Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
SELECTIVE HEARING
1 Kings 22:13-18, "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 Ramothgilead 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? 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?"
One problem that plagues the church of our day is the plague of “Selective Hearing”. In other words, we hear only that part of a message that agrees with our own point of view and we discard anything that doesn’t agree with us.
I have often run into this attitude in counseling sessions. I know that the first duty, and probably the most important thing that we can do as a counselor is to just sit and listen as those who come for counseling sit and vent their feelings, frustrations and anger. Most often people who want to counsel really don’t want to hear the truth, or to even hear the counselor’s opinion, they just want to talk to someone who will listen and that’s all they want.
This is the story of Ahab, King of Israel, who persuades Jehoshaphat, King of Judah to join him in a battle for Ramoth-Gilead. Syria had won this territory from Israel in a battle some three years prior and had occupied it for all that time. Now Ahab wanted it back.
Ahab was the most evil king that Israel ever had. In the beginning of I Kings chapter 21 we can read the story of how that he wanted to purchase or trade a vineyard from Nabaoth that was adjacent to the king’s palace. When Nabaoth refused to trade or sell the land of his ancestors, Ahab went into his room, crying and pouting, lying across his bed and refused to eat like a spoiled brat. His wife Jezebel came in and made matters worse by plotting to get the vineyard for nothing. She sent word to all the nobles in the city to call a fast and to place Nabaoth in a high position among the nobles. Then she hired two “sons of belial” or sons of the devil, to falsely accuse Nabaoth of blasphemy against God. Nabaoth was stoned to death and the king took the vineyard by default.
In 1 Kings 21:25 we read God’s opinion of the character of Ahab, "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."
Just to make a quick point here, I know that Ahab had to answer for his own evil heart and he really had no one to blame for his idolatry than himself. He could have chosen to not listen to Jezebel. But, I wonder if he would have been a better king if he had not married an idolatrous and evil plotting queen? She certainly pressed him on to disobey God and fall deeper into sin. Jezebel was a heathen princess, beautiful to look upon, but with a heart of deep, black sin! This is a case for being unequally yoked together in marriage. Seldom does that spouse who loves God draw the unsaved into the Kingdom of God. It usually goes the other way.
I wonder about Ahab since he does repent at one point because he recognized the judgment of God that was to come but Jezebel wouldn’t allow that to happen for long.
Throughout his reign as King, Ahab had been held accountable to his evil deeds by the prophets of God who dared stand up to him. One of those prophets was Micaiah.
Micaiah was well known in the court of Ahab because Micaiah had come time and again to warn Ahab of the consequences of his evil deeds. Ahab dreaded the appearance of Micaiah yet he knew that he could not kill Micaiah or face the wrath of the people of Israel who had confidence in the prophet.
Now Ahab’s heart was set for war to regain his lost territory and to regain his prestige in the land of Israel. No king would sit for long without attempting to win back that which was taken from him in battle and Ahab was no different.
Ahab, evil though he was, still understood that Israel needed to think that the Lord God was with them before they went into battle so he called for 400 “prophets” to come and prophesy for his coming victory over Syria. These so called “prophets” were nothing more than “yes men” or false prophets who ticked the ears of Ahab and always had good things to say to him. After all, that was what Ahab wanted to hear and they were no fools. If Ahab didn’t like your prophecy he could put you to death. As a result of this threat hanging over them, they told Ahab exactly what they thought Ahab would want to hear.
Have you ever felt that you needed an answer from God concerning anything in your life but you were afraid of what the answer would be? It’s far more pleasant to have someone say something good about your life than to hear the truth. In fact, we often go to great lengths so that we don’t have to hear the truth. We will choose to talk to and listen to only those who we already know will agree with us. We avoid anyone who may want to disagree with us like a plague. We don’t want to really know the truth. We just want someone else to agree with us and put a stamp of approval on what we wanted in the first place. It is as though their agreement with us gives us a false sense of being right and we rush headlong into disobedience of the Word of God.
