Critical Influences (Part C)

The ever active disdain of Satan. Satan is the way to the lie and to the doom, not to heaven.

But people want to dismiss him. They even dress up with little horns on their head and pitchforks because they think he's a big joke. Satan is never joking.

Never. He is evil and he wants people to think he's joking. He's the kind of guy that's, I'll tell you a funny joke as he's hacking off your leg. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of First Kings.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will conclude his message called Critical Influences in First Kings Chapter 22. Verse 22, Yahweh said to him, in what way? So he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.

Pause there. That is true. That's what he's illustrating. The deceiving spirit, a critical influence from hell in Ahab's case has entered the mouths of these false prophets to the delight of Ahab because he's the same way. Anyway, continuing in verse 22, and Yahweh said, you shall persuade him and also prevail.

Go out and do so. Now if you insist that, no, this is a, he actually saw this in heaven. Well, it's not a, we're not going to debate that.

No, it's not a critical point. But again, if you, I see this as if you see this literal event taking place in heaven, trying to figure out how to take down Ahab, you've got problems. But again, it's parabolic. That is very appealing.

Jesus used parables all the time. They hit the mark and they stayed with you. One that stays with me is, you know, cut the tree down. No, let's give it three years. I'll fertilize, I'll give it a year, I'll fertilize it and let's give it, I mean that just sticks with me.

I can see the two men interacting this way and I can see how it applies to my life and others too. Be patient. Give it a little bit more attention. Maybe it will respond.

But don't just react and just hack it away. So, coming back to verse 22 now. Well, I do want to add this. Of course, the prophet is illustrating the sinking sand. Ahab has got his foundation on sinking sand. Psalm 18, with the pure you will show yourself pure and with the devious you will show yourself shrewd. And this is what we have taking place in this parable.

The same lying spirit that is lying to those prophets, that is lying to Ahab, is the same lying spirit world that motivated Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ. And it is the same lying spirit that is telling heads of state, you can invade them. You can do this and you can do that.

And you can write this law. And you can, and Satan is the enemy. When we say Satan, we don't always mean Lucifer himself. We mean that underworld that is opposed to God, very active. And we see the fruits.

God could have just sent a lightning bolt and done in Ahab and that would have been the end of it. But the parabolic illustration teaches so much more to those who will listen. Verse 23, therefore look, Yahweh has put the lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours and Yahweh has declared disaster against you. And so in case you're hard of hearing, in case you're not the sharpest knife in the draw, let me tell you what the parable means. And that's what verse 23 is. Paul said it this way, for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.

Because that's what they wanted. And God will just, as we read from the Psalm, with the pure, you will show yourself pure. And with the devious, you will show yourself shrewd. God will outdo them. Verse 24, now Zedekiah the son of Caneana, I'm not reading that name again.

Well, because we don't come to it. But anyway, went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, which way did the spirit of Yahweh go from me to speak to you? So the wise guy in the crowd is quick to violence.

He's got the army on his side. Takes advantage of the prophet that's just been invited to tell, give his side. And he gives his side and he is hit for this.

They strike him. He didn't use the iron horns to traumatize his. He used the parable, you know, which I think is far better. Anyway, he says, how dare you publicly disagree with my religion? Because this is the leader of the pack, Zedekiah.

He's the leader of the false prophets and he has been publicly challenged and he's not having it. Verse 25, and Micaiah said, indeed you shall see on that day when you go into the inner chamber to hide. So Micaiah says, you're going to go screaming and hiding everywhere. You won't be very manly when this prophecy comes true. You won't be looking to strike anybody else on that day. And that's so he calls him out and he's saying you're going to have a cowardly response to the prophecy that I'm giving you because you're going to be afraid of what the Assyrian troops might do to you if they catch you and the people when they find out you're a false prophet.

I like to see the look on his face. Verse 26, so the king of Israel said, take Micaiah and return him to Ammon, the governor of the city and Joash, the king's son. So he says arrest him and have my son, the prince, make sure that my instructions are followed, that the prophet is locked up. So it was a crime to tell the truth when asked.

It was a crime to give your opinion. Verse 27, and say thus says the king, put this fellow in the prison and feed him the bread of affliction and water of affliction until I come in peace. So he's saying make him miserable.

Give him stale bread and dirty water until I come back. So he really, he hates the prophet. The prophet's never done anything wrong to him, but that's not enough for evil. Evil will bother us. You do not have to provoke evil.

It is provoked by nature, by definition. Verse 28, and Mica said if you ever return in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me, and he said take heed all you people. So I love this guy. This is the one man standing up with truth, and he says yeah you ain't coming back. The prophecy is true.

This is it for you. He's got the guts to have, he gets the last word in, and then he tells the audience you better watch out. That's what that means. If I'm a man of God, you're in big trouble if you stay against my God. Well, the ever active disdain of Satan. Satan is the way to the lie and to the doom, not to heaven.

But people want to dismiss him. They even dress up with little horns on their head and pitchforks because they think he's a big joke. Satan is never joking. Never. He is evil, and he wants people to think he's joking. He's the kind of guy that's you want.

