Trouble Comes With Affluence

Transcript

GRS 2-92
12/9/2007
Trouble Comes with Affluence
1 Kings 9-11
Gil Rugh

We are studying the Old Testament on Sunday nights; some of you are visiting for this tonight. We are studying Old Testament history, the history of Israel; we are in a section that has direct relation to what the children have been singing about tonight. They have been singing about Jesus Christ and His coming to earth. And we are in a section where we have been studying about the third king of the nation Israel, the first king was Saul, the second king was David, the third king was the son of David, Solomon and you know what after Solomon, the next king to rule over a united nation of Israel will be Jesus Christ when He returns to earth at His second coming.

The Old Testament laid out through the prophecies of the prophets through whom God spoke that He would send the Messiah of Israel, the anointed one, the one who would be their king and it also told us that He would suffer and die. Isaiah the Prophet, centuries before Christ was born said that the one that God would send; His servant would be rejected, would die to pay the penalty for sin, but the prophets also said that this one who would suffer and die would also rule and reign in glory over the earth and the Old Testament prophets didn’t understand that, how could he come and rule and reign, how could he suffer and die, how could the same person do both things, and now we understand that it was God’s intention that His son come to earth, suffer and die and be crucified on the cross to pay the penalty for sins.

And then some 2,000 years would go by and we don’t know the exact time because He hasn’t returned yet, but then His son would come back to earth and when He comes to earth the second time it will not be to pay the penalty for sin. It will be to establish a kingdom on the earth over which he will personally reign from Jerusalem which will be the capital of the world and all who have come to believe in Him will be part of that kingdom.

So crucial material, crucial events, absolutely essential to understand, God could not establish a kingdom on the earth for the righteous, but those who have become acceptable in His presence until the penalty for their sin was paid. And that is why Jesus Christ came to earth the first time to pay the penalty for sin. Remember when the angels announced His birth they said that unto you this day in the city of David is born a savior and that is because the penalty for sin is death and that encompasses each one of us.

We are sinners, the Bible says all had sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no, not one and God is the standard and He is the one who has told us and so we are in a hopeless state and then Jesus Christ breaks into the human race. The son of God becomes a man, born of Bethlehem, why; to be a savior. Jesus Christ himself said that He came to give his life, a ransom for many. The wages of sin is death which includes eternal separation from God in hell.

And the son of God came to earth hung at a cross to pay the penalty for our sin and then as the song that was sung, the gift keeps on giving. God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life, eternal life. How does that happen, I recognize I’m a sinner, I believe what God has said, I quit trusting my good works, my church, my baptism, my own efforts and I realize the only hope for my salvation, my forgiveness is place my faith in Jesus Christ.

When I place my faith in Christ, God credits the death of his son to my account. Now he can declare me forgiven, why; my penalty has been paid. And God views as having died when Christ died, now he can forgive me and declare me righteous. I’m born again, born into his family, now I’m ready for the second coming of Christ to this earth when He will establish His kingdom and all those who have believed in Him will be part of that kingdom.

Turn your bibles to First Kings Chapter 9 if you have it, the Bible with you, may not have been expecting that you would need it with the singing of the kids tonight and I want to highlight some things about Solomon. You remember Solomon is David’s son, God entered into a covenant relationship with David and he promised David that it would be his descendant that would sit on the throne ruling over Israel forever. That was called the Davidic covenant, basically God’s agreement with David and God’s promise to David and his descendants.

Solomon is the first of those to sit on the throne and because of sin he is the last one to rule over a united nation Israel, all 12 tribes until Jesus Christ returns to earth the second time. I want to highlight some events out of Chapters 9, 10 and 11 of the first kings and these records the last 16 years of Solomon’s reign and they tell us why. The kingdom of Israel divides and we will never be united again until Jesus Christ returns to earth. The last 16 years of Solomon’s reign, the wisest man on earth and the wealthiest man of his time, this will be brought out here and he is ruling over Israel.

