So in this first part as I said
in 1st Kings chapter 2 verse 12 is key to all of it to all
of the rest of this chapter But you see in this this first part
that What happened here The fact that Solomon is on the
throne is of life and death importance to everybody in the kingdom everybody
in the world at that time He's the most powerful man as David
was in the world at that time, and of course he pictures the
Lord Jesus Christ in this. The difference between life and
death for everybody in this world tonight, much less Israel, was
allegiance then to King Solomon or defiance of him. And it's
the same with the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have sworn
allegiance to him who have bowed to him who have who by his grace
desire to honor him and Glorify him and there are those who rebel
there are those who are enemies to the throne And that's everybody
one or the other And that's true. This is true here in every way
regard to with regard to Christ both physically and spiritually
and the the Destiny of everybody is in his hand and that's what
we'll see In the rest of this chapter if you live it's because
Christ wants you to And and this is a very important
and He has the authority If he wants you to prosper then
you'll prosper He doesn't then you won't And he is not just
one opinion or desire among many others he sits on the throne
so His will is done if he wants
you to live then live You shall because life is his to give And
because all power or authority is his if he wants you dead then
you're a goner because I Reason it's his decision We see that
in Solomon in our text We see it in situations and cases that
contain a lot of teaching for us here There are several different
situations that we'll see that Solomon Judges concerning from
his throne, and I pray the Lord will teach us what he has here
Remember verses 5 through 9 also verse 12 is key, but remember
look at verse 5 again in chapter 2 Before David died He's speaking
to his son Solomon who will be on the throne in his in his in
his place He said moreover thou knowest what Joab the son of
Zeruiah did to me and what he did to the two captains of the
hosts of Israel unto Abner and the son of Ner and Amasa, the
son of Jether, whom he slew and shed the blood of war in peace
and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his
loins and in his shoes that were on his feet. Do therefore according
to thy wisdom and let not his forehead go down to the grave
in peace, but show kindness unto the sons of Barzillia The Gilead
died and let them be of those that eat at that table for so
they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother And behold
thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gerah a Benjamite of Behurim
Which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went
to Mahana Mahana am may a name But he came down to meet me at
Jordan and I swear to him by the Lord saying I will not put
thee to death with the sword Now therefore hold him not guiltless
for thou art a wise man and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto
him But his whorehead bring thou down to the grave With blood
and so David slept With his father's now the authority and the directive
to do as he pleased with whom he pleased. He said, Solomon,
you're wise. You do what you know to do. That authority and
directive was given to Solomon by his father. The nation had
already chosen a different king. The people had done the wrong
thing. The people had sworn their allegiance
to a false king, but David just simply said, Solomon's gonna
be king, and he was. You remember that in our text
a couple of weeks ago, I believe it was? Everybody's saying this,
and everybody's saying that, and they're having a big party,
and David just said, Solomon's king, and that was it. Oh boy, that's John 5. Turn over
there with me. John chapter 5. This is the teaching of that
in 1 Kings. The true spiritual teaching of
that passage of scripture that we just referred to. John 5.21.
For as the father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,
even so the son quickeneth whom he will. That just means give
life. He gives life and he takes life. For the father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the son. The Lord
Jesus Christ received the authority and the directive from his father
to give life to whom he would. Life and death is in his hands.
at the command of his father, that all men should honor the
son. Did you notice a theme in who
lived and who died? The ones that lived are the ones
that honored David's son. And the ones who died did not. That all men should honor the
son even as they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son
honoreth not the father. which hath sent him. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given
to the Son. Have life in himself and hath
given him authority to Execute judgment also is that what happened
in our text. That's what David did Because he's the son of man Marvel
not at this for the hours coming in the which all that are in
the grave shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto unto the resurrection of damnation. And you might say now the good
and the evil of the people that were being judged had something
to do with this. Well, think about this. Who says
who's good and who's evil? Who decides that? It's not the people themselves.
It's Solomon. I'm sure Joab thought he did
the right thing. Don't get to decide that And
neither do we? People say oh, you know I'm just
doing my best well That's hell for you from God. That's what
that is The Lord Jesus said that the
woman caught in adultery was good. He said I don't condemn
you I The scripture says that God does
not behold iniquity in Jacob. Really? I can see it. He was a worm, sure enough, wasn't
he? But not God. Who decides who's good and who's
evil? The Lord chose Saul of Tarsus
to preach to the Gentiles. Would you have chosen him? The
disciples of the Lord didn't even want to see him, much less. Give him any responsibility in
the preaching of the gospel and here's Paul's testimony when
when the Lord He said the Lord entrusted me Here's Paul's testimony when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
Called me by his grace To reveal his son in me That I might preach him among
the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood. When it pleased God. That's what this is all about,
isn't it? What pleases Solomon. What pleases the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's nothing in Paul's testimony about Paul making a decision.