I'll tell you a funny joke as he's hacking off your leg. Well, Revelation 22 11, there at the end, almost at the end of the revelation of Jesus Christ, it ends with this warning that wicked people retain their wicked nature. That's why there's no more chances. This is where it is settled. Revelation 22 11, he who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still.

In other words, there's a sarcasm in that. One way to look at it, God is saying, fine, you want to be dumb, be dumb. You want to be a fool, be a fool. You want to be righteous, be righteous. And then he's also saying in that section is that when you die, the unjust will be unjust still. There's no change into the Christ-like character that the Christian will enjoy that predestination. Predestination doesn't mean we were forced on the flight to go to that destination. Predestination is we responded to the invitation to get on the flight that is predestined to go to heaven.

And I do resent otherwise very intelligent men. They could probably beat me in a spelling bee, but I think they get it wrong when they define biblical, the biblical word and meaning for predestination. It does not mean pre-caused. It does not mean you were forced to go to a destination and others were forced not to go to that destination.

And this is God's doing. That in short is Calvinism. And they'll use volumes of books to tell you why they don't want you to know that that's Calvinism. And I do, I resent it because, you know, there's a danger if you're not careful, if you respect too much a person's intellect, you may begin to fall for some of their errors until the point, you get to the point where you can't see them anymore.

And then it's just a big back-slapping committee, everybody patting each other on the back saying the wrong thing. Anyway, all we like sheep go astray, each to his own way, and so we are careful to minimize that from happening in our lives. Verse 29, So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead. So they're going up unmoved by the consequences of the prophecy. And this is the beginning of the end of Ahab's life. And the first of three really dumb moves on Jehoshaphat.

I mean, you know, if you could make it humorous, you'd want us to meet Jehoshaphat in heaven and just say, come on, tell me. I won't tell anybody. What were you thinking three times? Tell me. What were you thinking? That whole investment with the ships down in the Red Sea, that was a disaster. You almost died of thirst in the desert.

That's no way for a king to die. And then this time here where, hey, put my uniform on or, you know, well, put this bullseye on and I'll put the camouflage on. Okay, so let's come to that. Verse 30, And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into battle. There's your camouflage. Although it looks something like a camel. But you put on your robes.

You mean the ones we just had on the threshing floor? So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. And so he's charging, he's one of the troops, and there is the only guy out of all the troops on Israel's side that's standing out like a sore thumb with a giant shoot me sign on him.

And he's a good king. And what would his father say? Boy, as dumb as dirt. You know, something like that. And I don't know, when you read this in the Bible, is it comical to you?

It is to me. Anyway, I think, I think later on he said to his wife, I got kicked myself. I couldn't believe I did that. And then the second time, I did something again. What did you do?

I went to the desert with no water and a bunch of people. All right, well, anyway, God had already in place a plan to shield his king. Ahab is not going to enjoy that shield. Verse 31, now the king of Syria had commanded the 32 captains of his chariot, saying, fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel. Verse 32, so it was when the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat that they said, surely it is the king of Israel. Therefore, they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. Verse 33, and it happened when the captains of the chariot saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. So, what would you expect, Jehoshaphat? Can you be that dumb and still be a king?

Yes, you could still be a good king. If, I think, he called on the name of Yahweh, and that's what signaled to everybody, he's not the king of Israel, because Ahab would never call on Yahweh, maybe. I get it from this. Second Chronicles 18, covering the same story. So it was when the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat that they said, it is the king of Israel, therefore they surrounded him to attack, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and Yahweh helped him, and God diverted them from him. Well, what did he cry out? Well, we're not told. More than likely, any sane believer would cry out, Yahweh help! And maybe that day he said, this can't be the king of the north, I don't know.

But that is how I'm preaching it. Verse 34, now a certain man drew a bow at random. That doesn't mean he was an artist, and he had an easel with a canvas, and he's just going to draw a bow at random. A certain man drew a bow at random, and hopefully you'll never see that verse again the same way, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of this chariot, turn around, take me out of the battle, I'm wounded. So at a venture, somebody just on the Syrian side just says, I'm just going to fire one up under the air, and he fires his arrow, and of course the angel's directed right between the armor, and it's a critical hit.

It's a fatal wound. His own wickedness forfeited for him the benefits of Psalm 91. You shall not be afraid of terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.

Well, Jehoshaphat is benefiting from that in this particular episode of life, not Ahab. God withheld the protection. Verse 35, the battle increased that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Assyrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out from the wound onto the floor of the chariot, verse 36, then as the sun was going down, a shout went throughout the army saying, every man to his tent, and every man to his own country.

So, the guy is bleeding out, and they're propping him up to keep the troops fighting. They see their leader at the top of the hill there, they'll keep going, but it fails. Now they're sheep without a shepherd, and that's why they all go back to their own home. Not, with no shepherd, not much to applaud about a church that has no shepherd. Hopefully churches will put in place safety measures to take care of that. If the pastor gets raptured, somebody needs to. Actually, that's not very funny, right?

