All right, back to 1 Kings, chapter
one. I remember as a young believer,
upon hearing and seeing new types of Christ in the scriptures,
I remember being absolutely ecstatic. And now, years later, I can honestly
say that I get even more excited, a new revelation of Christ from
the Old Testament. Now, let's do a little review.
It may be little, it may turn out
to be big, depending on liberty. King of
kings. Solomon now is the earthly king
that is spoken of in these verses, the son of David. But as in all Scripture, it's
speaking of a greater than Solomon, who himself is the son of David,
king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the king's sons, named
Adonijah, look at verse 5. Let's go back to verse 5. Adonijah,
it says, the son of Haggath, exalted himself, saying, I will
be king. And then he got him some chariots
and some men and so on. Without a word from the king, And in pride and vain glory he
exalted himself, and he said, I will. He exalted or exercised
his free will. But little did he know that King
David long before had made a covenant, a decree that is, and confirmed
it with an oath that Solomon was his king. So even before
this fellow decided, Solomon was already king, to the king. And Adonijah exalted himself,
but King David had exalted Solomon. Adonijah said, I will, but King
David had already decided Solomon will. And sooner or later, every
knee would bow and every tongue confess that Solomon was king,
even Adonijah. All right? This is a story of
the rebellion of man, mankind. Adonijah represents mankind. From the beginning, man, from
the first man, Adam and Eve, I include, man has exalted himself. That's exactly what Adam and
Eve did in the garden, didn't they? They exalted themselves
above God, above God's will. They exercised their own free
will. That's really the only time man
has ever had a free will. He was a righteous being, and
he had the ability to choose good or evil. Right? That's the only time. The only
time man has ever had free will. What did he choose? What did
man's free will do for him? Huh? Did he choose God? You say,
well, man's a victim of his environment. What kind of environment did
Adam live in? What was it that prompted him
to choose Eve? Now that lays that foolish notion
in the dust, doesn't it? But man, from the beginning,
has said, I will be as God. That's how Satan tempted him,
didn't he? You'll be as God. He said, I will. And from the beginning, people
have imagined this vain thing. They have imagined. The heathen
gather themselves and the people imagine a vain thing, and it's
against the Lord and against his anointed. I think man has the power of
God. This is the issue today. You
know it? This is the issue today. The free will, the reigning free
will of man. That is the issue. whether or not God's will be
done or man's will. That's the issue today. And remember,
as Spurgeon said, if you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on
it all. They miss that. They believe man has a free will
and that he exalts himself. Man exalts man, doesn't he? Man
exalts his own self, his own self-righteousness and his self-rule. But it's never been so. From
the beginning, God has had, but one king. one who is Lord over
all, one whose will will be done. And in an eternal covenant confirmed
with an oath, God hath made Jesus Christ both Lord, Christ, Judge,
and King, King of kings. And in spite of what men say,
they have no free will at all, but they do the bidding of King
Jesus Christ. Even the king's heart is in the
hands of the Lord. Man's will was in the hands of
the Lord. And even before mankind did this, Satan did it, didn't
he? Before man was on the earth, Satan did it. He said, I will
exalt my throne to the stars, didn't he? There's only one will,
and it's God. Well, Adonijah said, "...heaped
to himself." So that is, he gathered lots of people to himself. A
great crowd of people. Look at verse 7. And he conferred
with Joab. Joab was a famous captain and
a priest, a biathar. And they followed Adonijah and
helped him. They helped him. Verse 9, Adonijah
slew sheep, and oxen, and fat cattle by the stone of Zohelah,
which is by Enrogel, and called all his brethren, the king's
sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants. He had a
big crowd following him now. He'd drawn away lots of disciples
after himself. Verse 10, look at this. But Nathan,
the prophet, the true prophet, and Vanina, and mighty men, and
Solomon, there's the most important one, the king's beloved son,
he didn't call them. They weren't invited. They weren't
invited. Well, Adonijah was religious
stuff. We read back there in verse 6,
it says he was a goodly man, didn't he? A good moral man,
a fine man. Henry, he couldn't have led all