But there is mention of God's decision when he was pleased. This is what he did. And that's what we see in our
text. It was up to Solomon and not anybody else. Life and death
was up to him. And that authority was given
by his father. That's Christ, and you and I
will live or die forever at His pleasure. And the simple issue
in your experience and mine is allegiance to Him. It's allegiance to Him. Do you
honor God's King? Do you bow to Him? Do you acknowledge
Him? Do you serve Him and worship
Him? Do you love him that's what he asked Simon wouldn't do you
love me? God gave all authority to Christ
that all men should honor the Son of God Look at verses 13
through 25 again or think about them. We read them a minute ago
But notice this as you're kind of just looking through it I
And remembering what we just read, Adonijah didn't go to Solomon,
he went to Bathsheba. That's Satan's tactics, isn't
it? That's exactly what Satan did. And there's something, I'll tell
you this, there's something terribly satanic about this thing of going
to Mary and praying to Mary. Let's see if Mary will get the
Lord to do something for us. Let's have her go. and you know,
intercede for us. That's what this idiot did. Something very satanic about
that. Let's see if Mary can get God to do something for us. Religion is fraught with that.
Sinners are gonna have to do business with God. That's what's
gotta happen. God says, you come right now.
Come right now, right here. And the thing is, we have to
do business with the very one that we crucified. That was the message of Acts.
The one that you crucified and mocked. He's on the throne now. That's what Joab, the one you
rejected, the one you plotted against to raise up somebody
else as king, the one you partied and had a good time, Spitting in the very face of
Solomon the problem is now Solomon's on the throne That's our spiritual
situation now by nature We got to do business with the
one that we despised as he's an authority now And the simple
the simple issue again is allegiance to him it involves bowing bowing
Paul said they have not submitted to the righteousness of God in
Christ. They will not bow. As long as
Adonijah snuck around this way, he didn't really have to bow.
That's why people don't do that. That's why people go to Mary.
You know, they pray to Mary, and oh, Mother Mary, and all
this. And they don't really ever have to bow to God that way,
they think. They'll just, you know, it seems
so religious and everything, and they justify it in their
minds and their own hearts. But think about the difference
between going to Mary and saying, oh Mary, you know, Mother Mary,
beautiful mother and all this, goddess, queen of the universe,
you know, please pray for me. That avoids you coming to the
one that you spit on. and punched him in the face,
blindfolded him, and pressed a crown of thorns down on his
head and punched him in the face and watched him bleed and laughed.
And then you're gonna sneak around and try to do an end run on him
now? That's not a good idea. That's
not a good idea. Notice he was not asking for
mercy He never one time asked forgive me. I should have never
I should have never followed anybody else I should have never
pledged allegiance to another king He never asked for he deliberately
usurped the throne by his own admission he was in defiance
of God with me He was forced to say the Lord gave the throne
to Solomon That's what we read just a minute ago He never repented Remember verse 51 in look at
verse chapter 1 verse 51 just a page over there probably And
it was told Solomon saying behold Adonijah feareth King Solomon
for lo he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar saying
let King Solomon swear unto me today that he will not slay his
servant with the sword and He was just worried about his own
skin, wasn't he? He didn't care anything about
Solomon. Just make Solomon swear he won't kill me. Cowardly, hypocritical, evil. This is the way it is with most
sinners. We're gonna see different things about us by nature in
this entire chapter, but this is the way it is with most sinners.