Anyway, but it is kind of funny. All right, verse 37. So the king died, and was brought to Samaria, and he buried the king in Samaria. Then someone washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood while the chari- while the harlots bathed according to the word of Yahweh, which was spoken. Well, Elijah delivered that back in chapter 21, and so Elijah announced the sentence for killing Naboth, and Micaiah announces the execution of the sentence, which takes place now, while the harlots bathed. What a picture.

It's a commentary. Now some will try to say, well, really the word for harlot is armor, because it's a similar phonetic sound to it in English, at least. But I don't buy that because you can wash armor anywhere. You don't need to have a particular- but the harlots wouldn't need a larger body of water, and I think it's a perfect fit, and I think that it is a commentary on a life. The man was unfaithful to God because he was unfaithful to truth. Verse 39. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, the ivory house which he had built and all the cities that he had- that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Ahab, verse 40, rested with his fathers, then Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his place.

Ahaziah is going to be killed later, but why spoil the plot? So he lived in this ivory-paneled house high on the hog. The archaeologists have undug up some area and found all this ivory- these ivory carvings all over the place, and, you know, they would carve out these things and then inlay it into the wood and it would be like, you know, these framed pictures made out of ivory.

Only the rich could really afford that. Verse 41. Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. So now, as is not uncommon with the writers in the Bible, they go back and fill in the blanks, which leaves us oftentimes confused and we have to dig and find out, why is he saying that now? Well, he wants his audience to be more informed about King Jehoshaphat, verse 42. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king and he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother name was Azubah, the daughter of Shehi.

That's a masculine name. That's his grandfather, verse 43. And he walked in the ways of his father Asa. He did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the eyes of Yahweh. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away for the people offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

Well, the ever-present resistance of leaven, once it gets in, is just very hard to get out and that's why the historians are telling it, pointing that truth out. Asa was a good king, kind of messed up towards the end, but did not go into idolatry. Verse 44, also Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. That would be Ahab.

He's again reviewing the information. He did this through that marriage of his son to Ahab's daughter. Verse 45, now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the might that he showed and how he made war, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

So what stands out to me is the might that he showed. Now the problem is, of course, it becomes rhetoric when we make it physical and carnal, but it's very spiritual when we keep it spiritual and have a spiritual might, and that's the harder one to get. I go through the valley of the shadow of temptation every time I get behind the wheel, every time I drive. It's like, oh man, here we go. I mean, I don't have to do anything.

I can just sit there. It's inside here, like that person. I don't like that person.

All right, no more talking about driving. The might that he showed, imagine if it said the might that he lacked. I don't want it to be said that way about me. He improved Judah and he fought off the enemies, so he achieved a lot as a king, and this life that we live, this cursed life under the curse since Eden becomes very confusing to the Christian when we forget that it's a battleground, not a playground, and that there are no spectators. When we think we are exceptions, then we question why we suffer. We suffer because of sin. Christians die because of sin. God says to his beloved children, my reward is with me, and there are times that I think about that verse and I say, but I want my reward right now, and no, I submit. I have to wait. That's what makes him Lord.

I submit and don't push back. Verse 46, and the rest of the perverted persons who remained in the days of his father Asa, he banished from the land. So he got rid of these. These were sexually perverted people and they were sexually perverted in the name of religion, religious people who incorporated perverse sexual perversity and pleasure in choosing the low road of worship that comes with idolatry. Verse 47, there was then no king in Edom, only a deputy of the king. Verse 48, Jehoshaphat made merchant ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never sailed, for the ships were wrecked at Ezeon-geber. That would be the, if you're looking at the Red Sea on a map, it looks like rabbit ears. The rabbit ear on the right, that's where Ezeon-geezer is.

It is there to this day. The Jews use it as a resort, the Red Sea there. Verse, then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, let my servants go with your servants in the ships, but Jehoshaphat would not. So these two entered into a business arrangement on the seas to bring in imports and exports, take out exports, and it failed. The ships were destroyed. 2 Chronicles 20 verse 37, but Eliezer prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, Yahweh has destroyed your works.

Then the ships were wrecked so that they were not able to go to Tarshish. So this is actually the third bad decision, that he aligns himself again with a wicked king. And God says, I'm not having this. You're a good boy, Jehoshaphat, but you're just pretty dumb. And he shuts down the ship, this joint venture, but the king of the north says, well, let's try it again. And Jehoshaphat says, no, I've got it.

I'm not doing that again. Verse 50, Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, of course a euphemism for death, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Then Jehoram, his son, reigned in his place. Verse 51, Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria. In the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, reigned two years over Israel. Verse 52, he did evil in the sight of Yahweh, this is the northern king, and walked in the ways of his father, and in the way of his mother, that would be Jezebel, and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel sin.

And we talked about that. Jeroboam would be the poster boy for failure of kings in the northern kingdom, and so throughout the kings he's brought back up. Remember this guy? Don't forget him.

He's a creep. Verse 53, for he served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked Yahweh, God of Israel, to anger according to all that his father had done. So this child, the apple didn't fall far from the tree in this case, it likely Jezebel's offspring, but their fate is nearing, and it's going to not go well with them.

And it ain't good with them right now. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the privilege of looking at the word that you've preserved for us. Everything in this book is designed for us to get a better view of you, and a better view of ourselves, and to reconcile the difference according to your will.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

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