Would you turn to 1 Kings 11. Beginning in verse 1. But King Solomon loved many strange
women. Together with the daughter of
Pharaoh, women of the Moabites and Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians
and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the
children of Israel, you shall not go in to them, neither shall
they come in to you. For surely they will turn away
your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love,
and he had 700 wives. princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his
heart. For it came to pass when Solomon
was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect
with the Lord, his God, as was the heart of David, his father.
And Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians,
and after Milcah, the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after
the Lord as did David, his father. Then did Solomon build an high
place, a place for worship, for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab
in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination
of the children of Ammon, And likewise did he for all his strange
wives, which burn incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And
the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned
away from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not
go after other gods. But he kept not that which the
Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord said unto
Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee, and thou hast
not kept my covenant, my statutes, which I've commanded thee, I
will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to
thy servant. Notwithstanding, in thy days
I'll not do it, for David thy father's sake, but I'll rend
it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit, I'll not rend away all
the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son, for David my
servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen, And
the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. And we ask in his name that you
would be pleased to meet with us. That you would forgive us
and cleanse us from our sin. That we might be enabled to hear
your gospel. Lord, grant us the grace to worship
you. Lord, cause us to love you more,
love one another more, love your word more, love your son more. Bless us for Christ's sake, be
with all your people wherever they meet together. Lord, we
pray for your mercy upon our nation. In Christ's name we pray,
amen. Now this is a, Very sad passage
of scripture. You read this and it is somewhat
disturbing to think of a believer going down this far. But let
me say, right off the bat, that you shouldn't look at Solomon
any other way but thinking, this could be me. That's the only
way. Not in a judgmental way, but
this could be me. This would be the direction I
would take apart from the grace of God. Now we know Solomon was
a believer. I'm going to read some scriptures
with regard to that. And something that has disturbed
me as I've thought about this, but this has been a blessing
to me to see this. The Lord chastened Solomon. He stirred up an adversary. He
chastened him and the Lord never chastens and it doesn't work. When he chastened Solomon, I
no doubt believe that Solomon ended up not worshipping idols,
but once again worshipping the living God because of the chastening
hand of the Lord. I don't think he died worshipping
these false gods that we read of. I believe through the Lord's
chastening, he was brought once again to look to Christ only. Now, Turn with me to 2 Samuel
12. This is his birth, 2 Samuel 12. Verse 24, and David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went
into her and lay with her. And she bare a son and called
his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him. He is
somebody that the Lord loved. And sent by the hand of Nathan
the prophet and called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord. And that word means beloved of
the Lord. Solomon was beloved of the Lord. Turn back to chapter seven. This is a prophecy concerning
his birth. And this is before he was born,
before David had gone into Bathsheba. Nobody knew anything about this
at this time, but listen to this prophecy. Verse 12 of 2 Samuel
7. And when thy days be fulfilled,
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and I'll set up thy seat after
thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish
his kingdom." Now, we know this is prophetic about the Lord Jesus
Christ, but he's talking about Solomon, his son. He shall build
a house for my name, and he's the one who did it. Remember,
the Lord wouldn't let David do it because David was a bloody
man. It was Solomon that built this house. And I will establish
the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall
be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children
of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took
it from Saul, whom I put away before thee." Now, words can't
mean players, can they? He says, my mercy is not going
to depart from him. He is beloved of the Lord. And
turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 13. I could read a long
passage in Psalm 89 verses 20 through 36 that maybe you could
read in your own time with regard to Solomon. But for time's sake,
I'm not going to read that. But look in chapter 13 of the
book of Nehemiah. Verse 23, and in those days saw
I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab,
and their children spake half the speech of Ashdod, and could
not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language
of each people. That's when people are compromising the gospel,
they speak language mixing marks and grace, don't they? They don't
speak the language of grace alone. It's always a mixed language. Verse 25, And I contended with
them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off
their hair and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not
give your daughters unto their sons, nor take daughters and
your sons of yourselves. Did not Solomon, king of Israel,
sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there
no king like him who was beloved of his God and God made him king
over all of Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish
women cause to sin. So there's just no mistake that
Solomon was somebody the Lord loved. Now, understand this.
