Clean Transcript

The Hope For The Southern Christian Cause Or Last Man Standing

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

• 1 Kings chapter 22. 1 Kings chapter 22. The green light means go, David. 1 Kings chapter 22, and I want us to read the first 28 verses, okay? 1 Kings chapter 22, beginning there with verse 1: "And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-gilead? 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 today. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?"

  #1 | 0:14 to 1:31 | cleaned

• "And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria."

  #2 | 1:31 to 2:10 | cleaned

• "And all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the king's hand. And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. 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 the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord?"

  #3 | 2:11 to 3:09 | cleaned

• "And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?"

  #4 | 3:10 to 3:41 | cleaned

• "And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath 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 Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself."

  #5 | 3:41 to 4:23 | cleaned

• "And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you."

  #6 | 4:23 to 4:46 | cleaned

• The title of the message is "The Hope for the Southern Christian Cause or Last Man Standing." I want to begin with a quote from General Robert E. Lee. He said this: "Everyone should do all in his power to collect and disseminate the truth, in the hope that it may find a place in history and descend to posterity. History is not the relation of campaigns, and battles, and generals, or other individuals, but that which shows the principles for which the South contended, and which justified her struggle for those principles." I want to deal today basically with what I am going to call the principle of hope. Everyone needs hope. And in one sense of the word, everyone has a hope. It may be a false hope, or it may be a hope without a foundation, but everyone basically has a hope. False hopes, like the hypocrite's hope, are designed for failure and destruction. In the book of Job chapter 8 and verse 13 the Bible said, "So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish."

  #7 | 4:48 to 6:05 | cleaned

• Then in Job 27 and verse 8 the Bible says, "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?" So a false hope does absolutely no one any good at all. And the truth of the matter is Christians are the only ones that have a real genuine hope. And the reason being is Romans 15 verse 13 tells us that our God is indeed the God of all hope. And I want you to hold 1 Kings 22, but look in your Bibles very quickly to Hebrews chapter 6 if you would please and let me just show you from the Word of God how that Jesus Christ is the basis and the foundation of our hope. I want you to note in Hebrews chapter 6 beginning there with verse 19, and we're speaking about Christ, and notice if you would the Bible says in Hebrews 6 verse 19, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."

  #8 | 6:06 to 7:16 | cleaned

• "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Now go back to verse 19, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast." So God has given us an anchor in the Lord Jesus Christ that is sure and steadfast. Let me say it like this: if there was ever a day that we needed hope, it is today, now in our time, in our age.

  #9 | 7:17 to 7:46 | cleaned

• Let me offer something for your consideration. Consider the facts. Here they are. Christianity is cursed, condemned, and castigated by most everyone. Our Christian culture is assailed, assaulted, and attacked. Our history and our heritage are under constant, continual, and consistent revision and rewriting. Even the Confederate battle flag is defamed, despised, and destroyed. The liberals, the leftists, the progressives, the communists, the fascists, the Marxists seem to be enjoying their program of destruction and devastation.

  #10 | 7:47 to 8:31 | cleaned

• Political correctness and hatred for anything and everything that reeks of freedom and liberty and independence and character and common sense, my soul, seems to be advancing, not just on a daily basis, but on an hourly basis. So if you want to be discouraged and depressed and downtrodden and downhearted, all you have to do is just look around at the circumstances. It is at such a time as this that we need the truth of God's Word. And I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 4 at the hope that Abraham had. And I want you to note how this hope was absolutely contrary to circumstances, situation, and sight.

  #11 | 8:32 to 9:23 | cleaned

• You remember how God had promised Abram and Sarah a child. Of course Abram now is 100 years old, and Sarah is 90. And so if you will look in Romans chapter 4 beginning there with verse 17 the Bible says this, Romans 4 verse 17, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God."

  #12 | 9:24 to 9:50 | cleaned

• Now watch, "who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." So God says things that do not exist I'm calling them as if they already exist, and only God can do that because God is all-powerful, and God did bring them into existence. Now note if you would in verse 18, talking about Abraham, "who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be."

  #13 | 9:50 to 10:24 | cleaned

• Now here it is, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." So if Abram wanted to look at circumstances, all he had to do was look at himself, look at his wife. And yet he knew that God had promised him a son.

