Now I invite you to look at verse
13 of 1 Kings chapter 14. And all Israel shall mourn for
him. This is the message of the prophet
unto Jeroboam's wife. And all Israel shall mourn for
him, that is the son of Jeroboam, Abijah. And for he only of Jeroboam
shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good
thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. This, this morning, is the text.
I hope the Lord will be pleased to bless the thoughts that we
have tried to gather and collect on this subject, A Bad King's
Good Son. a bad king's good son. Now Jeroboam had proved false
to the Lord who had placed him upon the throne of Israel and
the time was come for his overthrow. The time was come when God was
going to bring judgment upon Jeroboam and upon his household
and the Lord sent sickness into his house and his son Abijah
was very sick And then his parents, Jeroboam, had remembered this
old prophet over in Shiloh, this prophet that had told him that
he was going to be king in Israel. And he thought of him and thought,
well, we should go and contact this old prophet to see what
it is that God is about to do in our household and what our
future is going to be. Now in order, fearful lest the
prophet should denounce plagues upon him and his child, if he
knew that the inquirer was the wife of Jeroboam the king, he
had her to disguise herself as a farmer's wife, and to go to
Shiloh and take with her an offering, to go to the prophet, the old
aged prophet who had gone blind, and to visit with him and to
find out and to get, if she could, a favorable answer from the prophet
as to the child and to their future. Well, she was a fool
and of course he was too. Jeroboam and his wife both were
fools to imagine that a prophet to whom God was revealing himself
and through whom God was speaking that they could possibly deceive
this old prophet into giving them some news or giving them
a sentence that would be more favorable from the Lord. And so certainly her disguise
was vain because God spoke to the prophet and told him prior
to her arriving that she was coming and told the prophet what
to tell Jeroboam's wife. And now in this, the terrible
tidings which the prophet Ahijah delivered to the wife of Jeroboam,
there was only one bright spot. There was only one source of
comfort, one place of comfort. There was only one solace. And that is found here in the
13th verse when it said that he only, this child only of Jeroboam,
that he only shall come to the grave. that he was mercifully appointed to death,
and that he was the only one of the household of Jeroboam
that would come to the grave. And because in him, the scripture
said, there had been found some good thing toward the Lord God. Now, in what an unhappy condition,
and I'm sure that this was no comfort to this wife of Jeroboam
to know that God in mercy was going to kill her son and bring
him to the grave. All others of the house of Jeroboam,
those that would die in the city, the dogs would eat them up. And
those who would die in the field, the vultures would devour them. And so it was mercy that God
had appointed for this child that he would die and go to the
grave and be lamented and mourned over by the people of Israel. Now then, this woman, no doubt,
being she was an idolatrous Egyptian, and of course Jeroboam, he was
an idolater, and beings that they were such idolatrous people,
I'm sure this was no comfort. And what an unhappy condition
is that person in who cannot derive comfort from the salvation
of his own child, from the deliverance from sin, and an unhappy end
of his own child. Well, yet there are many men
and women in such a state and it would bring no joy to them
if they saw all their children walking in the truth. They would
have no joy of heart to know that their children were numbered
among the saved of the Lord and walking in the truth of God.
And certainly it would not cause them any concern to see them
otherwise or to see them in a state of rebellion against God and
in a state of wickedness and perverseness because they are
blind in their souls to the things of God themselves and they have
no desire toward God and His truth. And I've known some who
would even hate their children for turning to the Lord and because
they would so despise the truth of Christ that they would hate
their own children when their children would turn to Christ.
