Passage here first Kings 4 1
through 27 this this chapter Paints an amazing picture of
a kingdom without want Without war without turmoil or unrest
of any kind everybody was happy everybody was prosperous Everybody
was safe There was nothing but peace peace reigned all of the
years That Solomon was king How wonderful it would have been
to live in a place like that at a time like that. No want,
everybody's happy, everybody's rejoicing because Solomon is
king. How wonderful to have a king
that's wise above all others and whose name is peace. Solomon's name means peace. And this is where we live, spiritually. We ought to enjoy it. We really
ought to enjoy it more than we do. This is our king. His name is
Peace. Our king's name is the Prince
of Peace. And I want us to see in this
chapter just how beautifully situated we are in Christ. to
have him as our king and to live in his perfect kingdom. David pictured Christ in many
ways, in his excellency and his willingness and ability to defeat
the enemies of Israel, the people of God. David was called a bloody man,
and he was. And in that he pictures our Savior.
We have a bloody Savior that won the victory over all of our
enemies for us, for us. But Solomon pictures Christ,
the wisdom of God, the wisest man that ever lived other than
the God man. And we see in Solomon's reign
the result of all the bloody battles that were fought by David,
It seemed like constantly just about. They were fighting some
enemy or another. But they won. They fought and
won peace. And now we see that peace enjoyed. There's no peace without blood. But now because of the bloody
captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus reigns over us in
peace. Our Savior, the one who is called
in his book the one greater than Solomon. That's an understatement. That's a deliberate understatement.
The one greater than Solomon has won the victory for us over
every enemy when he accomplished his death on Calvary and he's
made peace by the blood of his cross. So Christ is pictured
by David and Solomon. What Christ Jesus did for us
on Calvary has made it so that we have no fear. Now, I know
that we do, but I'm talking about as far as his kingdom is concerned,
where we're looking to him. Didn't David say, he's my rock,
of whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? That's
a good question. So it's like Solomon's reign. We have no fear, we have no lack,
no want. No enmity. Absolutely nothing to worry about. Everybody is happy and prosperous
in the kingdom of our savior because he is our all. He's our
exceeding great reward. He's our protector. He's our
provider. He's our savior. And the names
of the men who were Solomon's princes and officers here, and
think about who they represent. They all served Solomon. This
is Solomon. It's his glory that these men
were who they were. This is Solomon's reign. It's
Solomon's kingdom. But the names of these men, they
represent the reason this place was so wonderful in the spiritual
sense of it. And we're gonna look at them.
By the Lord's grace, we're gonna look at these names and see in
them the wonderful truth of the kingdom of God. What it is and
why it is what it is. It's because of who the king
is. And we'll see that in these names. These men were part of
the glory of Solomon. When they accomplished something
and did what Solomon told them to do, Solomon got the glory
for that. And rightly so. He was running
everything. The buck stopped on his throne,
not with anybody else. He ultimately got all the glory
for the kingdom being what it was, and rightly so, but he used
means to accomplish his purposes. So does our God. But who's accomplishing
it? Not us. It's him. It's God that worketh in you
to will and to do of his good pleasure. Our sufficiency is
of God. We're nothing. We can't even
think. We can't even think anything for ourselves, Paul says. So
the glory is Solomon's and him who is greater than Solomon,
our Lord Jesus Christ. And these names will show us
why being beautiful for situation is what it is. Solomon's name
is peace, as we already said, and he reigned in peace. Our Savior made for us with his
blood, peace with God. Where once we were enmity against
God, we're born enmity against God. And he makes even our enemies
to be at peace with us. His peace, which passeth all
understanding, keeps our minds and hearts. Listen to the context of that.
Maybe turn over there, Philippians 4.6. Let's look at that together. Listen to this is this is Solomon
reigning in peace, but it's our Lord Jesus Christ and the peace
That he gives as sovereign Remember that now we talked about it so
many times. You're only gonna worship the
sovereign You can't worship the false. God of this religious
world because he's not worthy of it You can feel sorry for
him You can be glad you know that he's gonna take you to heaven
when you die and all that kind of stuff, but you can't worship
him. You can't worship somebody that's waiting on you to do something.
