Here now, the word of our God. Three years passed without war between Haram and Israel, and the third year, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. Now, the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramaph Gilead belongs to us and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the king of Haram? And he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to the to battle at Ramath Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am, as you are, my people, as your people, my horses, as your horses. Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire first for the word of the Lord. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go against Ramath Gilead to battle or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He is Micaiah, son of Imwah. But Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, Bring quickly, Micaiah, son of Imwah. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. Then Zedekiah, son of Kena'a, Kena'anana, made horns of iron for himself and said, Thus says the Lord with these, you will gore the Arameans until they are consumed. All the prophets were prophesying. Thus say, go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Behold, now the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them and speak favorably. But Micaiah said, as the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me that I shall speak. When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramaphiliad to battle or shall we refrain? And he answered him. Go up and succeed and the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Then the king said to him, how many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? So he said. I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace. Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? Micaiah said, Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left. The Lord said, who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said this, while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, how? And he said, I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then he said, you are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so. Now, therefore, behold. The Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these, your prophets, and the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you thus far, the word of our God. And may he indeed bless his word to our hearts. The last three chapters have all been about Ahab's relationship to God's word. Three times the Lord's kindness through his word came unsought to Ahab in his war with the Arameans, twice leading to victory, one warning Ahab of coming war. But he neither gave thanks to the Lord nor turned from his idols. Indeed, he despised the Lord's kindness by letting Ben Hadad, the king of Aram, live. Thus, Yahweh's word came in judgment against Ahab, telling him his life would be forfeit. That was chapter 20. But it was rebellion and not repentance that filled Ahab's heart. The word of God again came through Elijah announcing judgment on Ahab after the Nabof vineyard affair. Ahab and all his posterity were destined for covenant curses to fall immediately. Yet this time, after God's word came, there was initial repentance. So Yahweh announced that the evil he intended would be delayed until the days of Ahab's son. And now, as we come upon first Kings 22, we wonder what will we find in Ahab? Will it be a king humbled by the prospect of judgment, ready to listen to the word of God? or one whose grief over sin has quickly faded, who no longer really cares what the true God says at all. Well, as we study this text, I want us to see three things. And the first is this, a word that faithfully wounds, a word that faithfully wounds. Second, a word that comes from God. A word that comes from God and third, a word that is sovereign overall, a word that sovereign overall. Firstly, then a word that faithfully wounds. And we see this in verses one to eight in the text, we're told in verse one that there were three years of peace between Iran and Israel. But Ahab's battle ire is up. In the 1860s, there was a 2.2 meter stone found in what is modern day Turkey, detailing Shalmaneser III's reign. He was a king of Assyria. And it describes a battle known as the Battle of Karkar, which occurred in 853 BC, where Ahab, then Hadad, And ten other kings fought Shalom and Azar the third to a draw. Well, this is after that, and evidently Ahab comes back from that battle ready to make his recent ally into an enemy. Perhaps Ben-Hadad has it made good on that promise back in chapter 20, verse 34, to restore some of those cities in dispute between Aram and Israel. And Ramoth Gilead would certainly qualify as such a city. But Ben-Hadad is a formidable opponent and Ahab is going to need some help. Hence, Jehoshaphat verse two of King of Judah comes into the story. Now, Jehoshaphat is a king of whom we'll read later on in this chapter that he did right in the sight of the Lord. He's a king who loves God. Yet at the same time, he's a king who does some exceedingly stupid things. As verse 44 will tell us plainly later on in the chapter, Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. Now, practically, what does that entail? Well, in this text, it means he's ready to go to war with Ahab to offer himself and his country at Ahab's disposal. Later, it will spell a marriage alliance between Jehoshaphat's son and Ahab's daughter. which will be disastrous for Judah. But for now, we'll stick with this military coalition. Ahab provokes his servants, verse