I'd like to read these first
four verses. Some of you might remember me
saying a few weeks ago that there's not an account of David's death
in the scriptures. I was wrong. I read over it and over it and
didn't see it, and then all of a sudden there it was. 1 Kings chapter 2, Now the days
of David drew nigh that he should die. And he charged Solomon his son,
saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong therefore, and
show thyself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord thy God,
to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments,
and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of
Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and withersoever
thou turnest thyself, that the Lord may continue his word, which
he spake concerning me, saying, if thy children take heed to
their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart
and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee, said he,
a man on the throne of Israel. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy son and we ask in his name that you would
be pleased to meet with us and to enable us by your spirit,
by your grace, to worship thee. Lord, how we desire to worship.
Lord, we can't come into your presence without an awareness
of our sin and we pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray that we
might be found in Christ. And Lord, accept our thanksgiving.
We're so thankful for Him and the salvation that's in Him.
Be with all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord,
be with those of our number that are sick and in trials. We ask
that you would be with them. For Christ's sake, in His name
we pray. Amen. Battery's gonna go out on this,
but it's okay, I'll talk loud. David would soon die. Notice it says, now the days
of David drew nigh that he should die. He had just a few days to
live, and he would soon die. Are you ready to die? That's a sobering question. Are you ready to die today? Are you ready to die? Many years ago, there was a man
at the 13th Street Baptist Church named Charlie Payne. Some of
you might know him or remember him. But he was getting ready
to go into surgery that he might not recover from. It was a very
serious heart surgery. And Brother Mahan asked him,
are you ready to die? And his reply was, if what you
have told me is true, yes, I am. Now, if what this book says is
true, yes, I am. I don't need anything else. I'm complete in Christ. Yes,
I am ready to die. And I know a young person can't
really enter into this as an older person can, but the thought
of dying is so attractive, being sinless, being in the presence
of Christ, no more trouble, no more heartache, pure unending
bliss in his presence. In thy presence is fullness of
joy, David said. And so yes, every believer, because
what Christ did is enough, is ready to die. Now, I think of David, His dying words in 2 Samuel
23 verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me. Yet hath he made with me. Yes,
he made it with Christ, but in Christ he made it with me. He
made this covenant with me. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my
salvation. All my desire. Remember Simeon. He said, Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Now when you see salvation is
utterly in Christ, you're ready to depart in peace. I think of
Paul. He said, the time of my departure. I love the way he calls death
a departure. You go into an airport, and you look at the departures
and arrivals. He doesn't call it the time of my departure.
I'm going to a better place. It's at hand. He said, I've fought
a good fight. I've finished my course. I've
kept the faith. That's what it is to fight a
good fight. It's to keep the faith. Henceforth, there's laid
up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the judge, shall
give me, and not to me only, but all them that love his appearing.
You know, I'm one of those people that loves his appearing. I love
his first appearing when he came and kept the law for me. I can't
wait for his second appearing when every eye's gonna see him.
Now, like I said, if you're a believer, if what this book says is true,
you're ready to depart and be with Christ in his presence. And then he gives Solomon this
solemn charge before his death. Verse one, now the days of David
drew nigh that he should die. And he charged Solomon his son
saying, I go the way of all the earth, just like everybody else
is. Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man. Be strong and show yourself a
man. False religion is effeminate. It's not manly. It's effeminate. Now, when I say that, I also
want us to remember that women are just as important in the
kingdom of God as men. As a matter of fact, I think
it's really glorious that when the Lord first appeared, or when
he was raised from the dead, he didn't make himself known
to any of the 12 disciples. They were all in hiding. He made
himself known to Mary Magdalene, a woman. And it's also very interesting
that around the cross during our Lord's death, how many men
were there? We only know of one. Scripture
says they all forsook him and fled. There was only one man
there, John. Because remember the Lord saying
to behold your son, saying to Mary. But you know the scripture
says there were many women there. So when we're talking about being
manly, that's not in any way a chauvinistic statement or saying
that men are better than women or more important in the kingdom
of God. Don't mean that at all. Women showed much more courage
around the cross than men did. The men were in hiding and the
women were there. I think of the Roman soldiers and the chief
priests, but there stood the women. They stood there. were
confessing Christ when the Apostles were in hiding. So don't anybody
think, well he is talking about martyrdom. No, that doesn't have
anything to do with it. A man, but He still said to him,
be a man. Now what is manhood? The Lord
Jesus Christ is the perfect example of what a real man is isn't he?