Why would you? And in our text here, there's
no peace unless he's sovereign, right? Unless he controls everything,
how can there ever be peace? He made peace by the blood of
his cross and he reigns in peace, as Solomon did. He kept the peace
in his wisdom. So Philippians 4, 6, be careful
or anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. If you submit to the King
Jesus, King Christ Jesus, the Sovereign, and bow to Him, and
don't be anxious, don't depend on yourself. Don't think you've
gotta come up with, don't think that it's up to you. It's not
up to you. Rest in Him. Trust in Him. Don't be anxious
about anything. Just commit it to Him. and ask Him for whatever you
need. Tell the King what you want and
what you need. That's what this says. And then
don't worry about it. Can we do that? Well, it's going
to take His grace, isn't it? It takes His grace to do that. He knows what you need. And I
guarantee you, you know this is right. It means more to Him
to give it to you than it means for you to get it. He wants you
to have it more than you want it. If it's for your good. We have this privilege to come
before Him and make our request known. And just don't worry about
it after that. Commit it to Him. Take it to
him, lay it at his feet, and leave it right there. We have that privilege because
of our Savior. Look at Colossians 1 with me,
verse 19. Colossians 1, 19. For it pleased the Father that
in Christ should all fullness dwell. And having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by Christ to reconcile all things
unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you, I'm glad I got in on that, aren't you,
and you, That were at one time, that's what that sometime means,
at one time you were alienated and enemies in your mind. That's how we're born into this
world. The natural carnal mind is enmity against God. By wicked works, yet now hath
he reconciled. How did he do that? In the body
of his flesh through death. Well, how can we be reconciled
to God? He presents us before God holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. There's no enmity,
there's peace with God because we're in Christ as holy as God. It was beautiful to read of the
Kingdom of Solomon. Turn to Revelation 21 with me.
I want to look at quite a bit of scripture tonight. But wasn't it beautiful to read
of the Kingdom of Solomon? How beautiful, how wonderful
for everybody to be happy. Everybody to have everything
they need. There was no enmity amongst one another. There were
no enemies to fight. Solomon reigned in such a way
in his wisdom, I guess nobody wanted to mess with him. Did
Israel just all of a sudden not have any enemies anymore? I doubt
that. But they were at peace. But look at this. Here is surpassing
beauty. It was beautiful to read about
Solomon's kingdom and how he reigned in peace. But listen to this. Revelation
21.1, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no
more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride, adorned for her husband." What a beautiful picture that
is. I don't suppose I've ever seen
anything more beautiful in my life. And then my bride walking
toward me down that aisle. You think about that. She's beautiful
all the time. Boy, right then, that's hard
to beat. Oh my. And I heard a great voice
out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men and he will dwell with them. and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. This is
our Solomon, our perfect, holy, greater than Solomon. And he shall be with them and
be their God in verse four, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crime. That sounds like what we read
a while ago, doesn't it? There was just nothing bad in
the whole place. That's hard to even imagine. Neither shall there be any more
pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, behold, And I'm gonna, what do you call it when you
say it different than what it is in here? I'm gonna paraphrase
a little bit here, but we're not changing anything. But listen
to this. Behold, I'm the reason for all
of that we just read. I make things this way. I make
all things new. That's what he's saying. Behold,
look at me. I'm the one. The reason you're not crying
anymore and never will. The reason you're not in pain
anymore and never will be. The reason there's no sorrow
or tears or fear or anything. All of the former things are
gone. And that's because of me. That's down to me. That's what
he's saying. I make all things new. And he
said to me, write that down. I'm glad he did. Because that
rejoices my heart tonight. Aren't you glad he said, write
that down? For these words are true and faithful, you can count
on them. And he said unto me, it's done. And here's why, I'm Alpha, I'm
Omega. The beginning and the end, I
will give unto him that's thirsty of the fountain of the water
of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
everything. Oh boy. And I will be his God. He's gonna be my son, not my
servant. Though we will, we will be my
son. Well, let's look at a few of
these names tonight. We won't get to all of them, of course,
Let's look at a few, because see, this is the kingdom of Solomon,
picturing that spiritual perfect kingdom we just read about, where
Christ is on the throne, and he runs everything, and he does
it real good. The name Azariah, the first one
there in verse two, means Jehovah has helped. Now when I do something,
when I build something or whatever, and I say somebody helped me,
I mean I did most of it, and they just helped me out. That's
not what this word is. That's not what it is. We use
it a little differently than scripture does when it's talking
about God helping us. And the way the scripture uses
this, when speaking of the Lord as our helper, and David used
that a lot in the Psalms, our helper, it's saying that it's
not happening without him. That's what it's saying. That's
what it's saying. That... We'll read that in a minute,
I'm getting ahead of myself, but he does it all. And he may use
means in the matter, he may use us, we may be involved in it,
but he accomplishes it through us. He works in us both to even
want to, much less do it. But the Lord being our help,
means something else. It means we can't fail. We can't
fail. Listen to Hebrews 13, five. Let
your conduct be without covetousness and be content with such things
as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. And, and, um, Listen to the next
verse now. You're familiar with that. He
said I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you That's
a blessed promise that we keep in our hearts. We know that verse
don't we? But listen to the next one so that we may boldly say
the Lord is my helper That's what it means It means I can't
fail it means I'm content. I I don't want anything he doesn't
want me to have. That's what covetousness is.
