Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

It's good to have all of you with us, especially good to have our visitors with us this
morning and we appreciate your presence.

We're grateful for you taking the time to come and be with us.

We hope you'll stay for lunch and enjoy a meal with us and get to know us a little bit
better and us get the opportunity to know you a little bit better.

This morning we're going to take some lessons from an Old Testament king.

And it may be a king that if you haven't spent much time in the Old Testament you may not
have even heard of before, though his name is actually used multiple times in the text and

uh there are multiple lineages within this name.

So we're going to see the name of a king who uh if you're in one text you may be reading
of his father.

If you're in another text you may be reading of one of his descendants.

We're going take our Bibles, if you will, and open them to 1 Kings chapter 20 and notice
the foolishness of a king.

Now, here in this text, to give you a little bit of time period background, if you're
familiar with some of the Old Testament, uh David would come to the throne in the region

of Judah, and David would reign over the throne in Israel for forty years, then his son
Solomon would come to the throne and he would reign for forty years.

After Solomon died, Rehoboam will come to the throne, but the nation of Israel and Judah
will be split.

And Jeroboam will come to power in the northern kingdom of Israel, and ten tribes will be
ripped away from uh Solomon's descendant, Rehoboam, by a result of the fact that Solomon

had been unfaithful to the Lord.

So,

Rehoboam is going to reign and then Rehoboam is going to pass away and he is going to die.

Abijah his son will reign but he will only reign for about three years.

And then after Abijah's reign, Asa will come to the throne.

And Asa will begin to reign.

And in the northern kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam comes to the throne and then Nadab comes
to the throne for a very short period of time.

Baisha comes to the throne.

Baisha is going to reign for about 24 years, and this is going to begin to overlap in the
time period of Asa.

Then there are going to be a number of others who come to the throne very quickly.

Elah is going to come to the throne and reign for two years.

Zimri is going to come to the throne and reign for a short period of time.

By short, mean seven days.

That's when you know you had an unsuccessful term.

You lived seven days after you got to the throne, and then he died.

Timri and, or Timni and Omri are going to reign somewhat correspondingly as disruption
happens within the nation.

And then out of that, Omri will have a son and his name is Ahab and Ahab will come to the
throne.

Many people are familiar with Ahab because he was married to a very well-known wife,
Jezebel.

But it is going to be during

the time period of these kings, that there's going to be a king in Syria named Ben-Hadad.

In the earlier days, there's going to be Ben-Hadad I, and there will be some
confrontations between Ben-Hadad I and the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom of

Israel.

And then Ben-Hadad II is going to come to the throne.

And when Ben-Hadad II comes to the throne, he is in a situation where his father had at
one time been allied with the northern kingdom of Israel.

And when there was peace between the northern kingdom of Israel and between Syria,
Ben-Hadad reigning in Damascus, while there was peace between them, the northern kingdom

of Israel didn't really have any threats.

And so they focused their attention during the reign of Baisha on the southern kingdom of
Judah and they began to build Rhema.

Rhema was a city that was intended to be a fortified city so that when it was built there
could be no commerce, no traffic, nothing could happen between the southern kingdom of

Judah and the nations north of it.

So it was a cutting off of their commerce and of their industry.

As a result of this, God is going to provide deliverance, but the king is going to
actually seek for that deliverance, Asa, is going to seek for that deliverance through a

treaty with Ben-Hadad, Ben-Hadad the first.

And Asa is going to take all the treasures from the house of the Lord, which David had
placed there, and Solomon had placed there, and some Rehoboam had placed there, though

Rehoboam quickly departed from the Lord.

and he's gonna take all the treasures that were in the house of the Lord and treasures
that were in the house of the king and he's going to send them via his servants to

Ben-Hadad the first and say, you will go make war with the king of Israel, Baisha, then
all these things will be yours.

And so he essentially plunders the house of the Lord in order to get the king of Syria to
go make war with the king of Israel.

Now that the king of Israel is distracted,

and he has someone attacking his northern border, he stops building Ramah on the southern
border and the kingdom of Judah comes and all the people are called by the king, King Asa,

to go take and plunder all the supplies with which the city was being built.