He is not reigning over the world; Solomon, he is ruling over the nation Israel in the land of Palestine. He has an alliance by marriage with the Pharaoh of Egypt, so there is friendly relationship there, Solomon has married Pharaohs daughter, one of those political alliances established by marriage. So it is a time of peace for Israel, God appears to Solomon for a second time, he had appeared to him earlier at the beginning of his reign in -- when God was preparing for Solomon to build the temple but in Chapter 9 verse 1, he came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house.

Solomon built the temple to the Lord and then following the construction of the temple he went to build his own splendid palace. And after he had completed building those two edifices he was 24 years into his reign, the way we know that is in Chapter 6 of First Kings, we will look back and look at these verses. We have told that Solomon began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign, he took seven years to build then he took 13 years to build his own palace, so he had four years into his reign, then he spent seven years building the temple then thirteen years building his own palace, so 24 years into his reign, he has 16 years left, this king over Israel, we know that because when we get to the end of Chapter 11 we are told that he reigned for 40 years.

So even someone with my mathematical ability can subtract 24 from 40 and we get 16 and I just didn’t do that on my head now, I figured out that before I came here. Verse 2, Solomon appeared -- the Lord appeared to Solomon for a second time and what God says to Solomon is crucial because in this we are reminded that if sin enters the picture and Solomon is unfaithful to God the punishment will be a loss of the kingdom, the Lord said to Solomon verse 3; I have heard your prayer, your supplication, I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting my name there forever, my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually, he is talking about the temple that Solomon built.

Now even in Israel today there is discussion of the temple, there is a construction place in Jerusalem that is making the items for rebuilt temple so that they will have the garments, the items necessary for worship, Time magazine a number of years ago had pictures that they had taken of the items that had been made in Jerusalem for those who are preparing for the construction of the next temple, this gets to be an issue with the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock and so on.

Solomon has built a splendid temple in Jerusalem and God says that is where he will manifest his presence on earth in that temple in Jerusalem. Verse 4; as for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness doing according to all that I commanded you and will keep my statute and ordinances then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised you father David.

You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel that is what it means, I will establish your throne, in other words the Davidic line will go on unbroken, Solomon’s son will succeed him and then Solomon’s grandson then his great grandson, there will be no break in the line if you are faithful to me, submit to my word and obey what I say then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel verse five, forever just as I promised to your father David; you will not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel.

The other side of it; but if you or your sons turn away from following me, do not keep my commandments and statutes which I have set before you, you go and serve other Gods and worship them then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, the house which I have consecrated for my name, so Israel become a proverb and a byword among the people, and this house; the temple that Solomon built will become a ruin. Ultimately that does happen, to this day now Israel is under the judgment of God and they don’t have a temple.

There will be in the future, so you have the positive and the negative verse 9; they will say the reason this happened is because they forsook the Lord, their God and worshipped other Gods. God consistently gives us if you will the positive and the negative, we only want to hear the positive, we want to hear God is love and there is a heaven and we don’t want to hear there is sin, there is judgment, there is a hell but here Solomon has to hear the positive and the negative, you bow before me, you obey me, you put your trust in me and demonstrated by obedience, there will be blessing, if you don’t there will be judgment and that prepares the way for what is going to happen, there will be judgment, God repeatedly through the scripture warns of the consequences for disobedience.

Verses 10 to 14 talk about the relationship Solomon had with a king named Hiram, he is the king of Tyre, and Solomon had a business agreement with this king. This king provided timber and gold for Solomon and Solomon reimbursed him with cities and so on, that were under his control, so it is a business relationship. Verse 11 we are told Hiram, King of Tyre supplies Solomon with cedar, cypress, lumber and gold. Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee and then we are told Hiram who now looked at the cities Solomon gave him, he says; I don’t like him, I don’t think I got a good deal.