God's love is for his elect. It's for his elect. It's for
those he saves. There are so many people who,
even people who say they believe in election and the doctrine
of grace, who say, well, there's a sense in which God loves all
men. Try saying that to your wife
or husband when they say, do you love me? Innocence. Innocence. You'll be offended by that, won't
you? God's love is for his people. It's for His elect. It's for
those for whom Christ died and His love is saving love. And you know what? This is interesting.
You read the sermons of the apostles. You look at what the prophets
had to say. They never said to unbelievers, God loves you and
offers your forgiveness and offers your salvation. That's not found
in the scripture. The unbeliever needs to hear
that God's angry with the wicked every day. and that they're enemies
of God. God's love is in Christ. There's
salvation in Christ. There's mercy in Christ. But
never degrade the love of God by saying that it's anything
but saving love. Behold, I've loved you with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Now it's very clear that God
loved Solomon. And the Lord blessed him with
such wisdom. He was the wisest, most wealthy
man, the most powerful man on earth, and how Israel prospered
during his reign. But turn back to 1 Kings 3, there
was kinks shown in his character early. Would you not agree with
me that Solomon obviously had issues? 700 wives? That was just as sinful then
as it is today. It was wrong. God commanded you
will not to the king, not to multiply wives and all of his
army. God commanded the king not to
multiply horses, to depend only on the Lord. But he clearly had
some issues. Nobody else has issues. I think
maybe you do. And it's not the person sitting
beside you either. Everybody knows that. So look at first
Kings chapter three. Now this is before the Lord had
given him this wisdom and made this saying, you know, ask what
you will and I'll give it to you. We read in chapter three,
verse one, Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt and
took Pharaoh's daughter. Now that was clearly commanded
against and he did it anyway. Look in first Kings chapter seven. First, let's read the 38th verse.
And in the 11th year, I mean chapter six, 38 verse of chapter
six, in the 11th year of the month bull, which is the eighth
month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof,
according to all the fashion of it. So he was seven years
in building it. That's how long it took to build
the temple, seven years. But Solomon, I think it's interesting
that it starts with a but, that tells us something wrong with
this. But Solomon was building his own house 13 years. He spent
almost twice longer on his own house than the house of the Lord. Now that's showing something
of the problems with Solomon. I turn back to 1 Kings 11. Verse
one, but King Solomon loved many strange women. together with
the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites,
Zidonians, and Hittites of the nations concerning which the
Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into
them, neither shall they come into you. For surely they will
turn your heart after other gods. He claimed to these in love."
Now, this was disobedience. That's all you can call it. I
have heard it said with regard to Solomon that he was a great
type of Christ and that he had such a capacity to love. Well,
I don't know if I, Christ does have a great capacity to love,
but all this is, is acts of disobedience on his part. And it led to his
demise in this sense. Now let's look at verse three. He had 700 wives, princesses,
and 300 concubines. Now just thinking of, obviously
he had issues, but what problems he had trying to keep all these
women happy. They were always wanting him to do something for
them, every one of them, and they achieved in what they were
wanting to do. And his wives turned away his heart, for it
came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away
his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect
with the Lord, his God, as was the heart of David, his father.
Now, David obviously had his own issues. He had his own weaknesses. He was a man. All men are sinful
men. David, Solomon, me, you, and
everybody else. All men are sinful men with problems. Solomon was one of them, and
David was one of them. I mean, look, he multiplied wives
to himself. He committed a cold-blooded murder
and tried to cover it up. He was a horrible parent. I mean,
look at the way his children were and the way he wouldn't
correct them. He'd let them do anything. He
was not a good parent. But he was a man after God's
own heart. And with regard to the glory
of God, we don't read of him ever worshiping other gods. And that's what God called a
perfect heart. He didn't go after other gods.
He said, he maintained throughout all of his life, not unto us,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. David was sold out
by the grace of God to the glory of God. And he would not accept
false worship the way Solomon did. Now look, for Solomon went
after verse five, For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess
of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully
after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon
build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab in the
hill, which is before Jerusalem, and for Moloch, the abomination
of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his
strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods."
What if all of a sudden you heard me, not that I'm the standard,
but what if all of a sudden you heard me say, everybody's preaching
the gospel. I mean, there's gospel and Catholicism
and you can get to God as a Buddhist or worshiping Confucius or there's
the Islamic way to God. I mean, there are many ways to
God. And it doesn't matter if you
believe in free will, free grace. I mean, there are ways to God.