You know, something's withheld from you by the Lord. He's the
one that gives and takes away. And you're not happy about it.
I don't want to be that way. Be content with whatever the
Lord gives you. If he works everything for your
good, what a fool to not be happy with what he gives. What a fool
I am. So that we may boldly say the
Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. I'm not gonna be afraid. By his
grace I'm not. Turn with me to Matthew 15. Let's
look at this together in regard to this name Azariah. Jehovah
has helped. Matthew 15, 21. 1521 then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and Behold a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him saying have mercy
on me O Lord Thou son of David my daughter is grievously vexed
with a devil But he answered her not a word and his disciples
came and besought him saying send her away and for she crieth
after us. Can you imagine the Lord having
forgiven you all your sins and then you're annoyed by somebody
crying for mercy? That's cold, isn't it? We're
that messed up, aren't we? We're that messed up. But he
answered and said, I am not sent but under the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him. You know, even when the truth
is not what we want to hear, can we worship him anyway? When the truth is what I did
not want to hear. That happens, doesn't it? It's
not what I wanted to hear. And we won't admit that normally. I can think of a few examples
of that, but I'll leave it to you to think of that. We're susceptible to that. even
though he would never admit it. Then came she and worshiped him,
saying, Lord, help me. You see how that word help is
used when it's talking about the Lord? What was she gonna
do? She's not saying there, I've
got this under control, almost. I just need a little bit. She
can't do anything. She's helpless. It's a hopeless
case, Lord, help me. That's the word. Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it
is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. He's
testing her in me. The Lord's already given her
faith and he's testing that faith right off the bat. Right off
the bat. Not because he doesn't know what's
gonna happen. He knows exactly what's gonna happen. And she said, Lord, that's right.
That's right, if you didn't give me anything, you'd be right.
Oh, that's so true, isn't it? That's the way you come to the
Lord now. You don't come saying I've made a decision for you.
Forget about that nonsense. Lord, you're right. But I wanna
be your dog. I wanna eat the crumbs that fall
off your table. Sometimes that happens. That
does happen and I pray that I could be under your table, a dog. I'm
a dog, sure enough. I won't be under your table,
though. And then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great
is thy faith. You know why her faith was so
great? Because he gave it to her. Christ is the author and
finisher of our faith, not us. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. What
a wonderful thing. I don't want to get sidetracked
here, but I can't help but say this. I read this article that's
being passed around about somebody went out of their way to write
an article about how your children aren't as important as everybody
thinks they are. It's not all about your children. You need
me time and you need this and that. Oh, that's so bad. Well, how could you say that?
You don't deserve to have children. Of course it's all about them
if you're a father and a mother. She said, Lord, have mercy on
me, my daughter, my daughter. You see what she's saying though
when she says, Lord, help me? It's not God's done all he can
do and now it's up to you. It's you can do nothing and the
outcome is up to him. How this all ends is up to him. You can worship that Christ.
You're gonna. You're going to. One way or another. Zadok in verse two means righteous. And there again now, the Lord,
there's no kingdom unless the Lord helps us. That was the point
of all that. There's no kingdom without his
help. In other words, We got no hope unless we'd be born again.