In every respect. But false religion feminizes
a man. It just does. You see it? But
he says to his son Solomon, knowing he's getting ready to die, be
strong and show yourself a man. And here's what a man does. Verse
three, and keep the charge of the Lord thy God. Now the word charge is used 79
times in the Hebrew and it's also translated watch and safeguard. Now what he is saying, here's
what a man does, a spiritual man, a man in Christ Jesus, he
keeps the faith. That's what Paul said he did.
He said, I've finished my course, I've fought a good fight, I've
kept the faith. And that is what a true man in
Christ Jesus does. He keeps the faith. That's more
important to him than anything else. is to keep the faith, the
faith of God's elect, the faith of Christ, the truth. He's got
a relationship with Christ and His truth where He will not let
it be watered down by the grace of God. He knows what He would
do apart from grace, but His main responsibility is keeping
the faith. That's what He's saying to Solomon.
You keep the charge I've given to you, the same thing as keeping
the faith. keep the charge of the Lord thy
God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments
and His judgments and His testimonies, as it's written in the Law of
Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever
thou turnest." Now before we go on, I want to look at the
Chronicles account. Turn to 1 Chronicles 28. We get a little bit more detail
as to what he said to Solomon here in verse nine. And thou, Solomon, my son, know
thou the God of thy father. Don't you want to know him? To
actually know God. That's what eternal life is,
isn't it? To know the living God. He says, know the God of
thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, a complete heart,
not half-hearted, and with a willing mind. For the Lord searcheth
all hearts, and understands all the imagination of the thoughts.
If you seek him, he'll be found of thee, but if you forsake him,
he'll forsake thee." Now, look in chapter 29 of this same book,
verse 19, and this is an encouragement to me. When he was telling Solomon,
you serve God with a perfect heart, a complete heart. Don't
be half-hearted in any way. And a perfect heart is what?
It's to be a man after God's own heart or a woman after God's
own heart. Same thing, but the point is,
when you're a man after God's own heart, that means what's
important to God is important to you. That's exactly what that
means. What God loves, you love. And
what God hates, you hate. That is a man or a woman after
God's own heart. That's what it is to serve Him
with a perfect heart, not in a half-hearted, insincere way.
But look what David prays for Solomon, he's speaking to the
Lord, he's praying at this time, and he says in verse 19, And
given to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments,
thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and
to build the palace for which I have made provision, talking
about building the temple. But you see this perfect heart
that he's talking about, it's the gift of God. And I'm praying,
Lord, give me this perfect heart. No, I don't want to be half-hearted
in the things of God. I want to have a perfect, complete
heart. You know, Solomon ended up losing this. You can read
about it in 2 Kings 11 where his heart was not perfect like
David his father was. He lost this perfect heart. And
then we read of Amaziah that he served the Lord God but without,
but his heart was not perfect. He did everything God said but
his heart wasn't perfect. He was half-hearted in what he
was doing. How did Solomon lose this perfect heart? Well, same
way you and I can, apart from the grace of God. We know Solomon
was saved. We know the Lord said, the Lord loved him. But he went
off in a wrong direction, and you and I will go in a wrong
direction, apart from his grace. So we're asking the Lord to give
us this perfect heart that he's speaking of. Now back to our
text in 1 Kings 2. Verse 3, keep the charge of the
Lord thy God to walk, to walk in His ways. What do you think of when you
think of walking in His ways? The Lord said, I am the way. He's the way of righteousness.
