The Voices We Listen To - Section 1

Whom Do You Associate With?

Chapter 1

Beware How You Listen! And to Whom!

      The Word says in James 4:4 that to be a friend of the world is to be at enmity with God, or at variance; to be anti-God or anti-Christ. In Romans 1:21-32 there is a list of those who are the anti-God type of people. Please look through those verses now. If you fall into any category within those verses of scripture, then you are a friend of the world even though you are professing to be a Christian. What does the Bible say that we as Christians should have done?

      24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:24 NKJV).

      That is what Jesus requires of those who follow Him. Let us consider two biblical accounts of being a friend of the world and listening to the wrong voice.

A.   Two Biblical Accounts

1.     Lots’ Exposure to the Sodomites

       7. and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) (2 Pet 2:7-8 NKJV).

Consider that for a moment. Lot was in a city that had every known perversion, and he was trying to keep his thought-life straight. He knew right from wrong, free will choice, and all that, but! Because he lived there in Sodom, he was constantly hurting himself and his family. Not only did he hear what the wicked sinners were talking about and see them performing their perverse acts, but he also had to constantly stop himself from thinking and acting like them! Tell me that is not harmful to one’s beliefs and morals! Let us look at the results of Lot’s choice to live among them. In Genesis chapter 19, Lot lost all his possessions (vv. 15-16) and had to flee for his life with his wife and his two virgin daughters. Then in verse twenty-six he lost his wife when she disobeyed the angel’s commandment in verse seventeen, looked back, and became a pillar of salt! In verse thirty, Lot and his two daughters were living in a cave, far away from everyone else.

Finally, look at verses 30 through 36. This is the outcome and product of his having lived in Sodom, where there was so much depravity. The wicked effect it had upon Lot's two virgin daughters, who thought it was not wrong to ply their father with wine until he was drunk and bore children for him. Were there no other women for Lot to bear children with? They could have journeyed to where Abraham was and married a relative, since that was acceptable then, about two hundred years before the Law was given to Moses. If this were done today and found out, the man would be jailed. If he were a clergyman, he would be stripped of his position in disgrace. Most would have to resign from their chosen vocation in shame and disgrace, but that was then, and this is now.

      The sons of Lot went on to found two nations, Moab and Ammon, who hired Balaam to curse Israel when they were going to enter the land of Canaan to possess it. These two nations were excluded from entering the assembly of the Lord. Moab is currently in ¹Babylon and will be returned to view in the end times, and ²Ammon has disappeared from history.

2.  King Ahab’s Death for Having Itching Ears to Hear Only What He Wanted to Hear

Our second Biblical account of being a friend of the world and listening to the wrong voice is found in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 18. Here we are told of the last days of Ahab, King of Israel, in 897 B.C. According to the scripture, Ahab had four hundred prophets who were not God’s prophets, but they always told the king what he wanted to hear. So, Ahab convinced Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, to go with him, even after hearing Micaiah, a true prophet of God, prophesy of their defeat in the coming campaign and of the death of Ahab. They went into battle. Jehoshaphat was wounded while wearing the King of Israel’s robes, and an archer fired an arrow at random, mortally wounding King Ahab, fulfilling Micaiah’s prophecy. Ahab knew that Micaiah was a true prophet of God, and yet he was driven to believe the lie that he would win because he was a vain and proud worldly person. Be careful who you listen to, because if the voice you hear is not God’s voice, you may be letting yourself in for trouble or heartache, which could have been avoided.

      It is written:

      5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV).

¹ Jeremiah 48, Tanach. Brooklyn, New York: ArtScroll. p. 1187.

Write them for permission to use (can use up to five hundred words, I think)

² St. Justin Martyr. "Dialogue with Trypho". Early Christian Writings. Peter Kirby.