A Visible Stand

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I’ve been talking to you the last several weeks about the darkness in our world, and I think we all agree that we live in a dark world. You may not think about it very much, but when you do, when you do think about the state of where we are and the way things are going, I don’t know very many people at all who would look at the world around them and in general say, oh, things are going in the right direction. Most people look at the world around us and realize there’s a problem.

Realize that the darkness seems to be closing in on us. And when I say the darkness, I mean wickedness. We are in a world, and it may not be, we talked about this a couple weeks ago at Vacation Bible School, not with the kids, the adults were sitting around talking about it.

It may not be that the world is much worse than it used to be. It may just be that we hear about it more. Now, with the internet and everything, news is just right there.

But we look around us and people are shooting each other in the streets. And we look around us and ISIS is on our shores. And we look around us and we’ve got, you know, I couldn’t even try to make a list. Because I start to think of all the sinful attitudes and things that are running rampant in our society right now.

And my brain starts smoking because it’s going into overdrive. There are so many things. We turn on the news.

Turn on the news. And you’ll see what I’m talking about. We look at the world around us, and I think most of us realize that it’s a dark place.

And with the darkness in this world, and with the wickedness and just anger and hatred and disrespect and all the things that we see going on around us, we see this darkness, and honestly, it’s easier to cower in the corner and keep our heads down than it is to do anything about it. And I know this from experience. I know you probably look at me and think, okay, you’re the preacher.

It’s kind of your job to take bold stands. Aren’t you supposed to enjoy that? I don’t enjoy conflict.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll do it if I have to, but I don’t enjoy it. I started out early on in ministry, very wet behind the ears, maybe still wet behind the ears, but I started out wet behind the ears on in ministry, naive, thinking I can go in and I can help people fix things. And I would see things in my church that were wrong.

And I’m not talking about being a nitpicker, oh, your skirt’s too short, or your Bible’s too light, or whatever it is when you come into church. I’m talking about things that were really wrong. I’m talking about things that were leading toward church splits.

I’m talking about ugly attitudes. I’m talking about fighting gossip and backbiting in the church. And I came in and I say early in ministry, I wasn’t even a pastor yet.

I was an associate pastor. And I tried to step in and mediate and say, this is wrong and the attitudes are wrong on both sides. And by the way, if you’re visiting with us, it wasn’t here.

Don’t worry about that. But I tried to step in and mediate and say, this is wrong and attitudes here are wrong on both sides and we need to fix this. And I learned very quickly that ministry, much like life is like a game of whack-a-mole.

You remember that game? It’s the mole that pops its head up that gets whacked. And so I’m sad to say that what my very earliest experiences in ministry taught me was that when you see something that’s wrong, when you see it in the church, when you see it outside the church even, and you know it’s wrong, And you have that impulse to say, I’m going to step in and try to help make this right.

The easier thing to do is just say, I’m going to do what I know is right, and I’m going to keep my head down and my mouth shut, and just pray that everything gets better on its own. And you know, we know that God can do anything, and God can make things better without our intervention, but he also left us here with the command that we’re to be sought right. He didn’t leave us here to keep our heads down and our mouth shut.

And I will tell you from experience that that did not work. We very quickly got to a place in that church where somebody took a swing at somebody else at business meeting over who got the mail. I wish I was kidding.

And I kept my head down and my mouth shut and just prayed that it would get better, but it didn’t. And I’ve seen it in other churches. I went to another church and hadn’t been there but a couple months.

And there was a woman there who liked to gossip. We probably all liked to gossip at some point. But she liked to gossip and even came to me one day and thought that I would get involved in her gossip.

And spread to me the idea, put in my mind the idea that one of the deacons and one of the ladies in the church were having an affair. I was very close to both families already and knew that that was not the case. There was no possible way.

For one thing, when the deacon and this lady spent time together, her husband was always there. The three of them ran as a pack. There was no possible way that this was true.

And I thought, I’m going to keep my head down. I’m going to just listen to her and say, okay, I’ll look into that and keep my head down, not confront her, not say, no, this is wrong. I thought, I’ll keep my head down, keep my mouth shut, pray that things get better, and they will.

And they did. And about a year later, things erupt. Because she didn’t stop gossiping.

And by the time things came to a head, I had to call in a big three-hour meeting after church one Sunday night with the person doing the gossiping, all the people and spouses being gossiped about, and everybody who had been told the gossip to set the record straight. And I thought to myself, it probably would have been better if I had just done a whack-a-mole thing and stuck my head up and taken the whack in the first place. It’s not just true in churches.

