We'll look at verse 40 again
all the people came up after Solomon first Kings 140 All the
people came up after Solomon and the people piped with pipes
and rejoiced with great joy so that the earth rent with the
sound of them and Adonijah and all the guests that were with
him heard it as they had made an end of eating and And when
Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, wherefore is this noise
of the city being in an uproar? I remember from last time that
David had already made his will known that Solomon would be king
and Adonijah, seeing how old and weak King David was, thought
he would usurp the throne. And that David wouldn't do anything
about it, and that Solomon wouldn't be man enough to do anything
about it either. And this is a clear and beautiful picture
of the gospel, which all through concerns God's duly appointed
king, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this also pictures false,
freewill, antichrist religion. Adonijah and his followers despised
David and David's chosen king and This is what so-called free
will does every time What men call free will is a depraved
will That always chooses wrong In the Garden of Eden God had
clearly revealed his will wouldn't you say it wasn't complicated
you can eat everything except this and And man decided, you know, man's gotta make a decision,
doesn't he? Well, what did he decide? To not do what God said. And that's been happening ever
since. The man decided he didn't like
God running things. And that's what this is all about. At the cross, it was we will
not have this man to reign over us. There as well as in the garden
though. God had clearly revealed his
will that Christ is Lord He went about doing nothing, but good
he healed the sick and the blind and even raised the dead It was
clear who he was And everybody knew it in their heads God's
will is Christ rules and reigns and salvation is by his work
his blood his righteousness his will The leper in Matthew 8 didn't
come to Christ saying, I'll be made clean. I will be made clean.
He said, no, if you will, Lord, you can make me clean. And what
did the Lord say? And this is the crux now. This
is the difference between false anti-Christ religion and the
gospel. I will. Simon said, I will be true to
you. I will not betray you. I will
die with you. And Christ said, no, you won't,
but I will. I'll go to prepare a place for you. And I will come
again and receive you unto myself. That's the difference. It's us
or him, works or grace. Salvation is in those two little
words from the Savior, I will. But here are these spiritually
speaking antichrist haters of God's true king. You see the
spiritual picture of what's going on in the kingdom of Israel here.
They're reveling, reveling in their false religion. They're
having a big party and they're eating all this great food. They had just gotten through
filling their bellies. Did you notice that? When they had done
eating, they heard that sound, the sound of a trumpet. And they
were, what were they filling their bellies for? They were
celebrating the coup that they thought they'd just pulled off. Coup against God himself But
they were in for a rude awakening False religion that don't they
they're celebrating all the time aren't they they're celebrating
something celebrating themselves and they jump and holler and
they They sing praise praise pray have you ever listened to
their songs? They're not much to them is there
Praise the Lord praise hallelujah this and that They're singing praise to a false
king, celebrating their godless, Christless fellowship. That's
what these men are picturing here. But the wake-up call is
coming. The wake-up call is coming. Look
at verse 42. And while he yet spake, while
Joab was saying, what's going on, what is this noise? Behold,
Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came, And Adonijah
said unto him, Come in, for thou art a valiant man. You see how they're picturing
false religion already pretty clearly, aren't they? You're
such a valiant man, come in. I know you've got good news for
me. And bring us good tidings. And
Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, Verily our Lord King
David hath made Solomon. So the picture just gets clearer
and clearer. Here they are at their party.
They've just filled their bellies in celebration of anointing a
false king, and a messenger comes in. And though the reality of
the situation is that they're committing high treason against
God and his king, what are they doing? Bragging on one another.
Of course that's what they're doing. That's what they always
do, isn't it? You're such a valiant man. You're so faithful. Let's
give you a prize. We'll put your name on the end
of the pew. You've been so faithful. You're a valiant man. No, he
wasn't. He was a pathetic traitor. He was a criminal. He committed
high treason against God and his king. That's what he was. And look what Adonijah also said
to him. You've brought good tidings. That's gospel. The word gospel
means good news, good tidings. He's saying, you've come with
the gospel. But it wasn't the gospel. It wasn't good news for
them, was it? So there's two ways to look at
this. This is false religion to a T, isn't it? You've come
with gospel. Not for them, he hadn't. What
this messenger brought was actually very bad news for everybody that
didn't belong. Remember that word in our context
from last time, they belonged to David. Anybody that didn't
belong to David, this wasn't good news for them, but he called
it good news, just like what passes for a gospel in most so-called
churches of our day is not good news. The idea that sinners have
to do something for God in order to be saved is not good news. If you're dead in trespasses
and sins, you having to do something for God is not good news. That's
bad news. Oh, I've got to do something.
