil man. He's always preaching these negative sermons to me, the same as Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, well, why not the king say so? Don't be like that. And the king of Israel called for one of his officers and said, fetch quickly Micaiah, the son of Imla. 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 end of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah, this is one of those liberal preachers, he said, Zedekiah the son of Canana had made him horns of iron, so he's got an object lesson here, and said, thus saith 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 hands of the kings. And so in verse 12 and 13 here, the messenger comes and gets Micaiah and brings him. And he says, look, Micaiah, I know how you are. These 400 men have all preached the same thing. They're all positive. I want you to preach just what they're preaching. Don't make any trouble. And he says, look, I'm just going to preach whatever God tells me to preach. As the Lord liveth, in verse 13, even what my gods say of 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. I mean, he's just lying to him. He's just messing with them. So then he gets angry. The king gets angry and says, 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? And then he tells them the truth. He says, 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 Joshua, did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good unto me but evil? So he's saying, he saw a vision of the whole Israel army just being scattered because their leader has been killed. Okay, you follow that? So the king of Israel has been killed and everybody's just scattered. There's no leader. Now watch this. This is interesting. Look at verse number 28. Now they, of course, they decide to go up anyway. They throw Micaiah in jail in Israel, and they decide they're going to go up anyway. Look at verse number 28. 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. So here's his thing, right? He hears this preacher say that the king's going to be killed. So this is what he says to his buddy Jehoshaphat. He says, you dress up in your kingly outfit. You know, you put on all the royal clothing. You get decked out, and you're going to lead this battle. I'm just going to dress up just like a common soldier. He says, I'm going to be disguised. And so Ahab just put on the clothing just like a common soldier. Because he's trying to escape this prophecy, because deep down he knows that it's true. And so he, I mean, do you see how one way this guy is? He doesn't care about Jehoshaphat. He just gets him dressed up in the fancy robe. Put him out front, you know, with a big shiny crown on, a big target on him. And I'm just going to be disguised in the battle, and nobody's going to find me. And so it says in verse number 30, look at this, and they went to battle. Look at this, you'll see even more. It says in verse 30, Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of the chariots that were with them, this is their enemy, the king of Syria, saying, Fight ye not with small or great, save only with the king of Israel. So what's he telling his men? The king of Syria is telling him, only attack the king. That's all we're doing. He says, your only goal is just to shoot at the king and kill him. Now, I could prove to you, and this would take like a whole long hour to show you all this and stuff, but I could prove to you that this was a plan that Ahab had to have Jehoshaphat killed, this whole thing. And he actually, you know, because it's kind of weird that the king of Syria would say that. Just kill the king only. But that's a whole other sermon in and of itself. And so look at verse 31. And it came to pass when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat that they said, it is the king of Israel. So his plan worked. I mean, they see Jehoshaphat, they see the fancy robe, they say, there he is, get him! Therefore they come past about him to fight, but Jehoshaphat cried out. We're in verse 31 of chapter 18. Therefore they come past about him to fight, but Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him. And God moved them to depart from him. So God miraculously allows them to escape this onslaught. 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 look at verse 33. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture. Now, this is what this means. When it says he drew a bow at a venture, it means that he just like, he got scared, he just pulled it out, and just shot. I mean, he wasn't even aiming. He just shot this arrow. And the Bible says, 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 evening. And about the time of the sun going down, he died. So what happened to the king of Israel? He was disguised as an infantryman. He was disguised as just the bottom rung. And what happened? Somebody just shot a random arrow, and God just took that arrow and just wham, just slammed it into Ahab's right between his sternum. And the Bible says he lived until evening time and died. See, God made sure he's going to get what's coming through him, aside from his plan. Now look at chapter number 19, 2 Chronicles 19.1. And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer, the seer is the prophet, the preacher. