We begin reading in verse 40
of 1 Kings chapter 1. Remember, David had made Solomon
to reign, be king in Israel. In verse 40, and all the people
came up after him. 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 when Joab
heard the sound of the trumpet, He said, wherefore is this noise
of the city being in an uproar? Now, they heard it as they made
an end of eating. And that's such a clear picture
of man in false religion. They're always trying to fill
themselves with the things of this world. They're just consumed
with filling their belly. And the Lord told us not to be
overly concerned with those things. But that's all that man's interested
in, is filling his belly. If you look over Romans chapter
16, that is one of the most clear evidences of false religion,
just being concerned with filling your belly with the material
things of this life. In Romans 16 verse 17, Paul says,
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned,
and avoid them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their own belly, and
by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the
simple. For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of
the cross of Christ. And here's how you can spot the
enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose
God's their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. And that's what Adonijah's doing.
He's getting a following because he's found people that mind earthly
things, and he knows if he fills their belly with this great feast,
he'll get a following. And as they're ending that feast,
they heard the celebration of the rest of Israel. They heard
the celebration of those who love David and they wonder what's
all this commotion. So verse 42 in our text, And
while he gets faith, behold, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar,
the priest, came. And Adonijah said unto him, Come
in, for thou art a valiant man, and bring us good tidings. Now
again, it's very easy to see false religion being pictured
here. This is the religious man speaking to his false prophet.
He says, Come in, you're a good man. Come in and tell me what
I want to hear. Come in and tell me something
that will make me feel better about my rebellion against God's
King and against God's Savior. You just come in, I'll brag on
you, then you brag on me. I pray every day that the Lord
will deliver us from this. God deliver us from just serving
our belly. Now, we need things in this life,
and don't get me wrong, but God deliver us from serving those
things. being consumed with those things. God deliver us from just
being in religion because we know that the Lord can feed us,
that He can give us material blessings. If we do that, we're
no better than those folks who follow the Lord because He fed
them with the loaves and the fishes. God deliver us from wanting
a preacher who would just make us feel better by telling us
what we want to hear, by telling us a lie and bragging on us,
bragging on our flesh, making us feel better about our flesh.
I pray that God would give us a thirst for the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he give us a thirst to hear the gospel, the gospel that puts
the flesh in the worst possible light and the gospel that exalts
Christ as much as is humanly possible, that will exalt Christ
above all. We need that desperately because
there comes a point that the false prophet's message will
be revealed as a lie. There's even coming a point where
the false prophet will have to admit his message was a lie.
Now it won't come to the Day of Judgment. It won't come to
the time of the last trump. But that time's coming that even
the false prophet is going to have to tell the truth. And here's
the last message that those who are in rebellion against Christ
want to hear. The last message they want to
hear is this truth. Christ reigns. That's the last
message they want to hear. Now that's the message that thrills
the hearts of you who love Christ. You love to hear Christ reigns. You love that. You want to rest
in Him. And you find peace and comfort
in the fact that Christ reigns. But a rebel, that's the last
message they want to hear. But that's what they're going
to hear. Look at verse 43. And Jonathan answered and said
to Adonijah, Verily our Lord, King David, hath made Solomon
king. And the king hath sent with him Sadoc the priest, and
Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehodiah. and the
Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride
upon the king's mule. They have revealed him as God's
king. And Zadok the priest and Nathan
the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they are come
up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This
is the noise that ye 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 thy name, and make his throne greater than
thy throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed. Jonathan
comes in and says, truth is, I've got some bad news for anyone
who's going to persist in this rebellion against David and against
Solomon. David's made Solomon king. Solomon
is reigning. He sits on David's throne. And
David has sent his servants to show everyone Solomon's king. He sent his servants to show
everyone the glory of Solomon. He sent his servants to anoint
Solomon king. And all of David's servants are
very happy with this arrangement. They're happy Solomon reigns. They're blessing and praising
the names of both David and Solomon. And that's a picture of the gospel
that we have. I have a gospel of good news
to preach. The gospel is good news for sinners. The gospel is good news for those
who love the Lord Jesus Christ. But unfortunately, it is bad
news for anyone who's going to persist in their rebellion against
God's Christ. Those who do not believe Christ,
they're in rebellion against Christ. That's all that is. It's
rebellion. God the Father has made his son
to be king and the father made his son to sit on his throne.
