Kings chapter 22 tonight. First Kings chapter number 22. Please look at verse number one just to get the gist of the story for a moment or two. Ahab is the king of Israel. Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah. They have an alliance that God never sanctioned. You have evil aligned with good. And it never works. It's like oil and water. They never mix. We have that same problem in America today. And I don't know the solution for it other than complete and total control turned back over to God would restore everything. But the powers that be are not going to relinquish that very easily. And, um, So I told someone recently the only solution that I see at hand would be a complete divorce from the left crowd. And you know, keep your states, we'll keep ours. And you know, run it like the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. a godly king and an evil king. And God doesn't bless. America has so many problems right now. I am going, I've decided, finally finalized that I'm going to press through and preach on Romans 13, the civil government, civil authorities. I have a series on that. And my eyes are bothering, but I'm going to press through and try that at least for a few weeks and see how it goes. But America has so many problems, but one of those is so many different gods at present time in America that we're giving equal time to. And God said very quickly to the people of Israel over in the book of Exodus, he said, I am a jealous God. And I will have no other gods before me. And, uh, you know, he, so he quickly, I mean, we talk about the Buddhists, we talk about the new agers, we talk about the Muslims, we talk about the Mormons, we talk about the Jehovah's witness. We talk about the Hindus. We have all kinds of junk in America at present time. And we're giving equal time. And God said, no, that that's not going to happen. And so we're messed up that way. We've made laws by man that God never approved of and God doesn't recognize. So, and then we've taken God out of school because we have so many other religions here. We want to give equal time. Now, if we say one nation under God, which God are we talking about? The Hindu God who has many or Buddha or, you know, so we can't mention the name Jesus. Well, that's ridiculous. And as long as we're in that condition, God's not going to bless. So how many of you, raise your hand, how many of you heard of or watched that old show on TV with Bob Barker? called Truth or Consequences. Ha, more than I imagined. That's pretty cool. That was a pretty good show. I enjoyed that. Truth or Consequences. Here we have tonight the message title is Truth or Consequences. and you find the text in First Kings chapter 22. It's a story of Ahab and Jehoshaphat and mostly about Ahab and his wickedness and how God dealt with it. Notice, they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. Not Israel and Judah, but Israel, the northern kingdom, and the capital of the northern kingdom was where? Where was the capital of the northern kingdom Israel? Samaria. It was in Samaria. Remember Ahab and Jezebel in Samaria? They built a whited palace there and there was a temple that he built there and it was the center of evil at that particular time. Okay, next question. The capital of Judah was where? Jerusalem. Easy answer, there you go, okay. So when he says, and they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel, it meant Ahab and the northern kingdom, Israel. It came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. Now, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe actually Samaria is north of Jerusalem, but it's not as high elevation. So when he says he came down to, he would be luring himself to come to Samaria from Jerusalem in that wording, which is actually true, even though Jerusalem would be in the south, Samaria would be in the north. And we would say we went up to Samaria, up north and down south, but it doesn't work like that here. It came to pass the third year Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel and the king of Israel, Ahab, said unto his servants, know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours. And actually it was in the hands of the Syrians. And we be still and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria. And he said unto Jehoshaphat, the godly King of Judah, wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the King of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said unto the King of Israel, inquire, I pray thee at the word of the Lord. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up, go up. Yeah, they yelled and screamed, Go up! For the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Jehoshaphat, a godly king, had more sense than that. And Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? Remember, remember Ahab and Jezebel, or you remember Jezebel had the 850 prophets. the prophets of Baal and the false prophets of the temple there. And you remember it was Elijah that slew those prophets in the contest between God and those particular prophets, or Baal, remember? And so here are 400 men, they come up and prophesy and say, go up, go up, the Lord be with thee. And Jehoshaphat said, wait a minute, these are all the prophets of Baal. These are all, you know, to an idol, God, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? Let's pray. Father, again, we come before your throne, recognizing it as a place of grace. And we recognize tonight your greatness. Your thoroughness. Nothing goes without your knowledge of it. Nothing happens. We know that you see the evil in America and we know you're displeased with that. We just want to know what to do. What do we do with that? Do we rise up against it? Do we, besides trying to vote it out, what do we do as we wait upon you to give us instruction? We recognize the evil laws that prideful men have made without your consent. evil laws of marriage and in childbirth and all kinds of things going on that we do not agree with, but what do we do? Lord, help. We pray that we might become a godly nation again, or else if that's not your purpose and plan, then even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, and receive us unto yourself. I pray your forgiveness now. and your guidance in the message tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Truth or consequences? Jehoshaphat was not fooled by the 400 prophets of Baal that came marching in in all of their royal robes, their august, pious looks. False religion today has a way of dressing itself up. False religion has rituals and ordinances and certain ways to dress and certain ways to behave that look so holy and so spiritual from the outside. But like Jesus said on one occasion to a group of religious individuals, he said, you're like whited sepulchers. You're beautiful on the outside, but within are dead men's bones. You stink. I can imagine how Jesus must have, the word is flabbergasted. Those spiritual august individuals. I would imagine when Jesus says, you're like dead men's bones, you're rotten on the inside, behold, by now you stink. I would imagine their mouths came open with an idea of pride and saying, who does this guy think he is talking to us this way? But here we find Jehoshaphat had enough godliness within, even though he was allied with Ahab and he shouldn't have been. We read it this morning. God specifically said, do not give your sons to be married to their daughters or your daughters to be married to their sons. They are non-believers, they are heathen. Do not make marriages and do not make alliances with those kinds of people. God specifically said it. And yet here is King Jehoshaphat, quote unquote, a godly king who has given his son to the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Her name was Athaliah. She was wicked herself. She was a murderer. And here is this alliance with people who worship idol gods. Jezebel was famous for it. Even conniving when people disagreed to have them killed, murdered, and gotten off the scene so that they could do what they will. Truth or consequences? America, do you want the truth or do you want the consequences? America has already spoken. She does not want the truth. It's all about the right that I have to my own body, says the women. It's my body and my right. But that life living inside of you is not your right to take at will. That is not your right. That is a life. Well, do I wanna know the truth? No, I don't wanna know the truth. I just wanna live like I wanna live and you just do whatever you wanna do. No, they don't want the truth. I don't think they want the consequences either, but they're about to get them from almighty God. God spoke in the book of Proverbs and he said, when you begin to see the destruction of the wicked, don't be afraid. Children of God, when God begins to work, if he does it in our lifetime, And he begins to take out this evilness and this perverseness. I know there's a day coming when it will happen, but it might be in the millennial reign of Christ before it does. I don't really know. I'm praying he does it in our lifetime. But he said, when you began to see the destruction of the evil and the perverse and the wicked ones round about you, do not be afraid. Trust me, he says. I would love to see that. in my lifetime." Jehoshaphat said, is there not a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? Notice the difference in the spellings in verse six and verse seven. When the prophets, the 400 prophets of Baal who ate at Jezebel's table, by the way, they were being supported and cared for. They were being given, you know, money and houses and land to serve in Jezebel's idolatry-centered religion. There was 850 of them all together, and they were wicked. But they sold their soul for a cup of porridge, you might say. They prophesied only positive things about the king and the queen. They only said good things about them. And notice that they said in verse number six, and they said, go up for the Lord. Notice the spelling. capital L, small o, small r, small d, meaning the master or the one in charge. And they said, go up for the Lord, the master, the one in charge shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord, Jehovah God? Is there not one here of Jehovah God who will prophesy truth? who will say only what the Lord says for them to say, that we might inquire of him. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man, Micaiah, one man, Micaiah. In the whole kingdom, there's one prophet of Jesus Christ. There's one prophet of Jehovah. There is yet one man, one man. Where is the fellowship for Micaiah? Where is... His fellow prophets that give strength in numbers and we stand before the king with strength because we have numbers and we all agree and we say, this is the way it is. Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is the way it is. Micaiah was by himself. There is one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Jehovah God, but I hate him. For he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil, Ahab says. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Let's call him in and see what he says. So they did." It's a wonderful story. If we skip most of it and turn to verse number 13, You find the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him saying, now Micaiah the prophet and the messenger are on their way into the king's court. And the messenger informs Micaiah, behold now the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth. They're all in unison. Let thy word I pray thee be like the word of one of them and speak that which is good. You know what I think that's now now I have no ulterior motive. Look how small we are. There's nobody here except me and you. There's nobody here. They said in the last days in Second Timothy people would deny the truth. They don't want the truth. They don't want to hear it. You know when I go on vacation and I get to visit churches and we were talking about Branson Missouri the other day and I'd been to that tourist church Baptist Church in downtown Branson. My wife and I were there many years ago and we went in and I was sick to my stomach before I got out of there. It was horrible. And the so-called pastor was saying so many kind things, you know, out of both sides of his mouth and never giving a scripture as it should be. And I was sick. I said, I'd never go back. Never been there again. But nevertheless, that's what these prophets are doing. Don't you see, they're being fed at Jezebel's table. They know who the hand that feeds them. And so they're making all of their prophecies revolve around the goodness of the one who's taking care of them and prophesying good things, good things, even though they were as wicked as well. But here's one man, Micaiah. And the messenger on the way says to Michael, hey, everybody here, 400 of the prophets are all in unison, and they've only prophesied good. It might do you well if you did the same thing. Can't you hear some deacon telling the pastor that? I've had them tell me that. It might be good, pastor, if you toned it down just a little bit. Not quite so blunt. Well, that's the only way I am. Where I came from, it's meat and taters, and you know, it's dirt and trees, and it's cows, and boy, sometimes I'd rather smell the cows than the people, you know? And it's all those kinds of things. It's just down to earth. It's just, don't beat around the bush. I never learned to be slick. I never learned to go around the bush a few times before you kinda halfway almost said something. I don't know how to do that. I have deacons say it, you might want to tone it. And he was talking about the doctrine of hell. I was being too blunt about hell. Oh, come on. Here, he's telling Micaiah, you might want to tone it down. You might want to go along with the mass here. He says in verse 13, let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we forbear? And he answered him, go and prosper for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Ahab the king said unto him, how many times, I wonder how many times Micah has been up in front of the king. How many times shall I adjure thee? Means to make you swear by an oath that you're telling me the truth. How many times must I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? And Micaiah said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Ooh, what happened to them? The king would go out in his chariot with the warriors during the time of battle and set themselves upon the hill most of the time. But here this speaks of no king. I wonder what happened. A sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Didn't I tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab? Or who shall deceive Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this matter and another said on that matter. Listen, and there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, unto the spirit, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him and prevail also go forth and do so. Go forth and have charge. Go forth and make it happen. Be that persuading spirit. Now therefore, behold, the Lord had put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. But Zedekiah the son of Chennaniah went near and smote Michael on the cheek and said, which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? And Michael said, behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. The king of Israel said, take Micaiah and 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 prison, feed him with bread of affliction, with water of affliction until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, if thou return it all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, hearken, O people, every one of you. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead. I'm sure you know the rest of that story. It's quite common. Ahab persuaded Jehoshaphat to put on his royal robes and ride out in his chariot, while Ahab disguised himself, thinking that he wouldn't be slain. He'd overcome the prophecy of Micah They wouldn't shoot him, but the Bible says that an archer by chance drew his bow and shot his arrow, and guess where it landed? Right here on Nahab. Wounded him sore and he was bleeding out in the chariot until he died. Truth or consequences? America stands at that portal. You want the truth or you want to suffer the consequences? And we're there. We can cry and pray and plead and beg with God, God bless America again, but there's so much evil and so much wickedness in high places in America that it has to be disposed of before God can bless us like Ahab and Jezebel in the Northern Kingdom that led that whole citizenship into evil themselves. We stand at the crossroads. Not many are crying for truth. Not many are crying for God's vengeance upon those who have mistreated and misaligned the rest of us. Sometimes I think people are afraid of truth. Second Timothy said, he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin. To whom much is given, much is required. God requires more of Americans than he does of anybody else in the world because we've had the truth for so long and we've had the blessings of God upon us for so long. And yet we've allowed the multitudes of idol worshipers and the multitudes of false gods shut down our system because we can't call Jesus by name as our God because it would offend all of these others. What kind of moronic ideology is that? It stinks. And yet we're trying to appease the Sodomites among us. We're trying to appease the heathen among us by letting them call upon their gods while we can't call upon our gods. It's ridiculous. Truth or consequences. Ahab was afraid of the truth. He didn't want the truth. There were some things wrong between Ahab and Jehoshaphat. Number one, there was an unholy ambition. Ahab wanted Ramoth Gilead. God never said go up and recapture Ramoth Gilead. Ahab was covetous of it the same way he was in Naboth's vineyard. He wanted Naboth's vineyard. Naboth wouldn't sell it. Jezebel said, don't worry, I can take care of this. And she had him killed. So Ahab could get the vineyard. Now Ahab wants Ramoth Gilead. But God didn't say go up. There's an unholy ambition. What's the deal in America? There's an unholy ambition to give out stimulation checks to everybody. We call them stimulated or stimulation checks to stimulate your financial health and stimulate the economy. And that is the most moronic thing I've ever heard of. When all you're gonna do is print more money to pay for it, you're driving up inflation and you're driving away people's savings accounts. Idiotic. An unholy ambition to stay in power by literally buying the votes of those they are bringing in. Why don't they cut the borders and seal the borders? Because those are all potential voters for the evil politicians who are in power at the moment. That's all part of their plan. An unholy ambition. There's an unholy alliance. you find Jehoshaphat saying, hey, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as your horses, we'll go with you, Ahab. Oh, that's crazy. A child of God should never recognize themselves as being, I'm just like you are. No, you're not. You've been bought with a price. You've been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and you're different than the rest of the world. I don't care how people wanna make it look, you're different. 2 Corinthians chapter six says we're to separate from and come out from that crowd. Well, if that be true, where are we as a nation? We're in an unholy alliance called the United Nations. And most of the subjects there are worshiping false gods, idol gods, mini gods, or no God, and yet we're in alliance with them, and we're paying them to be our friends. How stupid is that? We're going against God's Word, God's will, and at the same time, spending taxpayers' dollars on trying to promote and lift up other nations who hate us desperately. the Eastern religions, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the atheists. And then thirdly, there's an unworthy authority. Verses five through eight. He talked about those 400 prophets. Well, what credibility do they have? They don't speak for Jehovah God. They don't speak for Elohim. They speak for Baal and Jezebel and Ahab. Oh, but the president worshiped on Sunday and he went to the church here in DC, which is a political church. And the speaker there speaks out of both sides of his mouth and doesn't say anything negative to any shape, form or fashion about the political structure or the politicians that are there. No, we're not seeking the truth, but we are suffering the consequences. God's prophets were never wrong. But only God can prophesy. The devil does not know the future except what he's read in the book that God wrote down. He doesn't know what's going to happen tomorrow. He doesn't know what God's going to do tomorrow. He only knows what you and I know about revelation and the end times and all of those areas. Now I want to give you three things and I'm finished. about truth or consequences. You find Micah the example of the prophet who stood alone. There is one man of the Lord. There is one prophet here of Jehovah. One, one. He didn't have a fellow prophet that they could fellowship