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to king Jehoshaphat, watch these words, Shouldest thou help the ungodly? And love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee, and that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God. See, he said, look, I know that you're a great man, Jehoshaphat. I know that you love God. I know that there's good things in you. But he says, should you help the ungodly? Should you love those that hate the Lord? No! He says, there's going to be wrath upon you because of who you have been hanging around with. That's what he says. He says, you hang around with the wrong crowd, the wrath of God will be on you. Now, let me just quickly show you the end of the result and I'll get into the application here. Flip over, if you would, 2 Chronicles, a few chapters forward, into chapter 21. Let's see the repercussions. Because right now, hey, Jehoshaphat got out of the battle scot-free. Ahab was killed. The plan to kill Jehoshaphat did not work. He escaped just fine. He got away with it. Ahab's dead. Jehoshaphat's bent down in his prosperous kingdom. Everything's great. No big deal. He tried to help the wrong crowd. Some preacher preached that it was wrong. No big deal. Well, look at chapter 21, 2 Chronicles. We're going to see what happened. This is the problem. This is the repercussion that happened because he did this. Chapter 21, verse 1. Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Jehoram, his son, reigned in his stead. And he had brethren, the sons of Jehoshaphat. So now we're going to see a list of Jehoshaphat's sons. Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariah and Michael and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. And their father gave them great gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things with fenced cities in Judah. But the kingdom gave he to Jehoram because he was the firstborn. So he gave them all of his prosperity, gave them riches and cities to rule over. But the firstborn Jehoram, he says, I'm going to make him the king. And his brethren are just going to be successful, you know, and they're going to be in the kingdom and so forth. Look at verse 4. Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and slew all his brethren with the sword. And divers also of the princes of Israel. So what does he do? The first thing that his son Jehoram does, he kills all his brothers. All Jehoshaphat's children end up being murdered by their own brother. And then it says in verse 5, Jehoram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. Look at verse 6. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel like as did the house of Ahab. Why? Well, the word for there, it means because. You know, it's the other meaning of for. It says, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel like as did the house of Ahab, for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife. And he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And if you go on down through this chapter, you'll see how they lost all the prosperity. They started losing all the battles. Edom came in and attacked them and took part of their land away. And the whole kingdom that had gone on for five, six generations just went down the drain. Five great kings in a row. Prosperity, riches, military success in the nation of Judah all went down the drain because why? Jehoshaphat's son, while they were down there hanging around with Ahab, while he was powering around with the world, while he was hanging around with the ungodly crowd, what happened? Well, his son saw a nice beautiful young girl, Ahab's daughter, and he ended up marrying that girl. He ended up powering around with that whole family down there and basically Ahab became his hero. And so now it says that he walked in the ways of the house of Ahab like as did Ahab. He says his son became just like Ahab, Jehoshaphat's son, and took the whole kingdom down the drain. And then all kinds of horrible events happened. We could go through the whole story, but then Jehoram's sons end up all being killed. His mother-in-law becomes the queen of Judah for a while, Athaliah. They actually have a woman ruling. And she ends up killing all of his family and all of his relatives. I mean, this is a horrible, tragic story. The next several chapters are just very negative. Where did it all start? It all started when you had a godly righteous man who decides to be friends with somebody who's unsaved, somebody who's ungodly. That's where it all started. It all started with the wrong friends. Hey kids, listen to me. The wrong friends can ruin your life. I mean, no matter how righteous you are, no matter how godly you are, no matter how much you read the Bible, no matter how good you are, you get around the wrong friends, it'll ruin your life. If it ruined Jehoshaphat, I don't think that any of us are better than Jehoshaphat. If it ruined him, it'll ruin us. Come up here for a second, Austin. I want to show you a little object lesson. Now, Austin, let's let this chair right here, this represents, this is somebody who's living for God. They're living a little higher standard than maybe everybody else, right? And then down here, this is where everybody else is. This is the ungodly, this is the world, okay? Now look, here I am, and I'm up here. Now, who do you think is stronger, me or Austin? You. Alright. I'm a little stronger than Austin because I'm a grown man. And so here I am up here. Now, who do you think is going to win a tug of war between me and Austin? I think I could pull him my way. If anything, I think I have a little more strength. But watch this. If I get up here, here I am, living for God, and I start pounding around with Austin, I say, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take Austin, and I'm going to bring him up to my