Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the chapter we read, 1 Chronicles
chapter 28, and reading from our text, verse 9. And thou, Solomon, my son, know
thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect
heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searcheth all hearts
and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek
him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will
cast thee off for ever. And we could add the further
charge in verse 10, take heed now for the Lord hath chosen
thee to build an house for the sanctuary be strong and doing. Of course, the latter part is
specifically to Solomon, but I want to go from Solomon to
a charge to us as well. We have here David's charge to
Solomon, and to us. 1 Chronicles 28 and verse 9. There's something sacred when
it comes to the end of the lives of the Lord's dear people. We
think of Jacob when he blessed his sons in Genesis 49 and prophecies
there the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Joseph when he also
blessed his sons and then he gave commandment concerning his
bones and gave charge concerning them, made mention of the departing
of the children of Israel out of Egypt. And of course, with
Joseph being the means of them going into Egypt, it is very
appropriate that he also was the one that gave charge going
out. It's very easy for people to
latch hold of something, maybe of fathers or maybe of pastor,
something that they've said, and they set it in stone, something
that they've done that they will not go back upon it at all. They
can read Providence, they can have direction, but no, they're
gonna stay firm on what their forefathers have done. But God,
in great wisdom, used Joseph himself, who was used to bring
them into Egypt, to give commandment for them to going out. So when
they came out, no one could say, well, Joseph brought us in here
and it was remarkably done, a wonderful providence. We're not going out
of Egypt, we want to stay here because they had his bones there
and commandment concerning his bones. And it's good for us to
look at God's providence, how he helps us and helps us to do
his will And even if we've been blessed in a place to make those
things happen so that we're willing to move to another place. I had 10 years in my home before
we were married. There was hardly a room in that
home that I was not blessed in. The Lord had given me promises
that partly had come to pass in being married over here. And
it also meant that I needed to move from that home. And so it
gave me the incentive, gave to the reason to move. Thou shalt not have sons or daughters
in this place. And I marvel at how the Lord
ordered that. And I see the same pattern with
what God did with Israel, with Joseph. But then we have with
David. And again, it's a lovely thing
where you get a, you might say, a continuity of power. There's
not David dying and then Solomon is left to start without any
charge, without any guidance. And this chapter here, in chapter
28, we have first David's charge to all Israel, all the congregation
in the first eight verses, and then he gives the charge to his
son in these verses nine and ten, and then gives the pattern
of the sanctuary, not leaving anything out. He'd prepared so
much for it, and even by weight, even to that extent. And then we read in the following
chapter, the charge again concerning the offerings to the people for
the temple and those things that had been prepared. And throughout
that chapter, he is preparing for that time as recorded at
the end of the chapter, when David passes away, when he dies. And he prays before he parts
from them. He prays for them and makes supplication
in front of them all to God for them. And Solomon is anointed
the second time over the kingdom. Really the Lord ordered it. so
that their kingdom was really established at that time. But it is the charge, the charge
that David gave to Solomon his son, that is upon my spirit this
evening. I want to look at three points. Firstly, The charge, know thou
the God of thy father. And then secondly, we have the
charge to serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. And
then lastly, in our text, there is four reasons to do so. But firstly, there is the charge
that Solomon should know, know thou the God of thy father. There are several times through the
Old Testament where those like Jacob and like Isaac were blessed
for their father's sake. And the Lord acknowledges the
blessings that he has given to one generation and will have
the next generation learn from them and know from them. Solomon
doesn't have a charge from David just to know about David's God,
but to know him. Thou, Solomon, my son, know thou
the God of thy father, whom to know is life eternal. It's a great difference in knowing
about someone and knowing them. in taking this line to Solomon. I mean, he could have if he realized
Solomon had been blessed, and no doubt he knew that day Solomon
would be blessed, but if it had been put that make sure you know
the Lord thy God, that would be one thing. But the way that
this is worded here, It's really encouragement to all seekers
and all of those that would follow in the path of their fathers.
