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Standing for Truth in a Dark World
This morning I have decided to change course and speak on standing for the truth. I had originally planned on preaching through Acts 10. Lord willing we will do that next week. I also struggled with the title for this morning’s message.
I was going to call it “A Tribute to Dr. Falwell.” Then I was going to call it a “Tribute to God’s Men.” But I don’t want the focus to be on the men that I will mention, but on the God who made them what they were. So really this is a tribute to God.
God raises people up for a time. In recent years the church in America has lost some great servants of God. I think of W. A. Criswell, John Walvoord, James Montgomery Boice, Adrian Rogers, and of course Jerry Falwell. God certainly has some other great proclaimers of truth. I think of David Jeremiah, John MacArthur, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul to name a few. All of them have one thing in common: They are up in years. I wonder who God will raise up after them.
Now all of the men I mentioned have at least one thing in common: They all stood up, or are standing up for the truth. Now no man is perfect and I’m sure that we could find some warts on everyone I mentioned. But I want us this morning to focus on the fact that these men’s lives can be characterized by standing up for the truth.
And I want us to see how we can do the same thing. And I want to say this friend: It is not going to get any easier to stand up for the truth. It has never been easy and will not be getting any easier.
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings 22. There we will read about a man who was a good King, but he made a major mistake. This man was Jehoshaphat. He was the King of Judah. He aligned himself with the King of Israel, Ahab.
Now before we begin reading our text, I want to say that there are three main characters in our story this morning. I want you to decide which one characterizes you. We have in Ahab, a man who is not saved. We have in Jehoshaphat, a man who is saved but ended up compromising God’s standards. And we will see Micaiah, a man who was saved and stood for the truth in a dark time.
1 Kings 22:1-4
For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, "Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?" And he said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?" And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."
So we have Ahab saying hey, “Ramoth-Gilead belongs to us, not Syria.” Why are we just sitting here, let’s go get it back. Jehoshaphat immediately says, “I’m with you.” Now what is wrong with this?
Well, the text says noting about Jehoshaphat taking this to God in prayer. As a result he made an unholy political alliance. How many times do we make decisions before we seek God’s face? Jehoshaphat was like many people today who make a decision and then take it to God in prayer and ask Him to rubber stamp their plans!
Have you ever done that? I sure have. We better not.
1 Kings 22:5
And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Inquire first for the word of the Lord."
Like many of us Jehoshaphat had it backwards. He says we need to pray about it, but he has already given his word and they have made up their minds.
Let’s talk about Ahab for a minute. He was a wicked King. He had filled his court with 400 of his own paid prophets who pandered to him. In other words, he surrounded himself with “yes” men. Now that is a big mistake. And all the men I mentioned in my introduction, had at least for most of their ministries as far as I can tell, men who would tell them the truth no matter what. The danger can be that if God allows a man to have a big ministry, then after a while there may not be anyone around who will tell that man the truth. That is a bad thing.
It is a dangerous thing to only get instruction from those who are on your payroll. They may tell you what you want to hear for fear of losing their income. This was the situation with Ahab’s prophets. They did not want to lose their cushy position.
1 Kings 22:6
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?" And they said, "Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king."
Here are 400 prophets, supposedly of God, speaking with unanimity. Now Jehoshaphat was discerning enough to know when 400 people agree on something, something is wrong. And he surely knew that these prophets would only tell Ahab what he wanted to hear. So he makes a proposal.
1 Kings 22:7-8
But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?" And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil." And Jehoshaphat said, "Let not the king say so."
Now Ahab hated Micaiah because he told the truth. Micaiah’s life could have been a whole lot more comfortable, from a materialistic aspect, if he would only tell the King what he wanted to hear.
Listen, each of us whether in the ministry or the secular work place may be faced with similar situations. We had better do what’s right and not worry about the pay check. I have known people who have been like Ahab’s prophets. They will make decisions that are not right and then invoke the Lord’s name as if He sanctioned it.
Now Ahab and these prophets were not even saved. We might expect that from unbelievers. But even Christians are not above doing such things.
I knew one man, who is a believer, who would make decisions which clearly went against God’s standards. He would often conclude by saying “God can work this out.” In the context of what he was saying, I think what he always meant was, “I know I’m not doing the right thing, but God is powerful enough to still work it out.”
Now, friend, I love this man dearly. But he had it all wrong. In fact he even said one time that he did “what was easy.” Well, the easy thing for you and me will usually not be the right thing. I’m glad that Micaiah was not going to do the easy thing.
So Jehoshaphat talks the King into giving Micaiah a chance.
1 Kings 22:13
And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, "Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably."
Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please, let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.”