I think every one of us in our lives, we realize that it’s the one who sticks their head up that’s going to get punched. And we get to the point where we think we see something wrong, and I know that’s wrong, and I know something needs to be done, but I can’t do anything about it. We get so overwhelmed.

We get so overwhelmed by the number of things that we see around us that are wrong. We get so overwhelmed by what’s happened to us in the past when we’ve tried to step in and we’ve tried to speak up and we’ve gotten our clock cleaned, that we get overwhelmed and we get paralyzed and we get to where we’re unable to do anything. And again, that’s not just in ministry.

I know that happens in our everyday lives, too. In our families, we see somebody doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. I’m just going to keep my head down and say nothing.

We might even see them doing something to somebody it’s hurting somebody else. I’m just going to keep my head down and my mouth shut. We see it in our workplaces.

You know, I was reading a news article yesterday. It just came to mind. I was reading a news article yesterday where a, you know, I think it was about 10 years ago now, there was a member of Congress who was involved in a scandal with the pages, these underage pages, that he was involved in inappropriate things with them.

And over the next several months, news came out that other congressmen, they weren’t involved, but they knew about it. Only one reported anything about it, because the rest of them said, just keep my head down and my mouth shut. It’s easier that way.

And I’d like to think that if we were in a situation where we saw children being harmed, that we would speak up and say something and say, that’s evil, that’s wrong, that’s got to stop. But I know that we all, we all get to a place in our lives, whether it’s in our workplace, whether it’s in our homes and families, whether it’s in our own community, that we see something that is wrong and we really should point it out. And not only point out where things are wrong, but point out what right should be done.

And again, not point it out so that we can make everybody feel bad, but point these things out to show people the right way. We get to a point where we see these things that we know God put us here to be salt and lied about and to speak up about, But we know we’re going to get hurt. We know that there’s going to be some cost involved for us.

And so more often than enough, the easier thing for us to do is keep our heads down and our mouths shut. I just won’t say anything. I won’t tell so-and-so in my family that they’re acting this way and hurting another person.

I won’t say this about what’s going on in my community because everybody’s going to get mad and beat up on me. I personally stand to the place in life where I feel like I can’t say a word positive or negative about Trump or Clinton on Facebook because everybody’s going to beat me to death. It’s just easier sometimes to keep your head down and your mouth shut again.

Is that really what God put us here for? Is that why God left us here? Is that why God said go be salt and light?

Is that being salt and light? We know where the darkness is. It’s all around us.

We know what God says. Our problem all too often as Christians is not our ignorance about the Bible. It’s our unwillingness to do anything about it.

It’s not a lack of knowledge. It’s a lack of application. We know what God’s word says about most of the things going on in our families, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our communities, in our nation as a whole.

We know what God’s word says about those things. I think we’re just too afraid to do anything about it. We’re too afraid to say anything.

And I’m right there with you. I may be the worst one in the room about this. Because it’s been part of my job for almost a decade to be one who stands up.

And when I’ve done it, there’s always been a cost. So sometimes it’s just easier to look the other way. But you know, God gives us a great example. God gives us a great example of what we’re supposed to do.

and how he’s called us to represent him and his righteousness in the dark world. See, this idea that we’ve been developing over the last several weeks about standing against the darkness is not one of standing up and pointing out where people have sinned and saying, you’re wrong, you’re wrong, so we can make them feel bad or so we can tell them they’re going to hell, and then we walk away and feel better. The idea always, always, always is about men being reconciled to God.

The idea is always the fact that not only has the world outside these four walls sinned, and we’re not careful, we can give them the impression that we think it’s just them and we’re okay in here. Our message is not just that the people outside these four walls have sinned, but that all men have sinned. That all of us fall short of God’s righteousness, God’s glorious standard of absolute perfection.

We all, every one of us fall short of it. And so our message when we go and tell the world, you’ve fallen short of what God expects from you in this situation, our message to them is not, ha ha, you fell short. It’s you fell short, and you need to get right with God because of it.

We have all fallen short, and we all need to get right with God because of it. We preach sin and the righteousness of God and the certainty of judgment and the need for reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ. We go to people and we stand against the darkness, not looking at the people who wrote darkness as our enemy. They’re not.

The Bible says that we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. If they bleed, they’re not our enemy. If they bleed, they are somebody who’s caught up in the darkness and the wickedness of this world, who needs to be delivered from that and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. God’s called us to represent him and show his righteousness to a dark world.