And the parallel account in Second Chronicles Chapter 8 verse 2, tells us Solomon took the cities back and evidently doesn’t go into great detail but does tell a psalm and took the cities back and evidently reimbursed Hiram with something that was acceptable to him because the relationship continues on and Hiram continues to supply Solomon. So you get an idea of the business dealings that were going on, verse 14 says; Hiram sent to the king 120 talents of gold, 120 talents of gold is a lot of gold.

In our measure that is four and a half tons of gold. Now you can figure that out how much does gold cost an ounce and then you have to move that along to pounds and then you want to move the pounds to tons, there are 2000 pounds in a ton, am I right, shake your head yes if I’m. Okay good, so we have four and a half tons of gold, so a lot of gold that is coming into Solomon from Hiram as he mines the gold and then Solomon reimburses him with cities or things acceptable.

Then he goes on to talk about the laborers that Solomon has, he does additional building, so in addition to building the temple and his own palace and rebuilding in Jerusalem he is out rebuilding cities and so on. Remember he is married Pharaohs daughter, so verse 16 tells us that Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone and captured Gezer and burnt it with fire and then he had given this city as a dowry to his daughter Solomon’s wife, then Solomon has to build it the way he wants it and all the storage cities he builds and on with the work that he is doing and you have; how it is laid out.

Verse 24; as soon as Pharaohs daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon built for her, then he built the Millo. So what Solomon has done now, he built his palace in that and you think; well I thought that is where his wife would live but he is going to have a number of wives, he built a special house and residence for Pharaoh’s daughter. I mean she has to be treated in a special way because Pharaoh is a significant king and a significant power, and to marry his daughter she has to be treated specially, not only now because she is Solomon’s wife but because she is Pharaohs daughter and if you want to keep on good terms with Pharaoh or you could be involved in a war that could be difficult.

Three times a year Solomon offers burnt offerings to the Lord as part of his worship and so on. You get down to verse 26 and 28 and just look at verse 28 if you have your Bible; they went over and this is Hiram along with Solomon. Ophir is the place where the gold is mined, so Hiram has his servants and Solomon sends some his servants along, they went and overtook 420 talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon. 120 gold talents of gold is 16 tons.

Remember God promised Solomon when Solomon asked for wisdom to rule in a way over the kingdom that would honor the Lord, God said because you have not asked for riches and so on I want to give you riches and so here no you have now 16 tons of gold. We talked about four and a half tons earlier, Solomon is becoming wealthy beyond measure, and that prepares the way for the Queen of Sheba coming in Chapter 10. His wisdom and wealth are becoming famous in other parts of the world.

So the Queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon, concerning the name of the Lord, now as it became known that the God of Israel was honoring and blessing Solomon, King of Israel and we have to come and learn; his wisdom as well as his wealth are well known. The queen of Sheba arrives, it must be within Yemen, we had a problem with one of our ships in Yemen that was attacked had a hole blown in it, that were years ago.

Well that is what we are talking about when we talk about the Queen of Sheba; she was the queen of modern day Yemen. She travels the 1200 miles to Jerusalem which was a significant trip in those days, we used to go to Philadelphia with my parents who lived there and every year we would travel to Philadelphia, it is just a little over 1200 miles there, so you get an idea but in those days they didn’t have cars that zoomed down the inner state at 65 and 70 and if madam was driving 85 or 90.

You know they had to go by camels and by slower means so this is a significant trip, this queen travels all this way over some difficult territory to see Solomon and she brings tremendous gifts with her. Verse 2; she came to Jerusalem with a very large revenue, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. And she comes to Solomon with questions and answers, she has heard of his wisdom and it gives her a chance to get answers to some questions she has had.

So Solomon answered all her questions, nothing was hidden from the king which he did not explain to her. When the Queen of Sheba perceived all the wisdom of Solomon, the house he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his servants, his waiters, those who take care of him, the stair-away that he had built going up to the house of the Lord, verse 6, she said to the king; it was a true report which I had heard in my land about your words and your wisdom, nevertheless I didn’t believe the reports till I come and have seen with my eyes and behold, the half was not told to me, you exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard.