And all spiritual Israel rejoices. I rejoice that Christ reigns. I rejoice that he's king. And
the Father does too. This is the will of the Father.
In verse 48, Jonathan goes on. He says, And also, thus said
the king, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which hath given
me one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it. David rejoiced to see the day
that Solomon reigns. And not just because David was
glad to know one of his sons was going to reign. David's not
just rejoicing because he knows his legacy is going to continue
through one of his sons sitting on his throne. He's not just
rejoicing that someone else's son is going to reign in his
stead. David's rejoicing to see the promise of God fulfilled.
That's his greatest joy. If you look over First Chronicles
22, I'll show you that. I know David is glad to see his
son sit on his throne, but primarily he is rejoicing to see the promise
of God fulfilled. In 1 Chronicles 22, verse 7,
And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my
mind to build a house under the name of the Lord my God. But
the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood
abundantly, and hast made great wars. Thou shalt not build a
house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the
earth in my sight. But behold, a son shall be born
to thee, who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from
all his enemies round about, for his name shall be Solomon,
his name shall be peaceable, and I will give peace and quietness
unto Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my
name." And he shall be my son, and I will be his father, and
I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. Now, my son, the Lord be with
thee, and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord thy God,
as he has said of thee." See, that's why David was rejoicing.
He saw the promise of God fulfilled, and he knew this temple that
he had in his mind to build was going to be built to the glory
of God. And if you look over Matthew
22, David is rejoicing, not just
because Solomon, his son, is going to reign. He's rejoicing
because he sees past Solomon reigning, and he sees this as
a picture of Christ reigning. In Matthew 22, verse 41, while
the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Well, they say
unto him, the son of David. Well, he saith unto them, How
then doth David in spirit calling Lord, saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. This is what David rejoiced in
the most, not just that Solomon was going to sit on his throne,
but he saw Christ the Savior enthroned over Israel. That's
his greatest rejoicing. And every father in here can
understand David being pleased that his son was reigning. Well,
that's the picture of God the Father. God the Father is pleased
His Son reigns. He rejoices that His Son reigns. This is the whole purpose of
God in creation. God created this world for this
reason, that His Son be glorified and that His Son reign over Him.
God's will in creation was that His Son be glorified in redeeming
sinners out of Adam's fallen race through the blood of His
sacrifice and that His Son would reign over that creation. That
was the father's will. That was his purpose in creation.
And he rejoices that his son reigns. Now that's the message
of the gospel. That's the message God's elect
hear and they love. But when do rebels finally hear
that message? When do they really hear it and
understand it and believe it? Not to the last trump. When that
last trump sounds and Christ returns, And his reign is shown
to the whole world, then they're going to hear it. And that's
what Adonijah, that's when he and these men that were celebrating
with him, that's when they heard Solomon reigns. In verse 41,
when they heard the sound of that trumpet and they said, what's
that sound? Then they heard that Solomon
reigns. And that's why we pray that the
Lord will give us a hearing ear and a believing heart now, today. I pray we hear the gospel today
and believe it today because it's going to be too late at
the sound of the last trumpet. There's coming a day when the
day of grace will be over. It's too late. And that's what
Adonijah is afraid of. He's afraid when he heard that
trumpet. He's afraid it's too late. So verse 49, all the guests
that were with Adonijah, they were afraid and they rose up
and went every man his way. It was every man for himself
and they ran in a panic. with good reason. They were in
rebellion against the king. And all this is happening, if
you look over in Acts chapter 2, all this is happening as a
picture of Christ and the end result of rebellion against him. This one that they had been in
rebellion against, my goodness, he's king. And that's just what
Peter is preaching here. In verse 29, he says, Now, men
and brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David.