This envoy of the Kings tells Micaiah in effect, this is what the king wants to hear, so make sure this is what you say. I mean, we’ve got 100% unanimity so don’t mess it up. Now listen to v. 14, because this is the key to all that I am saying this morning:
1 Kings 22:14
But Micaiah said, "As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak."
Micaiah knew what these men were doing and he said I will only speak what God tell me to speak! Micaiah was saying it may not be pleasant, it may not be prudent, and it may not be pleasing but I will say it. I may get killed, but I will say the truth.
Do you have that type of resolve? Now, I have failed many times and certainly will fail many more times. But one thing that I have not failed on for the most part, is speaking the truth no matter the consequences. The problem I have is that sometimes I have done it out of the flesh and so I have done the right thing, but in the wrong way. But we need to have the attitude of Micaiah.
We need to do the right thing in the right way. I remember a job interview I had one time. It was essentially for a promotion. The guy who interviewed me basically said “I think you are the most qualified applicant at this point, but we really need a team player.” Now you know what that meant. “Team player” was code for a “yes” man. Now without thinking too much I just basically said that I can only do in any situation what I think is right. Well, I didn’t get the position! Now afterwards, I thought man I could use that 50% or so in pay increase.
What made things worse was that money was real tight at that time. Then we had an unexpected medical expense to top it all off. But you know what? God opened up some other avenues and provided. Listen, friend I know professing Christians who are living their lives as yes men, and they may make a good living, but they are miserable. I can’t imagine how their consciences are. Micaiah chose to a clean conscience over cash!
Now if we are “yes men and yes women” but we better be saying yes to God!
Now I want to give us 5 quick facts from this passage that will help all of us to stand for truth.
1. |
It is better to be divided by truth than to be united by error. |
Now, do not misunderstand me. God wants us to be unified, but only in the truth. And I am not talking about trivial things either like dichotomy or trichotomy. I’m talking about essential truths which leave no room for compromise. The men I mentioned earlier agreed on the essentials of the faith, while they disagreed on a Theological point here or there.
Now Jehoshaphat made the mistake that 2 Cor. 6:14-16 warns us about:
2 Corinthians 6:14-16
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Now we normally think of that verse in relation to marriage and it certainly applies there, but it applies to all areas of life. Jehoshaphat violated this by agreeing with Ahab. Today this sort of thing is applauded. Jehoshaphat would be called a uniter today. I mean who wants to be a divider?
Listen friend, we had better take our cue from Christ. Yes He unified people in the truth. But the world has never known a greater divider than Christ. Listen to Matt. 10:34-36
Matthew 10:34-36
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
Martin Luther, the great reformer said this:
“I do not want to know anything of peace and concord when the Word of God is thereby lost and the Word of eternal life and everything is forfeited.”
And Charles Spurgeon said this:
“Where union and friendship are not cemented by truth, they are an unhallowed confederacy.”
It is better to be divided by truth than to be united by error. Unity without Christ is useless.
2. |
It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals than to tell a lie that comforts and then kills. |
The 400 hired prophets told a lie. Look at vv. 11-12
1 Kings 22:11-12
And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, "Thus says the Lord, 'With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.' " And all the prophets prophesied so and said, "Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king."
Now Ahab loved it because it is what he wanted to hear.
We need to be sure that we are not trying to be people pleasers. Now this is particularly true for those in the ministry, but all of us can learn from this. Listen to Ecc. 7:5
Ecclesiastes 7:5
It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.
Unfortunately, a lot of people surround themselves by people who pander to them. We better not do that. R.G Lee, another champion of God was often chided for preaching on hell. He used to say “I’d rather be called cruel for being kind, then to be called kind for being cruel.”
You know as we have been going through the book of Acts I have been pointing out quite regularly that the early church preached the pure gospel which included confronting people with the fact that they are sinners and that Christ is the only cure. Today we have many who are trying to build churches another way. They seem to be more kind then those who just preach the Word. The truth about a holy God will never seem kind to an unrepentant sinner!
In fact CNN recently did a report on one preacher who goes out of his way to take any offense that the gospel may have to unbelievers away. During the story they showed a picture of John MacArthur preaching and they said “This man (in comparison to the man who was the focus of the story) preaches a hard gospel.”
Micaiah told the truth look at v. 17
1 Kings 22:17
And he said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, 'These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.' "
Imagine having to give the King a prophecy of his own death! This was not a good career move for Micaiah. The King saw Micaiah as an enemy, when in fact he was a friend. Listen to Proverbs 27:6
Proverbs 27:6
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
(Story about my experience this week)
3. |
It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. |
Look again at v. 8 – “I hate him”
1 Kings 22:8
And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil." And Jehoshaphat said, "Let not the king say so."
Ahab hated Micaiah because he spoke the words of God. So in reality Ahab hated God. And that is how it is with us. Jesus told us to expect the world to hate us because of Him. Yet, despite that warning, there are church movements and philosophies built on the idea of making the gospel more friendly and attractive.