I'm dead. Not good. The idea that sinners have to
do something for God in order to be saved is not good news,
we're dead in trespasses and sins. And the idea that the Lord
Jesus Christ didn't actually redeem anybody when he died on
Calvary and shed his precious blood is not good news for sinners. So in this sense, this message
pictures the false gospel in that religion calls it good news,
when in fact it wasn't good news for them. But also what this
messenger brought was the truth. It was the truth, and that wasn't
good news for them, but even though it was the truth, and
think about that. Where are you? Remember when
the Lord said, Adam, where are you? It's a good question, isn't
it? Where are you if the truth is
not good news for you? It's bad news. If you hate the
Lord Jesus Christ and are determined to crown your own king, there
is no good news for you. There is none. You just manufacture
something and call it gospel, but there's no good news for
you. Simon told that crowd in Acts 2.36, remember he said,
therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. Does that sound like good news?
If you nailed him to a cross and spit on him and mocked him,
and now he's sitting on the throne, that's not good, is it? Not for
you unless God gives you faith in him. God gives you the heart
to bow to him and adore him and worship him. If you despised
him and spit on him and mocked him and murdered him and God
raised him up and put him on the throne, you're in trouble.
Unless God's true king has mercy on you. He doesn't have to and
you don't deserve it. But he just might, he just might
anyway. Anyway is grace. Compare verse 43 in our text. Look at verse 43 again. And Jonathan
answered and said to Adonijah, verily our Lord King David hath
made Solomon king. And compare that to what I just
read in Acts 2.36. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly, that same word is in our text, said
verily, verily, our Lord King David hath made Solomon king. Let everybody in the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you crucify, both Lord and Christ. It's almost the same verse, isn't
it? The earthly and the spiritual. compared That's the gospel, but
that's bad news if you crucify him Unless God gives you faith In the Lord Jesus Christ And make no mistake about this
You me and everybody else is gonna bow to God's king one way
or another. Sooner or later we're gonna bow.
I pray that we're doing that right now. Back in our text,
verse 44, we'll read a few verses together here. Verse 44, the
king hath sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet,
and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherithites, and the
Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule.
Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king
in Gahan And they are come up from thence rejoicing so that
the city rang again this is the noise that you have heard and
also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom and Moreover the
king's servants came to bless Our Lord King David saying God
make the name of Solomon better than my name and make his throne
greater than that throne and And the king bowed himself upon
the bed. I thank God for this part. This
is the truth and it includes us. It includes those who belong
to David. We're in on it. That's good news. For wretched sinners who, by
God's grace, believe on the Lord Jesus. Remember how we are described
in verse eight. But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah
the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and
Reh, and the mighty men which belong to David were not with
Adonijah." That's us, that's God's sheep. Jonathan had just
said David has made Solomon king. In the previous phrase that we
looked at, verse that we looked at, And what's he saying now? There's a whole bunch of people
that are real happy about it. Are you one of those? There's
a lot of people, boy, that were with him. They were with him. And they were celebrating. That's
the thing about it. You see, we celebrate, too. False
religion celebrates. But we celebrate, too, by God's
grace. Not in the flesh, by eating the dainties of this world or
feasting Things that this world has cooked up We celebrate by
feasting on meat indeed and drink indeed the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith We don't fill our bellies because
our God is not our belly as the word says that's that's what's
true of those who Worship a false Christ But God fills our hearts
from the table of his grace. And here's what we celebrate.
Philippians 2.8, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him. Adonijah and his crew were celebrating
the usurping of the throne by their king, the one who they
decided they would make king. We celebrate the fact that God
hath highly exalted his son and given him a name which is above
every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. A greater than Solomon is on
the throne. And let the whole city ring with
the sound of his praise. Our gospel is good news to all
who bow to God's Son, all who honor the Son. Good news. And so we celebrate and we rejoice. Verse 48 in our text, and also
thus said the king, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which
hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing
it. Not only are all of the elect
of God pleased with Christ, but God himself is pleased with Christ. The king of the universe. This
is an aspect of our salvation that's not to be missed. I'm
saved because God is well pleased with a man. One man, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus. Christ as my representative,
my Adam, has done always those things that pleased God the Father. He satisfied God the Father for
my sins. He said, the Lord Jesus said,
therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life
for my sheep. Because of what he did for us.