I knew of a lady back several years ago who was disowned completely
by her family because she had come to trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ and was a child of God. And her family had a mock funeral
for her, and this has happened on many occasions in certain
religious sects. They have funerals for people
who they feel have apostatized or turned away from their religion. And so it happened in this case
because they despised the truth of Christ. But I believe that
to most of us here today, and I believe that I can say this
truthfully about us here today, that if we did but know of a
surety that there was in our child some good thing toward
Jehovah, the God of Israel, that we would be perfectly content
to leave all the rest of their case at the absolute disposal
of the Lord. Would we not? If we just knew
that in the hearts of our children there was some good thing toward
God, then we would just say, well Lord, it's in your hands. If such a child should die, it
would be well, for it is much better to have a child in heaven
than to have one on earth that breaks our hearts by their wicked
and rebellious and perverse ways. on earth a while, in heaven forever,
would be a fitting epitaph to a child who the Lord had taken
out of this world, who was owned by Him and belonged to Him. Now
hear me, if you will, this morning, if there is in the heart of the
young some good thing toward the Lord, then the grand matter
is settled. I mean the great issue of life
is settled and all else is just a matter of detail. If a person
has had the grace of God at work in their soul, if God has been
pleased sovereignly to visit the soul and to work in them
his salvation, then, beloved, the great issue is settled. And everything else, as we said,
is just a matter of detail. Now, we'll bless the Lord, we'll
bless God, whatever He sends into the lives of our children,
so long as He's chosen them, so long as He's set His love
upon them from eternity, and so long as He has put His fear
in their hearts, we'll bless the Lord, whatever it is that
He sends into the heart of our children. Well, this morning
I want us to look into this, to the little that we know about
Abijah, this young prince, and to what the scriptures have to
say about him. And, of course, there's many
things that is mysterious about this situation, but I do believe
that there are some things that will be a blessing to us if we
consider them. And to begin with, I think he
had a good name. I think he had a good name, Abijah. It was a good name. His name
signifies God, my father, is what his name signifies. All
you know is the word for father and Jah is Jehovah. Jehovah was
his father and of course there would be nothing in the name
had it not been made true in his life, had it not been made
true in his life as just a child. Now, the first thing I'd like
to say is this, that I believe that we ought to admire in this
young individual's case, what we cannot precisely describe. We ought to admire what cannot
precisely be described. I certainly, and I mean by that,
that there was in this child some good thing toward the Lord,
but what was it? What was in this child's heart
toward the Lord that moved the Lord God of Israel to say that
he only of the house of Jeroboam would be spared and he would
be the only one that would go down to the grave. He'd be spared
from the dogs and the vultures and he only would go down to
the grave. Well, we're not told precisely
what the good thing was. It may be because any good thing
towards the Lord is a sufficient sign of grace in itself. That any good thing from the
Lord is a sufficient sign of the grace of God being present
in the soul of an individual. Now where there is some good
things toward the Lord God, every good thing is present in seed
and essence. Do you follow me? Where there
is some good thing that God is the author of in the soul, that
is the evidence that every good thing is there in seed and in
essence. Now, though faith is not mentioned
here in our text, we're sure that he had faith in the living
God. I'm sure of that, since without
it, nothing in him would have been good towards God, because
Hebrews 11, 6 says that without faith, It is impossible to please
him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And so I'm sure that there was
faith. The boy believed in the invisible
God who made the heavens and the earth, and he worshipped
him in his heart. He bound to have had a faith
in his heart that was God-given that came from the Lord. The
