Going Against Mainstream — E.A. Johnston

Ahab’s Alliance and the Court of False Prophets

Today, friends, we'll be in the book of 2 Chronicles, in chapter 18, and you can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. It is here where we find the story of good king Jehoshaphat and bad king Ahab in alliance together against the Syrian army.

Ahab, the king of Israel, has surrounded himself with a court full of false prophets who just soothe his conscience and tell him what he wants to hear, kind of like many of our congregations today who have gone out and hired them a minister who only give them what they want instead of giving them what they need.

Well, Ahab was like that, but he had enough money to go hire 400 of these fakes and frauds. Their leader was a prophet by the name of Zedekiah, and he even got his message crossed by making old Ahab some horns of iron.

And he showed them those and said, With these thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed. But Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, wanted a second opinion, and he said to Ahab, 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 by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil, the same as Micaiah the son of Emeah.

Well, what happens next, friends, if you continue to read chapter 18 of 2 Chronicles, you will see that this prophet Micaiah gives King Ahab a contrary opinion, an entirely different outlook than the king's false prophets.

He tells Ahab and Jehoshaphat in so many words that Israel will be scattered upon the mountain like sheep with no shepherd. They no longer have a master, because Ahab is killed in battle. So old wicked Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat and whines, Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good unto me, but evil?

Micaiah’s Vision of the Lying Spirit

Now we're going to pick up our text, friends, in verse 18, where the prophet Micaiah addresses these two kings, and this is one of the most sensational passages of scripture I've ever come across. Listen now to the word of God.

Again he said, Therefore hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?

And one of them spake, saying, After this manner, and another saying, After that manner. And then there came out a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith?

And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Well, let me pause here, friends, to say, can you imagine that? This lying spirit is going to deceive Ahab to his hurt, lead him into battle, so he can be killed.

Yes, there is danger here. You better be sure, friend, the pastor you have is led by the Holy Spirit and not led by a false spirit to your hurt and to your ultimate ruin. I've known several ministers who were led by a false spirit, and you can always tell if it's not from God.

I had a friend who considered himself a self-called Christian counselor, and he often would try to give me advice for me and my family. Thankfully, I didn't take much of it, because the advice he gave me, had I would have taken it, would have done nothing but hurt my family and placed them in danger.

Finally, God showed me this man was a false prophet led by a false spirit, and I stopped getting his advice on spiritual matters. Like the time I was sitting in a congregation of 3 ,000 people at a big church, and the worship leader kept saying over and over again, the spirit is here, the spirit is here.

Can't you feel the spirit, friends? And sure enough, there was a spirit there, all right, but it wasn't the spirit of the Lord. The pastor taught heresy to his people, and they drank it like water. You better be sure, friend, that you were sitting under a God-called man and not some smooth-talking false prophet, and you better be careful, friend, what voices you were listening to inside your head, for the devil can appear as an angel of light.

Micaiah’s Persecution for Preaching Truth

You better have spiritual discernment and test the spirits so you're not led down a wrong path, hurtful to you and to your family. So what happens to Micaiah after he delivers his message? Well, we see this in verse 23, then Zedekiah, the son of Janana, came near and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, so we see he got slapped for his sermon.

You will face persecution for preaching Christ crucified. I've felt that slap before, after preaching all week in a church where God sent revival. When it was over, the church stiffed me. They didn't give me an honorarium nor any love offering.

But if you want big love offerings, then tell a bunch of jokes and some funny stories and they will invite you back for sure. But if you go against the grain, if you go against the mainstream and preach man's duty of repentance and his utter necessity of regeneration, you will more than likely be rebuked by the good deacons like I have.

Martin Luther and the Cost of Reformation

Going against the mainstream is costly. God got a hold of a priest by the name of Martin Luther, and he opened his eyes to justification and turned him upside down. And then he took Luther and turned his generation upside down in a mighty reformation.

Well, the pope excommunicated him, and the emperor labeled him an outlaw and a heretic. And his papers were burned, and he had to go into hiding so he wouldn't be burned at the stake. What costs counts, and what counts costs.

John Wesley’s Revival Through Sacrifice

Big things happen when there's a big sacrifice. John Wesley said, give me 100 men who fear nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the gates of hell. And he did just that. But there was a cost.

He was dragged by his hair through a town by an angry mob. He faced much persecution for the sake of the gospel because he went against the mainstream of his day, which was an unconverted ministry of the day.

Preaching Repentance, Judgment, and Regeneration

Today, when the church is teaching easy believism and denying the lordship of Christ and ignoring the power of the Holy Ghost, if you go against the grain and preach the great doctrines of the which are ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration, there will be a cost.

You start preaching, friend, that sin is black and hell is hot, and a future judgment awaits all mankind, and if you miss Christ, you will forever be damned. In a place of torment, you'll not be invited to preach on a big platform because most folks get uneasy by pointed preaching, but the hour is late, friends.

Apostasy, Antichrist, and the Need for Revival

We're living in the day of apostasy in our denominations while society spins out of control into moral chaos. We need a heaven-sent revival. We need help from above. We need prophets in our pulpits and not entertainers.

We're living in the end times, and the spirit of Antichrist is already in the land. We need a man sent from God. We need men like these. The apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Knox, Edwards, Finney, Moody each shared a common denominator, a fire in their belly.

They each were so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost, they could not stand idly by while others perished. They saw nothing but eternity, worshipped the Holy God, and served a risen Christ, living not for earth nor its gains, but living only for heaven and its rewards.

Oh, when they preached, they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation. They preached hell and its fire and Christ and him crucified. Not one of them feared king, queen, or pope, and not one of them sought the compliments of man.