And so they literally strip Ramah, take it, and they go build two cities in Judah out of
the plunder from the city of Ramah.

All right, that's what we have recorded about Ben-Hadad the first.

Except that God is going to tell Asa,

through a prophet that Asa had not done what was right because Asa had made a treaty with
Ben-Hadad instead of trusting the Lord.

And God is going to accuse Asa who otherwise was a good king and followed the Lord in this
matter.

Time transpires.

And now Ben-Hadad II is on the throne in Damascus.

And in 1 Kings chapter 20, Ben-Hadad is going to come down to fight against and to bring
under thumb the king of Israel who is now Ahab.

Now there are not many times in scripture where Ahab, king of Israel, is ever spoken of in
a good light or ever did anything that the Lord wanted him to do.

This is the one rare exception to that.

But in chapter 20 we read in verse 1, Now Ben-Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his
forces together.

Thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots, and he went up and besieged
Samaria and made war against it.

Then he sent messengers into the city of Ahab, king of Israel, and said to him, thus says
Ben-Hadad, your silver and your gold are mine,

Your loveliest wives and children are mine." Now, in this text we're not really told
exactly how big this army is yet.

We're going to get a picture of it later on in the chapter.

But it is sufficient that they make their way through the borders, through the fortified
cities, all the way to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

and as they besiege the capital the message comes from Ben-Hadad to Ahab, King of Israel,
everything that's precious to you you're gonna give to me.

If Ahab had any recourse in his own hands to do anything about this army that was
besieging his city, he would have done it.

But notice what his reply is.

The king of Israel answered and said, My Lord, O King, just as you say, I and all that I
have are yours.

We were to put it in modern terms, Ahab rolls over, shows his belly, and says, Whatever
you want.

Ahab knows he cannot defeat Ben Hedat.

And so he says, I have is yours.

Take what you're going to take.

We're going to begin seeing here the first lesson on the foolishness of a king.

For we find the fool who gives in to greed is never satisfied.

Ben-Hadad has besieged the city.

He is essentially in control.

He has Ahab under his thumb and Ahab has told him everything in my house is yours.

You know, sometimes when you go and visit people, if you stay in their homes, especially
people who aren't your family, ah you know, when you stay in your family's house, you kind

of know how things are going to go.

Sometimes if you go somewhere and you stay in the home of someone else, you're not quite
sure before you get there how this is going to turn out.

We had an occasion when we were younger that uh we stayed with some friends in the
Nashville area because of a medical procedure that was being done.

And so we were there for a number of days and the very first time we're ever there, very
first night that we're there, we walk into the house, we're greeting them, just having

casual conversations.

They show us to the room and they did something that honestly kind of flabbergasted us
just because of the homes we lived in.

They said, now here's the thermostat for the whole house.

You set it on whatever temperature you want.

My wife especially grew up in a household where there's pretty much one person in the
household who gets to touch the thermostat.

And so for someone to tell a guest, you just set it at whatever temperature you want.

Now that was hospitality.

I see a couple of people shaking their heads that are a little warm natured going, no, you
ain't touching my thermostat.

My house is your house.

Well, Ahab not only says you can make it whatever temperature you want, you can have my
wife, you can have my kids, anything you need, it's yours.

But then Ben-Hadad goes too far.

In the next verse we read, But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time,
and they shall...

Sorry, verse five.

Then the messengers came back and said, Thus speaks Ben-Hadad, saying, Indeed I have sent
to you, saying, You shall deliver to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your

children.

But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your
house and the houses of your servants.

And it shall be that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they will put in their hands and
take it."

Ben-Hadad, after Ahab has said, agree to your terms, said, I'm changing the deal.

Since you agreed to that, I'm going to send my servants and they're going to go through
your house and they're going to take everything that pleases you, but they're also going

to go into the houses of your servants.

And they're going to take everything that pleases you out of your servant's houses too.

And while Ahab would not stand up for himself,

One of the few times in the text where you ever see Ahab do something right, Ahab was
willing to stand up for his servants.

Notice the message.

So the king of Israel, verse 7, called all the elders of the land and said, Notice,
please, and see how this man seeks trouble.

For he sent to me for my wives, my children, my silver and my gold, and I did not deny
him.