three, saying, Do you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the king of Iran? It sounds so triumphant. Ramoth Gilead is rightfully Israel's. It should be ours. But there's no appeal to the promises of God, nothing to do theologically with the land belongs to Israel. He's got his eyes set, I think, on another benefit of this town. Ramath Gilead sits on the major north, south and east west trade routes once controlled by Israel during David and Solomon's reign. It was an avenue of prosperity. And it's out of that, I think, rather than concern for Israel's inheritance, that probably drives Ahab into battle. But putting the right spin on it, he asked Jehoshaphat, verse four, will you go with me to battle Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat answers. Yes, basically, and after only after wholeheartedly agreeing to go, does the godly Jehoshaphat say, verse five, please, Inquire first for the word of the Lord. Now, shouldn't he have asked for prayer before he agreed to lock arms with this wicked king? But nevertheless, at least Jehoshaphat presses that such such a thing should be done, for a man of piety knows that he shouldn't move forward in any endeavor without seeking the word of the Lord. Well, Ahab has already made his logical case for what he wants to do, but this request from his ally is no problem. Ahab has a number of prophets on retainer, so he gathers his 400 or so prophets and he puts the question to them. Verse six, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall I refrain? And they say, go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat From his ears, from this standpoint, 400 prophets saying the same thing at one time. Well, that's a little odd. That's not how Yahweh usually makes himself known. It seems maybe just too contrived. So he's not convinced that this is the voice of orthodoxy. Who are these 400 guys anyway? Some have tried to tie them back to the 400 of Asherah on Mount Carmel. But in verse 11, the chief among them will speak in Yahweh's name. And I think that rules out prophets of Baal or prophets of Asherah. It's likely that these are prophets working at the cult centers in the north, Bethel and Dan, who are claiming Yahweh's name, but perverting his worship with the worship of bulls. And the fact that they show up in droves at the request of Ahab tells us that while Jezebel has pagan prophets who eat at her table, Ahab pays his profits to suit his fancy as well. So with some suspicion, Jehoshaphat asked for seven. Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? Jehoshaphat isn't interested in a syncretist. He wants the real deal. He wants a guy fully devoted to the Lord, not somebody who's ready to jump when Ahab says jump. He wants a genuine prophet. And interestingly, Ahab knows exactly what he means. But Ahab has a problem with the guy that he knows Jehoshaphat is talking about, he says, verse eight, yet literally yet one man There is to inquire of Yahweh from him, but I myself hate him. For he does not prophesy concerning me good, but evil. Micaiah, son of Imlah, Jehoshaphat comes back with a mild rebuke. Let not the king say so, but Ahab has said so. That's exactly what he thinks of one who tells him the truth. Now, what a sad revelation that is of Ahab's heart for this one man standing against 400 yes men, a repeat, in a sense of what we had at Carmel, means there is more mercy being offered to Ahab. One man who speaks the truth from the Lord, whatever the content of that truth may be, indicates that not all hope is lost for Ahab. He hasn't been left in complete darkness like Saul was with no word from the Lord. No, there is one man who has a word, one man who relentlessly speaks truth to Ahab. Elijah perhaps hasn't spoken to Ahab in three years, but Micaiah has been speaking. Perhaps when that repentance of Ahab after the word of judgment in the previous chapter, perhaps when it faded away, God sent Micaiah to Ahab, hounding him with truth, calling down judgment upon him if he didn't repent. It could be, for all we know, that Micaiah was the guy in disguise at the end of chapter 20. We don't know. But just as fateful are the wounds of a friend. So fateful is the God who wounds us with his word so that we might turn and live. This was the kindness of God in Micaiah. He's the one man left of whom Ahab could still inquire of the true and living God and not these 400 phonies. But Ahab, he doesn't see Micaiah like that as access to Yahweh, as truth In a mercy, he sees him as the bane of his existence. He had rather have ear ticklers and potential catastrophe than God's dogged faithfulness and the persistent inerrancy of his word, telling him something he doesn't want to hear. He hates one who is going to give him an unpleasant truth. Never mind. That that unpleasant truth might be the very means to save his soul. Now, I wonder how often we in the church can slip into that Ahab mindset. That we don't want to hear anything negative. We want pleasant words, warm words, encouraging words. And there's a place for those words. I'm not denouncing them at all. Not at all. We're called to build one another up. So don't don't misunderstand me. Indeed, strengthening and encouraging is the nature of new covenant ministry. But sometimes you got to tear down in order to build. There has to be rebuke and reproof and admonition, never in the pursuit of kindness Can you just drop the truth? Do we shut our mouths when it comes to rebuking sin? I mean, think about this. What if Nathan hadn't had taken this kind