level. And say, it doesn't work, does it? I can't even lift him onto this chair. But now, Austin, I want you to try to take me off this chair right now. Pull as hard as you can. Come on, hard. Alright, you see how easy that is? You see how easy it is to tear somebody down? You can go ahead and sit down, thanks. You see how easy it is to tear somebody down? I mean, it doesn't matter how strong they are. It doesn't matter how high up they are. The higher up they are, the more they're going to be torn down. The farther down they're going to go. And you see, people have this idea that I'm going to hang around with all these unsaved, ungodly friends, and I'm just going to make them all just like me. I'm going to pull them up to my level. No, because you have the forces of gravity against you. Because there's a downward pull of human nature, of sin nature, that wants to drag you down. And if you go, and look, if you put a bunch of people together, you know what you get? The lowest common denominator. It sinks down to the lowest common denominator. Get a bunch of people together at work in the break room, the conversation will sink to the lowest common denominator. You know, one person will start telling the filthy joke, and everybody's just participating. Nobody's going to stand up and say, no, that's wrong. Because they don't want to get laughed at. And so it always degenerates to the lowest common denominator. My friend, having unsaved friends is a sin. Do you understand me? Having unsaved friends is a sin. Look, if you would, at 2 Corinthians, in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And I know this isn't much preached against, but it is the truth. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about, you know, buddies at work. You know, when you're at work being friendly and cordial with the people that you're around, when you're at school being friendly and being nice to people, that's not what I'm talking about at all. I'm talking about where your close friends that you're spending your recreational time with, where you're going out with these friends, are unsaved people. That is wrong. It will destroy your life. Look, if you would, at chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, and look at verse number 14. It says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? Look at this right here. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What kind of fellowship are you going to have between a righteous person and an unrighteous person? He says, and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Turn to Psalm chapter 106. Psalm 106. I'll show you another scripture about this. Psalm 106, look at verse number 35. Psalm 106 35. The Bible reads, But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works, and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them. So what was the first step? They were mingled among the heathen. You know, they just got kind of mixed in with the ungodly crowd. They just started hanging around with the wrong crowd. And what was the next step? Then they learned their works. They learned to be like them. And then it says they served their idols. That's money. That's education. That's all the idols that the world has that they put above God, all the things that they think are more important than God, like school and college and making money and being successful, as the world says, that goes above God and becomes an idol that you worship. Let me tell you something. If you spent more time watching the television this week than you did reading this book, then tell me who your God is, because this is my God. And this is where I got my fellowship this week, not from the television. Because if you spend more time talking about sports than you spend talking about this book, then sports is your God. Because it's an idol that you worship. And God said, I don't want you to have any other gods before me. He said, I must be supreme in life. Well, look at this. It says they learned their works, and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them. And then look at the result. Verse 37, same result that Jehoshaphat had. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. That's what happened. Their kids went to the devil. Their kids went to the devil because they hung around the unsaved crowd. They were godly people. They hung around the unsaved crowd. Their kids went to the devil. That's what the Bible says. I can show you a few other places, but very consistent that your kids are the ones that suffer when you hang around with the unsaved. Your kids are the ones that suffer when you hang around with wrong influences. Look, none of us is immune to the wrong influences of the devil and the devil's crowd. The Bible says, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. None of us is above falling into sin. None of us is above being influenced wrongly. None of us is above being torn down by the wrong crowd. You say, no, I can handle it. I can handle going to the bar with my friends, and I'm just going to drink a soda pop, and I can handle it. You can't handle it. It'll destroy you. You can't handle going to these wicked, ungodly places. You can't handle going to the company party, you know, where all the booze is, and everybody's living it up and doing wrong. You can't handle it. Nobody can handle it. Jehoshaphat couldn't handle it. I can't handle it. You can't handle it. God says we must be separate from the world. Now look, I'm not talking about being unfriendly to somebody, being unkind to somebody. I