together and converse together and, you know, support one another and lift one another up. No, he was all alone. But as I said this morning, that plaque in my office says you and God make a majority. I stand by that. You said, well, where I work, there's not any other real Christians that I know of that are like me, which means has spiritual integrity and spiritual character and spiritual values and your idea of the end times are vague to them. Their idea of a worldview is total peace and safety wherever we go, which is crazy as well. But there's one man. Here's what I want to give you. There's three things. Listen to it. I won't go in a lot of detail. I'm going to cut it. But you'll remember the principles that I give. I read this someplace at one point. I wish it was all my original thoughts, but I confess it is not, but it's good. Here it is. Number one, it is better to speak the truth that hurts and then helps than it is to speak falsehood that comforts presently and then kills. That principle comes right out of the book where all those 400 prophets told Ahab, yes, go up. God will be with you and it'll be well. Go on, Ramoth Gilead is yours. 400 said go. But they were thinking about the fact that if they crossed Ahab, Jezebel's gonna cut them off at the table and their money's gonna be cut and their houses might be taken. As a matter of fact, they might even lose their own lives if they prophesied something that's not positive. On the other hand, Micaiah, who was the prophet of the Lord, was not worried about the consequences of his own life, was not worried about what might happen to him. He was only worried about the fact that he put out and give out only the prophecy that God gave to him. What an amazing thing. So this principle one more time says, it's better to speak the truth that hurts and then helps. Well, I'm offended at the blood, I'm sorry. I've had people tell me, why are you so, why are you so gory? Why do you talk about the blood, the blood, the blood all the time? Why are you that way? I've had people that I, you know, came to church and I thought, hey, you're in church, you ought to know that, and not everybody understands. The blood, why do you talk about blood? Because the Bible said without shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. The Bible says we're cleansed by his blood. He washes us from our sin and that's the truth. Well, I'm offended. Well, be offended. It's the truth. It's better to speak the truth that hurts and then helps than it is to speak the falsehood that comforts and then kills. Ahab said, Micaiah only prophesies bad stuff about me, I hate him. He doesn't prophesy good, but evil. You find in Proverbs chapter 27, verse five and six, Proverbs 27, verse five and six, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Thank God for truth and people who are willing to tell you the truth that'll help in the long run. We must never confuse the will of God or the will of the majority. Never confuse the will of the majority as the will of God. But always understand that the will of God, no matter whether the majority is with you or against you, the will of God is the right way to go. The second thing I give you, the second principle. It is better to know the truth and stand alone, young people, than to be wrong and stand with the multitudes. Oh, but everybody's doing it. Yeah, right, well. If everybody was going to jump off the cliff and kill themselves, would you do the same thing? But everyone's doing it. I don't care what everybody else is doing. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. It is better to know the truth and stand alone where you work, your neighborhood. The people that you come in contact with that, you know, our homeschool groups or our public schools or the family members, those that you are around at different functions and different things going on. Not all of them are gonna see eye to eye with you on everything. There comes a time and place where you have to stand up because you know you're right. Someone gave me the greatest compliment. They meant it as a slur. But they said, the preacher thinks he's always right. Would you want someone that thought he was putting out falsehood and error to be before you? I've said it before. I want, if the brain surgeon is going to operate on what little brain I have, I want him to be sure that he knows what he's doing. I want a guy who's confident in his skills. I want someone who will tell me the truth. rather than lie to me so I can prepare for it. It's better to know the truth and stand alone than to be wrong and stand with the multitudes. In I Kings chapter 22 and verse 14, And Micah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. He was standing alone all by himself. 