Sermon Tone Analysis

Lessons From The Lives Of Kings

September 29, 1996

 

Scripture:  1Kings 11-15

 

Prayer:

 

Introduction:

 

          Another lesson from the Peter Lowe Success 96 Seminar as per comedian, Larry King, “Got anybody you don’t like?”

His story about his invitation to speak at a Mafia sponsored charity drive and the subsequent, “We owe you a favor.”

Another one of those things that comes around and hits you later with a lesson of truth.

Today we have a number of other lessons we can learn from the lives of kings - other men who are also kings in name only.

They are the kings in the Old Testament who either succeeded or failed depending on their faith in God.

We will continue on from the life of Solomon, the king to whom God gave the immense gift of wisdom, but wrestled with the worldly wealth this gift gave him.

Solomon was the wisest man in all the earth to whom all other kings came and marveled to hear the wisdom God put in his heart, and yet his heart was distracted from God because of his wisdom.

He finally discovered the truth of all wisdom when he wrote, at the end of his life in Eccl.

12:13-14 that the purpose of man is to fear (love, honor, and obey) God and keep His commandments because God will judge every deed, even hidden thing, according to His standards of good and evil.

Here is Solomon who had an opportunity unparalleled as yet upon the earth to turn the hearts of other kings to God through what God had given him.

And yet because of what God had given him, his own heart was divided and compromised, and so was his message.

How much more so our own message in the richest country the earth has ever seen and among the richest churches the earth has ever seen.

Might our own hearts be divided and compromised by the very blessings that God has poured out upon us?

We have inherited these riches!

What shall we do to honor God with all those that He has brought to America, even Chicago, even Mayfair, who have come to witness the wonder of God’s blessing upon us.

Shall we spend our wealth to turn them to God, acknowledging that God is the source of our wealth, and seeking to honor Him with all He has given us?

I am not saying we are not, but we must continually search our hearts to see if we are channeling all things back to God.

Since Solomon did not do this wholeheartedly (as his father, David), God brought judgment upon him and set adversaries in place to carry it out.

*I.

Solomon, King of all Israel (40 years).

*

* *

*          A.

God judges sin.*

 

*1Kings 11:9 ¶ The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.*

*10  Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD's command.*

*11  So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.*

*12  Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime.

I will tear it out of the hand of your son.*

*13  Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."*

Sin has a trickle effect.

Unto the third and fourth generation (Ex.

20:5-6).

And yet each man is responsible for his own sin (Ez.

18).

People, especially leaders, do not sin in a vacuum.

God’s trickle effect is grace and mercy even in the face of sin.

*          B.

God sets His plans in place to judge sin long before we even                            have           a clue.*

*1Ki 11:14 ¶ Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom.*

*1Ki 11:23  And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.*

*1Ki 11:25  Rezon was Israel's adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad.

So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.*

*1Ki 11:26 ¶ Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king.

He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.*

All God has to do is hold back His divine hand of providence.

God uses things already in place around us to either bless or chastise.

God’s discipline is always out of love and for our good.

These adversaries were from the north, the south, and from within.

The trickle effect usually fills the jar.

*2Sam.

7:14  I will be his father, and he will be my son.

When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.*

*15  But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.*

*16  Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'"*

* *

*          C.

God can even choose to bless our enemies to humble us in                     the process of dealing with our sin.*

*1Kings 11:37  However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel.*

*38  If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you.

I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.*

*39  I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.'"*

*          D.

Our reaction to this reveals our heart toward God in                                       proving His judgment righteous.*

* *

*1Kings 11:40  Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death.*

* *

          Instead of turning to God and repenting (God would have listened and responded in grace and mercy) Solomon tried to take the situation into his own hands against God’s judgment.

Ultimately, this probably led to the loss of all the riches Solomon had set aside for himself, and for God, because of the vulnerability of a divided kingdom.

*1Kings 14:25  In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.*

*26  He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace.

He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.*

*II.

Rehoboam, King of Judah (17 years).

*

 

*          A.

God’s judgment is carried out.*

*1Kings 12:12  Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days."*

*13  The king answered the people harshly.

Rejecting the advice given him by the elders,*

*14  he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier.

My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions."*

*15  So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.*

*16 ¶ When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son?

To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!"

So the Israelites went home.*

*17  But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.*

Solomon’s attitude of excess had carried over to the son.

*1Kings 12:20  When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel.

Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.*

* *

          The opposition is set in place.

The die is cast for division.

*1Kings 12:24  'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites.

Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'"

So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.*

God has done it and His purpose will prevail.

*          B.

God’s judgment is once again proved righteous.*

*1Kings 14:22  Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD.

By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done.*

*23  They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.*

*24  There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.*

*30  There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.*