You know I have a friend who was my roommate in college. He went into the ministry. He started a church recently and he has totally bought into this idea of making the gospel more attractive. It has, as it always does, led to him softening and watering down the truth. His messages are short and often devoid of the Bible. It is basically a motivational speech. The idea is to show the world how much we are like them to win them to Christ. But that is not how it should be. We are to show the world how much we are like Christ!
And we are getting to the point in the American church to where the ratio is almost 400 to 1. And when the one says hey, this isn’t biblical, he is branded as being difficult and wrong. Well, I would rather be with the heavenly majority than the earthly majority. What about you?
Now I am going to say something that is bound to get me into trouble. But I merely want to make an important point. Listen, I love the man of whom I am about to speak and I really believe he has a heart for God. But he wrote a book that became a best seller. It was purported to teach the truth about the gospel in a “user friendly” sort of way. Consider this: He was asked to speak at Harvard a few years ago. Now we all know how liberal and intolerant they are these days. Can you imagine Jerry Falwell, Adrian Rogers, John Piper, John MacArthur, or Franklin Graham being asked to speak there? Of course not!
Furthermore, Fidel Castro read this book and liked it so much that he asked to have the author sign it. I know of no change in that evil dictator’s life. Do you see my point? We must speak the truth and not try to be united by error. We are not called to make people feel better about themselves while they are on their way to hell!
It is like the man who went to see the doctor and said “Give it to me straight doc. Don’t use any complicated, fancy sounding medical terms. My family wants the truth in plain English. What’s wrong with me?” “All right”, the doctor said, “I’ll make it as plain as I can. There isn’t a thing wrong with you. You are just lazy.”
The man was silent for a moment and then said, “I see. Now will you give me a complicated fancy-sounding medical term I can tell my family.”
Paul asked the Galatians, “Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?”
4. |
It is better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with a multitude. |
Look again at vv. 13-14
1 Kings 22:13-14
And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, "Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. 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 will speak."
Micaiah did not vote with the majority. But he didn’t do it to be difficult, he had a word from God. One man of God recently said that he has learned that the majority is almost always wrong. We must stand alone. Noah did it. Elijah did it. Micaiah did it. Paul did it. And really we are not standing alone, because God is with us. Micaiah could have even rationalized within himself and said, “well my vote won’t sway things, so why stir the pot.” Don’t be a spiritual wimp and do things like that.
You may have heard the famous story of the two brothers, who when one of them died the other went to the preacher who was to do the funeral and said, “I will give you a thousand dollars, if you will preach my brother’s funeral and call him a saint.” The preacher knew that both of these brothers were adulterers, drunkards, thieves and much more. So the preacher said, “you’ve got a deal.”
At the funeral the living brother was sitting up front and the preacher stood up and pointed to the deceased and said, “this man in this casket is a liar, a thief, a drunkard, and an adulterer. But compared to his brother, he was a saint!
5. |
It is better to ultimately succeed with the truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie. |
Ahab spoke the truth. Look at v. 34
1 Kings 22:34
But a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, "Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded."
Now a certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of battle, for I am wounded.”
So Ahab was killed but what became of Jehoshaphat? Look at vv. 30-33
1 Kings 22:30-33
And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes." And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, "Fight with neither small nor great, but only with the king of Israel." And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, "It is surely the king of Israel." So they turned to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out. And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
By making an unholy allegiance it almost cost Jehoshaphat his life.
Now did Micaiah pay a price? Yes. Look at vv. 26-28
1 Kings 22:26-28
And the king of Israel said, "Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son, and say, 'Thus says the king, "Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace." ' " And Micaiah said, "If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me." And he said, "Hear, all you peoples!"
He was thrown in prison. But he spoke the truth.
Now we have in this story this morning three main characters. Which one are you?
Are you unsaved like Ahab? If you have not received Christ as your Lord and Savior then you are like Ahab.
Are you like Jehoshaphat? Are you saved, but you sometimes make unholy alliances? You compromise for the sake of unity or in order to be more comfortable. Jehoshaphat got caught up with Ahab and even when he heard Micaiah speak the truth he still went along with the plan. This is what happens when we compromise. It is a domino effect.
Are you like Micaiah? Are you willing to stand for the truth even if you are the only one? I mean he could have said, hey this King never listens to me and changes course, so I might as well get paid and say what he wants me to say. But he didn’t rationalize it away, he did what was right.
The men I mentioned earlier had their ministries highlighted by the fact that they stood up for the truth. Now I am not saying that they never compromised. But I am pointing out the positive in each of them. When God grew their ministries they were standing up for the truth. Wow, what a lesson for all of us.
WILL YOU STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH IN A DARK WORLD?