They've defied the throne rights of heaven. The one who sits on
the throne, and they're still just interested in their own
safety and pleasure That's all the idea of heaven is to most
religious people just about all of them Heaven is what safety
and pleasure That's all it is no repentance. No love for the
one they crucified No submission no allegiance to
him For what's in it for themselves? And one more thing from verse
25 Verse 25 Solomon sent somebody to take care of this man King Solomon sent by the hand
of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and he fell upon him and He fell
upon adonijah that he died Solomon sent a man whose name means God
hath built And his father's name means God
knows God hath built his kingdom Christ
the Lord Jesus being the chief cornerstone of We his sheep being living stones
in his spiritual church And if you cannot you think about that
God built this God hath built And if you cannot bow to his
son because it's all built for him. It's all built for Christ
It's for the glory of the Son and if you cannot bow to King
Jesus you get nothing That's why Solomon said we just let
him ask for the whole kingdom. I You get nothing. It is an affront
for you to even ask anything from God. Can prayer be a sin? Absolutely. Most prayers are
sin. It's an affront for you to even
ask. You see what Solomon said there in verse 22. Let him ask for the kingdom also,
for he's my elder brother. And he mentions these other men
that we're fixing to see him deal with in a minute here. God
built this kingdom, and if you have no use for him, you get
nothing. Nothing. Don't expect it. Don't
even ask. How dare he ask anything from
Solomon when he refused to bow to him. No favor, no hope, no
consideration from the king. Christ said, if you abide not
in me, all you're fit for is burning. That sounds cold, doesn't
it? Anybody got a problem with it
though? Because it's the king talking. And that doesn't make him a cruel
king. It makes us monsters that we
will not bow to him. Paul said if any man love not
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're that messed up, If you can't
love him after he gave himself for sinners, if you can't love
him after everything you have is from his hand, if you can't
bow to him when he is the one perfect, good, righteous man. If you are so messed up that
you think the only man who was ever good is worthy of death, Don't you ever, don't dare ask
him for anything. Solomon was just waiting, wasn't
he? That was the last straw. That was the last straw. One
of these days, one of the straws is going to be the last one in
it. It's going to be the last one. unless you think you can fool
God. Adonijah's bravado might've fooled some. Remember verse 51
again, you know, they said, oh, Adonijah fears you, Solomon.
Everything's gonna be okay now. He fears you. Look what he's
saying. Yeah, look what he's saying. He's selfish. He didn't
pledge allegiance to Solomon. He didn't ask for forgiveness. So unless you think you can fool
God, bow to Christ and don't ever stop. So many, many most are like Adonijah,
but others though are like Abiathar. Look at verse 26. And under Abiathar,
Abiathar I think is how it's said because the emphasis there
is on the second syllable, Abiathar, the priest said the king, get
thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields for thou art worthy of
death. I ought to kill you. That's what
he said. That'd be the right thing if
I killed you right now. But you go get to your own fields.
I will not at this time put thee to death because thou bearest
the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because
thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord
that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which he spake concerning
the house of Eli in Shiloh. So many are like Abiathar here. They go through the motions of
religion. He was the priest. He was the
one that people looked to as a mediator between them and God. But their allegiance is to anti-Solomon. Not Solomon. Anti-Christ. And Abiathar had carried the
Ark of the Lord. Everybody thought he was a godly
man. He went through a lot with David, Solomon said. But he proved
eventually that he was in it for himself. So many are. Here you know if I if I you know
if I do the right if I go to church and pay my tithe and Read
my Bible. You know everything will be everything's
gonna go well for me That's a lie out of hell He was in it for himself Solomon
said get to your own fields Or what the Lord said to the
Pharisees are of them they have their reward Enjoy it Nothing that pertains to the
Lord Any longer pertains to you? That's what he said you get to
your own fields up to that time everything he did was was the
Lord's business the Lord's work the Lord's house He said get to your own fields
before I kill you right now You chose your own king With your own depraved so-called
free will, you chose to defy me. Now get to your own fields. And this example here of Abiathar
also teaches us how that God doesn't always execute judgment
speedily. He said, I'm not gonna kill you
right now. He wasn't making any promises, was he? I'm not gonna
kill you today if you get out of my sight. Ecclesiastes 8.10, and so I saw
the wicked buried. I ought to have you turn, but
we're gonna run out of time tonight. Listen to this carefully. I saw
the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the
holy. They're wicked, but they had come and gone from the place
of the holy. They were religious. They had
outward advantage from God. but they perished in wickedness,
and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done.
This also is vanity. And here's what Solomon had to
say about that. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed
speedily, because God didn't put you in hell today, therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
God didn't throw me in hell today, so I guess everything's fine.
I'll just keep on spitting in his face Though a sinner this
is what Solomon said now Though a sinner do evil and hundred
times in his days be prolonged yet surely I know That it shall
be well with them that fear God That's interesting that wasn't
what I was how I was expecting that sentence to end was it you
if he do evil a hundred times the same evil over and over and
over and over and over Yet if he fears God, it'll be well. But it shall not be well with
the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as
a shadow, because he feareth not before God. And fearing God
is not being scared that he's going to kill you. Fearing him
is reverencing him, respecting him, bowing to him, giving him
the honor that's due under his name. That's what we're talking
about tonight. The reference to Eli's house
in those two verses there is from 1 Samuel 3 where God judged
the house of Eli because Eli's sons were vile and Eli did nothing
to restrain them. So that's the reference there.