  #14 | 10:25 to 10:59 | cleaned

• And the Bible said he hoped against hope. In other words he knew that whatever God promised God was able to perform and that certainly is true. So I want to try to inject a little biblical hope in your life based upon the truth of God's Word. Let me put it like this: all is not lost, the wicked do not win, truth will not always be on the scaffold while lies are seated upon the throne, God still reigns, He's still sovereign, and He is controlling everything. And just like I've said before, everything is going wrong just right. The Word of God says in Psalm 76 and verse 10, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." So there's only going to be enough evil and wickedness that's going to ultimately redound to God's honor and God's glory, and that which will not redound to His honor and glory He will restrain. Now the interesting thing is the context of this message of hope lies in a web of deceit, dastardly deeds, and destruction. If you paid attention while I was reading 1 Kings chapter 22 you would have found out that Ahab was on the throne in the Kingdom of Israel.

  #15 | 10:59 to 12:25 | cleaned

• Ahab was the vilest, wickedest king in the Northern Kingdom period. No one excelled him in wickedness. The Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 21 you can look at it and verse 25, 1 Kings 21 verse 25, "But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." Now true Jezebel stirred him up, but he is the one that did it. And the Bible said he sold himself to work wickedness. Ahab was a tyrant, a murderer, a blasphemer, an idolater, a pervert. His programs, his lust, and his desires—he had no real interest in the people and he believed that the people only existed so that they might serve him. The description of Ahab kind of makes you think of our modern-day politicians, does it not? There are so many parallels between Ahab and modern day politicians, it is mind-boggling. To make matters worse, 1 Kings chapter 22 Ahab is joined by godly Jehoshaphat who is king of the southern kingdom. Now Jehoshaphat not only compromised but he sinned in joining affinity with Ahab and he was thoroughly rebuked for his sin. For instance, if you want to turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter

  #16 | 12:26 to 14:14 | cleaned

• 19, just a few books over, 2 Chronicles 19, and look at verses 1 and 2. 2 Chronicles 19, verses 1 and 2. The Bible says, "And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord."

  #17 | 14:08 to 14:47 | cleaned

• So he was thoroughly, absolutely rebuked. Let me just simply point out Jehoshaphat did not escape with just a rebuke. He suffered and so did his children and so did his grandchildren. That is a different message. But it does prove that we reap exactly that which we sow. Now the interesting thing about Jehoshaphat in 1 Kings chapter 22 is this: in one instance, at one point he exhibited sound understanding and judgment. And in another instance, he seemed almost completely insane. You have to understand that compromise with evil does indeed rob one of common sense. When we compromise with evil, we lose.

  #18 | 14:48 to 15:49 | cleaned

• So in the context Ahab wants to go and reconquer and possess Ramoth-gilead. Ramoth-gilead had been captured by the Syrians and they had control of it. Ramoth-gilead did originally belong to the children of Israel. In fact it was a city of refuge. In Joshua 21 verse 38 the Bible says, "And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Mahanaim with her suburbs." So Ahab now wants to reconquer Ramoth-gilead, and he wants Jehoshaphat to help him. So he asked him, he says in verse 3, "Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?" Verse 4, "And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-gilead?" And I want you to watch what silly, stupid Jehoshaphat said. Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses." Now, spiritually speaking, neither Jehoshaphat nor his people were like Ahab and his people. Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah at this particular time were still true to the covenant and still true

  #19 | 15:50 to 17:31 | cleaned

• to the one living God who had revealed Himself, the Lord Jesus or Yahweh as He is known in the Old Testament. While Ahab and the Northern Kingdom were idolaters. So when Jehoshaphat says, "I am as thou art," he is not. And when he said, "My people as thy people," they were not. He may have counted horses, but he could not truthfully say that he and the people of Judah were just like Ahab and the people of Israel. Our forefathers knew that we were a different people.

  #20 | 17:32 to 18:11 | cleaned

• I want you to stop and think about this. There has always been war. Or there's always been a difference between the people in northern England and southern England. And I'm not talking about New England right now. I'm talking about England from where a lot of our people came. And consequently, a lot of the folks in the northern part of England settled in the northern colonies, while the southern Englanders, a lot of them of Scots-Irish descent, settled in the south. Two totally different groups of people.