And all the elders and all the people said to him, Do not listen or consent.

Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, Tell my lord the king,

all that you sent forward to your servant the first time I will do, but this thing I
cannot do." And the messengers departed and brought back word to him.

Then Ben-Hadad sent to him and said, "'The gods do so to me, and more also, if enough dust
is left of Samaria for a handful of for each of the people who follow me.'"

The king of Israel sends back word after the elders of Israel tell him, listen, you can't
consent to this.

We're going to back you on this.

You can't give in.

And so he sends back the servants to Ben-Hadad empty handed and says, I can't do this.

And Ben-Hadad comes back with a threat and says, there's not going to be anything left of
this city when I'm done of it except dust.

And we're going to carry the dust away in our pockets, as it were.

You thought I was gonna take a lot before, now I'm gonna take everything.

and it happened when Ben-Hadad, sorry, verse 11, so the king of Israel answered and said
to him, tell him, let not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it

off.

The king of Israel sends back a message and says, Ben, hey dad, put up or shut up.

Don't be boasting as though you've won when you haven't even started the battle.

The one who puts on his armor is getting ready for war.

The one who takes off his armor came home victorious.

And Ahab says, you don't have any business talking as though you've already won when you
haven't even gotten started.

So he sends back the message to Ben-Hadad.

So the king of Israel answered and said, him the one who puts on his armor, tell him, let
not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.

And it happened when Beden-Hadad heard this message as he and the kings were drinking at
the command post that he said to his servant, get ready, and they got ready to attack the

city.

You find here the second lesson from a foolish king.

is the foolishness of drinking is self-defeating.

Ben Haydad has been going through this communication process and the indication is he is
well inebriated as he is negotiating this agreement.

And as a result of his drunken state by the indication of the text, Ben Haydatt says,
fine, let's go to war.

And they will.

But we read in verse 13.

As Ben-Hadad prepares to attack the city, as suddenly a prophet approached Ahab, the king
of Israel, saying, Thus says the LORD, Have you seen all this great multitude?

Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

As the city is besieged and surrounded by this great army made up of the armies of 32
kings, a messenger from the Lord shows up with Ahab and says, the Lord has something to

tell you.

You look around you.

You look at the army that you're facing and I am going to deliver it into your hand.

Now there's one point, one message that is to come from this deliverance.

Ahab is supposed to learn and realize that Jehovah alone is the Lord.

Now if you're familiar with Ahab and you're familiar with much of the rest of the text,
you will find that Ahab in his time would worship Baal and Ashtaroth.

He would marry from other nations that they had commanded not to intermarry with.

His wives will worship other gods and all of these things will occur and over and over and
over again.

Ahab will be shown that Jehovah alone is the Lord.

and he was very slow to learn.

But Ahab will know the difference.

As a matter of fact, there's a later occasion where one of the kings of the southern
kingdom of Judah is there with Ahab and Ahab is trying to get him to go out to war.

And as they're planning, Ahab brings prophet after prophet before this king of Judah and
shows him these prophets say we're going to win.

And the king from the southern kingdom of Judah says, there not a prophet of the Lord in
this nation?

And Ahab will say, yes, there is one, but he always prophesies evil about me.

As a matter of fact, he had him in prison at the time.

You see, uh Ahab knows who the Lord is and he knows who his prophets are because God is
going to demonstrate just exactly who he is.

We read in verse 14, so Ahab said, by whom?

The prophet comes to Ahab and says, I'm going to deliver this great multitude, this great
army into your hand.

And Ahab says, by who?

He's looking at the numbers and he's going, math ain't adding up, Lord.

Just exactly how are you going to do this?

What army are you bringing to supplement my army to make sure that this actually happens?

And notice what we read, and he said, thus says the Lord, by the young leaders of the
provinces.

Then he said, who will set the battle in order?

And he answered, you.

When Ahab says, how are you going to do this?

What army are you going to do this with?

By whom are you going to deliver this people into my hand?

God says, I'm going to use the young princes of the provinces.

Okay, who's leading the battle?

Ahab, you are.

Then he mustered the young leaders of the provinces.

And there were 232.

Great army surrounding the city, besieging the city, a great multitude every direction
they turned.