try to be friendly and kind as many people as I can, and people that I work with, friendly to them, love them, be nice to them, but I'm not going to take them out after work and hang out with them. I'm going to take her out. I'm going to take my kids out. I'm not going to take them out. I'm not going to take some unsafe crowd out with me and take them out to eat and hang around them and pal around them and go to their house, and I'm going to go to their house, and their kids are going to go out and play with my kids in some other room where I can't see them. No, I'm not going to do it, because that's not my friends. These are my friends right here. You know, my friends are people that love God. My friends are people that are Christians that are saved. My friends are people in another church that are saved, that love God, that love the Bible. My friends are the saved crowd, because I don't have anything in common with an unbeliever. And you say, why this friend that I love so much that's unsaved? And I want to hang around with my unsaved friend. Well, why don't you get your friend saved? If you love your friend so much, why don't you get out of your Bible and get him saved? And you know, I guarantee you, if you start getting out of your Bible and trying to get your friend saved, that you love so much, and showing them the gospel, I'll tell you one thing, if you pray and beg God and show them the gospel, they'll probably get saved. And then you'll have a saved friend, or they'll probably not want to be your friend anymore, anyway. If you keep giving them the gospel and keep talking to them about it. And so, having just this unsaved friend that you pal around with, without, you're not trying to change, you know, you're not trying to give them the gospel, and they're just going to tear you down. And you say, well, you know, we just hang out together and I'm a good influence. No. They're influencing you. You're not a good influence. They are changing you. You're not going to change them. The only thing that will change them is when they get saved. And you're not going to get people saved by hanging around them. You're going to get people saved by preaching the gospel to them. Because I'll tell you something, I don't have to hang around with a bunch of unsaved friends in order to get people saved. I just knock on doors. I just get people saved. Just random people. I just knock on their door and just get them saved. I just get strangers saved. And I get my co-workers. I try to get my co-workers saved. People that I work with. But I don't have to be their buddy to get them saved. I can just be working with them. I don't have to take them out after work and hang around them and pal around with them and do what they do and be like they are to win them to the Lord. If I'm like they are, they need to see a difference in me. They need to see that I'm separate and then they'll maybe decide if they want to come my way or not. And that's up to them. But I'm telling you, we've got to watch out for these bad influences. And we've got to watch out for our kids. We've got to watch out for ourselves. Now, it's not just people that can be a bad influence. I'm thinking about books. I'm thinking about television shows. I'm thinking about magazines. And I'm going to tell you something and I'm not ashamed to say this at all. I have no Christian books in my library. None. Zero. I have no theology books in my library. None. I have no commentaries. I have no Bible dictionaries. I have no study guides and books. Even by great men. Even men that I like. Great preachers that write books. I don't read them. I read none of them. Why? Because I don't want to be influenced wrongly. I don't want to get my doctrine. I don't want to get my theology from some other man, from some tradition. I want to get it straight from the Bible. And what happens? I know preachers who believe King James Bible only. They believe in just straight down the line, my friend. God has preserved his word and salvation by grace through faith. Plus nothing minus nothing and the blood of Jesus Christ saves and eternal security. What do they do? They'll read books that will quote the NIV throughout the book. And they don't believe in the NIV. They're King James Bible only men. They know that the NIV is wrong. And they will read a book by somebody who quotes the NIV throughout the book. And that's what they'll say. Well, I just kind of take the good and throw away the bad. No, you're an idiot. Because you're taking all of it, whether you like it or not. Because I've learned one thing about my mind is that things go in, but they don't come out. That's one thing that I've learned. You watch something on TV. You read something in a book. Things go in, but they don't come out. And you want to know why we're living in a day that's devoid of sound biblical doctrine. You want to know why people don't understand the Bible and people get off into all this goofy teaching and heresy and wrong belief. I'll tell you why. Because they didn't get their beliefs straight from the Bible. They got it from some book from some guy who, oh, this is a really great book. I know he quotes the NIV, but I just look it up in my own Bible and the King James. Look, Job said, can something that's clean come out of something that's unclean? Not one. You can't get something good out of a book that's filled with lies. Look, I could probably go in my garbage can right now, back there in that alley, who I share with somebody else. Oh, I hate that. It's so