We can't see the kingdom unless let's enter into it. How does
that happen? Born from above. Now there's no peace without
righteousness. Zadok means righteous. There can't be any peace without
righteousness, can we? We just read that. He makes us
holy and unblameable and reprovable in his sight. He made peace by
his precious blood because his blood washed all of our sins
away and now we're righteous in the sight of God. He lived for us and he died for
us and we're holy without blame before him in love. Our enmity
against God was our sin. Now in Christ Jesus we have no
sin. We're righteous and so there's
peace, not enmity. Elohorof means, in verse three
there, the God of harvest time. The God of harvest time. In other words, if we're gonna
have anything to eat in this kingdom, it's gonna come from
God. The one who rules, the one who
is on the throne at harvest time. You can't have a kingdom without
some harvest, can you? People gotta eat, people gotta
eat. There was plenty in the kingdom
of Solomon, there was plenty for everybody. There was no one,
nobody lacked anything, it said. And this is one of the considerations
in any kingdom. What are we gonna eat? Got to
have farms and people to work the farms. We're not gonna be
able to grow enough in our backyard can't grow a Big Mac in your
backyard But we can grow some I guess
can't we But this is one of the considerations in any kingdom
But in the kingdom of God there's meat and drink indeed There's
meat and drink that perfectly completely satisfies Our needs
Our souls need. You need food. You need water. Well, you need Christ in his
blood, too. A lot more than you need food
and water. In fact, he's the only thing you need. You mark it down. You can say,
well, no, I need to mark it down. You need Christ, and that's it. The sooner we learn that, the
better. John 6, 53, then Jesus said unto
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh
of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
And nobody in their right mind, and there's a lot of people not
in their right mind spiritually. The lost are insane, that's clear
from scripture. But anybody whom God has put
in their right mind, like the Gadarean demoniac, knows that
that's not cannibalism he's talking about there. That's by faith
partaking of Christ and his precious blood. He's the bread and the
wine in the communion that we celebrate as a church. Meat and drink indeed. Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the
last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink
indeed. His flesh representing his person.
We don't partake of anything else but him personally and his
precious blood is our drink. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him as the living father hath
sent me and I live by the father so he that eateth me even he
shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. That's our King. He's the God
of harvest time. Well, Ahia, or however you pronounce
that, Ahia or Ahia, means brother of Jehovah. Think about that
for a second. Brother of Jehovah. That sounds
like blasphemy, doesn't it? Does God have a brother? That
sounds like, who would want to be named that? That sounds like
blasphemy. It's not. Hebrews 2.10, for it became him
for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing
many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given
thee. You know, there's nepotism. I
think that's the word, right? When you favor your family and
give them a job or whatever. In every kingdom, there's nepotism.
It's kind of expected, really. There's nothing wrong with that
in the right way. But in the kingdom of God, every
person, everybody in his kingdom is not only a subject of the
king, but they're family. He favors all of them. They're
all close to his heart. What a kingdom. Your brother,
your father is king. What a wonderful place to be. And here again, I'm not seeing,
I'm reading this out of my notes, so I don't have the little symbols
and stuff. I don't know if it's shisha or
shisha or whatever it is, shisha, but it means this in verse three.
Jehovah contends, contends. In every kingdom there are battles
to fight, aren't there? Not always bloody ones. There
are battles of domination against countries that would take advantage
of us and things like that in different ways. There always
have been that. There is contention even if there's
not all-out war there's contention to be had Jehovah contends in his kingdom
To fight it means to fight with an adversary Aren't you glad
he does that for us because we can't win We can't do anything
against our enemies there. They're way too powerful for
us and spiritual wickedness in high places. We have no ability
against people like that or demons like that or whatever they are.
In God's kingdom, he sees to that personally. Jehovah contends. He fights with our adversaries. That's literally what it means.
He sees to it personally, and he's God Almighty. He has no
rivals. He has enemies, but no rivals. This is why David said what he
did. Now listen, let's turn over to
this one too. That won't be long tonight, I
don't think. Psalm 27. Psalm 27. What a beautiful passage
of scripture this is. This is us now. We can claim
this. We can say this. We can sing
this like David did. Psalm 27 1. The Lord is my light
and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? What
are you talking about, David? When the wicked, even my enemies
and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. Why? Because the Lord is my strength. Because he's my contender. He's the one that fights my adversaries. Verse three, though in host should
encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. And look at the context. We know this part, don't we?
One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after.
This is why we're safe. This is why we can't be touched.
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his
temple. For in the time of trouble, in
any kind of trouble that we might face, He shall hide me in his
pavilion. He'll take care of the enemy. What's my part in it? He's gonna
hide me. I don't have much to do with
it. I don't have anything to do with it. God hides me in his
pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle. You know what that
is? Christ. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Have you ever looked up that
word dwelt? It means tabernacled. He's hiding me in the secret
of his tabernacle. Shall he hide me? He shall set
me up upon a rock. And that rock is Christ. As the
one in the wilderness, when Moses struck it and water came out, that rock's Christ too. Enemies primarily are spiritual.