  #21 | 18:13 to 18:56 | cleaned

• And it's interesting that Robert E. Lee and some of the others referred to the folks in the North as "those people." Those people.

  #22 | 18:57 to 19:10 | cleaned

• Now, all he was acknowledging was there was indeed a difference. And let me just point out the fact, and when I use the word Yankee, I want you to understand this. The word Yankee does not refer to everyone who lives in the North. Originally it referred to the New England states, you understand that. But moreover, it refers to someone who has the mentality of humanism, the mentality of greed and corruption, the mentality of tyranny and despotism. When you think of a Yankee, you can think of the Clintons. They may not live in the New England states now. Of course, they did have a place in New York. You can think of all of those people because they are, indeed, Yankees in that sense of the word. Moreover, you have to understand there were a lot of people in the North who were Copperheads who sympathized with the South and were actually on the side of the South.

  #23 | 19:12 to 20:08 | cleaned

• But the point I'm trying to make right now is very simple. There is still a very real difference between the North and the South. A Bible-believing Southerner is not anything like a humanistic Northerner who hates God or who hates the Word of God. We certainly have nothing in common with Washington, D.C. Many folks in the North have nothing in common with Washington, D.C. One of the problems we've had in the South is this.

  #24 | 20:09 to 20:45 | cleaned

• A lot of Southerners have been reconstructed. They've come to think like a Yankee. Come to desire what they desire. So, I made up my mind a long time ago, I will not be reconstructed. I will not deny my faith. I will not deny my ancestry. I will not deny my history. I will not deny my heritage. By the grace of God, I am not like those humanists, and by His grace, I never will be. And you have to make up your mind that as a Christian you're not going to be like that and you will have to persevere in that difference and you must maintain your biblical and even your cultural heritage and history.

  #25 | 20:48 to 21:32 | cleaned

• Now, it was interesting that Jehoshaphat said, "I am as thou art and my people as thy people." What Jehoshaphat should have done first was consult with the Lord. But he did not.

  #26 | 21:32 to 21:49 | cleaned

• Now that he has agreed to help Ahab, he asked, look in verse 5, "And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." So he said, "Somebody inquire of the Lord." Well, why did he not inquire of the Lord before he consented to go with Ahab? But he did not.

  #27 | 21:51 to 22:24 | cleaned

• And now, of course, here's what has happened. All of these prophets, all of these state prophets, state preachers are now saying, "Hey, go up, go up, go up. You're going to have victory." Well, Jehoshaphat noticed something was wrong. I want you to look at this. Verse 6, "Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." Now watch, verse 7, "And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him?" So the false prophets were using another name for God. They were not using the covenant name of God. And Jehoshaphat recognized this. He recognized the fact that these are not God's preachers. So he asks, "Is there not here a real prophet of God that we might inquire of Him?"

  #28 | 22:26 to 23:42 | cleaned

• Look in verse 8. "And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so." Now notice if you would Ahab says there is yet one man, just one. What happened to all the others? Why is there just one prophet of God in the entire northern kingdom? And the answer is because Ahab and Jezebel had either expelled them or murdered them. If you look in your Bibles to 1 Kings 18, 1 Kings 18, look in verse 4. 1 Kings 18 verse 4, "For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water." So here's a hundred that have been hidden by Obadiah. But notice Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord. If you would turn right over to 2 Kings chapter 9 look at verse 7. In this passage Jehu is being anointed king of Israel in order that he might wipe out Ahab and his crew. Notice what God says, 2 Kings chapter 9 verse 7, "And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy

  #29 | 23:43 to 25:29 | cleaned

• master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel." So they murdered them, murdered them. Now I want you to notice also back in 1 Kings chapter 22 the unhidden anger, hatred, and malice that was exhibited toward Micaiah. In verse 8, "And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him." Wow, I hate him. He not only announced his hatred of Micaiah publicly, he announced that hatred to Jehoshaphat, who had asked for the prophet of God.

  #30 | 25:30 to 26:23 | cleaned

• So Ahab could care less. Who knew that he hated God and he hated God's prophet.