young Abijah possessed something within him that was sufficiently
real and substantial to be called a good thing by God. God called it a good thing, and
so it must have been faith and love toward God. The Spirit of
God had wrought a sure work upon him and left within him a priceless
jewel of grace. The Spirit of God had worked
in him and left within him his footstep. This child had got
the breath of God and he was a living soul toward the Lord. And let us admire this good thing,
though we cannot maybe precisely describe it, at least to the
satisfaction of all. But certainly it was there. Now
the second thing I'd have you to notice is that God's electing
love sometimes has the objects of its choice in very strange
places. In very strange places. Of all the houses of Israel,
the palace of Jeroboam was surely the last place that one would
think in which to look for a worshipper of the true God. I mean in this
household of Jeroboam they were idolatrous people, worshippers
of calves, worshippers of gods of gold because we know as the
scriptures told us this morning that his father was a great sinner
indeed. And he set up these gods of gold
and said, These be thy gods, O Israel. And God's providential
goodness had been upon him. It was God who raised him up
and that had set him over Israel. God had raised him up among and
above his fellows and set him in this place of being king over
Israel. And the Lord had done this, and
he forgot the God in whose sunshine he had flourished and made the
men of Israel to bow down before an ox that eats grass. And he
was a great sinner. He would not tolerate the true
religion in his household, and I'm sure that this worked. in
the heart of his son, Abijah, that it was a work that God had
done secretly and maybe even unbeknownst to Jeroboam. And yet God's sovereign, electing
love was bestowed upon this child This child of this wicked and
rebellious Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel
to sin and had made Israel to turn their back unto the living
God. Now, God's everlasting mercy
had designed, yea, had ordained that there should be a break
that there should be a break in the line of sin and that there
should be one at least who would be found among the choristers
of glory who had been nursed and nurtured among the degraded
worshippers of calves. God said there's going to be
one out of that wicked house of Jeroboam that belongs to me
and God had said his love upon him from old eternity and God
had appeared to him and saved him and had called it unto himself. Now certainly that was a strange
and awful place in which this boy lived but yet he belonged
unto the living God. Well what was the case in Jeroboam's
family is often the case in many others. In many others, grace
sometimes finds its choiceless jewels in the worst homes. and among the worst families.
Sometimes it is impossible to account for it as it is in this
case. How anybody ever got out of the
house of Jeroboam and come to know the Lord and died and went
to heaven, went to glory, how that anybody ever got out of
the family in which I was raised and come to hope in the gospel
of redeeming grace is indeed a miracle of God. And I'm sure
this morning that most of you have asked yourself the same
question. How is it that God ever, how
did he ever touch me? How could this child know? How
could this child here in Jeroboam's house? How could he know God?
How could he know God? How could anybody in the household
which I was raised come to know God? There was no family worship.
There was no prayer offered. There was no reading of the scriptures. How could anybody come to know
God? Well, certainly it was not through
this boy's parents that he came to know God. And it was not so
in my case that I came to know the Lord. Well, was it that they
happened to have a godly nurse in their home that was looking
after a young Abijah? How did he get this knowledge
of the Lord? Well, I don't know how he got
it. I don't know how he got this knowledge, how he come to know
God. How he come to believe God and how he come to have this
good thing in his heart toward the Lord. But I do know that
God worked it out. Some way God worked it out. I
don't know how God saved John the Baptist in the womb of his
mother before he was come into the world. But he was filled
with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. I can't explain
all of that. But nevertheless, God worked
it out. But this much is certain. That
electing love had one object in this strange household and
it knew how to find him out. It knew how to lay hold of him.