And we know when you hear something it is easy to blow it out of proportion, she says I heard so much about you but when I got here and saw what I saw and heard what I heard, they didn’t do you justice in the reports. His wealth and his wisdom exceeded the rumors if you will that she had heard and then she said; how blessed are your men, your servants that they be able to serve in your presence, blessed be your God, the Lord, your God verse 9; who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel because the Lord loved Israel for ever therefore he made you king, to do justice and righteousness, isn’t it remarkable.

We have the Queen of Sheba coming and declaring the greatness of the God of Israel and with him, the God of Israel who put Solomon on the throne and has blessed him so greatly. So she gave the king a 120 talents of gold, I mean he really needs it. I mean tons and tons of gold and here is 120 talents of gold, think of this trip; 1200 miles this queen travels and she is according this kind of -- I mean this would have been quite a caravan that she brought, bringing these gifts to Solomon.

A very great amount of spices, precious stones, she brought so many spices that never again such as -- an abundance of spices come in. No one else ever brought the amount of spices into Solomon’s kingdom as the Queen of Sheba did and with that the gold that she brought and so on. Goes on to talk about additional things coming in to his kingdom verse 13; king Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested and he gave her according to his royal bounty, I mean it is like these two; king and the queen, I mean you just don’t give a token gift, she has brought him gifts of tremendous wealth and splendor and you can be assured as she returns, he returns gifts in kind if you will, you wouldn’t be outgunned.

Now verse 14 tells you what is going on in Solomon’s kingdom with just one incident, verse 14; now the weight of gold which came into Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, that is 25 tons, 50,000 pounds of gold come to his kingdom in a year, that is not his lifetime, in one year this would be in addition to the trade that is going on with the rulers of the Arab people back in Chapter 4 verses 7 and 19, where we are told about the trade and the commerce that was bringing tremendous wealth into Solomon and in addition to all that you have this going on.

Verses 16 and 17, we are told that Solomon made 1200 large shields of beaten gold using 600 shekels of gold on each large shield, 300 shields of beaten gold using three minas of gold on each shield. So you have large shields and small shields made and covered with gold. They will be used for ceremonial purposes but you have got 500 shields here. This is a splendid kingdom, you have to be overwhelmed when they are doing their ceremonial activity here and this is in connection with the temple and the worship of God and so on.

So on these 500 shields there was 2625 pounds of gold used on those 500 shields, I mean we find out, gold is so abundant here, we are going to be told in a moment; silver wasn’t even counted as valuable when Solomon reigned. Verses 18 to 22; if you are a king like Solomon; you have to have a throne that says something, right. So verse 18; the king made a great throne of ivory and then he overlaid it with refined gold, there were 6 steps to the throne and around top to the throne at its rear arms on each side of the seat, two lions standing behind the arms, 12 lions were standing there on the six steps, one on one side, one on the other, nothing like it was made for any other kingdom.

All Solomon’s drinking vessels were of god, all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold, none was of silver, it was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon, I mean when you have so much gold you can make everything out of gold, who needs silver. I mean that is the point, the overwhelming wealth of Solomon during this period time. He had ships that went out to other places once every three years, the ships of Tarsus came bringing gold, silver, ivy, apes, peacocks, exotic animals. King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. They brought every man his gift, articles of silver, gold, garments, weapons, spices horses, mules, so much year by year, and everybody who comes to see Solomon has to bring a gift of wealth worth significance. He has chariots and horsemen 1400 chariots 1200 horsemen, he has chariot cities, the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, cedars as plentiful as secondary trees, he imported horses from Egypt, the Chariot was imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, a horse for 150 and this goes on to talk about the commerce.