He's the way of peace. He is our peace. He is the new
and living way. all the different ways. He's
called the way to the Father. The way is how to get from point
A to point B. He's the way to the Father. Now,
walk. To walk means fellowship, enjoyment,
communion. Walk in His ways. Isn't it wonderful
to know that Christ is my way to the Father? that he is my
peace, that he is my righteousness, that he is the new and living
way. He's always new, he's always
fresh, he's always, he's the way to God. Walk in his ways. And then he says, keep, verse
three, to keep his statutes. Now, statutes, I looked up the
meaning of that word and I like this definition. It means the
prescribed limits or bounds. His statutes are the prescribed
limits. In this, can't go any further
than this. And bounds, you don't go outside of this bounds. Now
what do you think of when you think that? Christ is the prescribed
limit. I just want to be found in Him.
Anywhere in Him, complete liberty. Outside of Him, judgment. Christ
is the statute. He's the prescribed limits. Don't
you... I only, at all times, I want to
just simply be found in Christ. I don't want God to look at me
in any way apart from simply seeing me in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to think of him
in my devotion life, or my prayer life, or my witnessing, or certainly
not my sin. I don't want him to see me in
any way except in Christ. That's the great desire of every
believer's heart. And then he says in verse 3,
to keep his commandments. To keep them. Not to know what
they are and say, well, I agree with that, but to keep them.
Now, what commandments does a believer actually keep? This is his commandment. Note the word commandment. This
is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son
and love one another as he gave us commandment. Now, is this
a commandment you keep? Do you believe on the name of
his son as all that's needed to make you perfect before God.
Do you believe what the thief did? Remember me. If you simply
remember me, if you own me before the Father, nothing else is needed. And we love those who love Him. You do. You keep His commandments.
Now if that's saying keep the Ten Commandments, well I've kept
the Ten Commandments in Christ. I really have. I've got a perfect
standing before that law. We ought to try to keep the law.
I don't try to keep it. I've kept it. I've kept it in Christ
Jesus. I really believe that. I stand
perfect before that holy law of God, having never broken it.
But that's with Christ. It's my righteousness. It's believing
on His name that is an evidence that He's done something for
me, that He kept the law for me. So keep His commandments.
And what does He say next? and his judgments. Now, the word
judgment. What is a judgment? Well, it's
what the judge judges. It's the sentence. It's the sentence. Now, here's my sentence. Justified. God justified me.
Believe that. That's his sentence. Anybody
outside of Christ? Condemnation. Believe that. God is holy. You can't come into
God's presence apart from Christ, and the only way that you and
I can come into his presence is through What Christ did, and
this is his judgments, his sentence. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified him. Nobody can
bring anything against their accusation. Do you believe God's
judgment? Do you keep it? That if you're
in Christ, you're without sin? That you stand perfect before
the law of God? Do you believe God's judgment
that anybody outside of Christ is under condemnation? We keep
those judgments. And then he says, and his testimonies
in verse three. His testimonies, His witness,
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation
19.10 says this is the, His testimony is what He bears witness to in
His Word. You know, this book is His testimony
and we believe everything He says. Keep His testimony. Thy Word is a light and a lamp. And we're here because of this
word. This is God's witness. This is
God's testimony that we keep. This is what a man is. Not muscle and brawn, not some
kind of macho man. It's someone who esteems all
thy precepts and all things to be right. And David said, I hate
every false way. And that's what it is. It's his
testimonies. As, verse three, as it's written
in the law of Moses, We believe as it's written, don't we? We
don't believe anything else. I love what Donnie Bell said.