He is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto
this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne,
and seeing this before, he spake of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell, his soul was not left in
the grave, and neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus
hath God raised up. This one that you are in rebellion
against hath God raised up. We are all witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God, exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy
footstool. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord
and Christ." I'm telling you, that's scary news. That's sobering
news. In verse 37, when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart. And they said unto Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? What are we going to do? That
had to go through the mind of Adonijah and all those men. celebrating
with them. They had to go, what are we going
to do? Well, in verse 38, Peter told
them, well, you repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you'll
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Repent. Ask God for mercy, begging for
mercy. Repent. Fall at his feet and
be baptized in his name for the remission of sins. But that's
not what Adonijah does. Look here back in our text, verse
50. He didn't run to David. He didn't ask for mercy. He reigned
to religious tradition. In verse 50, and Adonijah feared
because of Solomon, and he arose and went and caught hold on the
horns of the altar. Now, Adonijah had despised Solomon.
This is his little brother. He despised him. He looked down
his nose at him. He thought he could take the kingdom from him.
Now he's afraid of Solomon. He's running and trying to find
a place to hide. And that's the ultimate end of
rebellion against Christ. All those rebels who had no use
for Christ all their life on this earth are going to find
themselves afraid of him trying to find a place to hide. That's
why they'll be calling in vain for the mountains and the rocks
to fall on them and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. That's
what scripture says. They're looking for a place to
hide from the wrath of the Lamb. That's where rebellion against
Christ always ends up. being afraid of the Lamb, afraid
of the Lamb of God. And Adonijah is afraid, and he
ran in fear, and he took hold of the horns of the altar. Now,
we understand that if a person took hold of the horns of the
altar, they would be saved from justice. We understand this. This was the custom in Israel.
And if you look in Exodus 21, I'll show you where we get this
from. This is why Adonijah ran to the
horns of the altar. In Exodus 21, verse 14, But if a man come presumptuously
upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him
from mine altar, that he may die. If a man has just done this
with guile and hatred in his heart, the tradition is if you
take hold of the horns of the altar, you're safe. But now if
he's done it like this, then you take him from the horns of
the altar and slay But the tradition was a person who took horns of
the altar, they're saved from justice, and they're saying,
my only hope is in the power of the sacrifice that's offered
on this altar. I'm a person who needs mercy,
not justice. I don't dare go to trial and
stay in trial because I'm guilty, and I deserve to be put to death,
so I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the king. My only hope
of life is in the power of the death of the sacrifice that is
offered on this altar. That is what a person is saying
when they grab hold of those horns of the altar, and that
is what Adonijah does. So verse 51, 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 Solomon said, If he will show himself a worthy man,
and that is the title of our lesson this If he will show himself
a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth.
But if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die. So King
Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar, and
he came and bowed himself to King Solomon. And Solomon said
unto him, Go to thine house. Now Solomon in his wisdom, he
accepts Adonijah's plea in the sacrifice. And Adonijah comes,
and at least outwardly he owns Solomon as the king. And Solomon
shows mercy here for the sake of the sacrifice, as a picture
of Christ. And he establishes his throne
in mercy, just like his father David did. Remember when David
first took the throne? He established his throne in
mercy. He said, is there any left of
the house of Saul that I might show him mercy for Jonathan's
sake? And he established his throne
in mercy. And Solomon says Adonijah will
live. If he shows himself to be a worthy
man and worldly speaking, this is fine. That's a good idea.
Don't do wrong again. Don't continue in your rebellion
and you'll be able to live in peace. But the problem is spiritually,
we can't do that. None of us are worthy. We cannot
make ourselves to be worthy men and worthy women. We're worthy
of nothing but damnation. So it doesn't sound like there's
much hope in this statement if you can show yourself a worthy
man. But there is hope. Not hope in us. Hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This word worthy, it means strength
and wealth. Well, the only place a weak,
poor sinner can have strength and wealth is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has all strength and all wealth. Look over in
Ruth chapter 2. Ruth chapter 2, this very same word that Solomon
uses as translated worthy is used to describe Boaz in Ruth
chapter 2. Now Boaz is a preeminent picture
of Christ in the Old Testament. He's the kinsman redeemer. In
Ruth chapter 2 verse 1, and Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's.
A mighty man of wealth of the family of Elimelech and his name
was Boaz. He is a mighty man of wealth.