these people astray if he was openly wicked, could he? They
just saw right through him. But he had a form of godliness. or, if you will, a form of kingliness,
but denied the power thereof. He was religious, and we saw
that they slew some animals and so forth. I imagine they had
sacrifices. But all these people were ignorant,
as well as Adonijah. Ignorant of the will of the king,
they gave no regard. There's no mention whatsoever
of them seeking a word of the king. The word of the king is
never mentioned. Nobody ever said, what did the
king say about this? Nobody ever said that. In verse
6, Adonijah imagined that he had the king's approval, didn't
he? Because the king didn't confront him and say, what do you think
you're doing? He imagined a vain thing. He imagined that the king, that
he had his approval. The king loved him and esteemed
him highly and approved of what he was doing and yes, made him
a little king. The king never said that. Never
said that. And they never consulted the
word of the king. And isn't that like religion today? Well, now,
I said this represents mankind. Turn over to Ephesians 2. And
when I say mankind, I mean us. We are mankind. Every one of
us by nature. We're just like Oedonijah. You
know that? You know that. And Ephesians
chapter 2, Adonijah is typical of all mankind. Adonijah represents
all men and women by nature, even us. Ephesians 2, look at
these verses, very familiar. Ephesians 2 verses 1 through
4, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin. What kind of trespasses and sin?
Well, in time past you walked according to the course of this
world. You were just like everybody else. According to the prince
of the power of the air, that is, you were captives at his
will. You did his bidding. The spirit
that now worketh in the children is disobedient. Some of you were
probably religious, goodly, moral, but you did not recognize God's
king, God's sovereign king. You believed in man's free will.
You believed you had one. Did you? Some of you did. Verse
3, "...among whom we all had our conversation in time past
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath." Wrath at
what? At God. But God. who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved it." And Paul said the same thing
over in Colossians. He said this in Colossians 1,
he said, "...you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works." Works of religion. Yet now hath he reconciled. Reconciled
what? Reconciled to the fact that Christ
reigns. in the body of his flesh. That's
how he did it. Well, back to the story of the
first king. The servants of the king now,
the servants of the king, the true servants of King David,
his bride and his Bathsheba was the king's bride,
and she was true to the king. And his prophet, Nathan, and
he had a priesthood. And they went to the king, remember? They went to the king. complaining
to the king of all these, of Adonijah and all these people,
doing things against the word of the king, against the will
of the king, setting themselves up. They went complaining to
the king, just as we do, just as David did in Psalm 10. Why
stand us so far off? Psalm 13, how long, how long,
how long were you put up with this? And that's what they did, went
complaining to the king. And they also went to reaffirm,
or have reconfirmed to themselves the word, the oath of the king. I'll have to go back and read
that again. But Bathsheba went in first, the bride went in first
and said, Now king, you told me, you swore to me that Solomon
reigns. That he reigns and rules. But
there's Adonijah down there. He's reigning. He's ruling. And
the people everywhere, everybody is following him, almost without
exception. Now who's reigning? Would you
tell me again? And then right behind her, Nathan
came in, you know, and said, Maybe I haven't read it. Maybe
you wrote it somewhere. But I haven't seen it. Would
you tell me, did you put Adonijah on the throne? Does he have a
free will? Does he reign or does Solomon
reign? Would you tell me again?" And
I can see David smiling now. I can see him smiling now and
say, yes, I will. And look down at verse 30, all
right? Verse twenty-nine, And the king
sweared." Now, he tells us not to swear. Don't you swear by
anything. Why? Because we just can't keep
our oaths and our vows, but God swears. And look who he swore by, as
the Lord liveth. The king swore, as the Lord liveth,
that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, even as I swear
unto thee by the Lord God of Israel. He swore, and he can
swear by no greater. And he confirmed this thing with
another. He said, saying, now the king
is speaking to his people. The word of the king is for his
people. Remember how he called each one
of men individually? And he spoke his word to them.
