Would you turn to 1 Kings 9. 1 Kings 9. Now, before I read this
passage of scripture, I want to remind you of John 5, verse
39, where the Lord said to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures. And in them, you think you have
eternal life and they are they which testify of me. So remember when you read and
when I read this scripture, this testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I know that ahead of time.
I might not see it completely, but I know it ahead of time.
So let's read this passage of scripture together in first Kings
chapter nine, beginning in verse 10. And it came to pass at the end
of 20 years when Solomon had built the two houses, the house
of the Lord and the king's house. Now that's talking about the
tabernacle. It took the place of the tabernacle, the temple,
with the Holy of Holies, where the sacrifice was made. He spent
seven years on that house, then he spent 13 years on his own
house. I think it's interesting the
scripture points that out. But after these 20 years, verse
11, now Hiram, the king of Tyre, had furnished Solomon with cedar
trees and fir trees. This was a Gentile, and he'd
done this for David as well. And with gold, according to all
his desire, that then King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land
of Galilee. And Hiram came out from Tyre
to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they pleased
him not. And he said, what cities are
these which thou has given me, my brother? And he called them
the land of cable unto this day. Displeasing is what the word
means. Worthless. It's actually taken out of the
word bonds, restrictive, the fetters that kept Joseph's feet. And Hiram sent the king six score
talents of gold. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name,
that name that's above every name, that you would be pleased to speak to our hearts in power
by thy word. Lord, enable us to worship you. Enable us to believe your gospel.
Enable us to look to thy son only. Lord, we confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing
for the Lord's sake. Meet with us according to your
will. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now this Gentile, Hiram, had
greatly aided Solomon in building the temple and his house. As a matter of fact, he helped
David and Hiram loved David. The scripture points that out.
First turn to 2 Samuel chapter 5. This is years before. Verse 10. And David went on and grew great
and the Lord God of hosts was with him and Hiram. King of Tyre
sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and
masons, and they built David and house. So this man loved
David and you see how he sought to help him. Look in first Kings
chapter five. Verse one, and Hiram, king of
Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon, for he had heard that
they had anointed him king in the room of his father, for Hiram
was ever a lover of David. Verse seven, it came to pass
when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly
and said, blessed be the Lord this day, which hath given unto
David a wise son over his great people. He was pleased that Solomon
was building this temple. He gave him all the gold and
cedar trees and all kinds of things for this great construction
project. Now, Solomon gives Hiram 20 cities
that were in Israel. He gave him 20 cities. And Hiram
was not pleased with these cities that Solomon gave him, and he
called them Cable. Worthless and restrictive. And as a matter of fact, if you
read the Chronicle's account, he gave them back. He said, I
don't want these. Now that's about the ultimate
insult, isn't it? If somebody gives you something and you don't
like it, just keep your mouth shut about it. That's what Lynn
has to do all the time. But I shouldn't say things like
that. At any rate. He actually returned these, a
gift he returned. That's the ultimate insult. That's
the contempt he showed for what he was given. Now, some, I read
nine or 10 different commentaries on this, and some said that he
was not being disrespectful in returning these cities, but that
Tyre was not an agricultural place, and these were agricultural
cities, and you go on reading that he had navies and ships,
and they were merchants, and he just didn't want these cities
because they didn't fit in with what he and the land of Tyre
did. Now, where's that in the Bible? That's pure speculation. It's not found in the scriptures,
so that's not a sufficient answer. Some have said the cities were
in such disrepair that Hyrum was insulted by them. Well, that's
not in the Bible either. That's just somebody guessing.
And some have said that Hiram knew it was wrong to take them
because in the law, it was forbidden to sell any part of Israel to
a Gentile. And that is in the law. And it
was wrong for Solomon to do this. And Hiram was acting in respect. Some say he was acting in respect
to the law of God and he refused to take it. Now, I question that.
And let me remind you again. All scripture is given to illustrate
the gospel of Christ. You believe that? The Bible says
it. The Lord himself said it. All
scripture is given to illustrate the gospel of Christ. Solomon
is a type of Christ. He's the son of David. He's the
wisest man to ever live. He's a man of peace. He's the
one who built the Lord's temple. Remember Christ said upon this
rock, will I build my church? Solomon is such a type of Christ.
Now I realize that there's all kinds of character flaws in Solomon.