And one of the examples that we have of this is Elijah. If you’ll turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 21. We’ve been looking at him for the last several weeks.

Elijah had made it so abundantly clear that he stood for and on the righteousness of God and that he would not compromise that as soon as he stepped into King Ahab’s presence, Ahab knew what was about to happen. Every time. We go back to a point where a few weeks ago, you remember where Elijah told Obadiah, go tell your master Ahab.

Go tell him that I want to see him. And Obadiah’s like, please, no, please, no. What have I done? What have I done to deserve this?

Because as soon as I go tell him, God’s going to move you somewhere else, and then Ahab’s going to kill me because he’s been looking for you everywhere, and I’ve seen him on this wild goose chase. And Elijah says, no, no, I will see him before the day is over. And as soon as he walks into Ahab’s presence, Ahab was familiar with Elijah and familiar with his work.

And said, ah, there you are. You’re the one who’s making all this trouble in Israel. See, he knew already that he and Elijah were not on the same side.

And that’s one of the great things about Elijah. And we know that Elijah felt like we often do, that this is hard, this is difficult, this is scary. this is costly to me because last week my message was about his time in the valley where he’s just saying God nothing’s going my way I might as well die I don’t think I’ve ever said God I might as well die but I’ve certainly had those valley situations where I’m saying to God what am I doing here why am I doing, why are you having me do this because nothing’s going the way it’s supposed to and then we’re reminded that God just called us to be faithful and obedient and leave the results to him But in this passage this morning, we have yet another example of Elijah going into Ahab’s presence.

And because his stand was so abundantly clear, before he ever said anything, Ahab knew exactly where he stood and knew that this was going to be God confronting him through Elijah. And what’s happened in, well, let’s just start in verse 1. It says, And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the place of Ahab king of Samaria.

And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it, or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him.

For he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread. But Jezebel, that’s not going to go well in the story, but Jezebel comes in.

Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no bread? and he said unto her because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite and said unto him give me thy vineyard for money or else if it please thee I will give thee another vineyard for it and he answered I will not give thee my vineyard and Jezebel his wife said unto him dost thou not govern the kingdom of Israel and rise and eat bread and let thine heart be merry I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite so what’s happened here is that Ahab sees this piece of property that he really wants and there’s nothing wrong with him wanting the property. In fact, there’s nothing wrong with his approach to Naboth.

Then he comes to Naboth with an offer where he says, I like this vineyard. It’s right by my house. I’d like to plant herbs there.

I don’t know what he was going to plant there, but he’s going to plant something, some kind of herb. I want to plant it by my house. Why don’t you let me trade you for some vineyard that you might like better?

Or if you don’t want that, let me give you the money. Now, that’s a fair offer. That’s free market capitalism.

That’s a great thing. You have something I want. I have something you want.

Let’s see if we can make a trade. Now, the problem comes when Naboth says, no, there’s a sentimental attachment here. There’s something more important to me than money.

This is the inheritance of my father’s. This is the family farm, basically, and he says, I’m not going to sell. That should have been the end of it.

I have some apples. You have some dollars. Can we trade?

No, I don’t want apples. Okay, no thank you. That’s how commerce works.

The problem came when he said no, and Ahab decided to pout like a child. And he goes back and he turns his face to the wall, and I better do it again. And Jezebel walks in and says, why are you so sad?

And he tells her, and she says, wait, aren’t you the king of Israel? You can do whatever you want. You run the government, and you can do whatever you want.

She says, just leave it to me. and at this point he’s kind of like the mob wife in the movies he knows that what she’s going to do is wrong he knows her business is killing and stealing and he knows what kind of woman he’s married to but he’s going to get the fur coat so he doesn’t care he doesn’t ask any questions she says just leave it to me honey and I’ll go get you that vineyard he doesn’t ask questions but there’s no doubt in my mind that he knows that she’s going to be up to something that’s no good. And he lets her do it anyway.

He lets her do it. So in verse 8, she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letter saying, Proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people and set two men, sons of Belial, before him to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king, and then carry him out and stone him that he may die.

And the men of the city, even the elders and the nobles who were with the inhabitants in the city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and it was written, and as it was written in the letters, excuse me, which she had sent unto them, they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him. And the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying Naboth did blaspheme God and the king.