It knew how to bring him to Christ. And so the electing love of God
did the same in my case and did the same in your case. Whatever
the family was like that you grew up in, whatever the situation,
whether it was religious or whether it wasn't religious, God had
to do the same work. He had to come and touch you. He had to come and lay hold of
you. He had to come and with His finger work in your heart
and with His grace to convert your soul. Now then, how we should
praise the Lord for His sovereign grace and electing love and lift
up our voice and say with the poet, it was not that I chose
thee, for Lord it could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, but thou hast chosen me." Certainly, if anybody gets saved,
it's because of God's sovereign grace, whether it's Abijah in
the house of Jeroboam, or whether it's John Mitchell in his father's
house in Indiana. It has to be of the grace of
God. Yes, we give all the glory to
the sovereign, distinguishing, discriminating, Grace of God. Grace is a plant, wherever it
blooms, of celestial birth. Wherever it blooms, it blooms
because of the divine blessing. It blooms because of God's decree. It blooms because God meant it
to, because God would have it to be so. Now, brother, sister,
there's much comfort, I think, in this little incident that
took place in Jeroboam's household. We think sometimes that the church
has fallen on bad times. We think sometimes that there's
not going to be any more preachers of the grace of God. And a few
years ago, I thought maybe that was true, that things were at
a very low ebb, and that preachers, oh, you couldn't hardly find
a man who believed in the grace of God. But God has raised up
in our day, many, to preach the gospel. And certainly we don't
know all those who love Christ and preaches gospel in sincerity
and truth, but beloved, I know many, many more today than I
did 30 years ago. And certainly I'm thankful to
God for that. And what this shows me is this,
and it ought to encourage us to look up to God and to hope
in the future for his church, because the mighty arm of God
can get into the very worst as well as the best, if you please, and then save them, call them
into the pulpit to preach the everlasting gospel of the grace
of God. God can do that. And this little
incident that took place here in the household of Jeroboam
is proof of that, that God can touch Anybody, any place, when
he wills to do it. Never despair for the church
of God. Pray for it, but never despair
for it, because God will see to it that the gates of hell
will never prevail against his church. And out of the house
of Jeroboam, God will bring his Abijah. And out of the worst
and most unpromising places where God is almost or most, what we
might say, completely forgotten, His truth is the least known
and despised. In those places the Lord will
bring men to be testifiers of the truth as it is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so have hope. Have hope. God is still able. Look up and
believe and expect a blessing because God's still saving His
people and calling men to preach His gospel. Now the third thing
is this. that a truly good thing in the
divine sense is and must be always toward the Lord. It must be always
toward the Lord. Now this is very important for
you to see. Notice that it says there is found some good thing
towards the Lord God of Israel. Now that means that this is the
tendency and the strong direction of the current of that which
was found in his heart. It was toward the Lord. It was toward the Lord. Now this
is a test I believe by which we can try our hearts both old
and young as to our experience in the grace of God. There are
men who have some good things in the morally. Some very good
things, and we admire that. And there are some of those around
that have, that I've heard speak from different times, that I
admire, who have some good ideas politically, and they have some
good things, we might say, in their hearts in regards to politics. They want to change the things
that are wrong. And like I say, I admire that. I wholeheartedly admire that. And there are those who have
some good things in their hearts toward their families. There
are some fathers and mothers who are dedicated to their children. And these things are in their
hearts. They love their family. And they
love their children. And there are people that are
religious people out here in the world who love their children.
And they love their church that they attend. And they come and
they faithfully support the church that they attend. But beloved,
while we might admire all of that and do so truly, I want
to say this morning, all this can exist. the good morality,
the good thing in the heart of the politician. You'll have to
scrape, I mean, the barrel to find one of them, I guess, that's
got any good thing in their hearts, but of all it may exist. And the good thing in the heart
of the parents, for the community, and for the home, and for the
children, and for the religious people toward the church. While
all of this can exist, I want you to know it can exist without
there being any good thing in their hearts toward the Lord.