Now verse 28. Then tidings came to joab for
joab had turned after adonijah though he turned not after absalom
So he took he did Go without he bowed to adonijah as king
remember the one that through trickery and Had gotten a lot
of people the most of the people to follow him But he didn't turn
after Absalom. When Absalom tried to usurp the
throne, Joab was faithful to David then, but not forever. And Joab fled
unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the horns
of the altar. That's what Adonijah did, didn't
he? Read in verse 51, or before that, in the context. Chapter
1 and it was told King Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord,
and behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the
son of Jehoiada, saying, go, fall upon him. And Benaiah came
to the tabernacle of the Lord and said unto him, thus saith
the king, come forth. And he said, nay, but I will
die here." What a picture that is. He's grabbed hold of the
horns of the altar of sacrifice, and he won't let go. That sounds
good, doesn't it? And Benaiah brought the king
word again, saying, Thus saith Joab. And thus he answered me. And the king said unto him, Do
as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him, that thou
mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed from me
and from the house of my father. And the Lord shall return his
blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous
and better than he, and slew them with the sword. My father
David, not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain
of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of
the host of Judah. Their blood shall therefore return
upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his seed forever.
But upon David and upon his seed and upon his house and upon his
throne shall there be peace forever from the Lord. So Benaiah the
son of Jehoiada went up and fell upon him and slew him. He was
buried in his own house in the wilderness so There's there's
quite a bit in this passage too, but let me just say the most
striking thing in this is Is the the lesson here is that holding
fast to religion it was tradition this happened several times?
That's recorded in the scripture, and I suspect it happened a lot
when people found out that ever you know every now and then somebody
got Got away with it. You know the religious thing
Holding on to the horns of the altar somebody must have got
away with it at one time or another so now everybody wants to grab
hold of the horns of the altar what a picture of hypocritical
religion Holding fast to religious tradition will not save you many
many many do that The religious traditions of men are not according
to scripture God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth and His
hands are grabbing the horns of the altar, but what's his
heart grabbing? That's the question He's not bowing to Solomon. I
noticed that Do you reckon if any of these people had just
gone to Solomon and said I need to speak to Solomon I got to
talk to Solomon and they brought him into Solomon's presence and
said Solomon I've sinned greatly you ought to kill me. It'd be
the right thing to do if you killed me I pledged allegiance
to to Adonijah, and I knew that the Lord meant for you to be
king. It was David's will. It was the
Lord's will, and I was a fool. I was caught up in the hullabaloo,
and I'm not making excuses. I should die. I'm worthy of it. I don't see how you could ever
trust me, and yet, I need mercy. I need your mercy. You think
Solomon would have killed a man? And how hard would that be? Would that be how complicated
is that? But it didn't happen Here again as without a nausea
there was no bowing no repentance No, just asking just ask Will
solo and have mercy on me. I don't know why don't you go
ask I? Why don't you say, if you will,
I can live, I will live, I will serve you by your grace. Why won't you just come? That
leper wanted to know, didn't he? Lord, if you will, you can
make me clean. He was not in doubt as to whether
the Lord could do it or not. You're on the throne, Solomon.
Your word goes. But could you have mercy on a
wretch like me? Is that possible? Boy, just ask. But he trusted that the religious
symbol would be enough to keep Solomon from killing him. He
won't kill me while I'm holding on to the horns of the altar.
Bad decision. Bad decision. You see, Solomon wasn't as superstitious
as Joab was. Neither is God. God has no respect
unto your religion, no matter how sacred it may be to you. Joab makes a pretense of appealing
to God as he grips the horns of that altar. Just as Paul said
of the Jews of his day, they have a form of godliness, but
they don't know God. They deny the authority of his
throne. denying the power thereof. He had a form of godliness, but
God looks on the heart. How many rank, you ever notice
this? Rank, just openly sinful. We're not to judge other people. That's not our business. That's
not our business. But has the Lord taught us, by
their fruits you shall know them? I mean, if somebody is openly
rebellious against God, and openly evil before God, are we supposed
to turn a blind eye to that? It's between them and God, but
I'll tell you this, when I see somebody that's openly wicked
wearing a cross, do we learn anything from that? They think
that cross is gonna make everything okay between them and God? God looks on the heart People wear crosses around their
neck thinking that's going to protect them from the wrath of
God. People attend church services for the same reason, so-called
church. They think that's going to protect
them from the wrath of God. They go to confession and count
beads and repeat prayers, which God has expressly forbidden.