And what does God give Ahab as an army?

232 young leaders of provinces.

There's your army Ahab, have at it.

Notice what we read.

Then he mustered the young leaders of the provinces and there were 232 and after them he
mustered all the people and all the children of Israel 7,000.

Alright, so it's getting a little bigger but it's not going to compare when you finally
see later on in the chapter how big the Syrian army is.

So they went out at noon meanwhile Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings helping him were getting
drunk at the command post.

This guy's got a problem!

So is everyone who utilizes alcohol to the degree that they no longer can tell the
difference between good and evil, right and wrong, up or down.

You want to demonstrate that you're a fool?

Then buy alcohol.

You'll demonstrate you're a fool.

But notice...

As they're coming out, young leaders of the provinces went out first and Ben Haddad sent
out a patrol and they told him saying men are coming out of Samaria.

So he said if they come out for peace, take them alive.

And if they come out for war, take them alive.

I don't care what they do, take them alive.

not exactly sound judgment.

Then these young leaders of the provinces went out of the city with the army which
followed them and each one killed his man.

Essentially what happens is they come out one against another they send out the the young
provinces there are the leaders of the young problem the young leaders of provinces I'll

get my words out and Everyone is faced by his opponent and everyone wins

And Ben-Hadad sent out a patrol and told them men are coming out of Samaria.

So he said, if they come out for peace, take them alive.

And if they come out for war, take them alive.

Then the young leaders of the provinces went out of the city with the army which followed
them, and each one killed his man.

So the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them.

And Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, escaped on a horse with the cavalry.

Then the king of Israel went out and attacked the horses and the chariots and killed the
Syrians with a great slaughter.

And the prophet came to the king and said, Go strengthen yourself.

Take note and see what you should do, for in the spring of the year the king of Syria will
come up against you.

As they are victorious in the battle and as a great slaughter occurs against the Syrian
army, Ben-Hadad gets on his horse, goes with his cavalry and flees back to Damascus.

But the prophet tells the king of Israel, they're not going be gone long.

They're going to come back in the spring and you better be prepared.

We see in the coming text the third lesson from the foolish king and that is the
foolishness of listening to ungodly advisors.

is a challenge for us.

to do things in this world, whether it be business, education, whether it be the things
that we do in our daily lives, the things that we do in planning for the future, it is a

challenge for us to realize that many of the people who will advise us, many of the people
who will tell us how we should behave, many of the people who will show us how to do the

things that we need to do in life will not do so from a frame of reference of being godly
people.

If you want some great advice mixed in with some horrible advice, visit the self-help
section of the bookstore.

and you'll find that there are people who will give you a little smattering of good advice
surrounded by some of the worst advice ever.

Why?

Because they don't have a frame of reference for how to be obedient to God first before
they start giving advice.

And at any point where someone gives you advice that is in opposition to the Word of God,
they are giving you bad advice.

and Ben-Hadad has just such advisors.

Notice as we look here at verse 23, Then the servants of the king of Syria said to him,
Their gods are the gods of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we.

But if we fight against them in the plains, surely we will be stronger than they."

We've done an analysis of the battle.

We've done our after action reports, as we would say in the military nowadays.

We've looked at what happened and we've come to the conclusion that their gods are the
gods of the hills.

And we were fighting in the hills.

And so we were defeated.

But our gods are the gods of the plains.

So if we can just get their army out into the plain, we'll be able to defeat them.

because their gods won't stand a chance against us.

And Ben-Hadad, as a fool, listens to advisors who are ungodly.

Verse 24, so do this thing, dismiss the kings, each from his position, and put captains in
their places.

We need to rebuild the army, the kings aren't gonna do it.

We're gonna, just get rid of those guys.

Those 32 kings, we don't need them anymore, put captains over the people instead.

We need a trained army, not 32 different factions all fighting for themselves.

And so they give advice to Ben-Hadad, get rid of the kings, put captains in their places,
and you shall muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, chariot

for chariot, then we will fight against them in the plain.

Surely we will be stronger than they." And he listened to their voice and did so.

So it was in the spring of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to
Afek to fight against Israel.

This time he doesn't go to Samaria.

No, he goes to the plane, he listens to the advisors.