of posture with David? I can only speak good things to the king. What would have the results been? No, he's an instrument of God to rescue the king from the from the terrors and the snares of iniquity and praise God for it, because it woke David up. Speaking the truth in love means loving enough to say hard things that lead sinners away from their sin and to life. Is the posture of David among us, Psalm 141, verse five, Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me. It is oil upon the head. Or does Ahab's mentality prevail? I hate the one who brings to mind my guilt before God. Now, of course, to leave you wallowing in your guilt, exposed in shame, well, that would just be awful. There must be a pointing to Jesus Christ, there must be a directing to the way of hope for the guilty sinner. Nonetheless, just to leave off the confrontation would leave off the seeing of the need you have of a savior. And that's a problem. He doesn't grasp his need of a savior. It might collide with the spirit of the age for Ahab. And for us, for someone to tell you how that you're bad and that you need to feel bad about yourself. But just as Jesus told the rich young ruler, one thing you lack and watched him leave sad. So Jesus, his word comes to profit us by telling us more than only those things we want to hear. It rebukes, it reproves us ultimately to do what? To correct us, to set us on the right path. But Ahab doesn't see he's a sick man in need of gospel medicine, which hurts. So he turns a deaf ear. What about you? What about you? Do you see that you're sick, that you have deficiencies? And you're ready to hear whatever you need to have your mind renewed and your heart moved and directed and the way you need to go. There's a word from a faithful God which wounds. But it moves you in the right direction. I pray we're willing to hear it. Second, see with me a word that comes from God. And we see this in verses nine to 14. In spite of Ahab's disdain for Micaiah and the word he speaks, we can't alienate Jehoshaphat. So he beckons a court official, go get Micaiah. And the scene that greets us in verse 10 indicates the kind of pressure into which Micaiah is about to be ushered. Both Ahab and Jehoshaphat are sitting on their thrones. They're decked out in all their royal paraphernalia. And before them is Ahab's multitude of prophets prophesying. the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And remember, the gate is where the business happens, OK? This is like the this is the war room. This is the council scene of the king. This is where the council for battle is happening. And as the prophets prevail and they have with their propaganda, one Zedekiah steps forward with a prop iron horns claiming a word from Yahweh himself. Now, it's not uncommon for a prophet to have some type of symbol to reinforce his message. Jeremiah will use a yoke later. Ahijah had used with Jeroboam a cloak torn into 12 pieces. These visual elements just emphasize the message. And that's what Zedekiah wants to do. And he says in verse 11, Thus says the Lord with these, you will gore the Arameans until they are consumed. And it appears that Zedekiah is actually applying a passage of scripture from Deuteronomy 33, 17, where Moses is blessing the tribes of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, both of which are northern tribes and thus would have relevance to the northern kingdom of Israel. Here's how Moses's word reads in Deuteronomy 33, 17, as the firstborn of his ox. Majesty is his and his horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them, he will push, literally gore, same word as in our text. He will gore the peoples all at once to the ends of the earth. The peoples are foreign nations which Israel will conquer. Hence, Zedekiah is applying them to the Arameans, a foreign nation who has Israel's land. And he's saying, well, Gordon, same word that Moses had used. Now, that sounds pretty legitimate. You've got a man who speaks in Yahweh's name using Yahweh's word, and that word appears to be attested by multiple prophets because verse 12, we're told, and all the prophets were prophesying, thus saying, go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper for Yahweh will give it into the hand of the king. But, of course, as one commentator mentioned, Zedekiah overlooked the fact that the fulfillment of the whole blessing of Moses was dependent upon fidelity to the Lord. And never mind the obedience part. We're talking about naming and claiming the promises of God here. God said, well, gore the enemy. So let's go and do it. As David says, though, perhaps now we can appreciate the weight of Micaiah's opposition. For indeed, listen to what the king's official who went to get Micaiah says right before he walked. Micaiah comes into the pressure cooker. Verse 13. Behold, now the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of them and speak favorably where that last phrase is literally, you will speak what is good. No pressure. Essentially, the guy just commanded Micaiah twice, fall in line with the party line. It reminds me of a story of Chuck Colson back in the Nixon days. During Nixon's reelection campaign for the 72 election, the Wall Street Journal ran the following headline, Nixon hatchet man. call it what you will, Chuck Coulson handles president's dirty work. And in that article, there was a tongue in cheek quip from a former staff member that said this, Coulson would walk over his grandmother if he had to. Coulson later actually said that that was true. At the