All 400 of these false prophets and “yes men” prophesied good things to Ahab. They foretold of great victories and of the coming glory to Ahab and Jehoshaphat in the war that was just ahead, but Jehoshaphat wasn’t satisfied with their prophesying. Something just seemed to be wrong. It was as though all of these 400 men had planned in advance to all say the same thing like a bunch of parrots.
Ahab was content to hear what he wanted to hear and didn’t care if it were true or not. Either that or he just disregarded anything that anyone said and did what he wanted no matter what the prophets foretold.
But Jehoshaphat still feared God and asked if there were any prophets in Israel who were not “yes men” to the king? Was there one man, in all of Israel, who would truthfully give the Word of the Lord without fear of Ahab’s revenge?
Sometimes we have to stand alone in our faith in God. Remember this: that God alone makes a majority and it’s always best to be on his team regardless of how many people disagree or stand against you and persecute you.
Matthew 10:28 says it another way, "… fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Just think about it. Even if you lose the battle with men you still win with God.
Ahab was so determined to do his own will and to hear nothing but positive things that he did his best to keep any negative prophet from coming into his court but now he had no choice for he knew that Jehosphaphat would not join him in the battle unless a true prophet of God were brought forth.
Ahab hated Micaiah! He despised this true man of God. Ahab is like so many in our churches today who would rather believe a lie than to hear the truth.
Speaking of the last days and the coming of the man called the “Antichrist” in 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, Paul had this to say about the hearts of the people who were on the face of the earth at that time, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Right now the only thing that keeps Satan at bay is the Holy Spirit operating through the church as a watchdog against Satan’s evils. What do you think will happen when the true church, the Body of Christ, is taken away in the rapture? I shudder to think of the flood of evil, sin and debauchery that will cover the earth to an even greater depth than the flood of water in Noah’s day. Yes, just as it was in the days of Noah, evil will abound and the heart of man will be deceived into believing a lie from the devil that will end in man’s eternal damnation.
As you can see, that spirit of the antichrist was already living in the heart of Ahab and he loved the lies more than the truth. It would eventually bring destruction upon him and his household. It was foretold in I Kings chapter 21 that anyone of Ahab’s house who died in the city would be eaten by the dogs and anyone who died outside of the city would be eaten by the fowls of the air, and that Ahab’s own blood would be licked from the city streets by dogs. The news of these prophecies had actually brought Ahab to a place of repentance for a while but his repentance was short lived. As soon as the shock had passed and he had time to forget about it, he was back to business as usual.
Ahab warned Jehoshaphat that Micaiah would have nothing good to say. Ahab had never heard one prophetic utterance from the mouth of this prophet to encourage him in doing what Ahab wanted to do. Ahab never realized that the reason he never heard any good thing is that he was continuing to walk in disobedience to God. How could he expect to hear anything good when all he did was evil in the sight of God.
There are many in the church today who say that preachers who preach full gospel messages of impending doom and judgment from God are just negative individuals who should be disregarded or even silenced so that peace could reign. Most people don’t want to hear the truth. They love to hear teaching of love, mercy, grace and they praise those voices that foretell that better times are coming and that man will ultimately usher in his own age of peace and prosperity. They don’t want to hear the truth.
What they fail to understand is that is only those preachers who are telling the truth. All others are false prophets who have the spirit of antichrist to deceive as many as possible into believing their lies. There are multitudes of “ministers” who claim to be God’s messengers to the church who refuse to even admit that judgment is coming. Their message of peace and prosperity is easy to swallow but leads to a complacent, weak, even dead church that will face eternity without God. It is God’s love, mercy and grace that allows his true ministers to speak the truth of the coming judgment so that perhaps come will come to God in repentance through the true preaching of the gospel.
Ahab sent a messenger to get Micaiah. This messenger was convinced that Ahab was the one to follow. I wonder if he really understood where Ahab was leading him? Like so many people in our modern-day church, he was only following the orders of the king (the preacher) and didn’t question whether he was really in the will of God or not.
In fact, he copied his leaders thoughts, actions and mannerisms and even attempted to stop trouble by asking Micaiah to say the same things that the other 400 prophets said so that there would be no trouble.
