Let's open our Bibles tonight to 1 Kings chapter 22. 1 Kings chapter 22. I'm going to read a rather long passage, much longer than normal, because I want you to get the full picture of what's taking place as we look at this guy named Micahiah. Chapter 22, begin reading with verse 1. And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria. And he said unto Jehoshaphat, "'Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?' Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "'I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.' Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, "'Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today.'" Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said unto them, now these are false prophets of Baal, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? you know, false prophets. Is there one true prophet that we can ask of God? In verse 8, the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micahiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him. I'll come back to that later. because I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, hasten, thither Micaiah the son of Amloth. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Canaan, made him horns of iron. And he said, thus saith the Lord. Notice all capital letters. If you remember, when you see all capital letters, In the word Lord, it's talking about Jehovah. It's talking about the Creator. It's talking about the King of Kings. It's talking about God Almighty. And so they are presuming to say within themselves, this is what God said. With these shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper. For the Lord, all capitals, and our translators put that in our translation that way for a reason. They wanted you to know, when you run across LORD in all caps, that we're talking about the God of the universe, the Almighty God, our Creator God. So again, they presumed to speak on behalf of God, and they said, with these shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gile and prosper, for the LORD, all caps, shall deliver it into the king's hand. And the messenger that was gone to call Micahiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good, unto the king with one mouth. Let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good." Definitely come back to that later. Micahiah said, as the Lord liveth, What the Lord sayeth unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king. The king said unto him, Micahiah, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? He answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Now we can't read sarcasm, but that passage is full of sarcasm. The king recognized it and said in verse 16, how many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord." If you're going to speak in the name of God, make sure you're telling me the truth. He said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. No king, no ruler. Let them return every man to his house in peace. The king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me but evil? And he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. Now this is Micah I talking again. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall, as in death, at Ramoth Gilead? One said on this manner and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit. in the mouth of all his prophets. And he, God, said, Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lion's spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. Zedekiah the son of Canaan went near and smote Micahiah on the cheek and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord for me to speak unto thee? You claim to know God's word. You claim to know God's will. Let God tell you who smote you, and we'll see if you're a true prophet. Verse 25, Micahiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. King of Israel said, take Micahiah, carry him back unto 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 come in peace. Micahiah said, if thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, hearken, O people, every one of you, listen, pay attention. Now, in order to understand Micahiah, which You find this almost exact story over in Chronicles. But in order to really understand Micahiah and his situation, you have to go back just a little bit and look at the history prior to where we are tonight. As you look at the history, and if you were here on Wednesday nights when we were studying this, you may remember that David was king over all Israel. David was the greatest king that ever ruled and that ever lived. Every king from David down, every king of Judah is listed, he was good like David his father or he was not good like David his father. David became the benchmark of an acceptable king before God. Well, David died. Solomon, his son, became king. Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived, but like many wise men, he let pride lift him up. He let pride take control. He decided against the law of Moses. Moses was very emphatic. Moses said that the king was not to build, you know, barns and store lots of horses. The king was not to go down into Egypt. The king was not to marry multiple wives. Moses was very clear, but Solomon stalled at thousands of horses, hundreds of chariots. He went down into Egypt to buy and sell and trade. He became so rich that silver was treated like gravel. Can you imagine every bit of your gravel? If you don't know what happened the other day during the flood, talk to this young couple. Their front yard was redone instead of grass, now with gravel. Can you imagine all of that gravel being silver chunks? You'd like that. Solomon was so rich, that silver became like gravel. They paved their roads with silver. They put it down to drive on. That's how rich Solomon became. And then Solomon died. He had a son named Rehoboam who was nothing like his dad. It was under Rehoboam that the nation of Israel split. And I hope some of you remember this. The nation of Israel, made up of 12 tribes of Israel, they split. Ten of the tribes became known as the Northern Kingdom, or they became known as Israel. Jeroboam became their first king. The two southern tribes became known as Judah. And so throughout from the split on, you'll find references to Israel and references to Judah, and in most cases, Israel is referring to the ten northern tribes. Judah is referring to the two southern tribes. Jeroboam became king of the northern tribes. And I won't go into him. We've covered him before. But he made two golden calves. As soon as he became king, he made these two golden calves. He put one in the city of Dan. He put one over in the city of Shiloh. and said, hey people, you don't need to go to Jerusalem to worship God. You can stay right here. You can worship these two golden calves that I've made, and you don't have to go worship the God of Jerusalem. The Northern Kingdom never, never got over their idol worship of those two golden calves. That became a perpetual sin until the day that Israel was carried captive into Assyria right up until that very day they were conquered. They worshipped those two golden calves. Ahab was one of the kings of the northern nation. You don't have to read very much at all to find out that Ahab was one of the, if not the, most wicked, immoral, ungodly king that ever ruled over the Northern Kingdom. He was a very, very wicked king. Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. The Bible kind of gives mixed feelings on Jehoshaphat. He was overall, he was a good king overall, but he also liked to make friends of people who were total idolaters. He worshiped idols himself sometime, but he made friends with people who were totally given to idolatry. Chapter 22 is one of those examples. Jehoshaphat decided to go visit Ahab. And so he goes up to visit from Judah up to Israel. And as he gets up there, Ahab had been at war with Syria for many, many years. Ahab decides, they conquered one of my cities years ago. I'm going and I'm taking back the city they conquered from me. So he invites Jehoshaphat to go with them and fight the Syrians. And sometimes I get the Syrians and the us Syrians mixed up. This is Syria, not us Syria, which is a whole nother nation. Jehoshaphat entered into an unholy alliance. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6.14. To me, this is about as clear as Paul could write. Paul said, be ye not. That's an emphatic no. Don't do it. Do not be caught up in this. Be ye not. unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? In other words, the law is and was. Joshua was warned against this, although he fell into the trap. Do not make friendship and, well, maybe friendship, but do not make alliances with idolaters. Do not go into business with people who hate your God, hate what you believe, hate what you stand for. They don't agree with anything you believe. And you go in partnership with them. I know most preachers use that verse in reference to marriage, and it certainly does apply to marriage. I will not marry anyone who is, one of them is saved, one of them is not. They're asking for me to bless an unholy alliance. So Jehoshaphat made an unholy alliance. Years ago, I had a friend of mine who was in business. And he was offered to go into business with one of his competitors, two separate men merged into one business. And he looked at it financially and, yeah, this really makes sense. And I told him, I said, don't forget what Paul said, 2 Corinthians 6.14, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And his answer was, this guy, this guy, I've known him for years. We won't have any problems. So they went into partnership. The one guy liked to put his thumb on the scale a little bit. He liked to short just a little bit. He liked to overcharge for things. He liked to do things that were dishonest in order to make a few extra bucks. And the guy that I talked to eventually got out Because he said, we don't have anything in common. Even the way to run a business, he wants to run the business on the world's standard, and I want to run the business with Christian principles. That's like, I tried to tell you that. I tried to tell you. Don't disobey God's word. Do not be, what about friendship? He's not talking about friendship. We're not forming a contract. We're not going in business together. But can I work for an unbeliever? Yes, because you're not going in business with them. You're not becoming partners with them. You're not combining assets with them. But Jehoshaphat made an unholy alliance. And we won't get into that, but he almost got killed because of his alliance with Ahab. Almost cost him his life. Ahab calls in his false prophets, and they all say, God approves of what you're doing. Then here comes Micah-aiah. Micah-aiah was already known by the king Ahab. How do we know that? Verse 8. Ahab, when Micahiah's name came up, Ahab said, and I quote verse 8, I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. I know him. He has never given me his God's blessings. He's always called on me to repent. He has always preached the consequences of sin. I hate him. That's a pretty strong word. Sadly today, Way too many Christians, and I use Christians in quotation marks, have become perfectly content to be silent and let someone else do God's work. I put in the bulletin, was that last week or week before? I don't remember. Somebody died. Y'all remember that one? Somebody died. Most people are content to let somebody stand for the truth. Let somebody fight against sin. Let somebody else do the hard work. I'm a Christian, and that's really all that matters. I'm going to heaven. I really don't want to be bothered with you. We don't say that, but that becomes our attitude. Did you know that most pro-life centers, centers, pro-life centers are sponsored by the Catholic Church? How many of y'all knew that? Three, four, count me in. Did you know that Catholics are the number one opposition to abortion? Where are the Micahiahs today? Where are the Baptists speaking up, speaking out? Where are the Baptists who show compassion on an unwed mother? Where are the Baptists who will say, I will take you into my house. I will let you live in my house. You got pregnant. But you know what? We're not going to kick you out. We're going to take you in. We're going to feed you. We're going to clothe you. When the baby's born, we're going to help you raise that baby. How many Baptists do you know that have ever done anything like that? Micahiah was the only true prophet in that whole entire region. Ahab had over 400 false prophets who were all too willing to say what the king wanted to hear. But not a one of them had the gall to stand up and tell the king you're wrong. You know, as I was thinking of this, I, you, and I'm talking to you and the shut-ins and anyone else who's streaming, I'm talking to you. You may be the only Christian in a world of darkness. I've worked in secular work for many years. I've worked in factories. I've worked in offices. I've worked