He called it vain repetition. Don't do it. And they do it. Why? Same reason Joab did. Think about it now, Joab fears
for his life, so where does he go? Does he run to another country?
No, he goes to the altar. Where the sacrifice that God
has ordained is offered. That didn't save him because
salvation is a person. In the type here, salvation is
Solomon, not that altar. It's God's king. What a picture of Christ who
is our salvation. Don't come to an altar, come
to Christ. I mean, when I was in religion,
to my shame, when I was younger, when I was a teenager, people
come into the altar, come down to the altar, come to the altar. Don't repeat vain prayers, ask
God for mercy. From your heart. Don't wear religious apparel
or ornaments, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way you can stand
before God. And then verses 36 through 46. Look at this boy. Oh shimmy.
I thought it seemed like everything was fine with shimmy. I didn't
it for a long long time He said a lot of good things
some things that we learned from didn't we He asked David for
mercy when David was restored into the kingdom Verse 36 And the king sent and called
for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee a house in Jerusalem,
and dwell there, and go not forth hence any whither. For it shall
be that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook
Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die. Thy
blood shall be upon thine own head. You go build a house in
Jerusalem, and don't ever leave Jerusalem. What a picture this
is. Jerusalem's a city of peace,
city of God. A place of peace, Salem, Jerusalem,
peace. Don't leave. Don't for one minute
step outside of Christ. Don't stray, don't leave him.
Don't doubt, don't, and it's not that we don't ever, but the
way that happens is not by your steadfastness. It's by him holding
you. My blood shall be on your own
head. Don't blame me, Shimei, when the day comes. Don't blame
me. It's your fault. And Shimei said
unto the king, the saying is good. As my lord the king hath
said, so will thy servant do. Have you ever seen that work
out in the scripture? Anybody say oh, yeah, no problem.
I'll tell do it. I'll do it She me I dwelt in Jerusalem many
days You see how these different pictures show us different things
Many days is not enough days It's not enough And it came to
pass at the end of three years that two of the servants of Shimei
ran away unto Achish, son of Maekah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying,
behold, thy servants be in Gath. Apparently, they didn't like
Solomon much. They wanted a different king.
And so they ran off. And Shimei rose and saddled his
ass and went to Gath, to Achish, to seek his servants. And Shimei
went and brought his servants from Gath. He went and got them.
but he had to leave Jerusalem to do it. The Lord's teaching, there's
no compromise, is there? And all of that, the purpose
of all of that is to cause us to flee to Christ and to lay
hold of him and never for one moment let go. Like I say, it's
not us holding him that saves us now. It's him holding us,
but hold him. Lay hold of him and don't let
go. I'm sure the man that steadied
the ark, you know, he meant well. The cart, you know, hit a bump
in the road and the ark shook a little bit and he put out his
hand to steady it and God killed him. And it was told Solomon, verse
41, that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath And was come
again, and the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto
him, Did I not make thee to swear by the Lord, and protested unto
thee, saying, No, for a certain, from the day thou goest out,
and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? And
thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good. Why
then hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment
that I have charged thee with? King said moreover to Shimei
thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to
that thou didst to David my father Therefore the Lord shall return
thy wickedness upon thine own head. It's your fault It's your
fault you deserve to die But if he had just stayed in
Jerusalem he'd have been fine what a picture What a picture
is that not what we see? Everywhere we look in this word
King Solomon Shall be blessed and the throne of David shall
be established before the Lord Forever so the king commanded
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada which went out and fell upon him that
he died and The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon This story reminds me of passage
of scripture in Matthew 21 28 if you want to turn over there,
we'll have to look at it quickly, but This is the same story This is the same story shimmy
I said it's good what you said is right, that's good. I'll do
it. I'll do it, but then he didn't I Look at Matthew 21, 28. But
what think ye? A certain man had two sons, and
he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will
not. A rebellious son. Got no way. Not going to do it. But afterward,
he repented and went and worked. And he came to the second son
and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go,
sir. He was respectful. willing But he didn't go He didn't do
what he said he was going to do Whether of them twain did
the will of his father the one who talked a good game Or the
one who actually did what he was told There's talking a good
game, and then there's being found in Christ Who did everything
we never did and didn't do what we did do Went not and They say unto him
the first in Jesus saith and in the verily I say unto you
that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before
you They're openly rebellious and sinful, but I'm going to
give them repentance For John came unto you in the
way of righteousness and you believed him not but the publicans
and harlots believed him and Ye when you had seen it repented
not afterward that you might believe him Shimmy I said in verse 38 the
saying is good. I will do what you say whatever
you say as Pertains to keeping the law of God doing what God
said Remember when God told the Israelites if you keep these
sayings of mine. I will bless you and if not not
And they said, no problem, we'll do what you say. And of course
they didn't, not a single one. And you might look at Shimei's
case and say, well, what's really the harm in that? He left, he
went, he had good intentions. He went and he brought them back.