They heard the word from the king. And look at his word. What's his word concerning? What
does he say? Assuredly, Solomon, thy son shall
reign after me." That's what God said. He shall sit upon my
throne in my stead, even so will I certainly do this day. And
what the bride do? Oh, she bowed. with her face
to the earth. I can see her smiling, too, and
did reverence to the king and said, Let my Lord King David
live forever. Let him live forever. And like
I said, one by one he called them in, each of his chosen ones. Who was going to hear? Those
the king called, each one of them. This may grow into a three-part
message. As a matter of fact, we're already
going through 1 Peter and Luke. I'd love to go through 1 King,
but it truly may go into a three-part message, because in chapter 2,
we're going to see that some of these that appeared to be
with David were not. And how we know is that David
didn't call them in individually and give them the word. They didn't hear the word. Well,
the king called his people in vigil, and each one of them heard
the word. Look at verse 33 and 34. The
king said unto them, he just called Nathan and Phineha and
the son of Jehoiada, and they came before the king and Zadok
the priest. And the king said unto them,
Take with you the servants of your Lord, and cause Solomon
my son to ride upon mine own mule. My mule. Every mule in the kingdom belongs
to its king. Huh? That's my mule. No, the king said it's his. Oh,
okay. My mule. Bring him. down to Gihon
and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him
there, and the king over Israel blow you the trumpet and say,
God save King Solomon." He commanded them, lift him up, put him up
above everybody. set him on a mule, set him forth. Down in verse 36, So and so,
and Benana, the son of Jehoiada, answered the king. Look at what
Benana said, Amen. Amen. I like this, Lord God of
my Lord, the king said so too. At the mouth of two or three
witnesses. And God, as the Lord, hath been with my Lord the King."
Look at this, verse 37. He said, "...even so be he with
Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my
Lord King David." And you know David didn't even object to that. Why, this man said, I hope that
the King's Son is even greater than the Father. And David said,
I don't know. Oh, he'd delight that they were
honoring the Son even as they honored the Father. And so, in the fullness of time,
verse 39, look at this. This is wonderful. In the fullness
of time, the king sent forth his son, and Zadok the priest
took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle, anointed Solomon,
and they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, God save
King Solomon. The prophets said it, the priests
said it, and the king said it, concerning one person. These
all agreed in one. Solomon reigned. And so with the trumpet blaring
and the people declaring, God saved the king, or God saves
by the king. And it says in verse 40, All
the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes,
and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rant with the
sound. Well, this is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? You don't need for me to explain
it. But God hath declared the decree. Jesus Christ is his only
begotten, well-beloved Son. He is elect. His chosen, His
King, and He has given Him all authority in heaven and earth,
all authority as Judge, Savior, and King to save whom He will,
to destroy whom He will. We're going to see that in chapter
2, how King David said, I'm leaving it up to you. You're the judge.
You decide who lives and who dies. In time, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law by being made a curse for them. And he
even paraded his Son on a coat to fold them an ass, just like
this. And the people went out before him, crying, Hosanna to the king. And then God lifted
him up, didn't he, on Calvary's tree as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, and set him forth as a propitiation, that
is, a bloody offering and sacrifice for the sins of his elect. And
the Scripture says that after he finished the work of redemption,
when he said it's finished, he bowed his head and gave up the
ghost, and the Scripture says the earth did quake. Just like it did here. The earth
ran. It shook. The earth shook because
God said, yea, and once more, at the end of the day, I'm going
to shake this thing. And he didn't stay dead, though.
Christ didn't stay dead, but God raised him up from the dead
and sat him at his own right hand as King of kings, Lord of
lords, expecting his enemies to be made his footstool, and
some of those enemies to bow at his feet, to sit at his feet
and hear his word. Well, here's a type of one of
those. All right? Adonijah and all the guests that
were with him heard it, or that is, they heard the commotion.