ridiculous. Give me my own garbage can, please. Oh, man. But anyway, that's a whole other sermon. That's the sermon on communism. But anyway, this stupid garbage can, I could go out there and I could dig around there. I guarantee you I could find something to eat in that garbage can right now that would be of good nutritional value. I mean, if I dug through all the garbage and all the rotten food, I guarantee you I could find some kind of a little crust from a sandwich. Oh, man, my wife's pregnant. I shouldn't be talking like this. She's going to lose it here. But I guarantee you I'd find something good to eat, but that's not where I'm going to go to eat after church today. I'm not going to go there. It's not worth it, because I guarantee you I'm probably going to pick up something that I didn't plan on picking up when I picked up that sandwich from yesterday. And so I'm not going to go there to get my food, because it's not worth it. It's not worth sifting through all the garbage, because, look, that sandwich has been defiled. That sandwich has been destroyed in that garbage can. I don't care how good it was yesterday. It's garbage today. Why is it garbage? Because it's been in the garbage can. Anything in that garbage can is going to smell like garbage. And I guarantee you whatever great truth you get out of some book by some NIV preacher, I bet you it smells like garbage, because it's been hanging around garbage. It's got a bunch of garbage in it. The whole thing's going to smell like garbage. I mean, think about it. I could take a great sandwich. I'm sorry, it's part of the sermon. I could take the greatest just think about this. Just the greatest sandwich. What's your favorite kind of sandwich, Austin? Well, who makes it all the time? Turkey? All right, just think about it. Just a luscious turkey sandwich, all right? All your favorite toppings on it. It's got a little toothpick in it with a little flag on top, a little American flag, right? Big, nice turkey sandwich. And then what do you hate the most in anything? You hate lettuce? Okay, and then let's say we just let's say I took a turkey sandwich and put all your favorite stuff on it and then put lettuce in there. Want to eat that sandwich? No. What if I took a piece of trash and put a piece of trash in your turkey sandwich? And let's say it was like 90% good, but just like 10% trash. Would you want to eat that sandwich? What if I put like a cockroach in there? No. Because look, if you put something dirty in something clean, you get dirty. You take dirty plus clean equals dirty, right? So you've got to have something that's 100% good or else it's bad. It's wrong. And so what happens, you take something as important as like what Bible they're using, like that's the most important thing in the whole world. This is what I base my salvation on. This is what I base everything I believe on. This is my life. And you're going to take somebody who uses a totally different Bible and then let's listen to what they have to say because we might be able to get something good out of it. Well, you might get something bad out of it too. You might get something wrong out of it while you're at it. Are you really willing to take the risk? Or why don't you just go to the clean refrigerator right here of the King James Bible and just get it out yourself and just eat it yourself. Something that's clean and good and right because you know where it came from. Everything in this book I know where it came from. It came from God. Some other book that somebody wrote maybe it came from God, maybe it came from the world. And what happens is you say, well, why don't you read a book that's by a great preacher that you know? Well, because he probably, even though he's a great guy, he might have read something from somebody else who wasn't that great of a guy. Or maybe he read something from a great guy. And I'll tell you something, most of these books that you get in theological-type books are so corrupt because they're written by these scholarly types who have to go outside the realm of an independent Baptist or outside the realm of somebody using the King James Bible because they just love to study so they just read the whole thing. And then they give it to somebody and they give it to somebody and they give it to somebody and they give it to somebody. Like we were just talking about yesterday, repent of your sins. You know that phrase? It's a phrase that's not found in the Bible. And how many of you have heard somebody say repent of your sins? Those four words. You heard that phrase before? I've heard it a million times. You can't find it in the Bible. You cannot find those four words together. You cannot find repent of sin, repented of sin. You cannot find it in the Bible ever. Those three words do not exist. I dare you. I will give you a thousand dollars cash if you show me in the Bible, repent of sin. It's not there. But what happens is just preachers just say it and they say it and they say it and they say it and then people think that in order to get saved they have to turn away from their sins. And then you see people at an altar crying. And I've seen people at an altar crying saying, I'm repenting of this sin, I'm repenting of that sin, and I'm repenting of this. That's work! Salvation! That is works, my friend! It's belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. But how did that creep in? Tradition, theology books, wrong friends, preachers hanging around with preachers of other denominations, you know, an independent Baptist