And there's no doubt about that. You read his history, there's
character flaws. Do you have any? Do you have
any severe character flaws? I'm sure everybody here that
knows themselves would say yes, so don't get on Solomon too hard
the way he ended up, but we know that he was a type of Christ. Hiram looked at what he gave
him and he calls it worthless. He calls it bondage. He calls
it restrictive. Now, I don't know the state of
his soul, whether he was a believer or not, this man Hiram. I know
he did love David and he did speak highly of Solomon. And he was thankful that the
Lord had placed Solomon on the throne in place of David. You can see how he gave toward
this man. But I believe he is an illustration
of someone who falls away from the gospel. Now there is such
a thing. There is such a thing as someone
who starts well and starts right and falls away. Now that doesn't
mean they'll stay in that position because I thought of the children,
a couple of things I thought about in thinking about this
concept, if you would call it that. I thought of the children
of Israel talking about the manna that came down from heaven, angels
food. And they said, this is light
bread. It's not substantial. It's not
satisfying. Now, one time it was miraculous
and glorious, but now it's light bread. Unsatisfying bread, insubstantial
bread. And you know that the Lord sent
those serpents to bite them there and thank the Lord. Some weren't
able to look to the serpent and believe, but these are the same
ones who said, this is light bread. They no longer saw the
gospel as glorious. There's got to be something more.
I thought of the parable of the sower. Two of those hearers received
the word. I mean, they received the truth.
And the scripture says they did so joyfully. They received it
with joy. The stony ground hearers, after
they saw what it was going to cost them though, they said,
we didn't sign up for this. They leave. The thorn choke hearers,
they become taken up with the cares, the pleasures of this
life and they bear no fruit. And so we have these examples
in scripture of people who begin well, but don't end well. And
I believe this is Hiram. Now, these 20 cities, this is
very important, these 20 cities were not a part of the original
contract. They were a gift from Solomon to Hiram. Look back in
1 Kings 5, verse 11. And Solomon gave Hiram for all
these things he did where he gave him wood, you know, the
cedar and the gold and so on. And Solomon gave Hiram 20,000
measures of wheat for food to his household and 20 measures
of pure oil. Thus gave Solomon to Hiram year
by year. Now this was the payment. He
was gonna feed the entire country. That's what that would do year
by year for this entire 20 year period. Hiram is being paid for
this. And when it's all over, Solomon
decides to give him 20 cities. They were his gift to Hiram,
not wages earned, but a gift. Now come back to our text in
1 Kings 9. Verse 11, now Hiram the king
of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees
with gold according to all his desire, that then King Solomon
gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee. This is in Israel.
And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon
had given him, and they pleased him not. He wasn't pleased with
this. He looked at these cities and
he wasn't pleased. Now there's no reason to think
there's anything about these cities that were displeasing,
but he looked at these cities and the scripture says he was
not pleased. The Lord said through Samuel,
it pleased the Lord to make you his people. Does that please you? Are you pleased that salvation
is the Lord making you, him doing it all? Is that something that
pleases you? It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Are you pleased
that the Lord crushed Christ so that you won't be? Are you
pleased with the gospel? This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Are you pleased by that? That
all of God's pleasure is in Christ and he's well pleased with him
and all that's in him. Does that please you? It pleased the father that in
him should all fullness dwell. Now think of that. That's Colossians
1, I think it's verse 19. It pleased the father. that in
him should all fullness dwell. Does that please you?" You know,
there's some people that are not pleased by that. There are
some people that actually are not pleased by that. Now, what
contempt he demonstrated when he gave those cities back. 2
Chronicles 8 too, he gave them back. Now, I've got a question
for you. Are you pleased, and I'm asking myself this question
as well, are you pleased with the way God saves sinners by
Christ? Does that please you? Are you pleased that salvation
is all of grace? Are you happy and joyful that
that's the truth, that all that God requires of you, he looks
to Christ for? Are you pleased with being saved
by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ where his righteousness
is the only righteousness there is? Are you pleased by that?