  #31 | 26:24 to 26:32 | cleaned

• Now notice what he said, "but I hate him." Listen carefully. Our enemies not only hate our history, our heritage, our culture, our flags, our monuments, our symbols. They hate us. They hate us. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is not Southern by any stretch of the imagination, and in no word and no wise are they in poverty, will list anything that is Southern and anything that is Christian and label us as morbid, hateful, racist maniacs.

  #32 | 26:33 to 27:24 | cleaned

• We're hated for who we are and what we represent. Now, I want you to stop and think about this. It is impossible to have a new world order as long as you have a people that believe in liberty and freedom and independence and states' rights and historic biblical Christianity. We are a hindrance to them. We are a roadblock to them. We are standing in their way. And they hate us.

  #33 | 27:25 to 27:57 | cleaned

• And it should not shock us. It should not surprise us because our Lord said in Matthew 10 and verse 22, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." And I might add it should be counted an honor to be hated by those who hate Jesus Christ and the truth. I want you to look back at verse 8. After Ahab expresses his unhidden and undeniable hatred for Micaiah, he tells us why he hates him. "And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him," here's why, "for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Wow! He said I hate him because he never prophesies anything good concerning me. Here's my question: How could anyone prophesy or speak well of or about or concerning an absolutely, positively evil man? Remember he had sold himself to work evil more than anyone else. And there is a curse upon such. Isaiah 5 and verse 20 says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for

  #34 | 27:59 to 29:23 | cleaned

• bitter!" So how could he speak good of Ahab? How could he prophesy good concerning Ahab? Let me put you on the spot. Let me ask you a question: How many of you could speak good of, prophesy good things concerning our modern-day politicians who have violated their oaths, sold their souls, dishonored their marriage vows, perverted their lives, destroyed the Republic, enslaved our people, and denied our history and heritage? How many of you could speak well of our modern-day politicians? There might be one or two, or three or four at the most, that we could say a few good things about. But as a whole, speak well of them at all.

  #35 | 29:23 to 30:09 | cleaned

• Now the interesting thing is this: most condemn themselves by their own unfaithfulness and by their greediness. Interestingly Jehoshaphat, who was a godly man, let a perfect opportunity to set the record straight slip by him. Because when Ahab said concerning Micaiah after Jehoshaphat had asked for him, Ahab said, "but I hate him, for he doth always speak evil concerning me. He never prophesies anything good concerning me," and all Jehoshaphat says is, "Let not the king say so." Don't talk like that. What Jehoshaphat should have done—well, he should have stuck his finger in Ahab's face and said, "Let me tell you something you reprobate. God is the one true and the living God, and Micaiah is a representative. Do not talk against Micaiah, and do not talk against God." He should have done that, but he did not. All he did was just simply say, "Let not the king say so." He missed a perfect opportunity to set the record straight. Now, I want to show you something. Silence is consent. Silence is betrayal. I want you to hold 1 Kings 22, but look in your Bibles to Psalm 50. Psalm 50, and let's begin reading there verse 16. Psalm 50 and verse 16. Watch carefully. Psalm 50 verse 16. Look what God says to the wicked. Psalm 50 verse 16.

  #36 | 30:10 to 32:09 | cleaned

• "But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee." Now look what God says. "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers."

  #37 | 32:09 to 32:32 | cleaned

• Now how can a man consent to thievery? How can he be a partaker with adulterers if he is not actually committing the adultery, or if he is not actually doing the stealing? And the answer is because he sees it. He knows it and he says absolutely nothing. He sins by silence. And his silence is a betrayal of the truth. Now when Ahab says, "There is yet one man," Jehoshaphat says, "I still want him."

  #38 | 32:33 to 33:15 | cleaned

• Look if you would please in verse 9. "Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah." Now here's my question: How did Ahab know where this prophet of God was? Did not the Holy Spirit lead these people hither and yon? Of course he did. You remember when Elijah confronted Obadiah and said, "Go find your master and tell him Elijah's here." He said, "Oh, no."