Though we have in the Word of God an example of how the Lord
deals with his people, and certainly we do have here with David, yet
in Solomon's eyes, those things that he had known and seen and
heard of David, his father, were a living witness. And I certainly
have been encouraged through my life, especially when times
of temptation, times when I've been very low in myself, when
the adversary has said, well, no, religion is just all the
cunningly devised fables. There's no reality in it. There
may be a cloud all over my own life, my own witness, my own,
what the Lord has done for me. And then the Lord has brought
to remembrance what I have seen done in another's life. I witness
what they have said, what they've done, how the Lord has appeared
for them and answered their prayers and what their testimony has
been. And that's often been a means to lift me up, encourage me,
strengthen me again. And the Lord has given us these
witnesses. And we have in Hebrews 12, after
that long list of those that lived and died by faith in Hebrews
11, wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us looking
unto Jesus. And the same principle is there. Witnesses that God has given
us, even in our own house, in our own lives, with Ruth, She
had no Omi. And you might say, what kind
of witness is that? That poor woman had gone down
to Moab. She'd lost her husband. She'd
lost her sons. But the witness was how she'd
brought up under those trials, how she was sustained, how she
humbled herself, and how she did not cast off the Lord, her
God. She still claimed to him and
Ruth. She claimed to Naomi and desired
to claim to her God as well. We mustn't think that if we're
to recommend our faith, our religion, and what the Lord has done for
us, that everything will go smoothly and lovely for us. We're not
to think, well, you want our children and grandchildren to
walk in the ways of the Lord, they've got to see that we've
had health and strength and a good job and everything going well
for us in this life. Otherwise, I think it was not
worth having your God. But David had had many, many
trials and many tribulations and his own sins as well, directly
related to Solomon's birth. How he was born a Bathsheba with
whom he committed adultery and murdered her first husband. And
Solomon knew all of that, but he also knew that God chastened
David. He knew that he restored him.
He knew that he blessed him in spite of those things that he'd
done. He also knew that which David
rehearses in the earlier part of this chapter, how that God
chose him. All of his household, really
all of the tribes of Israel, he chose Judah. And of the tribe
of Judah, he chose his house, Jesse's house, and of all his
sons, the youngest and the most insignificant. Overlooked it
would have been by Samuel and despised by his brothers. And
Solomon is reminded, the whole congregation is reminded of this. And Solomon especially has heard
all what David has said, as now has a charge, know thou the God
of thy father. you walk in that same path. As
David, as I have walked, and as I have known the Lord, so
you know the Lord as well. And there is David as an example
of that. Those of us who know the Lord,
we should be able to say with the Apostle Paul, when he spoke
to King Agrippa, when King Agrippa said that, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian, He said, I would that thou wouldst not
only be almost, but altogether, such as I am, except this chain. He would not wish upon others
our afflictions, our infirmities, and the things that are upon
us that are because of our sin, but we would desire for them
our God. What a recommendation that is. say that to her children, our
grandchildren, could we say that to others in our town, that we'd
have that they knew our God, that they knew the blessings
we know, that they could be in our shoes, in our place and walk
as we walk. And David is able to charge Solomon
with this before all of the assembly, that he might know the God of
his fathers. Know that he was a covenant-keeping
God. David says, although my house
be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. This is all my desire,
all his hope, though he make it not to grow. And this is the
God that David desired Solomon to know the God that he spoke
of before all of the assembly as he went, and of course this
was before Solomon was born, when he went against Goliath,
and he said, the God that delivered me out of the paw of the lion
and the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of
this Philistine, and that was before all of Israel. And so for David then to point
Solomon to this same God and to exhort him, to charge him
in this way to know him, he was giving Solomon an aim, an end
view. that does tie in with the next
part of the charge. But it's important for us to
have an aim. You know, if Solomon went through
his life and we go through our life, and our aim and desire
is not just to be blessed, not to be, know that we're one of
God's people, not to be brought to baptism, not to be favoured
in our lives, but to know God, to actually walk with Him and
know Him as our God, as our Saviour, as our Friend, as our Redeemer,
have that acquaintance with Him. When we think of the whole plan
of salvation, it's to bring a people that is alienated from God and
to bring them nigh by the blood of Christ. The work of our Lord
Jesus Christ is to have a people drawn to him. No man cometh unto
me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, I'll raise him
up the last day. We think of his disciples. They
were called, and the effect of that calling was that they were
Disciples, those that believed on him, as recorded in John 8,
the Lord said, if you continue in my word, then you shall be
my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth. The
truth shall make you free. And being so close to the Lord,
they learnt of him. And the Lord exhorts those, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly at heart. In other words, the same Message