The advisors have told him quite clearly, you can't go back into the hill country.

No, no, no, you got to get their army to come out on the plane.

Our gods can defeat them there.

And after all, he's mustered an army that was as big as the first one.

Now, in the beginning of the chapter, we weren't really told just exactly how big that
army was, but the text says that he brought back an army horse for horse, man for man,

like the first one was.

We're going find out just exactly how big that army was.

So it was in the spring of the year that Ben Haedad mustered the Syrians and went up to
Afech to fight against Israel.

And the children of Israel were mustered and given provisions and they went against them.

Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats while the
Syrians filled the countryside.

The people of Israel gather for war.

They're given their supplies, they muster out, they go get ready, and they go meet them
out on the plain.

And if you had been standing back, the text tells us, and had been overlooking the plain,
you would have looked like there was a little flock of sheep over here.

and the entire plane was covered by the Syrian army.

In other words, you would have done an analysis and said, uh there's no way.

There is not a chance that that army that is minuscule by comparison is going to defeat
these Syrians.

And you would have been wrong.

Then a man

of God came and spoke to the king of Israel and said, Thus says the LORD.

Because the Syrians have said the LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the
valleys, therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall

know that I am the LORD.

When the prophet comes to Ahab, he doesn't tell Ahab, Ahab, because of your great
faithfulness since this last encounter, I'm going to fight for you.

No, that's not what he says.

He doesn't come to Ahab and say, because you have repented and you have reformed your ways
and you are now once again in a right relationship with me, I will def...

No, that's not what God says.

God says.

because I'm a jealous God.

What does the word jealous mean?

It means one who holds on to that which rightfully belongs to him.

And God is going to demonstrate to Ben Hey Dad that there is exactly one God.

He's not the God of the hills, he's not the God of the valleys, he is God of all.

And so the prophet comes to Ahab and says, because I am going to defend my name, I'm going
to deliver you.

And essentially is going to tell Ahab, and you better learn the lesson this time.

Because Ahab, you are to know that I am the Lord.

And they encamped opposite each other for seven days.

So it was that on the seventh day the battle was joined and the children of Israel killed
one hundred thousand foot soldiers of the Syrians in one day.

Can you imagine being in the camp of the Israelites for those seven days and the army
that's surrounding you is a hundred thousand plus and you're sitting there and thinking,

ah

How's this gonna work out?

and yet through the deliverance of the Lord.

100,000 of the Syrians are killed by the army of Israel in a day.

You think back to the Civil War in this country.

There weren't 100,000 deaths in the entire Civil War in four and a half, five years.

And that meant he died in a day.

But we're not through.

Notice, he says, but the rest fled to Aphek, into the city.

Then a wall fell on 27,000 of the men who were left.

They lose a hundred thousand in battle, they lose another third of that because they went
into a city where the wall couldn't hold them.

27,000 Syrians die in the city.

Ben-Haydad fled and went into the city into an inner chamber.

We've seen the foolishness of Ben-Hadad when he gives in to greed.

We see the foolishness of drinking.

We see the foolishness of listening to ungodly advisors.

Think about that.

The willingness to listen to ungodly advisors led to the death of 127,000 people.

But then we see the folly of an alliance with a fool.

because God has demonstrated to Ahab, am the Lord.

And God has demonstrated Ahab again, I am the Lord.

And then Ahab goes and starts thinking he's in charge.

Verse 31, then his servant said to him, Look now, we have heard that the king of the house
of Israel are merciful kings.

Please let us put sackcloth on our waists and robes around our heads and go out to the
king of Israel, perhaps he will spare your life.

So they wore sackcloth around their waists and put robes around their heads and came to
the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-Hadad says, Please let me live.

And he said, Is he still alive?

He is my brother." Now the men were watching closely to see whether any sign of mercy
would come from him and they quickly grasped at this word and said, your brother

Ben-Hadad.

So he said, go bring him.

Then Ben-Hadad came out to him and he had him come up into the chariot.

So Ben-Hadad said to him, the cities which my father took, that's Ben-Hadad the first,

took from your father, will restore.

And you may set up marketplaces for yourselves in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.

Then Ahab said, I will send you away with this treaty." So he made a treaty with him and
sent him away.