time, Coulson got a kick out of it. But such hard nosed tactics came to bear. when a particular man, Daniel Ellsberg, who had once worked for Henry Kissinger, started causing all kinds of political trouble for Nixon. Ellsberg released some top secret Pentagon papers studying the U.S. government's decision making during the Vietnam War. He released it to the New York Times and some other papers. And this came on the heels of him trying to get some senators to release it on the Senate floor. And he wanted these men to buck the party line and tell the truth. Nixon wanted that man silenced and there were legal battles about those papers. But he told Chuck Paulson, and I quote, I want him exposed, Chuck. I want the truth about him known. I don't care how you do it, but get it done. And Nixon went on to say, that's an order. If you don't speak the party line and you speak, don't speak to please the man in charge. The hounds will be released against you. And Chuck Colson did all he could to take that man down and he tried to destroy his life. Well, that was something that Colson was soon about to find out himself in the mercy of God, you know, Colson confessed Christ as Lord in the wake of the Watergate scandal. In the process, as he was being investigated over the things that ended up turning out to a plea bargain agreement, he pled guilty for devising a scheme to obtain derogatory information about Daniel Ellsberg to defame and destroy his credibility. He was guilty of that crime and he was ready to answer any questions with regard to Watergate. And while he awaited judgment against Or for this crime, President Nixon dispatched what Coulson called his top field commander, General Alexander Haig, to reconnaitor to make sure that Coulson had no dark motives or intent. That is to make sure Coulson was going to speak the party line. Nothing incriminating. Nixon wrote Coulson. Nixon even called Coulson to find out what he was going to say. Oh, the link. A man will go to to try to control the truth. It is one senator said of Colson in the midst of the crisis, he's just going to tell the truth. If the chips falls in someone's backyard, that's tough, whether it's the president's or someone else. Well, Brother Micaiah had a similar mindset. Only his true word didn't come from the recesses of his own heart, so he says to this party line guy trying to manipulate him in verse 14, literally, as the Lord lives, surely what Yahweh says to me, if I will speak. What Micaiah is saying is I am captive to the word of God. I am not free to add, subtract or alter in any way what Yahweh says to me. The word of God is not something that can be manipulated, massaged or made what you want it to be. But that's exactly what this royal official and the king himself, for that matter, assumed about it. That's Ahab's problem with Micaiah in his statement that Micaiah never says anything good. Why can't he say anything good? Is he in charge of the word he brings? Is he not simply a messenger, a herald of the king, the Lord himself? Micaiah is bound to the word of God. And when this official commands Micaiah to align himself with the 400 prophets who speak with one mouth, there's an assumption that the prophet rules over the word he speaks. He does not rule that word. You see, these people have a faulty understanding of prophecy, of how the word comes to the prophet and how that word is delivered. And brethren, we don't live in the days of prophets speaking. The last prophet has come. He's spoken to his apostles and we have the scriptures, the final word. Nevertheless, the principle of how the word is delivered remains the same, that we have to speak God's word and that's it. As Luther put it, though I'm taking out of context a bit, the sentiment is the same. I am bound by the scriptures. My conscience is captive to the word of God. That's how the man of God must always be. Lest we twist the scriptures to our own destruction. Lest the man of God lead himself and his hearers astray. He has to be a workman approved who doesn't need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth, for God's word is to be declared, not monkeyed around with. And this becomes an issue when we start talking about moral matters in the life of the church. I'll illustrate, you got a young googly eyed couple coming to the pastor for a premarital counseling. One of them is a professing Christian, the other is not. He asked more questions. And it's quite clear that the one who doesn't profess Christ doesn't know the gospel at all. He wouldn't know the gospel to hit him in the face. Well, the scriptures are clear here. First Corinthians 739, that you must marry only in the Lord. So you say I can't participate in the service. I can't do it. But they've been dating for years. Family members, perhaps church folk, they're going to be furious. I don't control the word. God says what he says. Or you have a person in the church who's ensnared and publicly exposed in sin, sin like immorality, sin like drunkenness, but once it wants to pretend like these things never happened, let's just be quiet. Let's just be tight lipped. Let's just go on down the road. The church discipline, that's just for a bygone era. We can get past that. No. We don't control the world. It's not that we just get to decide how we respond. God tells us how to handle these things. First Corinthians five, second Thessalonians three. In these moral situations, the pressure to compromise is immense. And it's not just faced by the man of God. It's not just faced by the elders. It's