And as they had made an end of eating, they heard this, and
when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, What's
going on? Wherefore is this noise of the
city in an uproar? What is going on out there? And
look at this, verse 42, While he yet spake, behold, Jonathan
the son of Abiathar the priest, a young man, A young man, son
of a preacher, came in. And Adonijah said unto him, Come
in, you're a valiant man. You bring good tidings, don't
you? You got some good tidings for us? Yeah, I sure do. I got some gospel for you. Good
tidings. And so this young man gives his
glad tidings. It takes about five minutes to
give it. It's a very simple message, a
five-minute sermon, and this is how it begins. In verse 43,
Johnathan answered and said to Adonijah, here's the first thing
he said, the first thing out of his mouth, "'Verily, our Lord
King David hath made Solomon king.'" God hath made Christ both Lord
and King, whom you have crucified." And verse 44, "...and the king
hath sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet."
King, the prophet, the priest! They say Solomon reigned. Read on down there, verse 45,
"...and Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, have anointed
him king." He's anointed And they come up from thence rejoicing,
so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you've
heard. We hear a lot today about anointing,
don't we? Anointing. If you turn on the
TV, that's all you're going to hear about. I've got an anointing. I've got an anointing. The Lord
gave me a special anointing. Have you got the anointing, the
anointing, the anointing, the anointing? God's people talk
about the anointed one. That's who John talked about,
didn't he? John said, God hath given him
the Spirit without measure. He's the anointed one. I get
so tired of hearing this, anointed, anointed, anointed. He's going
to anoint them all right. Well, look at verse 46. And he
said, he continued his five-minute message. He said, and also Solomon,
why, he's sitting on the throne right now. He's sitting on the throne of
the kingdom. Yes, right now. He's reigning and ruling, just
as surely. And moreover, verse 47, the king's
servants came to bless our Lord King David, and this is what
they said, God make the name of Solomon better than thy name,
and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed
himself to his son. The king said, Thy throne, O
Solomon, is forever and ever. King said it. And verse 48, And also thus said
the king. Thus said the king. You see that,
Joe? He keeps saying, The king said. The king said. The king
said. This is what the king said. What? Solomon reigns. Solomon
reigns. Solomon reigns. His whole message
was Solomon reigns. The king said so, and he's sitting
on the throne right now. Verse 48, 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 having seen it. Well, where the word of the king is,
there's power. And though this was just a young
man, and, you know, he's just telling the tidings, isn't he?
Telling what he saw. Go tell him what you saw. What
did you see? Solomon's reign. The king said
so. Is that all you know? Yes. He's all. And you all better
bow. So where the word of the king
is, in spite of the vessel, there's power. And by the word of the
king, declaring, and this is the word of the king. Did this
fellow ask anybody to do anything to accept him as their personal
king? Huh? Did he give an altar call and
ask anybody? Now, he's on the throne and he
wants all of you to be his servants. He wants all of you to be his
subject, he loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,
and if you'll just accept King Solomon as your personal king,
he'll..." He didn't say, he said, he's on the throne, and he walked
out. That's all he did was declare
who's reigning. What happened? Oh, fear took
hold. The first thing that happened
was this council of the heathen was brought to naught. They dispersed. Look at verse 49. All the guests
that were with Adonijah were afraid, and they rose up and
took off. I couldn't help but think when
the Lord, the King himself, came down and wrote in the dust. Boy,
it dispersed the council of the wicked. And it put fear in the heart
of one old boy. Who? Adonijah. This God, this king-hater, this
self-exalting, free-will exalting man who ignored the king's word
and the king's will, who cared nothing for the king's beloved
son, who imagined that he had the king's approval, now realized
he was guilty of high treason. He thought the king loved him.
He thought he had the king's approval. But he realizes now
he's guilty of the highest treason against the king. He doesn't have the king's approval,
yet he has the king's wrath abiding upon him. And he realizes, I believe, that
he deserves his wrath. There's only one hope. He had heard, Adonijah had heard,
just like all the king's sons have heard, long before, that if there was
a guilty sinner before the Lord, that they could go to one place,
just one place. There's just one way to have
that guilt removed. Just one way. And there's one
place to find it. There's a tabernacle. And inside
that tabernacle, there's an altar. And on that altar, there's a
sacrifice. And you've got to come to the
sacrifice. You've got to lay hold on the
sacrifice. And so that's what Oadd denied
you did. Look at verse fifty. Oadd denied you feared because
the Solomon arose and went and caught hold on the horns of the
altar. He feared, he arose, he came,
he laid hold. Now what could be simpler than
that? Huh? Guilty. He got up. Why am I tearing?