that is here, the Lord is saying, you learn of me, you get to know
me and know my ways and know my spirit. Not like the disciples
who said to the Samaritans who wouldn't receive him, shall we
call down fire from heaven and destroy them? The Lord says,
you know not what spirit you are. That is not my spirit. The Son of Man came not to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. And so this gives us an aim. In our reading the Word of God,
in our coming under the preaching of the Word, in all of our lives,
our aim, our desire, should be that we might know, that we might
truly know God. And it's put then in a focus
here, know thou the God of thy father. And so those of us here,
or some of you who have your father here, You know, have your
grandparents here, have your grandparents that you've been
with today, and it is a memory that is lively, it's present
with us. And when we can remember our
fathers, remember what they've gone through, the trials they've
been through, you know, with our children, there was, we used
to lie in the family, worship the problems and trials before
them when we were blessed, and we gathered together and we thank
the Lord. There are some things, of course,
parents keep to themselves, bear the burden themselves. But as
children are able to bear it, it's a good thing to see how
practically a parent walks before the Lord as an example, not just
in words, but actually an example. Being with brethren in the ministry
recently, and some of them were sharing deep trials that they've
been through in illnesses with their families, their wives,
and the observation made that the congregation do not just
hear our words, but they see our lives. They see how we respond
when we have adversity and trials and afflictions. And that is,
we mentioned Naomi and Ruth observing her, And these things then are
not done in a corner. What the Lord does for his people,
he does before others. They see what he does. And so
this is a charge, an aim to Solomon and an aim to us as well. May we take this away this evening. If nothing else, may I take it
away as my aim too. And to be renewed to this, know
thou the God of thy father. Well, of course, joined with
that will be prayer, won't it? Prayer to seek the Lord and to
ask the Lord that we might know this God. How many times have
we actually prayed that? Lord, reveal thyself to me. Cause
me to know thee. caused me to know Thee the same
as my fathers, my mother, those that I've seen blessed, those
of a generation before. The blessings I've seen them
have caused me to know those blessings and to walk in that
path as well. And a very scriptural pattern
here for it, and counted a real blessing where we have been a
witness of the blessings of another. We have seen the blessings of
another. We have seen the effect of the
blessings of the Lord upon those near and dear to us. I want to
look then, secondly, at the charge that he has concerning serving
him. Serve him with a perfect heart. How we serve God is very important. Not just serving Him, but how
we do. You think of the illustration
in our own employment. If we're working for an employer,
we can just do the basic, bare minimum. We can do it begrudgingly. We can do it in an unkind way. But what a difference if we do
it willingly, cheerfully, and go the second mile, and do all
that is set before us, not saying, well, I think it should be done
this way, I don't want to do it this way, I'm not happy with
my lot. How we serve is very important,
even in natural things in your life, and serving the Lord. How we serve is important. You might say, but I'm not a
minister. I'm not a deacon. How do I serve the Lord? Well,
all of God's children are brought to obey him, to do his will,
to be submissive to his providential leadings and appointments, and
fulfilling what he has given us to do. whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with all thy heart, all thy mind, working
as unto the Lord and not as unto men. We are to serve the Lord
in that way, where the Lord maybe has given us smaller things to
do, helping in the church of God, playing the organ, serving
at chapel teas, helping in small ways, we might say small, and
yet greatly valued in the house of God. She had done what she
could, and it is a good thing to think when the Lord brings
his people, and the language is, Lord, what thou have me to
do? and the desire that we might
be his servants, not Satan's servants. Paul says that as we
have yielded our members, servants to unrighteousness, so yield
them servants to righteousness. Where our feet have gone for
pleasure and sin, our feet then in the ways of the Lord. Where
our hands have been used to do things that are ungodly, have
them used to that which is godly, where our skills, our minds have
been used for self-pleasure and the things of this world, to
have them brought into captivity to serve the Lord. And with Solomon, he was then
given this charge. He is the leader of his people,
as the king, he was to serve in that way, but it does apply
then to all of us, and especially in how it is set before us here,
not what, in what way serving, but in the spirit, with a perfect
heart and with a willing mind, a complete heart. Our Lord said,
you cannot serve God and mammon. No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one or
cleave to the other. You cannot. serve God and mammon. And so it is sincerely and fully,
cheerfully, not hypocritically, but serving the Lord with all
of our lives, willingly, not in a forced way and not with
weariness. And when we think of what David
has set before Solomon, to know thou the God of thy father, He's
implying Solomon is looking at his servitude as well. So here's
an example of servitude. So for the next generation, what
will our children and grandchildren see of how we serve the Lord
as well? And so this charge for Solomon,
he was before all Israel. All Israel would look at him.