And so we might be admiring people for something that's good in
their hearts, but that good thing would not have a tendency or
the strong current there is not toward the Lord. It's a selfish motive. Now, this
is the great point, beloved. A good thing toward God. This is what's needful. This
is what's necessary. A good thing toward God is necessary
for you to get to heaven. You cannot get to heaven unless
there is something good in your heart towards the Lord. Now,
how is it now that we can live And just listen to what I'm saying
here. We can live as God's creatures in this world, enjoy the benefits
and the bounties of God in His world, and then we never think
And we can think of everybody else, but we can never think
of the God that made us. We spend no time meditating upon
Him, no time in thankfulness toward Him. No, we have no good
thing toward the God of the Bible. We may have good things toward
a lot of people, but nothing good in our heart toward the
Lord. The God who preserves us, the
God who keeps us, we forget that God. Now we do so by nature. Now you maybe would be dishonest
to nobody except the Lord. You would lie to God, you might
not lie to anybody else, but you would lie to God. And you
would be ungenerous to none except unto the living God, because
there is no good thing in your heart toward Him, and He's the
one that has the greatest claim upon you. All the inconsistency
of our evil natures. that the best being in the world
is the least thought of nothing in our hearts toward him nothing
in our hearts toward him by nature nothing in our hearts as we come
forth from the womb nothing in our hearts toward the Lord and
it's got to be put there and the only way that it would be
that it's going to be found there is for God to put it there. And so, I think that we can see
here clearly that in the divine sense, for this thing to be good,
it's got to be toward the Lord. Now, beloved, we would not keep
a dog or a horse, we would not keep a dog or a horse, and we
certainly wouldn't be generous to anybody around us if they
in some way or another didn't show their appreciation, and
yet there's some of us here that's lived for years and God's mercifully
cared for us and taken care of us in this world and the Lord
has mercifully preserved us and yet we have not one good thing
in our hearts toward Him. Now there must be some good thing
in our hearts toward the Lord or we're lost. and we're going
to hell unless there is some good thing in our hearts toward
Him, repentance toward God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, love
to Christ, a sincere love to the Son of God who was nailed
on Calvary's cross in order to buy and to pay for our redemption. Now before you can get to heaven,
you must have something in your heart which says, Lord, I come,
I come, I trust thy son, I believe in thy mercy, and I rely upon
his blood. I trust myself in his nail-pierced
hands, and I trust my soul forever with him. There must be this
in the heart. Now if you can say this, and
say it truthfully and honestly, then there is some good thing
in your heart toward the Lord. But my friend, be very, very
questioning of anything in your heart that does not tend to draw
your heart toward the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son. Anything that doesn't bring you
to love Him, and to trust Him more, and to rely more fully
upon Him day by day, and to trust His gospel, then my friend, beware
of it. Beware of it. That is not a good
thing toward the Lord. That good thing, if God is the
author of it, will lead to a son. It will lead to reliance on Him. It will lead to trust Him and
to cast one's weight, the weight of one's soul upon Him, and do
so daily, to trust Him daily. Do you have a good thing in your
heart toward the Lord as Abijah had? Now the fourth thing is
this. That where there is this good
thing toward the Lord God of Israel, that God always sees
it. God always sees it. It said here
that there was found, because in him there is found, some good
thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Now the reason that it was found
there by the Lord is because God was the author of it and
he put it there. Now the original word here I
understand means, sometimes at least it means this, a thing
found without looking for it. such as in the case where it
says that he was found of them that sought him not. And so in
this case we might say that the Lord found this good thing in
the heart of Abijah without even looking for it because he put
it there. God was the author of it. But sometimes it means
the thing found after long searching and again it also signifies the
thing that's found after a thorough inquiry to be sufficient and
adequate, a thing which has been tested and found to endure. And so this, I believe, as I
said earlier, is a substantial, real, sufficient thing that was
found in the heart of Abijah. Now wherever there is anything
like a good thing toward the Lord God, God sees it, He finds
it out. That is, He finds it to be sufficient
and He accepts it because of the sweet smell and savor of
the Lord Jesus Christ, His own Son. God sees anything that smells
of His own Son, God detects it immediately. Whenever there is
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is one thing that will
turn the head of God and the eyes of God, and that is faith
in His Son. It is confidence in His own beloved,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, this good thing was
discernible in Him, it was discovered in Him by those eyes which cannot
be deceived. God cannot be deceived. He knows
whether there is a good thing in our hearts toward Him this
morning. He knows. He does. Now you may
fool us and you may have the brogue of Canaan. You may be
able to speak the language of the redeemed. But my friend,
God knows whether there's any good thing in your heart toward
Him or not. He sees it. The eye of God sees all. And the scripture says all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God sees everything and He knows
your heart. He knows your heart and He sees.
He found this good thing in the heart of Abijah, this child.