That word wealth is the exact same word translated worthy back
in our text that Solomon used. The Lord Jesus Christ is worthy. That's what that's saying. He's
worthy. He's a mighty man of wealth.
And everyone who believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is made worthy. If you look in chapter 3 of Ruth,
verse 11, the same word is used to describe Ruth the bride. In
verse 11, And now, my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all
that thou requirest, for all the city of my people doth know
that thou art a virtuous woman. That word virtuous is the same
word worthy that Solomon uses. The same word that's used to
describe Boaz is the exact same word used to describe this idolater. Now, you know what that's a picture
of. You and I are made worthy in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
bear His worth. We bear His strength. We bear
His riches. Well, now, is Adonijah worthy?
Well, of course not. When Adonijah was hanging on
to the horns of that altar, he wasn't pleading for mercy for
Christ's sake. He's simply hanging on to the
form and the ceremony and the tradition of religion. He wasn't
hanging on to the person of the sacrifice. And so many people
do that. They find themselves in trouble
and they grab hold of the form and the ceremony and the tradition
of religion. But that's not going to save.
Salvation is only found in the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But that's not what Adonijah
was pleading. And I'll show you that in a minute. All he was
doing was trying to save his own hide for the time being.
so that when the time is right, he could continue his rebellion
and continue the sinful way of his flesh. In 2 Kings chapter
2, the theme of this whole chapter is stay in Christ. You come to
Christ, you stay in him. You persevere in the faith. Now
in verse 12, this is after David has died. Then sat Solomon upon
the throne of David, his father, and his kingdom was established
greatly. And Adonijah the son of Haggath
came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and she said, Comest
thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. He said,
Moreover, I have some what to say unto thee. And she said,
Say on. And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and
that all Israel set their faces on me. Everybody wanted me to
be king, that I should reign. Howbeit the kingdom is turned
about, and is become my brother's, for it was his from the Lord.
And now I ask one petition of thee. And she said unto him,
Say on. And he said, Speak, I pray thee,
unto Solomon the king, for he will not say thee nay, that he
may give me Abishag." Remember, she was this young girl that
lay with David to keep him warm, and we think that she married
him to make this look all legal. She said, Give me Abishag the
Shunammite to wife. And Bathsheba said, Well, I will
speak for thee unto the king. And Bathsheba therefore went
unto King Solomon to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king
rose up to meet her, and he bowed himself unto her, and sat down
on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother.
She sat on his right hand, and she said, I desire one small
petition of thee. I pray thee, say me not nay.
The king said unto her, Ask on my mother, for I will not say
thee nay. And she said, Let Abishag, the Shunammite, be given to Adonijah
thy brother to wife. And king Solomon answered, and
said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite
for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also,
for he is mine elder brother, even for him, and for Abiathar
the priest, and Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then came Solomon,
swear by the Lord, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if
Adonijah hath not spoken this word against his own life. Now
therefore is the Lord liveth, which hath established me, and
set me on the throne of David my father, and hath promised
me a house, as he promised, as he promised, Adonijah shall be
put to death this day. And King Solomon sent by the
hand of Benaiah, the son of Jehodiah, and he fell upon him that he
died." Now the root of all of Adonijah's problem is this, he's
not converted. His heart is unchanged because
the Lord didn't give him a new heart. He was able to save his
skin for a while, but he couldn't change his heart and the Lord
didn't give him a new heart. Asking to marry Abishai, David's last
wife, you know, that doesn't sound so bad. I mean, David is
dead. It doesn't sound like it would
be worthy of death, does it? But it is. You see, the old nature
still has the same objective, to exalt himself to a throne
that was not his. If Adonijah couldn't take the
throne by force, he's going to try to take it by guile. What
he was hoping is if he married the last wife, of the former
king, he'd be able to lay claim to the throne because his wife
was the wife of the former king. It was custom, only a king could
marry the widow of a king. So marrying Abishag would give
Adonijah a claim to the throne. He hoped it would be a strong
claim because he's Solomon's older brother. That's why Solomon
told his mother in verse 22, well, just ask the kingdom for
him too. I mean, Solomon saw what he was
doing. Bathsheba didn't, but Solomon
did. In his wisdom, he saw what he was trying to do. Solomon's
reaction is why so many people think Abishai was actually married
to David, in an attempt to make her lying with him look all legal
and everything. She married him, and that's why
Solomon is so angry here. And he puts Adonijah to death.