He made haste. Laid hold on the altar. He came.
He laid hold of the sacrifice. In verse 51, it was told Solomon,
saying, Behold, I denied you, feareth King Solomon. Below he
caused hold on. How do you know he fears me?
He's laying hold on the altar. That's where he is right now,
and he's been there 24 hours now, and he won't let go. And
here's what he said. Now, before, he hadn't given
any thought to the word of the king, had he? He just presumed,
didn't he? He just assumed, didn't he, that
he had the king's approval. Now he said, I want to hear the
king say. I want to hear him say unto my
soul, look at it, let King Solomon swear unto me today that he will
not slay his servant. Now I'm not king, he's king. Let him not slay There shall not a hair of him
fall to the earth, but if wickedness will be found in him, he shall
die." What made me go to this passage
in the first place was that chapter in Luke 7 about the centurion
of whom they said was a worthy man. Remember that? We were due to study Luke 7,
and that story goes that the people, the centurion had a sick
servant, you know, and the people said, He's a worthy man. He's
done much good for us. But the centurion said of himself,
I'm not worthy. That's how you know if a man's
worthy of mercy. Who's worthy of mercy? That's
a misnomer, isn't it? He's not worthy of mercy. Mercy's for the guilty. It's
not for the deserving. Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. Well, who's worthy of mercy,
though? It's the unworthy. And so King Solomon said, If
he'll show himself a worthy man now, he won't a hair of his head
fall to the ground. You have my word on it. He'll not die. So King Solomon sent, and they
brought him down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself
to the king, Solomon. And Solomon said, Go to your
house. Well, look over in closing in Hebrews chapter 6. This is a perfect verse in closing. We need to compare the one with
the other number. This is the perfect way to close
this whole thing. Paul, perhaps, had this in mind
when he wrote in Hebrews 6, verses 17 and 18. And in one place in
Hebrews, Paul said, We have an altar, didn't we? And he said here in Hebrews chapter
6, wherefore? Wherein? Verse 17, God willing
more abundantly. to show under the airs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, and he confirmed it by an oath
that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope." Guilty sinner, to lay hold on
the horn of the altar. The king said, if you are unworthy,
not a hair of your head will fall to the ground. Well, like I said, we need to,
you know, my pastor always said a type can't walk on four legs
because nothing can perfectly represent our Lord. They're just shadows. Types and
shadows cannot perfectly represent the substance, right? They're
just a figure. And it's true. Anybody lays hold
on the hope of Jesus Christ, not a hair of your head will
fall to the ground. They're numbered. You'll not die. He said, if you
show yourself a worthy man, or that is, an unworthy man, lay
hold and continue steadfast. Lay hold on the beginning of
your confidence, steadfast to be, not a hair of your head will
fall to the ground." Your spiritual head. He promised. But if we go into
it, we're going to see that Elijah did not prove himself to be worthy. He still maintained a little
self-rule, a little self-will. And the king knew it. The king
knew it. He knew it all along. But this
was written for our learning, for our sake, that we might have
comfort. Comfort. If you lay hold on Christ,
our altar, Just stay right here. Here's
safe ground. Unworthy. Unworthy. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. That's safe ground. All right, let's stand. Our God and our King. We plead that one and only sacrifice
for guilty sinners, and we are guilty. We are still guilty sinners. Our sin is ever before us. We see this law of warring in
our members so that we cannot do the things that we would.
We would serve thee with a perfect heart and a perfect life. But you are so glad you know
our frame and remember that we're but dust, and most of all we're
glad that you sent forth your Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem us. You made a sacrifice for us.
And so it is to him that we cling and lay hold on to this hope
for refuge. He is our hope. Christ, our city
of refuge and our altar, our sacrifice. And it is in his name
that we've met together tonight. I ask your blessings on your
word, that God be the glory, God saved by the King, Jesus
Christ. Amen.