All Israel would see how he served God, how he behaved. Of course,
sadly, we know the Lord appeared to Solomon twice, but he did
depart, went after the gods of the many wives that he had. And
the Lord then chastened him for that. But Solomon was blessed
and was favoured. And the Lord was here with him.
The temple was built and all was done as David had made preparations
for. And there's a beautiful promises
and encouragements later on in this chapter. In verse 20, David
said to Solomon his son, be strong and of good courage and do it,
fear not nor be dismayed for the Lord God, even my God, he
comes back to his own God again, reminding Solomon of the God
of his father's David, even my God will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake
thee until thou hast finished all the work for the service
of the house of the Lord. So in many encouraging words
that David gives when he charges Solomon to first know thou the
God of thy father and secondly serve him with a perfect heart
and a willing mind. In one sense, we can't serve
someone properly unless we really know them, can we? And so it's
vital, those two points that go together. But then thirdly,
David gives four reasons to do so. The first is this, for the
Lord searcheth all hearts. Lord searcheth all hearts. He
knows what is the innermost thoughts, what our intentions are. He knows before we put into action
what our intentions are going to be. Many times we read of
our Lord when he was on earth, knowing the thoughts and knowing
the hearts of those that were about him, and certainly telling
us of what is in the heart of man by nature. There are many
Gospels that we could choose from, but in Mark, in chapter
7, we read in verse 21 what the Lord says of what defiles a man
that that comes from within, out of the heart of men. And
this is what the Lord searches of the heart of men. He says,
from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within
and defile the man. And so this is the incentive
to serve the Lord fully and perfectly. And it should be an encouragement
to us if the Lord has opened our hearts and opened our eyes
to see what we are by nature. And we might say, how can any
good dwell here? recoiled from the sight of what
God sees, what we see. But we have to remember this
is what God sees, even when we didn't see it. When we were in
trespasses and sins, when we were in darkness, God still saw
what our heart was. So when we start to see it and
mourn over that heart and lay it before Him and confess it
before Him, we're not showing the Lord anything He does not
know. we are telling him what he has revealed to us. And David
in Psalm 51, in that beautiful Psalm of repentance, he is very
clear of what is in his heart, and the need of cleansing, the
need of washing, the need of redemption. And so when Solomon
has this charge, David is bringing him to a real heart worship,
a heart work, reminding that God sees that within. You cannot
deceive God, you cannot be one thing outwardly and another thing
inwardly. It must be, if we serve the true
and living God, that it be through and through, right from the very
intense thoughts and intense of our heart. And so the incentive
of four reasons to know God and to serve him, the first one he
gives concerning the heart. Now, when David had a view of
Solomon as God opened up to him what his kingdom should be like,
he said, is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And I believe
that was David getting a little glimpse of the kingdom of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That peaceful kingdom. He was
a man of blood. In a way, both David and Solomon
portray the Lord. Our Lord suffered. He was a man
of blood. But then after his sufferings,
and David, of course, was a man after God's own heart, but after
our Lord's sufferings, then is the kingdom of peace. then is
the gospel of peace. It is a peace making blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood of the covenant. And so
if we are to know David's God, we are to know David's greatest
son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who deals with the sin
of the heart, not just superficial, what a solemn thing, Today, Christ
is set forth mostly as just an example, how we are to live,
just an example of charity, not as the Son of God, eternal Son
of God, who suffered, bled, and died to put away our sin, to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and to give a hope beyond the
grave. And it is right for us that our
incentive in our serving should be that the Lord does see us
exactly as we are, and that His salvation deals with the heart. Now, I want to just notice another
thing as well. Solomon had highlighted how,
or David had highlighted how Solomon should serve. The blessing
of repentance, and when the Lord begins with the sinner, It doesn't
mean to say that that sinner, though he has repentance or she
has repentance, that they're able to eradicate all of their
sin, turn away from all of their sins. They do turn away, but
certainly not perfectly. But to have a heart to do it,
to be willing to do it, to want to do it, like in Hebrews 12, resisted unto blood, striving
against sin. Or like the Apostle Paul, when
I would do good, evil is present with me. So he had the desire
to do good. If I do that which I would not,
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So repentance,
firstly, is the attitude of the heart, the desire to walk in
the ways of the Lord. And Solomon was to have this.