He didn't go with them and stay. What's the harm in that? That's
not for you to decide. That's not for me to decide,
that's for Solomon to decide. You're in no position to say
that. You might say, well, he just forgot. That's no excuse. That's not an excuse. We sin
and don't even know we're doing it. Does that make it not sin? The lesson is simple. We cannot,
we will not ever keep God's law. We may put on a good show for
a while. We might fool everybody for a
little while. But we're not ever going to keep
God's law. We never have and we never will. And we're going
to die for it unless Christ died in our place. Christ crucified is literally
our only hope of pleasing God. and being accepted of him. Think
about it now, what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
on Calvary, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, what's the next part? Wherefore
God hath also highly exalted him. He sits on the throne, the
one who gave life and withheld it as it pleased him. And now
he sits on the throne. He is our only hope Of pleasing God of being accepted
of God And the other lesson here is simply this though. We do
all rebel against God by nature And we say in effect what that
first son said I will not That's what Thomas said. I will not
believe I And yet if we repent, if we repent
like that man did, he repented. But repentance is not just a
whim, it's a gift. It's a gift. God must grant repentance. He must give it. 2 Timothy 2.25,
in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves that God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
And though by nature we rebel, our heart is still rebellious,
is it not? Do you find that to be true? Our wicked hearts still
rebel against the king. Yet God grants repentance to
sinners by what means? Gospel teaching. In meekness
instruct. Instruct them. Gospel teaching. And then we
acknowledge the truth. To the acknowledging of the truth,
what's the truth? That by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified. But sinners are justified by
grace through faith in the Son of God. Because of his faithfulness, we look to him and away from
self. Knowledge the truth that he is
the righteousness of God and he is our righteousness before
God or we don't have any And so we come to him begging
for mercy Nobody did that here did they So by God's grace the law the
word is a schoolmaster To bring us to Christ We see in Christ
Jesus how God can be just, just and sovereign, holy, and yet justify us by the obedience
and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so by grace, through
faith that God gives, and in repentance that he gives, we
do that which every case in our text hinged upon. This is what
it all hinged upon. We bow to God's king by his grace. That's what we do. We worship God's anointed. We believe on him. We trust him.
We trust him. That's another aspect of this,
wasn't it? Why did he go and grab hold of the horns of the
altar instead of just going to Solomon and say, Solomon, I need
to speak to you. Beg for mercy he didn't trust
him he figured if I run to Solomon. He's just gonna kill me The Lord has never been asked
for mercy ever that he didn't give it what other hope do you
have? So we bow we believe on him we
trust him we seek mercy and And we worship God's anointed. Instead
of saying, I'll die here, holding on to that religious furniture, which was sacred before
God now. The sacrifice was sacred. That
was the place of sacrifice. That was a beautiful thing. Thank
God for that altar. But he didn't say grab hold of
it when you're afraid you're going to get killed. He didn't
say that. The significance of that altar is who dies on it.
And will God accept it? But instead of saying, I'll die
here, he should have went before Solomon's feet and said, I'll
die here. If Solomon won't have mercy on me, then I'm a goner.
But I'll die right here at his feet, begging for mercy. That only happens by grace, though,
doesn't it? That only happens by grace. But this is what's necessary
in Solomon's case here too in the picture. Remember that he
didn't kill Adonijah right away. You remember that in the last
lesson? He didn't kill him right away. You remember what he said? If he can just show himself a
worthy man. How are we gonna do that before
God? How are we gonna show ourselves worthy before God? I stand in Him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness
which is of God by the faith of Jesus Christ. Amen, may God
bless this to us.