faced daily by the people of God who live among the people who actually believe that subjectivism is the truth, that it's true, whatever I think, whatever I think is true. That's the truth. Whatever is convenient, that's the truth. That's Ahad's mind. That's not the truth. It cannot be ours. Our mind is. This is the truth and we live by this. God has given us everything necessary for life and governance. This is our only rule of faith and practice. It governs what we do. We have to stand fast. We have to hold. We have to hold on to the word in the midst of a topsy turvy context. And what does Jesus tell us? John 8, 31 and 32. If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth, the truth, the truth, not what you think. The truth will set you free. We are free to do the truth, to speak the truth, to obey the truth. That's freedom. Not to just do whatever we want. May God help us to live that way. Secondly, see with me or thirdly, excuse me, see with me. A word that sovereign overall, and we see it finally in verses 15 to 23. So Micaiah comes in and puts in the question about Ramoth Gilead. Micaiah gives a party line answer at first. Go up and succeed. Now, why did he do that? Well, we're not there, we weren't there to hear exactly how he said it, but I guarantee you it was said with some dripping sarcasm for Ahab says in verse 16, literally, how many times must I keep on making you swear or making you take an oath? that you will not speak to me anything by but the truth in the name of Yahweh. Evidently, when Micaiah did come to Ahab, relentlessly speaking those unpleasant words that Ahab doesn't want to hear, Micaiah would always ape those 400 yoyos and then he would do it with such sarcasm that Ahab knew he was doing that and he would make him swear to speak in Yahweh's name. This was a little pattern that went on because of the continual tense. How many times must I keep on making you swear that you will not speak to me anything but truth in the name of Yahweh? So he knows the routine and he strangely presses, presses Micaiah to swear an oath to tell him the truth. That's pretty fascinating. He doesn't want to hear the truth, but then he makes him swear an oath to give the truth. He solemnized him to do it. So Micaiah shifts from derision to gravity, and he gives him the truth in verse 17. I saw Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace. Israel scattered like a shepherd without a shepherd sheep, without a master. It means nothing less than Israel would be defeated and their shepherd, their leader, Ahab, would be dead. Now, would these words affect Ahab? No, he just looks at Jehoshaphat and says, basically, I told you so. The guy never says anything good about me, only evil. But he heard truth. He made Micaiah swear to speak it. Yet it didn't matter to him at all. Not at all. He only went through the motions for Jehoshaphat. To Ahab it's irrelevant. What a horrible and a terrifying place to be, to have your soul in such a place where the word of God has no significance to you whatsoever. No bearing on you at all. You are confronted with your own death, death, and the only response you've got to it is a joke. How can Ahab be so blind? Well, Micaiah has an answer to that and he speaks again and we have a throne scene is comparable to that throne scene in verses 10 to 12. But it's of a heavenly throne scene. And now it won't be Zedekiah's false prophecy, which giving is giving us the future, it will be Yahweh's decree from the throne that sovereignly governing all things. The scene here is fascinating as we get a little glimpse behind the curtain. The Lord is seated with his angelic host before him on his right and left in verse 19. And the question is put. Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall with fall, meaning for him to die at Ramath Gilead? Finally, a spirit steps forward to do this work, saying, verse 21, I will entice him The Lord inquires of the means and the spirit answers, saying he intends to be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all A.F.' 's prophets. And to this enticing work, the Lord sends off the spirit ordaining his success. And then Micaiah utters verse twenty three. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets. The Lord has proclaimed disaster against you. From these verses, it's obvious that Yahweh's word is sovereign and he has decreed disaster, literally evil against Ahab. Calamity is coming. Yet again, as Davis puts it, this text unsettles our puny theological minds. What are we to think when we read these verses? Well, brother, let's take it for what it is. It reveals to us a God who is bringing judgment on a wicked king who has spurned him over and over and over and over. Yahweh's kindnesses to Ahab have been tremendous. Indeed, the mercy shown Ahab in the previous chapter was unfathomable. Has he delayed that judgment? But it's been met with obstinance, hard heartedness like Pharaoh. So what are we seeing here? We're seeing a man being given over to his sin, and it is a playing out of second Thessalonians to 10 to 12. I say to you in advance. Ahab will not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For that reason, God is sending upon him a diluting influence so that he believes what is false in order that he may be judged. Just quoting you, Paul, this one who didn't believe in the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. God is sending a spirit. who will deceive Ahab through his prophets, prophets who will entice, a word used three times in the passage, so that