To serve the Lord, knowing that he doubt with the heart, saw
the heart, and that his heart was to be wanting to walk in
the ways of the Lord and to serve Him. Sin is, the promise is that
sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the law,
you're under grace. The second incentive was that
the Lord understands all the imaginations. The imaginations
and thoughts. Understandeth all imaginations
of the thoughts. David's beautiful psalm, Psalm
139. In the first part of that psalm,
David says, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me, Thou
knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising. Thou understandest
my thought afar off. Thou compass my path and my lying
down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not
a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Then he says, such knowledge
is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it. David knew, and he bends it in
this psalm, and he goes right through that psalm, you can read
it at leisure, and he conveys then to Solomon that the Lord
understands these thoughts, these imaginations, of the thoughts
of man. And we have many references to
it in the Word of God, but going right back to the flood, right
back to where the Lord first was speaking concerning what
man is like. And we have, before the flood,
God saw, this is in Genesis 6 and verse 5, that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But we find then also, after
the flood as well, then the Lord knowing that man's heart is like
that, it is still the same, it is unchanged in this way, when
Noah built an altar, when he offered there, and the Lord smelled
a sweet savour in Genesis 8, 21. The Lord said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither
will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. And the
beautiful promise, while the earth remaineth, seed time and
harvest and cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night
shall not cease. And we might think Solomon has
been giving reasons here, but David is giving reasons that
Solomon and ourselves are having to come face to face with really
the root of our sin, our hearts and our thoughts and imaginations,
Going right back there to Genesis and telling him, the Lord, he
understands these things. What I thought it is, that all
of our imaginations and our hearts, our minds are such a busy workshop. How much they imagine, how many
things, many of it evil as well. And yet the Lord understands
these things. This is a real encouragement
to bring it before him, to lay it before him, that which is
too hard for us, too complicated for us. You might say, Lord,
thou hast charged us to serve thee and serve thee with all
our heart, but this is my heart, and this is my imaginations.
One of the hymns held to me once, whether it's applied in this
sense or not, high above imagination, is God's love to man. And sometimes
it's been a comfort to me. I've thought, well, the Lord's
high above all my imaginations. He can overcome them. He can
deliver me from them. And the thing that tries me,
and maybe tries some of you as well, what if my faith, what
if my religion was just imagined? What if it was not real and foundation? Now we are exhorted to commit
our works unto the Lord, and our thoughts shall be established. In other words, the works are
real things that we are doing. They're not just imagined things. The libraries in this land are
full of fiction. There's bookshelf after bookshelf,
and it's fiction. And what is it? It's books that
are written out of the imagination of some type. They can't live
that life, so they live it in a book. They just make it up. And the Word of God is not like
that. The Word of God describes men's
lives, the very things that they walked in, regarding David, what
he walked in, how the Lord dealt with him, how the Lord blessed
him. And that is the, I think it was Thomas Watson said that
he, put more weight on the providence of God than even the words from
the Lord. Because you cannot argue with
providence when the Lord says with Moses, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee in the way. You can't imagine that. That is what happens. The Lord
does that. And those things that work together
and go together for good. You look at the book of Esther
and can't you see the goodness of God and Lord going before
in Providence and delivering them and saving them. The book
of Ruth as well, you see the Lord's hand. And we need to pray
in that way, Lord, let me not be deceived. Let my faith not
be just an imagined thing, but may it really touch my life. May it be how my footsteps are
guided. May my ways are ordered. And like David said, my meditation
of him shall be sweet. I prevent the night watchers
that I might meditate upon his word. And they be real things. And where we find and we're playing
with our old nature, as we will be, to bring that before the
Lord. And we might think we're so inadequate,
but to be able to so remind him like this, Lord thou understandest
the imaginations, thou understand my thoughts, these thoughts.
