Well, as you can see, Lynn's not here.
I'm still suffering. 1 Kings 9. First Kings chapter nine. And it came to pass when Solomon
had finished the building of the house of the Lord and the
king's house and all Solomon's desire, which he was pleased
to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time. as he had appeared unto him at
Gibeon. Now, 20 years earlier, the Lord
appeared to him. You remember in 1 Kings 3, and
this is 20 years later, the Lord appeared to Solomon the second
time. Verse three, and the Lord said
unto him, I've heard thy prayer and thy supplication. That's
what we've been looking at in chapter eight, that thou hast
made before me. I have hallowed this house which
thou has built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes
and my heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou will walk before
me as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart and in
uprightness, to do according to all that I've commanded thee,
and will keep my statutes and my judgments then, I will establish
the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised
to David thy father, saying that there shall not fail thee a man
upon the throne of Israel. But if you shall at all turn
from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my
commandments and my statutes, which I've set before you, but
go and serve other gods, and worship them. Then will I cut
off Israel out of the land which I've given them, and this house
which I've hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight.
And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people.
And at this house, which is high, everyone that passes by it shall
be astonished, and shall hiss, and they shall say, why hath
the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house? And
they shall answer, because they forsook the Lord their God, who
brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have
taken hold upon other gods, and have worshiped them, and serve
them, therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. And Lord, we have some awareness
of our sinfulness, of our need of Your mercy and our need of
Your grace. Lord, we ask in Christ's name that You would be pleased
to blot out our sins through the blood of Thy Son. We ask
that we might be found in Him. We ask that we might be enabled
to hear the gospel and the power of your spirit. Lord, don't let
us hear the words of a man, but let us hear thy word from thee.
Enable us to worship. Lord, we thank you for this privilege
of meeting together and opening your word and hearing your word.
Lord, what a blessing of your grace. We ask that as we look
toward this coming year, you would give us the grace to walk
with our dear son in communion and fellowship. We ask that you
would order our steps in your word and that you'd let no iniquity
have dominion over us. Lord, we ask that you would grant
us, give us repentance, give us faith in thy son, give us
love to you and love to one another. enable us to believe the gospel.
Lord, what we're asking for ourselves, we ask for all your people, wherever
they meet together, we ask that you would unite our hearts in
this prayer in seeking thy face. Speak for Christ's sake, in his
name we pray, amen. Now the building of the temple
had been completed. And this was a marvelous work. We read about it in chapter eight
and this temple represents the Lord Jesus Christ. I love in
the earlier part of this chapter where the glory of God filled
this temple so that the priest couldn't even enter in. This
temple is the Lord Jesus Christ and the building has been made
and the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time. Now I don't
understand what all that means really, how he only appeared
to him twice because by spirit I'm sure he appeared to him daily. But he only had this special
appearance from the Lord two times in all of his life. You remember the first time in
chapter three where the Lord said you can have anything you
want and he asked for wisdom and that pleased the Lord and
he gave him so much. And this is 20 years later, the
second time after the finish of this great construction problem,
and we read problem, construction project. I can't believe I said
that. Verse three, and the Lord said
unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou
hast made before me. First Kings 9.3. And here's his
answer. I have hallowed, I have set apart
this house which thou has built to put my name there forever. Now his name is who he is. His name is all of his glorious
attributes. A few weeks ago, I forgot my
notes and went over his names But I've seen something this
week that I'd never really seen before. His name, Jehovah, he's
got all these other names, but his name Jehovah is his name
to his people. He's the almighty God, whether
I'm his people or not. He is El Shaddai, he is all these
names, the everlasting God, the eternal God, but his name Jehovah
is his special name toward his people. Now you'll remember that
Jehovah has some eight or nine, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Tzidkenu,
Jehovah Shama, Jehovah Shalom, all these different, but do you
know all of his names of Jehovah is found in the 23rd Psalm? Would
you turn with me there for a moment, and then we're gonna get back
to our text, but he said, I'm gonna put my name there. I love to
think of David composing this Psalm. I don't know where he
was, but to think of David writing this Psalm, Psalm 23, verse one. Now remember his name
is in his house, his name of salvation, Jehovah, his name
to his people. The Lord is my shepherd. Jehovah-Rah. The Lord is my shepherd. That fills my heart with joy.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. I'm not
going to want anything because my shepherd is going to provide
everything for me. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Verse two,
he maketh me to lie down, rest in green pastures. He leadeth
me beside the still waters, waters of quietness, not turmoil, but
quietness. Now this is Jehovah, let me find
it, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. He leads me beside
these waters of quietness. He makes me lie down. Jehovah,
Shalom, the Lord, our peace. Verse three, he restoreth my
soul. Jehovah Ratha, I am the Lord
that healeth thee. He restores my soul. He restores
my soul all the time. Aren't you thankful for this
restoration? Your soul would shrivel up and die if He didn't
continually restore and heal our soul. And then it says, He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord
our righteousness." Isn't it wonderful to have Him as your
personal righteousness before God? I was listening to a preacher
talk this week and he kept using the term personal holiness. Personal
holiness. Every believer is holy, but there's
something wrong with that term, personal holiness. He is my holiness,
and every believer possesses this holiness, but he is our
righteousness. Jehovah's Sekinu, the Lord, our righteousness.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, which is
right now, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. The Lord is present, Jehovah
Shammah. The Lord is present. Thou art with me. Right now, Jehovah Shammah is
with every one of his people. We eternally have his presence. And what would life be without
his presence? What if you were left to yourself?