Sometimes the lie of the “sons of belial” comes from the lips of those who we think are spiritually minded. If we are not very careful, we can also be one of those used to stop the flow of the Holy Spirit and spread the lies of Satan to stop the truth from being told.
Micaiah came into the court of Ahab, with Jehoshaphat listening, and began to say the same thing that all of the other prophets had said. He “prophesied” of great victory for Ahab against Syria. But Ahab knew, in his heart, that Micaiah was just mocking him.
1 Kings 22:16, "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?"
Even in his sinful condition Ahab knew the difference between the truth and a lie. “All right, quit mocking, and tell me the truth. I know you have something negative to say, so just get it over with,” was the attitude of Ahab as he spoke to Micaiah.
The world knows the difference between the truth and the lie. So does every member of the church. The Holy Spirit will ever be a reminder of what is truth and what is not. Even when we refuse the listen and obey the truth, we will still know when we are in disobedience. We can harden our hearts, refuse to repent, and continue in sin but our own heart will condemn us because God won’t let us forget what the truth is. No man will have an excuse when we stand before God in judgment. Every man will know exactly where he stands before he ever faces God.
We can keep on practicing Selective Hearing but that will be no excuse for living in disobedience to God’s Word. Ignorance of the Law is no excuse in the courts of man and it will be no excuse in the court of the Lord God either.
Now the truth was said as God directed Micaiah – Ahab would be defeated and the people of Israel would be scattered as though they had no shepherd. What was Ahab’s reaction? 1 Kings 22:18, … Ahab looked over at Jehoshaphat in total disgust and said something like this (just like our modern thinking), “Didn’t I tell you? He never has a good prophecy for me! Everything he tells me is nothing but bad news! That’s why I didn’t want to call him in the first place! Now look at what you have forced me to do. I didn’t want to hear any negative! All I wanted was positive talk! Now it’s going to take me all day to get that negative thought out of my mind! This just ruins everything! You have to have positive thoughts, picture the victory in your mind, write good slogans all over the refrigerator, the mirrors in the dressing room and everywhere to get the right results, not listen to some negative old prophet with a message of repentance and judgment to come!”
God’s truth isn’t always pleasant to hear. It’s not always sweet to taste and easy to swallow. Sometimes it’s downright bitter to take. But, like a bad tasting medicine that helps us to heal, if the truth of God is heard and obeyed it brings healing to our souls, healing to our land and life that is more abundant and eternal.
One of the saddest parts of this whole scenario is that Jehoshaphat was also fooled and became an unwitting part of Ahab’s disobedience. Here was a king who was attempting to live in God’s will. He had every appearance of being a good king except for one all important thing. He didn’t remove the idols from Judah that were already there when he became king.
Because he was used to compromising, it was easy for him to be led astray by Ahab. When the battle started he was chased from the battlefield by the Syrians who thought that he was Ahab. Meanwhile, Ahab had disguised himself so that he would be harder to find and kill.
How many ministers do you know that have disgraced themselves and have gone into hiding or have simply blended in with the rest of their misled congregations? They have trapped by their own lies.
You can’t hide from God. His judgments are sure! Whether you believe them or not, or whether you accept them or not, is immaterial! The fact is that God’s judgments will come and his perfect will must be accomplished.
Ahab was shot by a stray arrow. One of the Syrian archers just drew back his bow and shot into the air at no specific target. That arrow was like a guided missile, led by the laser sight of God’s own hand of judgment, and it struck Ahab right between the shoulder blades. Ahab died in his chariot and his blood was washed from the chariot at the same spot where Nabaoth had died and the dogs licked up Ahab’s blood from the ground.
God’s judgments are sure! Ahab died because he had selective hearing! He only heard and wanted to hear those things that he agreed with or that made him feel good.
In closing let me say that we cannot afford to have selective hearing any more than Ahab could. We must hear and obey the truth of God’s Word! There is coming a day of judgment soon. Only those who have opened their ears to hear the truth and have learned to obey God will enter Heaven’s glory. Get rid of your selective hearing and let’s hear the whole counsel of God’s truth.