We don't have that many adversaries that actually do anything in
this world. I'm thankful for that It hadn't always been that
way it may not always be that way But Christ is the captain
of our salvation He's our spiritual captain first Corinthians 525
I love this verse For he must reign till he hath put all enemies
under his feet He must reign And it doesn't mean, when it
says till, it doesn't mean he's not gonna reign after he puts
all, he's just up till then and not after that. That's not what
it's saying. You know that. Scripture doesn't use that word
that way. It just means he's always gonna
reign and every enemy's gonna be put under his feet because
he reigns, because he's their God, he's their sovereign. He
does what he will with whom he will, when he will. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Jehoshaphat in verse three, I
think this will be the last one maybe we'll look at tonight.
Jehoshaphat in verse three means Jehovah has judged. Here we go
now, this is any kingdom. What we're seeing here is how
it is in Christ's kingdom. Jehovah has judged. Somebody's
gotta make the decisions, right? There can't be two kings, there
can't be two presidents, there can't be two ultimate leaders.
There can't be two people that have the final word, or there
is no final word. And in God's kingdom, it's God.
That sounds logical, doesn't it? You know how few people know
that? Most people in this country by
far think that you have the last word. That they do. Don't want to go too long than
that we may look at this this next time Because this is this
is so important. I don't want to I don't want
to rush through it But Jehovah has judged. That's an important
name in the kingdom of God. It's our Savior's name in The
kingdom it's not that he shall judge It doesn't say he is judge
It says he has judged It's a done deal. It's already
done. He's not gonna, people talk about
a future judgment day, which he shall judge. He hath judged. Because judgment, the ultimate
final say took place on Calvary. and the cross is an eternal cross. The precious blood of Christ
is eternal blood. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. God didn't have to wait until
it happened in reality, and it did have to happen. Certainty
does not rule out necessity. The certainty that Christ would
save his elect didn't rule out the necessity that he had to
come and accomplish that by his sacrifice on Calvary. So people say, well, you just
believe what will be will be, you know, and no matter what
happens. No, I believe in what will be, and it will happen the
way God said it will. And no matter what happens, it's
gonna happen exactly the way God has decreed it, everything. But God has judged. If you would,
read John 5.21. I want to finish this next time,
because John 5.21 through 27, because I don't want to rush
and I don't want to go too long tonight. But the word judge and
judgment in that passage means, and it talks about how God has
given all judgment into the hands of Christ. What does that word
judgment and judgeth mean there? To determine It's Christ that
determines. It's Christ that resolves. It's
Christ that decrees. It's Christ that separates. He separates the guilty from
the not guilty. That's what a judge does. It's
Christ that presides over with power to make judicial decisions. And in the context of that passage,
what is it that's being decided? What is it that's being determined? What is it that's being, that
a decision is being made about? John 5.21, for as the father
raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them. That just simply means
the father raiseth up the dead and gives them life. That's what
quicken means, to give life. Even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will. That's the decision that's being
made. That's the judgment that's coming down from the throne of
God, who lives and who dies eternally. It's in His hand. Jehovah judgeth,
hath judged. Jehovah hath judged. And I think we'll talk more about
that next time, because I want to go through that passage. If
you want to jot it down again, it's John 5, 21 through 27. And
we'll go through that, I think, verse by verse next time. But
whoever the Lord Jesus Christ wants to live, he causes them
to live. Listen, and where did I get that
from? John 5.21, as the Father raiseth
up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
he will. That word quickeneth means to
cause to live. Whoever the Lord Jesus Christ
wants to live, he causes them to live. It can't be any clearer
than that. Jehovah hath judged. I'll tell
you this. Oh, I wish I could say this right. I would bow to him. That's what
I'd do. That's what I want to do every
moment of every day. I want to bow to him. He hath
judged. And I'll tell you this, you can
either ask and debate, ask questions about that, but what about this?
And what about that? And debate and argue about whether anything
matters if God has already decided everything and what's the use
of anything. Or you can bow to the Son of God and pray, Lord,
if you will, you can cause me to live. That's what you might
do. I'll tell you this, the one who
sits on that throne, whose name is peace and in whose hand is
the power of life and death, the one who hath judged, says
to you and to every sinner, incline your ear and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. What a promise. What a precious promise. Let's
pray.