Ahab falls in the battle. Now, does that make God a deceiver? No, it doesn't. God is ordaining punishment on this wicked man, just like he ordained punishment on Saul. Do you remember the words back in first Samuel 16, 14? Now, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Folks panic when they hear that language, it gives them hives when they think of a God doing that because they think God's being accused of evil. But where else would a spirit ultimately come from? Is the Lord not sovereign? That's the point in the passage. The Lord is sovereign. The same thing is true here. The spirit is a deceiving spirit. Yes. So we must be talking about a demonic spirit. But who ordains judgment? Is Satan the one who determines judgment? Does Satan ordain curses on the wicked? No. As Isaiah reminds us concerning God's sovereignty, Isaiah 45, 7, the one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being or causing peace and creating calamity, literally the word for evil, but collating, creating hardship, adversity, calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. And yet we know he does it without being the author of sin. That perplexes us. And we stand and we rest in the perplexity of a God who tells us he's absolutely sovereign and his hands are clean as he sovereignly does it. Yahweh ordains blessing and curse. He works all things according to the counsel of his will. And this deceiving spirit in this case is the war's means to bring his judgment to pass on Ahab. What's so sad in this scene is Micaiah is telling Ahab he's being deceived by means of a false spirit of Yahweh's design, of his sovereign purpose. Thus, God is not deceiving Ahab. He's telling him what's going on. He's explaining it to him. He's being as clear as he can be with his stubborn fool. He still won't listen. He still won't listen. And how so often it is with people, it's that way. The sovereign God tells you he rules, he tells you He ordained your destruction. If you refuse him, if you refuse to bow the knee to Jesus Christ, he paints the picture of your ruin in bold lines. He tells you exactly what's going to happen to you. You will go to the place where there is eternal torment and agony, the place where the worm dieth not. He indicates if you don't repent, if you harden your heart against me, as my word goes forth, that I will give you over to your sin. He tells you how it's going to be. If you exchange the glory of God for the lie, if you worship and serve the creator rather than the creature, I will give you up. He's perfectly clear. And then people do it anyway. Romans, chapter one, they do it anyway. Paul explains those horrible realities and we get sins of homosexuality and murder, violence and those who invent evil and gossip. and disobedience to parents and God and his sovereignty, he doesn't tolerate those who turn a deaf ear to him and his gospel in Jesus Christ. They're handed over to a depraved mind. But you have to understand that Ahab, it's not that he didn't know formally the truth, that it came from a sovereign God. And Romans chapter one, it's not that they didn't know either. Paul tells us, oh, they knew God. They suppressed the truth and unrighteousness and they knew the things that they were doing were wicked and worthy of death. But they just kept on doing them and encourage others to do the same. They formally acknowledge that God was there, but they didn't care. They just didn't care. They never loved him. They never submitted to him as Lord. Friend, if you if you don't kiss the son, if you don't bow the knee and kiss the son, kiss Jesus Christ, acknowledge that he is sovereign. And you're doomed. It's just as simple. His word rules. And if it would be a word of grace to you, you have to take refuge in him. You have to honor him. You have to fear him. You have to listen to him. You have to love him. You have to live for him. But if you harden your heart against that word, if you hate that word which rebukes you and tells you to flee to Christ like Ahab did, then you will find that disaster is decreed against you. Will you please, will you please look at the seriousness of this text, because it's written for our instruction. And will you run and take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. May it be so for you, because do you understand that Jesus took on the disaster upon himself so that you would never face that disaster? He wreaked it all so you wouldn't have to, so you would never be forsaken over to that horrible judgment. Don't be like Ahab and refuse to receive the love of the truth And so be saved. Don't be like Ahab and consider the word of God as irrelevant. And the one who speaks it is one you hate because you just don't like what he has to say. Open your ears and hear and love the truth. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, O Lord, we do bless you for your word, your word, which is life. And we pray, O Lord, that your word would be our life, that we would believe in Christ, who is the one who gives life to those who have ears to hear. And we pray, Father, that we would couple that hearing even this night with hearts that welcome it, with hearts that tremble at the word, that we would come, O Lord, and humble ourselves with contrition before you. And seek Christ and be those, O Lord, who long to be obedient to what you say. Give us grace that we would delight in your law and seek to meditate on it day and night, that we would find our Savior revealed therein and do what he says and live for his glory. For we pray in Jesus's name.