That's salvation. He satisfied God the father for
my sins on Calvary with his precious sin atoning blood. So both God
and his people rejoice in Christ. Everybody rejoices in Christ that knows him. We have a phrase
at the end of verse 48 that I just want to make a comment on here.
My eyes even seeing it. Now David as a man here, think
about this. Do you actually see Christ on the throne? That's
the thing here. Do you actually see with eyes
of faith? that Christ reigns. We should
live every moment of our lives with that reality present in
our hearts. And I'll remind you again of
why he reigns. I know he reigns just simply
because he's worthy, because of who he is, but listen, to
what end does he reign? John 17, one, these words speak
Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may also glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that, so that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. He reigns in order to save us. That's what he said there. Thank God he does. And this is
life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Do you see with your own
eyes, the eyes of faith? Now you've got to, that's what
faith is. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen with these eyes. It's seen, just not with these
eyes. It's the substance of things
hoped for. What you hope for when you have
a good hope in Christ is not just, well, I hope it's not gonna
rain tomorrow. I've got things to do. That doesn't
mean anything. You don't know if it's going
to or not. It doesn't matter what they say, it still might.
But this is not that kind of hope. There's substance to it. It's a good hope. It's a true
hope in Christ. It's trusting him who can't lie. That's a good hope. So do you see, or is this just
a doctrine that you like to argue about? I say that kind of thing
a lot because it happens a lot. Not here, I doubt very much,
but it does. And look at verse 49 back in
our text, and all the guests that were with Adonijah were
afraid and rose up and went every man his way. It's every man for
himself when God speaks, unless you actually hear what he says.
And then it's every man for him. They weren't glad. They weren't
sorry. They weren't regretful. They
weren't humbled. They were not conciliatory. They
were scared. Not a good sign. They were scared and still they
went every man his own way. Now think about the spiritual
truth of that, how true that is. They went every man his own
way. Where'd they go? Hither and yon,
wherever, to hide out, maybe pledge allegiance to another
king that hated David as much as they did. Who knows? But they
went their own way. What would God's way have been
in this scenario? Go to Solomon and say, you're
the king. And from now on, I'm yours. By
your grace, if you'll have me, I'm yours. That would have been
God's way. They went their own way. There
again, that's the difference between life and death. They had no intention of ever
doing that. They're not gonna bow to Solomon.
This is the whole story. Man goes his own way unless and
until God shows him the way. Christ Jesus said, I am the way. There are two gates, aren't there?
Broad and narrow. There are two religions, Christ
and not Christ. Antichrist. Grace and works. Free will or God's will Christ
told Bartimaeus go your way. You remember that what a beautiful
story that is and what a beautiful gospel picture Look at it with
me in Mark chapter 10. Let's read this together This
is what we're talking about here in our text They wrote they were
afraid and they rose up and went every man his way Mark 10 46 Notice again how just simple
and beautiful the gospel is, so clear, when the Lord reveals
it, it's so clear. Mark 10, 46, and they came to
Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, and
a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard who it was,
you see that? He heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry
out and say, Jesus. The name that means he's gonna
save his people from their sins, Jesus. Thou son of David, have
mercy on us. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried, the more a great
deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind
man, saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. They knew what was fixing to
happen, didn't they? Because they'd been walking with him
for a while. They said, boy, this is a good day for you, Barnabas.
He's calling for you. And he, casting away his garment,
beautiful gospel picture all the way through, came to Jesus, casting away his
garment. Well, what's he gonna put on?
He came to Jesus. That's what you're gonna put
on when you know him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord. They always did, didn't they?