  #39 | 33:16 to 33:49 | cleaned

• He said, "The Lord may take you some other place. And when I come back with Ahab, he'll kill me because you're not here." "No, no." He said, "I'm going to show myself to him today." How did Ahab know exactly where Micaiah was? And how could Ahab get him to Jehoshaphat promptly? Well, here is the answer. Look in verses 26 and 27. Verse 26, 1 Kings 22, "And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace." Carry him back. He was already in prison. He had him in prison. He knew where he was because he had thrown him in prison himself. Now he sends him back with more afflictions. Now, the interesting thing is when they send to get Micaiah, the man who goes after him, if you will look in verse 13, "And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth."

  #40 | 33:49 to 35:03 | cleaned

• "Let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good." In other words, be politically correct. You tell him what he wants to hear. You give him good news. Don't be someone who rocks the boat, and don't be someone who stirs up trouble. Verse 14, "And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak." Now the interesting thing after he said that, Micaiah comes into the presence of Ahab and when Ahab asks him a question, Micaiah mocks him and insults him. Watch if you would verse 15, "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." Now I want you to watch, he said this in such a way that Ahab knew that he was mocking him. Verse 16, "And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord?" Wow.

  #41 | 35:04 to 36:25 | cleaned

• Ahab got the message. Let me tell you something: You cannot honor a dishonorable man. It's impossible. It is true we must honor the office of authority because that is established by God, but you cannot honor a dishonorable man who is in that office and who is indeed a tyrant and a pervert. Ahab understood this mockery and sarcasm and insult. And so he adjures him, says, "Tell me nothing but the truth." Now let me show you something.

  #42 | 36:28 to 37:14 | cleaned

• I want you to turn to 2 Kings chapter 3. I want you to see that there were prophets of God who did indeed mock their kings who were perverts and tyrants. In 2 Kings chapter 3 you have the king of Edom, the king of Judah which was Jehoshaphat, and the king of Israel by this time who was Jehoram, the son of Ahab. They are going to make war against Moab, but they run out of water and they think they are all about to die. So in 2 Kings chapter 3, let's begin reading there. Let's see, verse 11, 2 Kings chapter 3 verse 11, "But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. And Elisha said

  #43 | 37:14 to 38:31 | cleaned

• unto the king of Israel, watch, Elisha said unto the king of Israel, "What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother." Get to Baal. Go to those Baalistic prophets. Watch. "And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay: for the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee."

  #44 | 38:32 to 39:09 | cleaned

• Let me spell it out for you. Here is what he told King Jehoram: "If you were on fire, I would not spit on you, I would let you burn up. The only reason I'm gonna do anything is because of Jehoshaphat." So notice if you would he does not honor a dishonorable man. Obviously if you're gonna honor someone they have to be honorable as well. Now if you go back to 1 Kings 22, watch verse 16. "And the king said

  #45 | 39:09 to 39:46 | cleaned

• unto him," to Micaiah, "How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord?" I laugh every time I read that verse because in my mind I can hear Micaiah saying, "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth. I'll tell you the truth and you won't even believe me. God is gonna kill you. God's gonna wipe you off the face of the earth. He's had enough

  #46 | 39:46 to 40:18 | cleaned

• of your perversion, your blasphemy, your idolatry, and your tyranny. You're going to die." Wow. He did tell him that. Watch if you would verse 26 again, "And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace." Watch what Micaiah says, "And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you." Now all of that was introduction. I'm

  #47 | 40:18 to 41:03 | cleaned

• fixing to get to my message. The message is just one point, it's very brief, but it's to the point. I want you to note something. Ahab said, "There's one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah," the last man standing. One man, and one man only that stood and spoke the truth ended the tyranny and the wickedness of Ahab and his government. Stop and think about that one man. Ahab said something that was very true in verse 8. He probably did not realize what he said was very true. If you look back in verse 8, "And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah." Micaiah was a man. He was a fighter.

  #48 | 41:03 to 42:16 | cleaned

• He was a champion of the cause. And the Hebrew word for man here literally means not just a man as distinguished from a woman, but it also means a champion and a servant. The name Micaiah literally means "who is like God." So Micaiah then was a servant of the Most High God. He was a fighter and a champion. When Ahab said there is one man here, the number one in the Hebrew means one, just one. It's the same word that is used in the Shema Israel in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Micaiah was a singular man.