Then they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones, but he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying Naboth is stoned and is dead. And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money.

for Naboth is not alive, but dead. And it came to pass when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it. So when she said, leave it to me, she came up with this diabolical plan and put together, she forged letters from the king and said, put Naboth at the head of this feast in his city.

And then once the feast is going on, I want you to send in two sons of Belial, these two Baal worshipers, I want you to send them up and I want you to have them say that he has blasphemed God and the king. That’s rich. Jezebel made a career out of blaspheming God, did she not?

Jezebel made a career out of breaking every commandment she could find of God. And then these sons of Belial, I mean, they were called by, they were Baal worshipers. and so we have a serious pot calling the kettle black situation going on here these people who are so devoted to Baal are going to accuse Naboth of blaspheming God and that’s exactly what they did the letters go out these men stand up and say he blasphemed God and the king so the people take him out and stone him word comes back and Jezebel says oh honey you can go get your vineyard now it’s ready for you he’s dead.

And Ahab doesn’t even pretend to be horrified about it. This murderous woman just said let me take care of it. And then the next thing that we have recorded she says to him is oh he’s dead you can go get the vineyard.

And he acts like it’s some great coincidence. He doesn’t even pretend to be horrified. How does he not know?

He knew. He wanted the vineyard so much he valued it above human life. And he just says, okay, I’ll go get the vineyard.

As you can imagine, God is not thrilled with this. In verse 17, it says, And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, or whither he has gone down to possess it.

And thou shalt speak to him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. So God tells Elijah, go then and say to Naboth, you know, you were willing to put human, you were willing to put property above human life.

And you may not have pulled the trigger here, but you were willing to have a man murdered and overlook it just because you wanted his stuff. And when God told Elijah to say, hast thou not taken possession, what he’s saying is, you’re in this too. You’re guilty too.

You’re involved here. He’s what we call today an accessory to the crime. And so God’s promise through Elijah is that just as Naboth’s life was taken, your life is going to be taken too.

And when Naboth’s blood was spilled on the ground, yours will be spilled too. I would think for Elijah, especially knowing what we know about him, that he wasn’t just this two-dimensional guy who was always brave. Seeing the portrait we see of him throughout the Old Testament, where he sometimes wavered and sometimes doubted and had fears just like we all do, I wouldn’t think this would be an easy message for him to go and convey to the king of Israel.

But he does. It says in verse 20 that he went into Ahab’s presence. And Ahab said unto Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?

See, this was the line of the whole story that made me sit up and take notice. Hast thou found me, O my enemy? Elijah walks into the presence of Ahab.

And without saying a word, Ahab looks at him and calls him my enemy. As soon as he saw Elijah, he knew that Elijah had been sent there by God to oppose him. He knew that Elijah had been sent by God to call him out.

And he knew this because of the bold stand that Elijah had taken in the past. Elijah had left no question in the mind of Ahab or the other people of Israel where he stood. He was not on the fence, riding the fence between Baal and God. He had put himself squarely on God’s side.

So it’s not important, we need to stop worrying about his God on our side, and we need to put ourselves on God’s side. And he had taken so many bold stands, and he had just in general let the country know where he stood. But even if everybody else is over here on this side with Baal, I’m over here with God.

and I’m not changing. He had made that stand so abundantly clear to the nation and to Ahab both that as soon as he walked in, Ahab knew what he was there about. He says, my enemy, you caught me.

Let’s hear it. Let’s have it, he says. He already knew exactly where Elijah stood and that Elijah stood with God.

Verse 21 says, behold, I will bring evil upon thee. Oh, I’m sorry, I left out part of verse 20. And after Ahab says this, Elijah said, and he answered, I have found thee because thou have sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.

Yeah, I caught you because once again, you’re doing everything you can to disobey. Those of you who have or have had small children, do you ever have those days or have you ever had those days where you feel like you’re just trying to see how many ways you can possibly disobey me today. It’s not just that I said this and you wanted to do that so you happened to disobey me.

It’s like you woke up this morning and planned and put a chart on the wall and said I’m going to mark it off and let’s see let’s try to break the record. How many ways can I disobey today? Elijah says to Ahab, you’ve done this again.

You have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. You have made yourself a slave to this wickedness. You’ve made yourself a slave to this darkness and it’s like you’re trying to see how much you can possibly get away with before God brings you in.