He found it there and it was discovered by Him and His eyes
cannot be, His eyes, and let me repeat that, cannot be deceived. God's eyes are not to see. It
is not all gold that glitters, but that which was found in this
child was genuine metal, if you please. This was true gold. It was found there by the Lord,
and God said it was a good thing. And all that might be true of
us in the day when we're tried is befired. that the Lord will
find that there's true gold in our hearts, that there is some
good thing there toward the Lord. In Him there is found some good
thing. I believe it's when a man finds
a treasure in a field, a hidden treasure. A man goes out to plow
and all he has on his mind is plowing the field and working
the ground and planting the crop and getting the crop to harvest
in the fall, but he finds a hidden treasure. He finds it right where
it was, and he cannot explain how he got there. God knows. So in this child, he was so disadvantageously
placed, and to your surprise and mine, and to the surprise
of anybody that's ever studied the Word of God, There was found
some good thing in this boy's heart toward the Lord God of
Israel. What an amazing thing. It was
found there by the Lord. And God always finds this in
the heart. Lastly, I want to say this. Let us prize, and this I believe
is very important. I want you to listen to what
I have to say here as I close out this morning. Let us prize
what we're too apt to overlook. Now, do you not think that there
is a tendency with many of the people of God, you and I included
in this, when we're talking to inquirers, I'll call them, people
that are inquisitive, truly honest people about the things of God, Don't we have the tendency to
look for every good thing in them instead of just looking
for some good thing in them? Now, this I think is very important
for us to see. Grace grows. Grace grows. Did you get that? I can't explain
that, but grace grows. And brother, sister, some good
thing will bind by if it is of God. Breed every good thing. The divine nature which God implants
in the soul will conquer. It will overcome in the soul
of God's people. And we ought to be much more
hopeful than we are. We ought to be more tender, more
gentle, and more considerate of those that we're talking to.
And I know that we're not to try to slip anybody into the
kingdom of God as, you know, with a shoe spoon. Without them
or God either one knowing about it. I'm not talking about that
like modern day evangelists do. But we ought to be more considerate. and more gentle and tender toward
those that we talk with. A child is at no disadvantage
in the things of God for being a child. It takes the same grace
of God, the same omnipotence to save an adult as it does a
child, or to save a child as it does an adult. And a child
is at no disadvantage because he is a child. Now remember that. Men have to grow back into children
before they enter the kingdom of heaven at all. The Bible says,
lest you become as little children, you will no wise enter into the
kingdom of God, and such is the kingdom of heaven. If there be
some good thing, it ought not to be doubted and thought to
be questionable, because it's in a child. It ought not to be
looked upon as saying, well, we gotta be suspicious of that.
Well, why? Because after all, he's just
a child, or she's just a child. And so we question it the more.
For in Holy Scripture, it is very common to find some good
things in children. Very common. Joseph. Samuel, David, Obadiah, Josiah,
Timothy, and Abijah. These, in all of these, and of
course others that could be mentioned, there was found some good thing
toward the Lord. Do not therefore be surprised
to find grace, the grace of God converting grace, serving grace
in children. Just look for it. Don't be surprised,
but look for it. Because God can plant it there. And why should we not have some
Abijahs? Why should we not have some Timothys? And some Davids and some Josephs
in our church, in our households? Why should we not? Now beloved,
this is the message this morning. I hope the Lord will bless it
and use it. There was found in this young
boy, even though he died, God took him on. There was found
some good thing in him. He lived in the house of Jeroboam,
but God called him out and saved him and took him home. to glory,
on earth a while, in heaven forever. May the Lord add his blessing.
Father, we thank you for the privilege of preaching this morning
and we ask that you'll use this message and that you will make
our hearts more tender, more considerate, and that we will,
our Father, be looking for that small thing, that little thing
in the heart that indicates that the grace of God is there. And
might we be more help to your little ones, be more encouragement
to the little flock, and might we be a blessing to those around
us, always our Father pointing men and women, boys and girls,
unto the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who welcomed children
into his bosom. Be pleased, our Father, to own
this message we ask for Christ's sake. In his name, amen.