  #49 | 42:16 to 43:16 | cleaned

• He was alone and yet he stood and he stood for truth and righteousness. He stood when no one else would stand or could stand. It's kind of like when God said concerning John the Baptist in John 1 and verse 6, "There was a man." Micaiah was a man that was willing to forsake all for the cause. He was willing to walk away from everything. He was willing to suffer. One of our problems is that we're too materialistic.

  #50 | 43:17 to 43:46 | cleaned

• We tend to think that it is things that will make us happy and satisfied and complete and successful. But the truth of the matter is this: We brought nothing into this world with us and we're not going to carry anything out of this world with us either. It is not things. Life is more than raiment. Life is more than food. Life is more than things. Micaiah was a man who was willing to be in prison for the faith and for the sake of the truth.

  #51 | 43:46 to 44:16 | cleaned

• Let me just point something out. Prison holds no stigma for you if you're in prison for the right reasons. The biggest thing against prison is the stigma that you're a jailbird, that you've been in prison. There's not a person in this room that wants to go to prison. I don't want to go to prison. But when you stop and think, John the Baptist was in prison, our Lord was arrested and in prison, the Apostles were in prison. The Apostle Paul was in prison I don't know how many times. In fact he wrote Timothy in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 8 and he said, "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner."

  #52 | 44:17 to 45:01 | cleaned

• And then he goes on to say, "but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God." So if Timothy is a partaker of the afflictions he might get in prison as well. There's no stigma to being in prison if you're there for the right reason. You look at all the Confederate soldiers that were imprisoned in Elmira, Point Lookout, and a lot of other northern prisons.

  #53 | 45:02 to 45:29 | cleaned

• Yet they were there not because they were fighting to preserve slavery, but they were there because they were fighting for independence and states' rights and actually defending their homeland. Micaiah was a man who was willing to suffer. He spoke the truth even though he was sent back to prison and fed with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction. Like Nathan Bedford Forrest, when Micaiah spoke it could not be misunderstood. And so he said, "If you come back in peace then the Lord has not spoken by me. You are not coming back Ahab, at least not alive, you will be dead."

  #54 | 45:31 to 46:19 | cleaned

• Our generation would do well to take heed to the words of Robert L. Dabney. Robert L. Dabney was an eminent theologian. He was a scholar. He was an author. He was a pastor. He was also chief of staff to Stonewall Jackson. Robert L. Dabney, in speaking to the students at commencement of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia on June 15, 1882, was talking about individuals who wanted to bury the past.

  #55 | 46:21 to 46:59 | cleaned

• Listen to what he said: "It behooves the New South in dismissing the animosities of the past to see to it that they retain all that was true in its principles or ennobling in its example. There are those pretending to belong to this company who exclaim, 'Let us bury the dead past. Its issues are all antiquated and of no more practical significance. Let us forget the passions of the past. We are a new world. Its new questions alone that concern us.' I rejoin or answer, be sure that the former issues are dead before you really bury them. There are issues that cannot die without the death of the people, of their honor, their civilization, and their greatness."

  #56 | 47:00 to 47:51 | cleaned

• "Take care that you do not bury too much while burying the dead past, that you do not bury the inspiring memories of the great patriots whose actions, whether successful or not, are the eternal glory of your race and section, the influence of their virtues, the guiding precedents of their histories. Will you bury the names and memories of a Jackson and Lee and their noble army of martyrs? Will you bury true history whose years are those of the God of truth?"

  #57 | 47:52 to 48:21 | cleaned

• Let me mention something to you. I don't know if you've thought about this or not, but principles do not die. Principles do not have funerals. Do you realize the issues that we are facing today in this country, the issues that we are fighting against in this country, are exactly the same issues that our Confederate ancestors fought against in 1861 to 1865 and also the same issues that our colonial ancestors fought against in 1776. Nothing has changed.