And Ahab said to Elijah verse 21, I’m sorry still Elijah talking Behold I will bring evil upon thee now that’s not Elijah saying I’ll bring evil that’s God through Elijah God’s going to bring evil I will bring evil upon thee and take away thy posterity and will cut off Ahab cut off from Ahab him that I’m going to change that word there and say urinates against the wall and him that has shut up and left in Israel. So he’s talking about his army. He’s going to take away the men and his army.

And when it says that God’s going to bring evil on him, it doesn’t mean wrong and wickedness and darkness and God’s back. I have evil plans. It’s saying God is going to cause bad things to happen to Ahab.

Things, maybe I shouldn’t even say it that way. Ahab has acted in ways that are going to bring bad consequences on him. And God’s going to send those consequences his way.

And so he says, I’m going to cut off Ahab. I’m going to cut off the men from his military. And I will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, like the house of Basha, the son of Ahijah.

For the provocation wherewith thou has provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord. He didn’t forget her, saying, The dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

And him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat, and of him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. God basically says, you know, I punished Jeroboam, and I punished Basha for a lot less. And y’all, many of you from previous messages know who Jeroboam is.

Basha was another wicked king who when God overthrew Jeroboam’s dynasty, Basha came along and eventually God punished him and wiped out his royal house as well. God says, I punished these guys for less, and you have been so wicked and so violent and so evil that your time has come. And by the way, I haven’t forgotten about Jezebel.

And anybody who falls on your side in the city is going to be eaten by dogs, and anybody who falls by your side in the country is going to be eaten by the birds, God says. So Elijah tells him that his behavior was offensive to God, and that God wasn’t going to let him get away with his crime. And sometimes we look at the Old Testament and people like to say, God is so vicious and so vengeful.

When somebody’s out murdering their countrymen, when somebody’s out murdering innocent people, don’t we want, don’t we expect that justice means they pay the ultimate penalty? I mean, if we expect that, if society expects that, why would we expect less of a just God? Then we see something incredible happen here.

In verse 25 it says, 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. So it says here Jezebel influenced him but still Ahab was responsible for his own actions. You know it’s not Jezebel made me do it.

No brother you made the choice. You could have told her to shut her mouth and go back to worshiping her pagan gods. He made the choice.

And the Bible says here that there was nobody quite as wicked as Ahab. You take all the wicked rulers before him and it’s like Ahab took it to a whole other level. That’s what it means here in verse 25.

There was nobody so wicked as Ahab. Verse 26, he did abominably in following idols according to all the things as did the Amorites whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. So again, he worshipped idols and he took idol worship to a whole other level.

Verse 27 says, and it came to pass when Ahab heard those wounds, that he went his clothes, tore his clothes, and he put on sackcloth upon his flesh. You think of like a bolap sack? He put that on instead and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly.

So he whipped his clothes and he wore a bolap and he sat there and he mourned and he fasted and it says he went softly. This wasn’t just an act. There was something in Ahab that changed in that moment.

when God got hold of the heart of Ahab. And God even points out in verse 28 and 29, tells Elijah how Ahab had really humbled himself before God. So there’s this incredible contrast here in this part between verses 25 and 29 where the Bible says there was nobody as wicked as Ahab and yet God broke his heart and he humbled himself before God.

His heart was changed. His heart was turned. And as I’ve been saying to you throughout this whole series, this change of heart is something only God can do.

We can’t make our loved ones turn to God. We can’t make our neighbors turn to God and trust Jesus Christ. We can’t make this country turn back to God. I wish we could, but we can’t.

what we can do is speak up as God tells us to. What we can do is speak the truth in love as He commanded, and then let God do what only He can do. Now, He doesn’t need us, but He’s chosen to use us.

And He’s chosen to use us by saying, I want you to stand here, and I want you to speak for me, and I want you to be salt and light, and I want you to speak the truth in love. I want you to do these things. And then God uses that and changes people’s hearts.

See, we can get to their ears and we can connect to their minds, but God can connect to the heart. And God did that, but look back, how did he do that? He did that through one man who was willing to stand up and be heard and be counted.

One man who knew just as we know, that it’s easier, it’s less costly, it’s less threatening to say I’m going to keep my head down and my mouth shut. One man who understood the easy thing to do is to cower here in the corner but God has told me to stand and speak and so I’m going to stand and speak. God’s told me to do this and I’m going to do this.

God has told me to point out right and wrong and so I’m going to. And folks, the message that I learned from Elijah in this story, I told you that verse 20 really is the one thing that popped out at me the most. out of anything in this passage is the way that as soon as Elijah, his stand was so clear that as soon as Elijah walked into Ahab’s prese

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