400 prophets of Baal standing there watching him. Quiet enough you could hear a pin drop as they listened to the words of prophecy that Michael was going to say. Jehoshaphat and Ahab were there on their thrones in their royal robes as Michael stood before them. There was the court of security. There was handpicked men from Jehoshaphat and Ahab's kingdom that were handpicked as bodyguards for the kings all around, prepared for anything that might come. And they were all listening to this one man, Micaiah. He said, I will say nothing but what the Lord tells me to say. And he said, I see the multitudes of Israel as sheep on a hillside without a shepherd. They're all scattered. Oh, that meant the king's gone and there's no hope and no help. Well, you know what happened. I've never promoted the gospel rock concert out here for several reasons. Number one, I don't believe in gospel rock. I believe in the hymns and the traditional music that we use and sing. The second thing is there's a multitude of people who show up that do not believe the same way and will argue everything. and I don't agree in associating or fellowshipping with them. Much of it is called the ecumenical movement, meaning that, hey, talking about Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Assemblies of God, anything and everything, hey, we're all trying to just get to the same place, let's just all have fellowship together. Let's just all come together into one place and preach and pray and no, that won't work. No, that won't work. The ecumenical movement have too many doctrinal misfits and too much that is wrong and out and out lies for the children of God who are following the true and living God and the one true and living Bible to fellowship with. They use those perversions rather than the correct translation and they talk about getting along with the sodomites and the lesbians and they have their women preachers and pastors and their little ecumenical movement and no, I don't believe any of that. I won't have a part in that. They've been after me ever since I've been here. For years and years, they come around every year and say, we're gonna have this meeting and we want you to come. And this year we voted that you do the prayer and perhaps next year or the next few years, then if you participate with us, you might even get to speak. I said, no, I'm not interested. Me and my church will not be there. But why? We're all trying to get to the same place. I said, no, we're not trying to get there. The blood of Jesus gets us there. By grace are you saved through faith. And we're not putting works into it like you people are. And we don't agree that you can lose it once you get it. And we're not part of you. We don't belong to you. And we're not going to fellowship with you. Not religiously speaking. Now, if you want to buy me a cup of coffee on Monday, I'll sit down with you in the restaurant and drink your coffee. but we're not getting together as a religious crowd. It's better to know the truth and stand alone than to be wrong and submit to the multitudes. Very quickly, as much as I can, I want you to look in, where did I go? I was looking for Matthew. I hadn't got to it yet, okay. It's better to know the truth and stand alone than to be wrong and stand with the multitudes. The ecumenical movement, the ministerial alliances, all the new translations, Midland crusade in the fall of 96 came through and it was a big deal and they were promoting it all. I even got a call from the first Baptist church and we're all involved in this. We want you and your church to be involved. I said, no, thank you. We're not involved in the Midland Crusade. We go, we try to win people to Christ and that day and time and all the things, but no, we're not getting together with, you know, the assemblies and the Nazarenes and the Episcopalians and the Catholic. No, we're not. No. Think about it. Better to know the truth and stand by yourself than to be wrong and stand with the multitudes. When Noah went into the ark, he was a minority. But when Noah came out, he was a majority. Wow. A multitude didn't want to go into the land of Canaan, but Joshua and Caleb knew the truth and they said, we are well able to take it by God's power. No, there's giants there. We're like grasshoppers in their sight. The multitude, the majority said, no, we're not going into that land. It was a multitude that crucified Jesus Christ. It was religious leaders who authorized the killing of Jesus Christ and even said it, it's better that one should die for the masses than that all of us should die. It was a multitude who was destroyed on the wrong side by Elijah and the prophets of Baal. In today's society, when everyone is for it, I need to question it. When there's so many people pushing it, I need to question it. Oh, don't say it. Don't say it. I can't help it. I gotta say it. Don't say it. I can't help it. I gotta say it. When the government is so bent on pushing this vaccination thing, it makes me think there is more to it than what they're letting on. And I am frightened to put that junk into my body. I refuse to take the vaccination, which should be my right. As much right as anyone in this church that went and got the vaccination. And I know people that did. That's okay. I don't criticize you, but don't make it out that I have to do it because I don't love you enough if I don't do it. If I don't wear a mask, it means I don't love people. If I don't get the vaccine, it means I don't love people. You're dumb if you believe that. Oh, it's the unvaccinated that are causing all the problems in America right now. How do you figure, Jack? If you get vaccinated to protect yourself from COVID-19, how are the unvaccinated a threat to you? How are they a threat? Well, Joe Biden says, yeah, and Joe Biden doesn't even know his own name half the time. Joe Biden says