Now, Adonijah's first mistake was this. He chose the wrong
intercessor. You know, doesn't this kind of
kill the picture of Mary being the intercessor for sinners?
You know, people think, well, this is a good idea. Let's pray
to Mary and get her to, you know, go to the Lord for us, because,
well, he'll never tell his mother no. You know, this sounds like
a good idea. Well, that's a bad idea. The Lord Jesus Christ is King. He ain't no mama's boy. He's
King. He rules and reigns in justice
and righteousness. Mary is not the intercessor.
And that's the way it is for all of us. Now, we do need an
intercessor, just like Adonijah. He couldn't go straight to Solomon.
He needed an intercessor. You and I are sinners. We do
need an intercessor with the Father. And thank God there is
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the intercessor. He is the
only mediator between God and men. Go to him. Go to the Father
by him. And you'll be accepted. But no
other way. He's the only intercessor. He's
the only mediator. So, Adonijah's first mistake
was he chose the wrong intercessor. And his second mistake was he
didn't think Solomon would see through his guile. See, Adonijah
was just pretending religion. He was just pretending that Solomon
is the rightful king. When he said in verse 15, he
said, well, now the Lord, the kingdom is his from the Lord's,
you know, and most people want me to be king. And that's not
true. But, you know, he could say it,
I suppose. Most people want me to be king, but it was just the
Lord's will that Solomon be king. But now don't you think I should
be compensated some way? And Bathsheba fell for it. Solomon
didn't. When he told Bathsheba, I come
in peace, she fell for it. She believed it. You know, just
because somebody's talking sugar sweet and just because they're
using religious terms, that doesn't mean they're coming peace. Guile
is hiding a sinister desire in Adonijah's heart. Adonijah never
changed. He was still trying to exalt
himself to the throne that didn't belong to him. And that sinful
man, that is our nature, the nature every one of us is born
with. We're still trying to exalt ourself to a throne that doesn't
belong to us. It belongs to Christ. It's been
man's problem from the garden all the way up to today. That's
our problem. We're trying to exalt ourselves to the throne,
take Christ off the throne, and seat ourselves on it. And the
only way we'll never be put to eternal death is if we're found
to be a worthy man or a worthy woman. Every worthy man and every
worthy woman will spend eternity in glory with Christ. Every worthy
person. But if wickedness be found in
us, we'll die with the eternal death. Now, the only way that
you and I can be found worthy is to be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everyone in Christ is worthy. That's why the Apostle Paul said,
after everything he did, he said, I labored more abundantly than
they all. He won. He did labor more abundantly.
He's not bragging. That's true. He labored more
abundantly than they all. Was that his hope? Absolutely
not. He said, oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is
through the law. But through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness of God, which is by faith. Oh, that I may win
Christ and be found in him, because if I'm found in him, I'm worthy
because in Christ we're righteous. We have his righteousness and
we never have to worry about wickedness being found in us. if we're in Christ, because Christ
bore the wickedness of his people and put it away. He bore that
wickedness in himself. He bore our sin, our iniquity,
and our wickedness, and he put it away under the blood of his
sacrifice, and it's gone. It's gone. Wayne, it must be
gone. If God doesn't see it, it has to be gone. God sees everything. You can fool other people with
your guile about religion and put on a nice religious dress
and fool other people about it. God's not going to be fooled.
God sees everything. And God says, I don't see their
sin. Then it must be gone. Wickedness
can't be found in you if Christ bore your wickedness away. And
because of Christ, because of His blood and His righteousness,
everyone in Him is worthy and will live forever. I'm looking
at worthy men and women. Those who believe Christ. And
my advice to us is come to Christ. Come to Him. Be found in Him.
And this is what we're going to see in the rest of the First
Kings 2 next week. Stay in Him. Stay in Him. Don't leave Him. Stay in Him. In Him you have life and peace. Alright. Well, the Lord bless
that to you.