If the Bible said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe
it. And I would. Somebody says, well,
that just doesn't make sense. That goes against anything that
is even logical. I don't trust my logic. I don't
trust my understanding, but I do believe that everything God says
is true. I really do. We believe according to the testimony. That thou mayest prosper, and
that word prosper actually is be wise. That you may be wise
in all that you do. Now you find me somebody who
believes the gospel. who really does trust the Lord
Jesus Christ as all they have in salvation. And I'll show you
a truly wise person. That's that wise man who built
his house upon the rock. That's wisdom, to look to Christ
only. And he said, In doing this ye
will be wise in all that ye do, and whithersoever thou turnest
thyself. Verse 4, Now that the Lord may continue his word which
he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to
their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart,
and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee, said he,
a man on the throne of Israel. Now, the only way that this is
gonna happen is if you continue. If you continue. The Lord said,
if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.
This is talking about perseverance. I'm to continue walking with
Christ, following Christ. And if I don't, all it will prove
is that I never knew him in the first place. That's all it'll
prove. Turn with me to Colossians 1
for just a moment. Verse 21, and you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now,
right now, hath He reconciled, you're already reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Now that's what
every believer is, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight.
Now look at the first little word of verse 23, if. If. You continue in the faith, grounded
and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. You are these things if you continue
in the faith. Now the point is, what's the
evidence of salvation? Perseverance. Perseverance. continuing in the faith, not
being moved from that one hope of the gospel. And he says to
Solomon, take heed. Don't be presumptuous. Take heed
about your way. And Solomon, as we're going to
see in Chapter 3, is the wisest man to ever live. He wrote Ecclesiastes. He wrote the Proverbs. The wisdom
is absolutely astounding. God gave him wisdom. He's the
wisest man to ever live. And yet his heart turned away
from the Lord. He's a reminder to us that man
at his best state. And if you want to talk about
man at his best state as far as human beings, Solomon would
be it. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. And Solomon knew that about himself.
Read Ecclesiastes. He knew he was altogether vanity. But this thing of perseverance,
David says, you take heed. Because Solomon ended up dying
kind of in infamy. I mean, his heart was turned
after other gods, the scripture says. Somebody says, what does
all that mean? I don't know. But it's bad. We
know that. It's real bad. And he died in
a way that was just dishonorable. And he didn't take heed the way
his father warned him, that the Lord may continue his word which
he spake concerning me, saying, if your children take heed to
their way, and walk before me in truth with all their heart."
Well, Solomon quit doing that. I don't understand that, but
he quit doing that. He didn't serve the Lord the
way his father David did, the scripture says, before he ended
up going in this wrong direction. It's only as we take heed and
walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all
their soul, there shall not fail thee, said he, a man on the throne
of Israel. Now what does all this look like,
this thing of persevering in the faith? continuing in the
faith, grounded and settled. We're made by our takers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
What's this look like? Well, the Lord was preaching
in John chapter six, and after that message, over 5,000 people said, this
is a hard saying. Who can hear it? We don't like
this hard saying. And they left. Many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They claimed to be
his disciples. They claimed to be followers
of Christ, but no more. They went back and they walked
no more with him. And he looked at the 12 and he said, Will you also go
away? That's a searching question,
isn't it? Will you also go away? Doors open. You can leave too. Ride with them if you want to.
Will you also go away? And I love Peter's answer. To
whom should we go? We don't have any other options.
You want us to go back to the law? Well, we'd be damned. You
want us to look, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. What a confession. We can't leave. We don't have
anywhere else to go. And I love the way the Lord says,
have not I chosen you? He wasn't patting Peter on the
back and saying, Peter, you're something for being this way.
He says, there's only one reason you're this way, because I chose
you. And one of you, the one that
will end up leaving me, is a devil. Speaking of Judas, he spoke of
Judas even then. But the reason Peter gave this
answer, to whom shall we go? One reason, because God in Christ
chose him and really he couldn't leave. He couldn't leave. Now, if you can leave, you will
leave. If you can, I don't have to hear
this, okay. But if you're a believer, you
cannot leave. leave. He won't let you. Aren't you thankful for that?
Okay.