"A Chink in the Armor"
Why paying attention to our affiliations matters when it comes to our personal and public witness of Christ.
Download or email this sermon The Chink in the Armor
Let's see what happens next. So they go after Ahab. Ahab is trying to be slick, trying to find the fall guy, but he didn't take account of something. There was a chink in his armor. In Ephesians 6:13 we see what that armor is. The chink here is where the breastplate met the shoulder. The breastplate of "righteousness". Sin finds people out – finds the chink in the armor.
I once saw a Roman legionnaire's armor on display in Rome. It's very big and the biggest is the breastplate. The breastplate of righteousness. When Paul spoke about the armor he used something that Jews would have understood because the armor is also in Isaiah, but it’s also something the Greeks and Romans would have understood well. The armor was there, the breastplate of righteousness. Ephesians 6:13 tells us we are to put it on so that you may stand firm. Ahab put on his armor but there was a chink in it and that arrow found it. He came into judgment and was destroyed. They didn't get the victory over the Arameans. They didn't get it. Look at what he says in 1 Kings 22:3…
Now the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the king of Aram?”
"We've got to get the victory over these unbelievers, over these pagans, over the homosexual lobby, over the pro abortion lobby, over the Moslems, over the Freemasons, over the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses. We've got to get the victory. We have to claim the land back for Christ. We've got to stand together." That's what they say. They will never get the victory over the enemy. Never! A false brother is not your ally. He is your liability. He'll never win. God won't use people like that. There's a chink in their armor.
So what happens next? They lose the battle but a gracious and merciful God intervenes on Jehoshaphat's behalf. Then in 2 Chronicles 19:2…
Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord and so bring wrath on yourself from the Lord?
Should you help the wicked? They hate the Lord. These money preachers hate the real Jesus Christ. They worship mammon. They may call their god "Jesus", but their god is mammon. They call the sin of covetousness "faith". They have a different god, a different "Jesus". They hate the real Jesus. They don't want a Jesus who says, "Pick up your cross and follow me" they want a "Jesus" who is going to give you another Mercedes. And they admit it. They're false brethren. And when you ride in his chariot – you ride in his Mercedes, you get on his TV show – you're going to get confused with him and make yourself a target, and nothing other than the intervention of the merciful God will save your neck. Why do you get involved with those who hate the Lord? Why are you on that idiot TV show? Why are you on that platform with these heretics? Can't you see you'll be confused with them? Can't you see that you're going to give the impression, to the unbelievers that you agree with them?
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.