  #58 | 48:24 to 49:04 | cleaned

• It's still about liberty, independence, freedom, and against tyranny and despotism. The issues are still the same. What I want you to see is this: the Christian cause and the Southern cause are all rolled into one. What do I mean by that? Well you have to understand it was the North who sarcastically gave the South the title "the Bible Belt." We were called that because we adhered to the Scripture. It was a term that was given to us in mockery. But may I point out the fact that although not everybody in the South is a Christian, and certainly not everybody in the South believes the Bible, historically there have been more godly people in the South than in the North. While the North went into transcendentalism and rationalism and humanism, we stayed with the Scripture. One of the problems we have in the South now is a lot of Southern people have been reconstructed.

  #59 | 49:07 to 50:19 | cleaned

• They've learned to think like the humanists. They've learned to think like those who disbelieve the Scripture. So this is why I'm trying to say the problem that we have in the Christian cause and in the Southern cause, the problem is exactly the same. Here it is. We do not have men. We do not have men that are fearless and unafraid. We do not have men that will stand and speak the absolute truth and let the chips fall where they may. We do not have men that are willing to sacrifice. We do not have men that are willing to suffer and die. We do not have men like Lee and Jackson, Ewell and Stuart. We do not have men like Micaiah and Elijah and Elisha. Where are the men? Look at Europe.

  #60 | 50:19 to 51:08 | cleaned

• All the women are being raped and they are being robbed and nobody is doing one thing and it is coming here to America. I want you to listen to what Robert E. Lee said. The words that he spoke in the past are just as true today. He said this, and he was talking then about the war of northern aggression, but apply it to our truth and our situation today.

  #61 | 51:09 to 51:38 | cleaned

• He stated, "Our country demands all of our strength, all our energies. To resist the powerful combination now forming against us will require every man at his place. If victorious, we have everything to hope for in the future. If defeated, nothing will be left for us to live for. My whole trust is in God and I'm ready for whatever He may ordain. At present, I am not concerned with results."

  #62 | 51:39 to 52:08 | cleaned

• "God's will ought to be our aim, and I am quite contented that His designs should be accomplished and not mine." The truth is this, now listen, "The march of providence is so slow and our desires so impatient. The work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble. The life of humanity is so long and that of the individual so brief that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged."

  #63 | 52:09 to 52:40 | cleaned

• "We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters. It is history that teaches us to hope." Hmm. Let me say it again. Principles do not die. Principles do not have funerals. E. Benjamin Andrews, who was the president of Brown University, who himself was a Yankee veteran, said this: "The question of greatness is a relative thing, and we in America—but if any American father were asked which of our great men he would most want his own son to resemble, that father, if he were wise, would be compelled to answer Robert E. Lee." And that is amazing coming from a Yankee soldier. Micaiah was the last man standing. Will you be the last man standing? Will you be the Micaiah, the Lee, the Jackson, the Ewell, the Stuart?

  #64 | 52:40 to 54:22 | cleaned

• Why in the world should we trade our manhood, our history, and our heritage, and our truth for a bowl of governmental humanistic pottage? What we need in the South, what we need in the North, in the East, in the West, is men. Men who are faithful, who believe the Scriptures, who stand for truth and righteousness. Men who will not put up with wickedness and ungodliness. Men who will stand determined, will fight, and fight in faith and in obedience to the Word of God. We need to pray that God would give us men. Have you ever stopped to think—I've got a message on this, I haven't preached it in years and years—but God uses little things and God is pleased to use sometimes single men. He used Noah. He used Daniel. He used John the Baptist. You've heard it said God and one man is a majority. That's really not true. God is a majority in Himself, but He is pleased to use men and He can use one man. Do you realize there is hope in this country as long as God is on the throne and there's one man standing?

  #65 | 54:24 to 56:02 | cleaned

• God can use that one man to bring down the corruption and the wickedness and the perversion just like He used Micaiah to bring down Ahab and his kingdom. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And Lord, we do admit and we do confess and we do acknowledge, Lord, how desperately we need men in this country. And Lord, that You would make us men and fill us, Lord, with divine integrity and virtue. Make us faithful. Make us godly. Make us holy. Make us submissive. Make us more conformed to Your Word. Help us, Lord, to honor Thee in all that we say and do. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask and pray. Amen. Amen.

  #66 | 56:06 to 56:57 | cleaned

• ♪

  #67 | 57:13 to 57:37 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T17:24:33Z