in a lot of places in secular work. I've not always been a pastor. And sometimes even when I was pastor, I was bivocational. I've heard words that most of you will never hear. I've seen things most of you will never hear. You may be the only light in that dark spot of the world where you are. You may work among some of the filthiest, dirty-mouthed, vulgar people on earth, and you're the only light in that whole building. It may be in your community. It may be at school. It may be some other place that God has put you. And you are the only light. You're the only true prophet in that whole area. Finally, when Ahab, he tried to lie, although I don't think he really was trying to lie. I think he was trying to say what the king wanted, but it was obvious from his facial expressions, from his tone, it was very obvious the king knew immediately, tell me the truth. Micahiah said, well, I did see Israel without a king or without a shepherd. I did see the flock scattered. In other words, king, if you go, you're going to lose the battle, and you yourself will die. Oh, that we had more Micahiahs today. I think we can safely say that the world is in a mess. Would anybody disagree that the world is in a mess? Many of us rejoiced when the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. and put it back on the responsibility of the states where our founding fathers always intended it to be in the first place. Our forefathers never intended for the federal government to run everybody's life. And so when they put it back to the states, many of us thought, oh, we won. Folks, the battle ain't over. You know what happened when the Supreme Court put it back on the, back on the states' back? Pro-abortion went to work immediately, now trying to change laws within the states. Supreme Court's already said the law belongs in the states. So now they are working and working and working to set the state governments to make abortion legal. One state recently made abortion legal right up until so many days after birth. and called an after birth abortion. How many of you have some 10, 20, 30, 40 year old kids you'd like to do after abortion on? Basically, they legalized murder. That's what they did. Transgenderism. if you really wanna make me sick and throw up. Transgenderism has to be one of the most stupid things I've ever heard or read. When I was born, what is it, boy or girl? Oh, he's a boy. Now you're born, what is it, boy or girl? Well, we're gonna have to wait five, 10, 15 years for it to decide what it wants to be. I mean, for 2,000, well, for 6,000 years, it was easy to tell a boy from a girl. Didn't require a PhD, didn't require an MD, didn't even require a class in first aid. That's one of the most stupid things I've ever heard. All a boy has to do is think that he's a girl, and suddenly he's a girl. I guess that would apply if you think you're a horse. Would that apply? I think I'm a horse. I don't even have to give specifics. There's many, many, many cases. But if a boy says, I'm a girl, he is now allowed to go into the girl's locker room, watch the girls take showers, watch girls get dressed, but it's okay because he thinks he's a girl. Isn't that, isn't that, I mean that defies stupidity. That defies any logic. I told someone recently, they were talking about this, and I don't want to be crude or rude, but what red-blooded American boy wouldn't give anything to go in the girl's locker and watch them take showers and watch them get dressed? And in order to do that, all he's got to do is say, I think I'm a girl. You know how that goes. There are many, many instances of boys raping girls in girls' lockers. And all he had to do to get in there was say, I think I'm a girl. Men can now compete against female athletes in female sports by simply saying, I'm a female. And I don't have to explain that. The papers are full, the news is full. One guy particularly, when he competed against men, he came in like 232 or something. But when he competed against girls, he came in number one. And all he had to do was say, I think I'm a girl. We're in a mess. We're in a mess. Some people give no more thought to murder than they do drinking a glass of water. Same difference to them. They don't even, you know, lying is as common as breathing. And in many states, it's perfectly legal to steal. I knew a security guard not that long ago. And we were talking about how much that store loses due to theft. He said, you want to know something really funny? I can watch them pick it up. I can watch them put it in their overcoat. I can watch them walk out the front door. And I am not allowed to stop them in any way. I can't stop them. You know what that encourages? If I can get by with stealing and get away with it, That's going to embolden me to do it again and again and again, so much so that in many of the major cities, some of your major chain stores are pulling out of the city because they're losing in theft more than they're making in sales. And they're saying, we can't stay in business. We're closing up. We're moving out of town. So what can you and I do? We can learn a lesson from Micah Ioffe. We can stand for what is right, whether it be the president, the mayor, or somebody on the street. We don't have to be silent. That's what's happened way too long. Don't be afraid to speak the truth even if the king hates you. Micahiah was thrown in jail because he dared to speak the truth. How many of us would stand up and speak the truth if we knew for certain that we would end up in Boone County Jail down here, which if you're gonna go to jail, Boone County or Kenton County are the two you definitely wanna go to. Has anybody been inside of Boone or Kenton, either one? They're nicer than some motels we've stayed in. But even if I go to jail, I will not compromise the truth. In the end, Ahab, Israel, lost the war. Ahab was killed. Micah Aya was able to stand before God with a clean record. Now I don't want to get on politics, but you know, we do have an election coming up soon. Do you know why wicked people get in office many times? because Christians won't take the time and the effort to even vote for what's right. We won't even take the time to go vote for what's right. We certainly are not gonna stand up and say, this is wrong. because it might hurt me physically. It might hurt me financially. It might hurt some of my friends. Micahiah said, King, this is wrong. Do what you want to with me, but this is wrong. We need a lot more Micahiahs tonight. Father, we come.