that the unvaccinated are the ones who spreading COVID and it's making it worse. Duh, you got vaccinated to protect you from COVID-19. It's questionable that you got protected, but nevertheless, that's why you got. So if I had COVID, how am I a threat to you when you've been vaccinated for it? Makes no sense. I don't get chicken pox because when I was a kid, I had chicken pox, gave me a natural immunity. When we were in school, they came along with a smallpox vaccination. I took that and those kinds of things. And so I don't catch the disease because I had the vaccination. I didn't get polio. I was vaccinated for polio. So were you. They put it on a little sugar cube and we ate the sugar cube. You remember that? And so you didn't get polio. So if you got the vaccination for COVID-19, then that means you can't catch it from somebody else or else they're lying to you the whole time. So if they push it so hard to, you gotta get the vaccine, you gotta, listen, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out if I'm vaccinated, I don't get smallpox. If I'm vaccinated, I don't get polio. If I'm vaccinated, I don't get chickenpox. If I'm vaccinated, so now it's the unvaccinated who are the threat to America. Doesn't make sense. There's something more there. There's an agenda there. And I'm not falling for it. Look, it's better to know the truth and stand alone than to be wrong and stand with the multitudes. Here's the last one. Number three, it's better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. It's better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. Jesus signed his own death warrant in Matthew chapter 23. There's eight verses there that Jesus was talking. When it says in verse one, Jesus spake to the multitude and his disciples saying, here he talks about the politically correct Here he talks about the religious crowd that was part of the politically correct state of Israel, and he says the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, leadership of the nation. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their works, for they say and do not. Sounds like our politicians today. Wear the mask, wear the mask. Boy, you're gonna be in trouble if you don't wear the mask. And then all of a sudden you hear the news, underground news, not the major news, come out and show you pictures of the governor out in public at a party without their mask on. But yet you've gotta have a mask and yet they say, but they don't do, amen? Okay, so Jesus said, the Pharisees and the scribes, they tell you what to do, but they don't do it themselves. Verse four, for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and they lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. That was the scripture verses that they made out to be religious. Isn't it amazing that every politician in America, when they're trying to get voted in, that all of a sudden they're really spiritual, and they go to church, and you see a picture of them having their Bible, and after that you see all the drunken parties that they're involved in. It's amazing, isn't it? Hypocrites. He said they do things to be seen of men, and they love the uppermost rooms at the feast and the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, that is my great one, my honorable sir, my master, Rabbi, but be not ye called Rabbi for one is your master, even Christ. brethren, and call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ." Jesus sealed His death warrant right then when all the scribes and Pharisees heard Him mocking them and saying what He did about them. They said, oh, off with His head, we've got to have this guy. Jesus signed His death warrant. So did the Apostle Paul, Galatians chapter 4 and verse number 16. Paul said, Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Am I suddenly your enemy because I preach to you the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, the job of a prophet is to give the word of God just as it is. Men hated Jesus because he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Men hate light because their deeds are evil. They hate the truth. America's in that place right now. They're in a journey. They're in a spiritual battle between good and evil. America's in a journey and a battle between the right and the wrong, between the truth and the lie, between socialism versus spiritualism, communism and all the rest. We are sitting idly by and allowing this to happen to us. When we should lift our voices, we should write our letters, we should make our phone calls, we should join groups, we should support with our money those who appear to be the most righteous choice. Even the unknowns, I would rather have the common unknown than the career politician in D.C. Our forefathers never meant for only lawyers to be in charge of America. Our forefathers saw the shopkeeper, the boot maker, the farmer, the peddler, Our forefathers saw common people who had common sense ruling for a time and then going back home to their business and taking up where they left off. We've gotten it out of control. I don't know if we're able to take it back or not but I'm telling you that's what needs to be done and these Ahab and Jezebels need to be cast out and dethroned and put godly men and women in their places. Let stand be dismissed tonight.