Lord, remember me. Lord, I'm not worthy that you
should come under my roof. Lord that I might receive my
sight and Jesus said unto him go thy way oh Boy this is beautiful go that
way What was his way Go that way thy faith hath made thee
whole and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus
in The way that way the way Unless they're
the same you have no hope Verse 50 in our text and adonijah
feared because of Solomon and Arose and went and caught hold
on the horns of the altar now adonijah is not the first person
and I'm sure not the last person to ever do this. This was a customary
thing and It became customary for one who was in a similar
situation, they were being pursued by someone who possibly had a
right to revenge, to justice, to restitution. People would
run and take hold of the horns of the altar. I can give you
other examples of that in scripture, of that happening. And this signified
the power of the atonement, the horns of the altar. Horns are
always power, and the altar was where the sacrifice was. was
offered to lay hold of these horns was to say, my only hope
is in the power of the sacrifice. And that sounds great, doesn't
it? That's a wonderful thing. The power of God's atonement
is my hope. I'll lay hold of that. That sounds
really good, but as with all religious traditions, they tend
to become empty, Christless rituals, observed for selfish reasons
only. That's what they usually become,
aren't they? Now, Naja didn't care anything about the atonement.
He just didn't want to die. That's the only reason he did
that. We found that out eventually. He didn't care anything about
God or making atonement with God, just like many. In our day, in my youth, and
ever since I've been alive, I've watched it happen. People make
decisions. They make professions of faith
in Christ. And it just becomes a ritual.
All they really want is to go to heaven when they die. And
they really don't even hide it, do they? We would go around so-called
witnessing. You know, what would you think
witnessing? Be witnesses of what? and yet
what religion calls witnessing, you know what it was? We just
came by to ask you if you wanted to go to heaven when you die.
I'm dead serious, that's what they would say. We want to know, do you want to
go to heaven when you die? Let me tell you how you can go to
heaven when you die. Is that being a witness of a
person? The son of God? So it just becomes a ritual,
it just becomes selfish. He laid hold of those horns because
he thought it would save his skin. He didn't care anything
about that altar and what it represented. It might appear on the surface that
he's obeying Christ, but in spiritual reality, it wasn't so. Remember the story? In Luke 17 of the Ten Lepers,
think about this. Adonijah laid hold of that which
pictured Christ, that which pictured God's true king, who made atonement
for sin, but God's true king is right there. And he turned
away from the king and did something religious. In Luke 17, 12 through 19, the
10 lepers, the Lord told them to go their way and show themselves
to the priest. And as they went, they were all
healed physically. But as they went their way, one
of them turned around, turned back, And it says, he fell down
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving him thanks. And it might appear on the surface
that this man disobeyed Christ. He said, go show yourself to
the priest. And he didn't do that. He turned around and went
to Christ. Oh, wait a minute. He did show himself to the priest,
our great high priest, the Lord Jesus. who went into the holy
place not made with hands, and not with the blood of bulls and
of goats, but with his own precious blood. He was the only one who
really showed himself to the priest. And the Lord forgave his sins.
He didn't just heal him physically. He saved him. Adonijah laid hold
of the symbol when Solomon was right there. All he had to do
was go to Solomon and bow and say, I'm yours. We don't rejoice
in symbols. How can we do that when we have
the one that the symbols symbolize? If I'm away for a long time,
which I don't think has ever happened, Vicki and I haven't
spent probably 10 nights apart in our whole lives, but if we
did, and I came home, I wouldn't run in the house and look for
a picture of Vicki. Boy, I've missed you. Where's that picture?
I like that picture. She's standing right there. We don't rejoice in symbols.
God give us grace to never do that. Why didn't Adonijah just
bow to Solomon? It wasn't complicated, was it?
What needed to happen It was not that hard to figure out,
unless, unless you hate Solomon. Now it would be tough, wouldn't
it? It'd be tough. It'd be impossible. Even though you might bow your
knees, you'd never bow your heart as long as you hated God's king.
That's what's got to change. Salvation's a heart work. and
then everything else falls into place. The minute you love him, it's all over but the bowing
then, isn't it? We find out later why he didn't
just pledge his allegiance to Solomon to begin with, because
he still hated him in his heart. We'll see that soon. Verse 51, back in our text, and
it was told Solomon, saying, behold, Adonijah feareth King
Solomon for lo he has caught hold on the horns of the altar
saying See if you see anything wrong with this with what I did
I just said let King Solomon swear unto me today That he will
not slay his servant with the sword Think about what all Nathan and
all the true those who belong to David were doing and saying
And what adonijah was saying? He didn't say go tell Solomon
that I'll be loyal to him He didn't repent and ask for mercy
all he was interested in was not suffering the consequences
of his rebellion That's religion Antichrist religion how many
sinners How many sinners are gonna go to hell having walked
an aisle and repeated a made-up prayer that somebody just came
up with I? Registered their decision for Jesus just because they don't
want to go to hell But they still have no use for
Christ in their hearts a mini Boy, I watched him go down to
the altar in droves when I was in religion and almost all the
time They really had no interest in worship in Christ when they
did show up boy, they made decisions and boohooed and Rededicated
their lives and then they would disappear for another year or
two Verse 52 and Solomon said if
he will show himself a worthy man all adonijah is interested
in Is saving himself And all God's true king is interested
in is are you worthy and Are you worthy? Now think about that.