hanging around with his Methodist buddy down the street and hanging around with his Presbyterian buddy down the street. Oh, you don't understand. It's my uncle. Let me tell you something. My uncle's a pastor. Do you know that? I have an uncle that's a pastor in Tucson. You think I'm going to hang around with him? You're crazy. He's some Presbyterian. He uses the wrong Bible. He makes fun of soul winning. He doesn't believe the gospel. He's a heretic. Do you think I'm going to hang around with that guy? No. Anything to do with him? Why not? Is he your uncle? He's my uncle. I don't care if he's my uncle. I don't care if he's a monkey's uncle. I'm not going to hang around with some preacher that's a liar. Hang around with some preacher that criticizes the King James Bible. Hang around with some preacher that criticizes me winning people to Christ. I don't care if he's my uncle. I don't care if he's my Siamese twin. I'm not going to have anything to do with him. Because the Bible says that I'm not supposed to hang around with ungodly people. And so I'm not going to do it. Period. You like it or not. Like it or love it. But that's the truth. And so we've got to be so careful about what influences us. We've got to be so careful about who we hang around. And be careful about who you let your family hang around. So I would probably try to not let my wife hang around. Because I know how they are. I know certain things about them that they would influence or wrong. There are people that I definitely wouldn't want my kids hanging around. And sometimes it's not the friendliest things. Sometimes it's not the nicest kindest thing. But sometimes you just have to decide I'm not going to let anybody destroy me. I'm not going to let anybody destroy my family. I will limit my friends to saved Christians. Godly Christians. I'll limit my kids friends to saved Christians. People that are saved. People that love God. It's a hard sermon but it's the truth. And it's something that could destroy you. Look if you would though. Let me show you the positive side of the coin. Look at Proverbs chapter 13. I'm going to show you the positive side of the coin here. Proverbs chapter 13. So the negative side is look my friend it doesn't matter how good you are. It doesn't matter how righteous you are. The wrong associations. The wrong person that you're talking on the phone to. The wrong person that you're going out to the bar with. And the wrong person that you're going out on the town with will destroy you. The wrong person that you're brown bagging with at lunch time at the school hanging around with that wrong crowd will destroy your kids. Yes it will. But let me show you the positive side of the coin. Look at Proverbs 13. Verse number 20. The Bible says here in Proverbs 13, 20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. So God says yes if you're a companion of fools you will be destroyed. You will be destroyed by hanging around with fools. But look at this. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. Do you want to be a gothic Christian? Do you want to be a Christian? I try to live right and I'm just so many times and I'm so aware of my flaws and my weaknesses and my sins and my life. I want to do what's right. How can I become a better Christian? How can I live for God? How can I become more like Jesus Christ? Well what do you do? You hang around with people that are godly. You hang around with wise people. So he says not only is the reverse true, he says that the person who hangs around with the fools, the people who hate the Lord, the people who are ungodly, he says they will destroy you. But he says if you're somebody who wants to live for God, if you're somebody who is moving in the right direction, he says get around somebody who's of God. Get around somebody who's wise. Get around somebody who's righteous and he says you will also become righteous. See what it says? He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. You want wisdom? Walk with somebody who's wise. You want to be a soul winner? You want to win people to Christ? Get around people that win people to Christ and you'll start winning people to Christ. You want to be somebody who loves the Bible and loves God and lives right? Get around people that love the Bible, that love God, that live right. And those people will influence you and you'll become like them. You see, you are right now or you soon shall be what your friends are. I can tell what you're like by looking at your friends right now. If I line up your friends right now, I can tell all about you. I can see what you're like. Because I can see who you hang around. And I'll guarantee you that you're like your friends. Or you're going to become like your friends. You're on your way to becoming like your friends. So take a look at your friends today and say is this who I want to be? Is this what I want to be like? And if the answer is yes, then great. Get around that person so that you can become like them. So that you can become more like God if they're a righteous person. If you look at your friends and say, you know, they're drinking. They don't want anything to do with God. Their life's all about money. It's just about getting the next fancy toys and they don't really care about righteousness. And guys, you're headed that way. I'll tell you that right now. You're going that direction. But he says if you want to be wise, walk with those that are wise. Go to a wise church if you want to be wise. And I'll guarantee you, if I started going to some kind