Are you pleased that God elected a people and that Christ died
for the elect and that God the Holy Spirit calls them invincibly
and irresistibly by his grace and they persevere? Are you pleased
with that? Are you pleased with him getting
all the glory and salvation? Are you pleased? That's the issue. Are you pleased? Well, Hiram
was not pleased. with the cities that Solomon,
the great type of Christ, gave him. We're not giving any information
about these cities that would make him think, well, this is
an insult to give me cities like this. We're not given anything
like that. All we're given is that Hiram was not pleased, and
he called these gifts from Solomon cable, binding, restrictive,
narrow, and worthless. This is many people's response
to the gospel. Cable. Binding and restrictive. Worthless. Now, let's consider
these two concepts for just a few moments. Somebody's response
to the gospel being cable. This is too binding. This is
too, this is, This is bondage. This is restrictive. This is this is not good. This
is too narrow. Did not the Lord say narrow is
the way? Straight is the gate that leads
to life and few there be that find it broad as the gate. Wide is the way that leads to
destruction, and many go in thereat. Now, the gospel is very narrow and very restrictive. What do
you mean by that? The gospel of Jesus Christ the
Lord excludes all other religions. There's no truth in them. The
gospel of Christ excludes all false ways and false ideas of
God, all modifications of the truth. And let me give you an
example, because this morning in the service, I'm going to
preach on the issue of predestination. The issue of predestination,
not predestination as the Bible teaches, it does, but what is
the issue of predestination? Now someone is fine if you believe
in predestination, as long as you don't say they have to believe
in predestination or they don't really believe God. Somebody's
fine with that. You can believe anything you
want. And you can say that with regard to any truth of the scripture. You see, the gospel is made of
many truths, which make the one truth. And if you leave out one
of them, you no longer have the truth. That's just the truth. What I've
said, it's just the truth. You can't leave out. What do
you got to believe to be saved? Everything God says, all the
word of God, all the truths which make up the one truth of how
God saves sinners by Christ. And somebody says, well, I don't
mind you believing that as long as you don't say I have to believe
it because I believe something differently. I was listening
to a guy preach yesterday and. He was talking about the people
who are really committed to God. He said, they may have very different
beliefs, but they all have this in common, they have a passion
for God. And I thought, that's ridiculous. I want to have a
passion for God and you want to have a passion for God. I
don't want to be some dead person who doesn't care, but all the
emphasis in that kind of thinking is your passion for God rather
than the character of God Almighty, who he really is. No, God's people
don't have different beliefs. They all believe the same thing.
But somebody hears that and they say, well, that's narrow. That's
too restrictive. That's not leaving room for other
opinions and other ideas and other ways of thinking. That's
too narrow. And that's exactly what He calls what Solomon gave
him. This is too narrow. This is too
restrictive. This is bondage. I don't want
to go in that direction. He did not believe. Now here's the other meaning
of the word. And I think this is so telling. He says, this is worthless. This
has no value. It's worthless. He thought it
was so worthless. He gave it back to Solomon. He said, here,
take it back. I don't want it. It has no value
to me. Now. This is the response. Of the
natural man to the gospel. It has. No value to me. It's worthless, it doesn't do
anything. Now let me show you how men would demonstrate this.
It's about what most people preach. If I believe, and this is what
most people believe, God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody,
God wants to save everybody, God's made salvation available
to everybody, God is offering salvation, God is offering the
forgiveness of sins to everybody. If that's what I believe, If God loves Judas and Peter
the same, if Christ died for Judas and Peter the same, if
God's calling Judas and Peter the same, I'm saying God's will
is worthless in salvation. It's worthless. If he can will
somebody's salvation, they end up being damned. His will's worthless.
It's meaningless. It doesn't do anything. If I
say that Jesus Christ paid for the sins of all men, and some
of those men wind up in hell, I'm saying His blood is worthless.
It didn't do anything for those people. It didn't do a thing.
It's worthless. If I say that God It's calling
all men the same and some here and some don't. All I'm saying
is that all of that is worthless. It's capable. It's nothing. So here we see this man. He gives, he's given these gifts.
This is not wages earned. This is gift. What Solomon, this
great type of Christ had given him. He says it is worthless. It doesn't do anything for me.
And I want us to understand if I believe what generally is preached
in our day, salvation's an offer. God loves everybody the same.
Christ died for everybody the same. God wills the salvation
of all men the same. If I believe that, I'm saying
the will of God, the blood of Christ, the grace of God is worthless. It's what you do that makes the
difference, not what God does. Now, Hiram, at one time, he saw Solomon is great. And people
say, well, this wasn't an insult because I called him my brother.
What kind of insult do you want when you give something back?
That's an insult. So he saw the gospel as not pleasing. and it was not pleasing for this
reason is too narrow, too restrictive, and really worthless because
he didn't see the gospel as the gospel. May the Lord deliver
us from being like Hyrum, not being pleased. Oh, what a crime. Not being pleased with what the
glorious God has given. The gift of his son, the gift
of his grace, complete salvation. Not being pleased with that?
Oh, may the Lord deliver us from ever being like those children
of Israel who were one time so thankful for that bread that
came down from heaven. Now it's light bread. Not enough
to satisfy. May the Lord deliver us from
that.