There shall not a hair of him fall to the ground if he's just
a worthy man. But if wickedness shall be found
in him, he shall die. That's it, isn't it? That's the
gospel. Here's the question. Are you
worthy to live before God? Are you worthy for him to say
live and not die? Because this is his power. Solomon
can put his thumb in the air or down, one of the two. And it's life or death. Are you
worthy to live before God? Are you worthy to be accepted
of him whom you crucified in your heart? Do your works measure up? If you think yes, then you are
certainly not worthy. If you say, no way, what I need
is mercy, then you're worthy, because your
worthiness is not yourself, it's Him. A sinner can only show himself
worthy in and by Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1.3, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's the reason Christ died
on Calvary, because the question is a matter of your worthiness.
You've got to be worthy to stand in the presence of God. And he
came, we're chosen in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him and of having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted. Holy and without blame means
accepted. How? In the beloved. No other
way. And look at the last phrase of
that verse. If any wickedness shall be found in him, he's a
goner. Well, that's the gospel too,
isn't it? If God sees any sin in you, you're a goner. Remember
Numbers 23, 21? God hath not beheld iniquity
in Jacob. Jacob's name means worm. It means
usurper. It means cheat. But God looked
at him and saw no iniquity. And Jacob represents the whole
nation of Israel. He called Israel Jacob here. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. Boy, I do. They're a stiff-necked
and rebellious people, weren't they? They denied God at every
turn. He brought them through the Red
Sea and it was no time before they were murmuring against him. Stiff-necked, rebellious, I see
it, don't you? God didn't. Not in his elect. Not in his spiritual Israel.
No perverseness in them, according to God. That's what counts. The Lord his God is with him
in the shot of a king, is among them, and it ain't Adonijah. This is our only hope and can
only be true if Christ Jesus has washed us from our sins.
How can God say, I don't see any iniquity in you? If Christ
washed us from them in his own blood, that's how. Verse 53,
so King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar,
brought Adonijah down, and he came and bowed himself to King
Solomon, and Solomon said unto him, go to thine house. Adonijah
put on a good religious show, but is he really worthy? Is he
a worthy man? Worthiness, in this context,
what do you think Solomon meant? When he said, if he's just a
worthy man, what is worthiness in this context? It meant honoring God's king,
pledging allegiance to God's true king, bowing to God's true
king, acknowledging him as the sovereign. And whatever this looked like
now, The deciding of the matter was something that could not
be seen on the outside. You'd have to be able to see
Adonijah's heart to know if he's worthy or not. And only God can
see. Man looks on the outward appearance,
but God looketh on the heart. If you had witnessed this, you
would have no idea whether or not Adonijah was worthy. because
you can't see the heart like God can. But here's the question. The
question is not whether Adonijah was worthy. The question is whether
you're worthy or not. As you go to your house, Solomon
said, go on to your house. Judgment was not made that day
as to whether Adonijah was worthy or not. And that's how it is
with spiritual things, isn't it? The Lord's already judged,
but it's not carried out yet. He just said, go home. And time
will tell, won't it? Time will tell. That's what Paul
said, if you continue in the faith. Time will tell. As you go to your house and live
in your house, do you bow to Christ in your heart, where nobody
else can see but Him? That's the question. Now, it'll
manifest itself in your actions, won't it? If you bow to Christ,
you'll do things accordingly, to a great degree. If you don't,
well, that'll get out on you, too. If you despise him, it'll
get out on you. Sooner or later, it'll become
evident. Do you honor him in your heart? Not a religious show,
but true love for Christ. Isn't that what he asked Simon?
Not do you believe this, this, do you love me? Do you love me? If you love him, you believe
him. That's the issue now. I know this about that, those
who are forgiven much, love much. So I've got one final question
for you. How much have you been forgiven? Any? Little? Has God kind of helped
you, you know, you couldn't do it without him, you know, but, or a lot? A lot. Let's bow in prayer.