And what would you all feel like if I started doing that? It'd
be devastating to you. Well, how do you think people
felt about Solomon? And he just messed up. He was wrong as he could be. And he was not perfect and he
didn't follow the Lord fully. And I think this is interesting.
The wisest man to ever live ended up being the most foolish man
to ever live. And what's that say? You know
what it says, man at his best state is altogether vanity. And Solomon is an example like
that. And this is what led to the divided
kingdom. And I think it's very interesting how God said to Solomon,
I'm not going to let it happen in your life. You're the one
who did this, but I'm not going to let it happen in your life
for David's sake. Because he had a perfect heart before me
and he followed me fully. Now, that's the same thing as
God forgiving you for Christ's sake. That's what that's a picture
of. God forgiving you. Solomon didn't have this happen
in his lifetime, although he did these horrible things. But
as I read in that 14th verse, God did raise up an adversary.
And as a matter of fact, he raised up several adversaries. We're
going to see that next week. But the Lord loved Solomon, but
he was angry with Solomon. He said that. He was angry. You
reckon the Lord would have reason to be angry with you? I know
he would with me. And that is scary. But what about
David? He said, you don't have a perfect
heart like David, your father did. You don't follow me fully
the way David, your father did. Now I'm interested in this thing
of a perfect heart and following the Lord fully. What does it
mean? Well, first of all, this perfect
heart is a heart that is given by God. Scripture, First Chronicles 29,
19, David prayed that Solomon would be given a perfect heart. Now, the only way anybody's going
to have a perfect heart, whatever it is, is for God to give it
to them. It's not the product of human
nature. And that makes me say, Lord,
give me, for Christ's sake, this perfect heart, the perfect heart
of David. Turn with me now, I want you to turn to these scriptures.
Turn to 2 Chronicles 16. Verse 7. And at that time, 2 Chronicles
16, 7, At that time Hannah the seer came to Asa king of Judah,
and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria,
and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore the host of the
king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians
and the Lubyans a huge host with many chariots and horsemen? Yet
because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into
thine hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout
the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of them whose
heart is perfect toward him." Now, a perfect heart is a heart
that relies on the Lord only. And that's a perfect heart. A
heart that relies on Christ only. Not Christ and, Christ only. Now, would that be me? Would
that be you? Do you look to Christ only as everything in your salvation? He said to Asa, because you didn't
look to me only, but relied on the Syrian army to help you.
That's why you've lost. A perfect heart looks to Christ
only. Now turn to 2 Chronicles chapter
19. I've looked up the references to a perfect heart with these
kings. Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat
set of the Levites and the priests and the chief of the fathers
of Israel for the judgment of the Lord and for controversies
when they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them saying, thus
shall you do in the fear of the Lord faithfully with a perfect
heart. Now a perfect heart is dominated
by the fear of God. Every heart that's perfect before
the Lord is dominated by the fear of God. And let me say this,
what shows the fear of God? If you actually have the fear
of God that's the beginning of wisdom, you are going to be afraid
to look anywhere but Christ alone. That's the fear of God. If you
don't possess that, You don't have the fear of God. A perfect
heart is afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. David was. David knew he was a sinful man
and he was afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. Turn to 1 Chronicles
chapter 29. 1 Chronicles chapter 29. This
is David's prayer. Verse 8, And they with whom precious stones
were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord. This
is where David was taken up collection for building the house of the
Lord that Solomon would end up doing by the hand of Jehiel the
Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced for
they offered willingly because with a perfect heart they offered
willingly. to the Lord. And David the king
also rejoiced with great joy. Now a perfect heart is a willing
heart. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Paul said, to will is present
with me. And that Lord, make me willing. Willing in whatever reason. Really,
when David says in Psalm 51, uphold me with thy free spirit,
what that means is make me freely willing. Make me freely willing. I want to be made willing. A perfect heart is a willing
heart. And you know as well as I do
that the only way we're going to have a willing heart is for
God to make our hearts willing. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Now turn to 1 Chronicles chapter
12, verse 38. And this is a military
term, verse 38. All these men of war that could
keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron. A perfect heart
keeps rank. It's subordinate to what the
Lord says. That's what the word means. There's
a subordination. It knows its place and it keeps
rank. That's what a perfect heart does.
