INTRODUCTION
• In our series we are in some ways back to where we started in week one, but we are twenty-four years later. (Solomon begin to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign. 2 Chronicles 3:2.
• I always found it interesting that Solomon took 7 years to build God’s Temple (1 Kings 6:38) and he took 13 years to build HIS house and complex (1 Kings 7:1).
• Makes you wonder! :)
• Solomon has been on the throne for twenty-four years at this point.
• Once Solomon took power, the nation enjoyed what many considered the golden era of the nation of Israel during Solomon’s forty-year reign!
• As we begin our third message in this series, I have entitled this message GRACE.
• As the message unfolds, I hope that you will see why we are down this path.
• I believe there is a huge misconception when it comes to God with non-Christians, and some Christians.
• We tend to think to God is out to kill our fun, or to limit what we can do because we think that what we want to do is fun.
• People who do not know Jesus may not want to hear about Jesus because they are fearful that they will need to change their life.
• I can respect that thought more than I can respect a Christian who does not think they need to change anything and still be a “follower” of Jesus.
• People get hostile and offended by the thought that there is someone out there who would dare tell them how to live and that there is right and wrong.
• Christians do not spend time in the Word because we do not “time” to do so. Or is there a deeper reason? Maybe we do not WANT to know what God has to say to us?
• Here is something to think about.
• Remember when you were a child, or a teen and your parents told you that you could not do something?
• How did you react? Were you glad that they told you no? PROBABLY NOT!
• We treat God the same way.
• God has given us His Word, and we do not want to spend time in it because we do not want to be told no about something.
• Back to your parents for a minute.
• IF your parents were normal, loving parents, they would do what they did to you because they were trying to protect you or teach you something, not because they were looking to kill your fun.
• How does this fit in with our text today?
› Big Idea of the Message: The Lord is gracious to help us stay on track in our spiritual journey to holiness.
• In other words, God giving us His Word, as well as His guidance, are signs of His grace toward us.
• God wants us to succeed in life!
• Let’s turn to 1 Kings 9:1-5 to begin today.
1 Kings 9:1–5 CSB
1 When Solomon finished building the temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do, 2 the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The LORD said to him:
I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.
4 As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.
SERMON
I. A joyful promise.
• The first nine verses are an expansion of 1 Kings 4:13-14.
• In verse three, God refers to answering Solomon’s prayer in chapter 8, which was made after the Temple was built.
• God’s response here comes after Solomon had also completed building his palace, which means that at least thirteen years (1 Kgs 7:1) have passed since Solomon’s prayer!
• I find it encouraging that God remembers our prayers that may have long faded from our own memories.
• God was telling Solomon that He approved of the Temple that he built for God.
• The word Consecrated translates a Hebrew verb meaning “to make holy” or “to put into a state of holiness.”
• It may also be translated “to make acceptable for worship.”
• Unlike the verb rendered “dedicated” in the previous verse, this verb probably implies that some sacred ritual was performed before the sacrifices were made in front of the Temple. (UBSH 1Kings, 2 Kings).
• Can you imagine the blessing that Solomon must have felt KNOWING that He had pleased God with his work?
• You do not have top build a Temple to be able to experience those same feelings.
• You can please God by the way you live for Him!
• Notice that God tells Solomon what he can do to be pleasing to God in verse four.
• Solomon had a prime example of what it meant to honor (and dishonor) the Lord because of his father David.
• The Lord uses the largely upright and integrity-filled life of David as an example for Solomon to follow, even as David’s sins serve as a cautionary tale for his son.
• As believers, we should never take for granted the leadership we serve under in the different areas of our lives.
• There are many preachers, teachers, and church or ministry leaders who have left behind good examples to follow, and strategies that we can learn from.
• I have had so many wonderful examples to follow during my formative years as a Christian. Many times those examples kept me on the right path because I did not want to disappoint them as well as God.
• When leaders have failed to follow God faithfully, we can take warning from those negative examples as well.
• Despite his faults, David pleased God by the way he lived because God said that David walked with a heart of integrity.
• The Hebrew noun rendered integrity comes from a root meaning “to be complete.”
• When the noun is used in an ethical sense, it means “to be perfect” or “to have integrity.”
• The heart was considered the center of one’s desires and intentions. Some other possible translations of this expression are “fair” (ncv), “honest” (cev), and “sincerely” (nab). (UBSH 1Ki, 2Ki)
• God explained that David did what was right and he kept God’s commands.
• God show grace to Solomon by telling him what he needed to do to please God.
• Solomon’s obedience, however, must be motivated by “integrity of heart,” not by mere external observance of God’s word.
• Such heartfelt commitment to the Lord will result in Solomon’s sons ruling Israel after him. (1,2 Kings NAC)
• God promised that if Solomon followed God, God would bless him.
• DO not ever fool yourself into thinking that God will just bless you because of who you are, where you live, or what you have done.
• God will bless those who are faithful to Him!
• Once again, God showed His grace by letting Solomon know what God wanted from him.