It's unbearable, isn't it? But we have his eternal presence. Verse five, thou preparest a
table before me in the presence of my enemies. That's Jehovah
Nissi, the Lord our banner. He's the banner under which we
march before our enemies. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. And then I don't know how to
pronounce this. Jehovah, Micah something, but what it is, is
I am the Lord, I am Jehovah that sanctifies thee. And here we
have his sanctifying work by causing us to be in him. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord, which is Christ Jesus,
our dwelling place. I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. I am the Lord that sanctifies
thee. So we see all these names of
Jehovah. And he says, I'm gonna put my
name. in this house that you built. I'm gonna hallow it. This
represents the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now turn back
to 1 Kings 9. Verse three. And the Lord said
unto him, I've heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou
hast made before me. I've hallowed this house which
thou hast built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes
and my heart shall be there perpetually. Do you ever want to be looked
at apart from being in this house in the Lord Jesus Christ? I only
want him to see me in him. Verse four. And if thou will
walk before me as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart
and in uprightness to do according to all that I've commanded thee,
and will keep my statutes and judgments. Now, David, walked
in continual integrity of heart. Now, how can you say that when
David committed adultery, when David committed murder, when
David so often had so many troubles? We've been looking at David for
years now, and David had all kinds of troubles and all kinds
of sins. You know that. He's like you,
he's like me, David. But let me tell you one thing
David never did, by the grace of God. David never looked to
other gods. He always looked to Christ only. He had nowhere else to look. And that's what is meant by this
integrity of heart that we read of with regard to David. That
word means simple, complete, perfect, only. David looked to
Christ only. Now he had his problems as we
know, but look at how God describes him. He said, then, he said,
if thou will walk, verse four, before me as David, thy father
walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness to do according
to all that I've commanded thee and will keep my statutes and
my judgments, then, and I have no doubt that that's referring
to faith in Christ, looking to him only. That's keeping his
commandment. Then, verse five, then will I
establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised
to David thy father, saying, there shall not fail thee a man
upon the throne of Israel. But, but, if you shall at all
turn from following me, you or your children, and will not keep
my commandments and my statute, which I've set before you, to
go and serve other gods, and worship them. Now, here he's
talking about idolatry. And you know that Solomon's heart
was turned away from the Lord. You can read about that in chapter
11. He followed after other gods and he made high places and he
did all these horrible things with regard to other gods. Now,
don't anybody in here think you're immune to that? Or I'm immune. Apart from the grace of God,
we'll do the same thing. Now, what was the sin that Israel
continually fell back into. Idolatry. After all, God showed
them. You remember after he brought
them out of Egypt and they'd seen the part, they'd seen the
10 plagues, they'd seen the parting of the Red Sea, they'd seen manna
come down from heaven, they'd seen water come out of the rock.
As soon as Moses is gone, what do they do? They make a golden calf. And
they say, these be thy gods, O Israel, that brought you up
out of the land of Egypt. The first thing they did. Now you go reading through the
book of Kings and Chronicles, and you will find a good king
every now and then, a Hezekiah or a Josiah or a Jehoshaphat. You'll find a few good kings,
but for the most part, the kings led Israel back into idolatry. Solomon did it. His son Rehoboam
did it. You go on reading through these
chapters and you will find Israel again and again turning to idolatry. What about during the time of
Elijah? Turn with me to 1 Kings 18. Ahab had led Israel into exclusive
Baal worship. Elijah says to the people in
verse 21 of 1 Kings chapter 18, and Elijah came unto all the
people, all the children of Israel and said, how long halt ye between
two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him.