And that be an incentive to us to pray and to seek those right
thoughts and right affections. So then we have thirdly the beautiful
promise, if thou seek him he will be found of thee. Now Lord
really takes this up, doesn't he? Ask, and it shall be given
thee. Seek, and thou shalt find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto thee. He that asketh, receiveth. He
that seeketh, findeth. He that knocketh, it shall be
opened. The encouragement that we had
in our first hymn, encouragement to seekers to seek after him. Again, as the first charge, Know
thou the God of thy fathers. So the word that David brings
before as a reason that he might know him is to seek him with
the promise he will be found of thee. Does not seek to know
about him, not seek to know things surrounding him, but seek him,
his person. So we would, says the Greek,
so we would see Jesus. Seek after him and the beautiful
promise he will be found of thee. There's a time factor, isn't
there? So may we be helped, may each
of you be helped to seek on, seek him in prayer, seek him
at the means of grace, seek him in the closet, seek him in the
word of God. We had this morning, our Lord
in Psalm 69. They're beautiful psalms. When
you come to the psalms and you find the Lord there, you find
His sufferings there, you find Him foretold, you find the very
exercise of His soul all laid out in those psalms. And that's
where we are to seek Him. We won't find Him in the world,
but we find Him in the temple, in the sanctuary, in the Church
of God, in the Word of God. to seek Him where He may be found.
If we were looking for something naturally, we would use our understanding
as to think, well, where is this likely to be? Where are we to
find this thing? And so in the things of God,
where the Lord is to be found, that is where we seek Him. Then lastly, if thou forsake
him. He will cast thee off forever. This may seem a strange word. We know with God's people that
they can never be lost, that once the Lord begins with them,
He will finish that work. He will not cast off forever. But what we do know is this.
God does not cast off a people. We have the charge to Israel
to say to them, well, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement?
Where is the proof that I have put you away? Or where is the
proof that I have sold you to your creditors? And then to say
that it is your sins that have separated is not me. And so this as well, it points
to those that forsake the Lord. The Lord said, if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall perish in your sins. Those that went
back and walked no more with him, There was no other salvation,
no other way of help. And David, in effect, is saying
that my God is the true and living God. If you turn away from that
God, my God, there is no other God. There is no other way of
salvation. And so it's a real incentive
to abide with the Lord, not to listen to Satan. says, well,
the Lord's forsaken you. The Lord won't answer you. The
Lord won't appear for you. There's no use seeking him anymore. In one sense, a reason for this,
or a reason that is set before Solomon, is an answer, no, the
Lord has not cast me off. I am not going to cast him off.
You think of the Syrophoenician woman. When she came to the Lord
because of her daughter, The Lord answered her, not a word.
But did she go away and say, well, the Lord's cast me off
and he's not going to help me? No. The disciples, they said,
she crieth after us. And the Lord then said that it
wasn't me. He's not sent but unto the lost
sheep of Israel. It's not me to give the children's
bread to dogs. She came worshipping him, saying,
Lord, help me. And then the dogs eat of the
crumbs that fall from a master's table. And then he commended
her faith, commended her faith. She knew of that opportunity
to keep coming unto him. She would not forsake him. She
would not leave off the hope in his mercy. And I believe this
is the way that David is setting before Solomon. Don't you give
up on the Lord. Don't you forsake Him. He does
not cast off. It is the forsaking Him. And then, then there is no hope
outside of Him. He will cast thee off forever.
And of course, the beautiful other side of that is in verse
20, where he says that thy God, even my God, will be with thee.
He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. until thou hast finished
all the work for the service of the house of the Lord." Of
course, David knew what had happened with Saul that went before him,
that Saul did not obey the Lord. Saul did forsake the Lord. He
went to a witch. He wasn't bothered that the Lord
wasn't answering him because he had an alternative. He could
go somewhere else. Really, there's a solemn a backdrop
to what David has to say to Solomon. There was a king that the Lord
gave in his anger, took him away in his wrath. So may we be really
encouraged in the Lord, encouraged to know him, to serve him, and
to seek him with all of our hearts. And we know that the Provisions
in the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, David's
greatest son, has suffered, bled at Calvary. He has died and risen
again. And it is through his work, through
his finished work, that the people of God are brought to know the
Lord, to know his mercy, know his grace, know his forgiveness,
know his long-suffering, his tender mercies. These are things
that poor sinners are to know by grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not to say like the one that
hid his coin or pound in the earth, I knew thee that thou
wast an austere man. And he portrays the Lord in a
way that he was not. May we know the Lord different
to that. Know him as so merciful, gracious,
long-suffering and loving. our God and our Father's God. May the Lord bless this charge
to Solomon and bless the word to us, grant that we might not
only know the God of David, but also know the God of our fathers
where they have served the Lord, but know this true and living
God, the same yesterday and today and forever. Amen.