• God was not looking to restrict or ruin Solomon’s life, God was trying to make sure that Solomon would experience a joyful life!
• Let’s turn to verses 6-9.
1 Kings 9:6–9 CSB
6 If you or your sons turn away from following me and do not keep my commands—my statutes that I have set before you—and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them, 7 I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for my name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. 8 Though this temple is now exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will scoff. They will say, “Why did the LORD do this to this land and this temple?” 9 Then they will say, “Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They held on to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, the LORD brought all this ruin on them.”
II. A dire warning.
• Even in the dire warning, we see God’s grace at work. How?
• BY the fact that God tells Solomon what will happen if he turns from God.
• The word WORSHIP means to bow down. God is warning Solomon not to bow before other “gods’!
• God says the entire nation of Israel will pay the price if Solomon fails and turns to other God’s.
• Think about this for a minute.
• Faith is not always an easy thing to maintain. Solomon has had two visits from God in his life thus far, and God has blessed him beyond measure, yet Solomon will have issues.
• None of us have had the experiences that Solomon had with God, and to me, the failures Solomon experiences, later on, should help us to see that none of us are impervious to temptation.
• We have to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus at all times.
• God’s warning to King Solomon in verses 6–9 paints a familiar picture of what is to come, as Solomon will soon begin to fail his kingdom and wander from the Lord.
• God specifically commands that the king not serve or worship any other god, or else Israel will be cut off from their promised land, and the surrounding nations will wonder and be astonished by the destruction of the temple and its people (vv. 8–9).
• The worship of other gods will be the downfall of Israel and its king.
• Solomon would have had no reason to misunderstand God’s command, seeing as how this was the Lord’s second speech—and it was perfectly clear.
• Solomon’s supernatural wisdom and understanding also should have kept him from making bad decisions.
• Also take note of the fact that God tells Solomon that not only does Solomon have to walk the walk, so do Solomon’s sons.
• This puts some responsibility on Solomon to make sure he teaches his sons and that he is a good example to his sons.
• “These verses give dire warning as to the disastrous consequences that result from apostasy.
• The presence of the temple would not be proof against the judgment of God if the king and people turned away from him.
• It is at v. 6 that the word ‘you’ becomes plural so that not only Solomon but also his successors and the people are included.
• Solomon’s history (ch. 11) shows that this warning was needed and particularly at this time in his life.
• This appearance of God was an act of grace and was intended as an urgent reminder to Solomon to guard his heart.
• A second matter of note here is that the consequences of disobedience are far-reaching.
• As kings, Solomon and his successors were responsible for the whole nation.
• Failure on the king’s part affected all the people. Israel’s subsequent history amply illustrates this principle.
• As the king went, so went the people” (Richard D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, “1, 2 Kings,” in 1 Samuel–2 Kings, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 3, ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, rev. ed. [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009], 714–5).
• God loves us enough to let us know the blessings that come with obedience as well as the bad things that follow rejection of God.
• Let’s turn to verses 10-15 for a final thought.
1 Kings 9:10–15 CSB
10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the two houses, the LORD’s temple and the royal palace—11 King Hiram of Tyre having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every wish—King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee. 12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. 13 So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” So he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are still called today. 14 Now Hiram had sent the king nine thousand pounds of gold.
15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon had imposed to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
III. A subtle slip.
• With the wisdom God blessed Solomon with, one would think that Solomon would be imperious to making bad decisions.
• Solomon seems to be beginning to make questionable decisions at this point, considering that Hiram is displeased with the cities he’s built and considering that Solomon has implemented forced labor (vv. 12–15).
• Hiram was instrumental in the building of the Temple and Solomons palace.
• Hiram was a good friend of David’s and he was eager to supply the gold and cedars needed for the project. (1 Kings 5:1-7)
• Hiram had been supplying Solomon for 20 years, and when it was all done, Solomon repaid Hiram twenty crummy towns in the land of Galilee.
• Hiram called them the Land of Cabul (CABLE), which roughly means worthless, not pleasing.
• Solomon had plenty of resources to compensate Hiram fairly.
• We see another issue in verse 15, Solomon was using forced labor to build the Temple as well as his palace.
• Solomon makes forced labor of the people Israel could not exterminate (?????, ?aram; cf., e.g., Josh 6:21) from the land. But Solomon does not make slaves of any of the Israelites, although his rule apparently was excessively harsh.
• The practice of using forced labor was not unusual for the time; however, Solomon had the resources to pay for labor.
• Solomon did not go off the rails ion one shot, his failures were a culmination of many bad choices.
• When we turn from God, it usually is not ONE decision that takes us there, it is a series of choices that litter the path of disobedience.
CONCLUSION
• Our application for the message is this, we should heed warnings with humility, rather than responding with pride.
• Solomon eventually paid no attention to the consequences of his choices.
• Who knows what he was thinking.
• We need to see God’s Word as a blessing because the Bible tells us about the great God we serve as well as giving us the best opportunity to live a blessed life for Him!