But of Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not
a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain
a prophet of the Lord. I'm the only one on the land.
Now, we know there were more. We read about that in chapter
19, because he was saying, I'm the only one left. And God said,
I've reserved to me 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to the
image of Baal. God's going to reserve himself a people. But
as far as Elijah could see, I'm the only one. That's how Baal
worship prevailed in Israel. Now, what is this thing of idolatry
that Israel fell back into so quickly and that, apart from
the grace of God, you and I are going to go in that direction?
Turn with me to Exodus 20. This is the commandment against
idolatry. Verse four, this is the second
of the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven
above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water
under the earth. You're not going to use anything
that is a representative of me. Well, this is what God is like.
This is what God looks like. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God." I want you to think about that
for a minute. God says, I am a jealous God. I'm intolerant
of rivals. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and of the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me." Now, the God of glory is a God that men
hate. That's what he says. The reason
behind idolatry is dislike of and hatred toward the living
God. That's why men make false concepts
of God. Now, an idol is not necessarily,
although it can be, a totem pole or a figure, an image, a picture,
a cross. Those are idols, no doubt. Those
are idols. But an idol is a false idea of
God that's not according to his word. That's what an idol is. You don't like the way God really
is, so you make a God that you feel comfortable with. what idolatry
is. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7
for just a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1, When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land, whether thou goest to possess it, and has
cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and Girgashites,
and Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou.
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, Thou
shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make
no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt
thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they
may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord
be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall
you deal with them, You should destroy their altars, break down
their images, cut down their groves, and burn their graven
images with fire for thou art an holy people unto the Lord
thy God. Now, how does he say to deal
with idols? Burn them down. No toleration. No toleration. Now, God is, as he is, and idolatry
says something is God that really is not God. Now, I want you to
think about that. Idolatry says something is God
that really is not God. God is as he is. There's one God, hero Israel,
the Lord thy God is one Lord, and he reveals his isness in
his word. God is absolutely sovereign. That means he's the cause of
everything. Just write that down in your
mind. That means he's the cause. Whatever it is, he's the cause.
Whatever he does is right, whatever he does is holy, whatever he
does is just or true, but he's the cause. It happened because
of him, whatever it is. Now any God that's not just like
that is a false God, is an idol. God, I'm going to say this in
service this morning, so I'm going to steal my thunder. I'm talking about predestination.
A God who is not a God of absolute predestination is an idol. You
might as well be worshiping a totem pole as to worship a God that's
not a God of absolute predestination. God is holy. He's other. He hates sin. God is absolutely
just. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. He's the eternal God. He's the
immutable God. He can't change. I'm the Lord.
I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. God is as he is in the word. And if I, a God that whose will
can be thwarted by my free will, that's an idol. That's all it
is. A God who can change, that's
an idol. That's idolatry. If I give that
God any credit as being God, I am practicing idolatry. If I can listen to preaching
that doesn't exalt God as he is in his word, that is idolatry. And that is the sin that Israel
was always tempted to go back to. Why is that pointed out?
To warn us. To warn us. I don't want to worship
another God, do you? I want to be like David. I want
to be a man after his own heart. I want to be a pastor after his
own heart. I don't want to give any credence
to a false idol and say, well, God's in that. No, he's not. God is as he says he is in his
word, and anything else is an idol. A gospel that is depended
upon you doing something, that's an idol. A God that you can please
by your works, that's an idol. That's an idol. And they were
always tempted to go back to this idolatry. May the Lord deliver
us from that by His grace, because apart from His grace, we'll do
it just like Israel did. Just like Israel did. Now turn
with me to Isaiah 45. This is the last thing that I
want us to look at with regard to this. Isaiah chapter 45. Verse 20. Assemble yourselves, and come
near, and come. Draw near together, ye that are
escaped of the nations. Now look at this next statement.
They have no knowledge. that set up the wood of their
graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Now, any God that is dependent
upon you to do something before he can save you is a God that
cannot save. And if you're praying to a God
that cannot save, unless you do something to enable him to,
you have no knowledge of the living God. Now let's go on reading. Tell ye, and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from the time? Have not I the Lord? There's
no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. That's the only God there is.
There's no other God, a just God. One who will by no means
clear the guilty. The one who's found a way to
be just and justify the one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A just God and a savior. Look, verse 22, look unto me. and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. May the Lord, I tell you, you
know what will keep me and you, by grace, from going after idolatry? Need. Need. He healed them that had
need of healing. I need him. This is the only one who can
do anything for me. May the Lord cause us always
to be poor and needy. And we will not look to a false
God. Amen.