of a... Let's say I just said, you know what, we're closing down and I'm going to start going to Grace Community Church. We saw one in the news. What was the one where we were looking at the yellow pages? I was looking at the yellow pages. Living Word Bible Church. You say you shouldn't name that name. I don't care. Living Word Bible Church, somewhere here in Tempe. It had this black girl in spaghetti straps that was just indecent, what she was wearing. I mean, it was all skin. Let's put it that way. And this was the ad for their church. And then they had this other black guy that was her husband. And they had the two kids there. And they're running with these kids. And her husband looked like a homosexual. He's wearing this little sleeveless shirt, literally. And he's just got this sick look on his face. And they're running. And they're running on a beach. This is Living Word Bible Church. It's these people running on a beach. She's totally just provocatively dressed, promiscuous. He looks like he's queer. And they're running on and it's just saying, this is probably not your parents' church, is what it says. That's their slogan. This is probably not. I mean, look it up. Hey, look, you don't believe me? I've got the Dex yellow pages right there, East Valley edition, used until September 2006. You go home and look at it. We were just looking at this and it was just like, this is insane. What in the world? And every church was just trying to advertise how liberal they were. Just trying to show a person that was dressed as bad as they could. Just to try to say, we have no standards. Now look, if I started going to Living Word Bible Church, how long do you think it would take me before I'm wearing that little sleeveless tight shirt? How long do you think it's going to take me before my wife's wearing the spaghetti straps running on the beach with me? Look, man, if you go to a church like that, you will become a liberal. I don't care who you are. Look, I grew up an independent fundamental Baptist. I grew up King James Bible, soul winning. Hey, when I was 12 years old, our church fell apart. We started going to these liberal churches for five years. And let me tell you something, after five years of being there from the time I was 12 to the time I was 16, I wish you could see what I was like when I was 16, after five years of being in these. And these are Baptist churches. But they were the NIV and they had the rock music. And here I was, after being there for five years, I started out, you know, fundamental. If you would have seen me, I mean, my hair was bleached. It was all sticking out and I had just the most worldly clothes on that you can imagine. Listening to just the worst kind of just rock music and watching every movie, just partying, out till two in the morning, one in the morning every night, just with my friends and stuff. Look, none of us is above it because when you are a companion, a fool is going to be destroyed. And I'll tell you something. I'd love to do this, but there's so much to do in so little time. I'd love to just get off the roll call of everybody that was in my youth group at that church that we went to and just tell you where they're at right now. You know, this one had a baby out of wedlock, this one's totally out of church, this one's a homosexual. One of them is a bouncer at a gay bar in Sacramento, one of the kids in the youth group. And I could just go down the list and it's just a roll call of people who are just living like the devil. Why? Because they were a companion of fools. Because the pastor was a fool, because the church was a fool. Because they were a companion of fools, they were destroyed. And only by the grace of God did I get out of that mess and get into a wise church and get into a church that loved God, a church that was into soul winning, and then I became wise. But good night, what if I hadn't have found that church? I would have been destroyed, like everybody else there got destroyed. And so let me just admonish you, my friend. Find friends that are what you want to be and get around those friends. Find friends that you want to see you in the future being like them. And the wrong friends, be kind to them, be courteous to them, but say, I'm sorry, I can't go with you. I'm sorry, but I just can't do that right now. And just be polite and be friendly, but don't let them pull you in. Because remember, they want you. They want to use you. You don't need them, they need you. The liberal preacher, he wants to fellowship with the fundamental preacher because he wants some of the fire. He wants some of the enthusiasm. But you know what? The fundamental preacher does not need him. He does not need him at all. And so we've got to realize, you don't need the world. The world wants to have you, and they want to pull you into their crowd. But you've got to say no. As the Bible says, I'm going to be separated. I'm going to be kind, I live in the world, I'm friendly to everybody, I love everybody, I want to give them all the gospel. But I'm not going to become one of their bosom buddies. I'm not going to get into their crowd. I'm not going to spend my recreational time hanging around with the unsaved. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God, I thank you so much for this sermon and for this truth in the Bible. Father, it's just one of those sermons that you just have to preach because it could really mean the difference between somebody messing up their life or somebody living for God. Because it's really everything.