Now, it was said that Solomon didn't have this perfect heart
at this time. David did. And then the other thing that
the Lord said about Solomon, he said, he didn't follow me fully.
David followed me fully. Solomon did not follow me fully. And what I thought of was I thought
of Caleb. Now you remember Caleb. His name means dog. He was one of only two people
over 20 years of age that entered into the promised land. All of
those millions of people that left Egypt, they were left to
die in the wilderness. 40 years during that time and
only two people made it into the promised land. Caleb and
Joshua. Joshua, the Savior, Caleb, the
dog. I love that. Two people came
in. The Savior, Moses couldn't come
in even. Moses had to look at it from afar. But Caleb came
in and Joshua came in. Now turn to Numbers chapter 14. Well, actually, let's start in Numbers
13. Joshua and Caleb were two of
the spies that were sent in when they got right to the land. And
this is the event that the Lord said, you're going to spend 40
years in the wilderness because of this, because they sent spies
into the land and they were afraid to take it. Look at Numbers 13,
26 verse. I'm in Deuteronomy, that's why
I can't find verse 26. Verse 26 of Numbers 13, And they
went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation
of the children of Israel, and to the wilderness of Paran, to
Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and to all the congregation,
and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them,
and said, We came into the land where thou sinnest, and surely
it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.
Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the
cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land
of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and Amorites
dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and
by the coast of them. Everybody was flipping out, and
Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up
at once and possess it, for we're well able to overcome them. You
see, if God be for us, who can be against us? He wasn't a bit
worried about these people, but all the children of Israel ended
up wanting them to be stoned. I mean, they said, stone them,
stone them. They didn't like what Joshua said. They didn't
like what Caleb said. Now look in Numbers 14, verse
24. Verse 22, because all those men
which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in the
Egypt and in the wilderness have tempted me now these 10 times
and have not hearkened my voice, surely they shall not see the
land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of
them that provoke me see it, but my servant Caleb, because
he had another spirit with him. The Holy Spirit. That's the spirit. God, the Holy Spirit. That's
why he did this. He hath followed me fully. Now, what is it to follow him
fully? It's to trust him fully. Don't
you want to do that? I want to trust him fully. That's what Caleb did. And that's
what Solomon failed to do. And the scripture says the Lord
was angry. Let's go back to 1 Kings 11. Verse 9, and the Lord was angry
with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God
of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and had commanded
him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other
gods. But he kept not that which the Lord commanded. And remember
this, these gods, part of their worship was Well, part of it
was sexual immorality, fertility rights, and that's kind of Eastern.
Also, they'd actually sacrifice their children and put them to
death. That's what the people who worship Moloch, what they
would do, they would give their babies to be burnt in order to
worship him. So you had all this wickedness
going on and him giving countenance to it. Verse 11, wherefore the
Lord said unto Solomon, forasmuch as this is done of thee, and
thou hast not kept my commandment, my statutes, which I have commanded
thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give
it to thy servant, notwithstanding in thy days I'll not do it, for
David thy father's sake. Now even though Solomon did all
this, he wasn't going to experience the rent kingdom. It was gonna
be done. with Rehoboam, and this is for
David's sake. Now, this is, like I said, I think this to
me, in some respects, has been the most stressful passage of
scripture I've looked at, out of fear that this could happen
to me or you. And the fact of the matter is
it can happen to me or you, but the Lord, chastened Solomon. And I am sure, although it doesn't
say, we're going to look at his death next week, I am sure that
the Lord did not allow Solomon to die worshiping false gods. His chastening hand brought him
back because the Lord never chastens and it doesn't work. The Lord
doesn't do anything that doesn't work, does he? People say, the
Lord's trying to teach me something. The Lord doesn't try to do anything.
Whatever he does, he does. And while we see Solomon, we
don't look down our nose at him. We know that that could be us
and will be us apart from the grace of God. It will be. And
I'm so thankful that my standing is founded in God's saving love. Solomon was loved by God. Every believer is loved by God. And whom the Lord loveth, what? He chasteneth and scourges every
son that he receives. And Solomon was chastened by
the Lord. And like I, it seems like I said this recently, or
I don't want to be chastened, but I don't want to be without
chastening to you. I'm not looking to be whipped. But I sure don't
want to be left to myself. I want the Lord's chasing hand
on me to cause me always to look to Christ only. Amen.