Ben Haydab says, um let's renegotiate that negotiation from the beginning of this whole
ordeal.

And why don't you bring your merchants and bring your people to Damascus and we'll set up
a marketplace for them and we'll have commerce and we'll have money and we'll all be rich.

And now you're talking Ahab's time to motivation right there.

And Ahab says, you're my brother, come up in my chariot and go home with peace.

Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbor, by the word of the
Lord, strike me please.

And the man refused to strike him.

The prophet comes to someone who is in Israel and says, by the command of God, strike me.

And the man won't do it.

We are challenged.

to realize over and over in the text that it is not for us to decide whether or not God's
commands make sense.

whether or not we would do things the way God has chosen to do things.

And this individual finds out very quickly that he should have just listened to the word
of the Lord.

The prophet tells him, strike me.

And the man refused to strike him.

Then he said to him, because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, surely as soon as
you depart from me, a lion shall kill you.

And as soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.

You wait a minute, that's not fair.

That's not just all he did was refuse to hurt someone who had done nothing wrong.

No, that's not what he did.

He didn't refuse to hurt someone who had not done something that was wrong.

He refused to obey a direct command from the Lord.

and it cost him his life.

The text then tells us, found another man, verse 37, and said, Strike me, please.

So the man struck him, inflicting a wound.

Then the prophet departed and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with
a bandage over his eyes.

Now as the king passed by, he cries out to the king and said, Your servant went out into
the midst of the battle.

And there a man came over and brought a man to me and said, Guard this man, if by any
means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talon of

silver.

The prophet speaks as though he is a soldier.

He's bandaged and appears as though he's been in a battle.

And he cries out to the king and says, I was in the midst of the battle and a man came and
brought someone to me and said, told me to guard him.

and said, I let that guy loose, if I let that prisoner go, my life was going to be
forfeit.

while your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.

He says, I was just going through the daily routine.

I was just taking care of the things that needed to happen.

mean, there was a battle that had happened and there were things that needed to be done.

And I turned around and looked.

Prisoners gone.

The king of Israel said to him, so shall your judgment be.

You yourself have decided.

king, as the one in charge, as judge, he looks at it says, well, you've already described
your own punishment.

That man placed someone into your authority, into your hand, you were supposed to guard
him, you were make sure he didn't escape, and you didn't pay attention.

And now your life will be forfeit because you didn't follow the instructions.

and he hastened to take the bandage away from his eyes and the king of Israel recognized
him as one of the prophets.

Then he said to him, thus says the Lord, because you have let slip out of your hand a man
whom I appointed to other utter destruction.

Therefore your life shall go for his life and your people for his people.

So the king of Israel went to his house, Solon,

and displeased and came to Samaria.

He's just had a great victory.

He's just conquered a great army.

He's just signed a great economic peace treaty.

And God says you failed utterly.

Why?

Because he was a fool.

Because he didn't learn the lesson.

Because time and time and time again God showed Ahab who he was and Ahab refused to
listen.

Ahab still imagined that Ahab was in charge.

Lessons from a foolish king

Ben-Hadad was a fool.

God had appointed him for destruction.

But unfortunately for Israel Ahab was a greater fool.

For he had prophets surrounding him who would tell him the truth.

He had demonstrations over and over and over again that God alone was the Lord.

And he refused to change.

If you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, God has demonstrated
His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

He died for us that we might have redemption and salvation and the hope of eternal life.

He's demonstrated clearly His love for you and that He is the Lord.

The question is, will you be obedient to His commands?

You say, how am I going to be saved?

Well, Jesus said, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

He that believeth not shall be damned.

Jesus sent word through His apostles to go in all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

God said, here's how you do it.

Someone may come along and say, well, I don't agree with that.

That's not how I think it should be done.

I don't think that's necessary.

There was a man who met a prophet, and the prophet said, strike.

and the man wouldn't do it.

I don't think that's necessary.

That doesn't sound like good idea.

And the prophet emphasized quite clearly to this man who was a fool the danger of not
obeying the word of the Lord.

If you're here this morning, we beg you, do not be a fool, but obey the word of the Lord.

If you have need of the invitation, why not come forward now as we stand and as we sing.