God has greatly blessed Solomon, he is prosperous beyond measure. None of the other kings of the earth can compare to him, we note that God in his grace has brought Israel to a unique time, they don’t have enemies attacking them, David had to be at war all the time but now Israel lives in a time of peace and with that comes prosperity, with that comes trouble. When things are going well, you are healthy, you are wealthy, you are wise, we have all we need somehow it is hard to make room for God in our lives or we give a token acknowledgement of God, that the pressure pushes us away from the living God and a sense of our need.

That is why Jesus said in the New Testament; it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. His disciples say; then a rich man can’t be saved, that is not possible, only one who makes it possible is God Jesus say, made it impossible, with God all things are possible. So Chapter 11 opens up and this is the disaster of Solomon’s life, he didn’t finish well, he turns away from the Lord, the warnings that God gave of judgment, of punishment, disaster, Solomon forgot them.

The wisest man on earth, now King Solomon loved foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh and there are all kind of women, the nations, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite, what do rich wealthy men want, what we call trophy wives and Solomon in his position, to add to his harem because everyone who is a king of an area and you have all these small kingdoms spread out, wants an alliance with the wisest and wealthiest king on earth at the time and Solomon can have any woman he wants and we are told these woman came from the nations of verse 2, which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them nor shall they associate with you for they will surely turn your heart away after other Gods.

Solomon held fast to these in love. He had 700 wives, princes and 300 concubines that is a lot of woman to deal. I mean 700 wives, since they are official wives, they are considered princess, you have to be the wealthiest man on earth to take care of this harem, 300 concubines, they are like secondary wives, they don’t have official status as the wife or princess, but they are part of the harem and belong to Solomon. Verse 4 when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other Gods, his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord as the heart of his father David had been.

Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the Goddess of the Sidonians, after Milcom; the detestable item of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, did not follow the Lord fully as his father David had done. He built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable item of Moab on the mountain east of Jerusalem, you know what that is, that is the Mount of Olives, that is where Jesus will return remember, that down on the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives will be split into two but right there crossed from Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh.

A high place remember was a center of worship for a certain God and on that location anyone in Jerusalem could look over and see that worship center for this pagan God. He built a high place for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon because you have this women from all these surrounding areas, Solomon enters in to relationship with them, they become part of his harem, they bring their Gods with them and they are not ready to abandon their Gods and worship the God of Israel and in his old age Solomon becomes susceptible to the influence of his wives and thus what they would like and now allows them to lead him to the worship of foreign Gods.

Verse 8 so he did all these for foreign wives who burned incenses, sacrificed to their Gods, what is the consequence. Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice, we read about the second time in Chapter 9, the first time was in the context of him going to build the temple. He had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other Gods but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded, so the Lord said to Solomon because you have done this, you have not kept my covenant, my statutes as I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.

Nevertheless I won’t do it in your days because I want to honor what I said to David however I will not tear away the kingdom but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant. He is not going to totally remove the kingdom of Israel from the line of David; he is going to keep one tribe for David. Ten tribes will go and break away, Solomon’s son is going to be left with just the tribe of Judah basically, the ten tribes called the northern kingdom, they will never be in alliance again, they will never be united again and the Assyrians will eventually carry the ten tribes away into captivity, then the Babylonians will carry the tribe of Judah some 400 years after Solomon, away into captivity.

They will never be united again until according to the prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel 37; God will bring the 12 tribes together again and Jesus Christ the Messiah will reign over them ,so sad time for the wisest man on earth but rebellion against the Lord always brings punishment but God will honor his covenant, God is not done with Israel. Jesus Christ is the messiah of Israel, the king of the Jews, remember; when the wise man came from the east and they came to Jerusalem and they asked; where is the one who has been born king of the Jews, he is the king of the Jews, he hasn’t reigned yet but he was born to be the king of Jews but first he had to die so that there could be forgiveness provided for the Jews as well as the Gentiles, so when he established his kingdom it could be filled with those who had believed in him.

But now Solomon has become disobedient to the Lord and so the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon verse 14, Hadad the Edomite. Then you come to another adversary verse 23; the Lord raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, verse 26 you have the third adversary to Solomon and he is the most important because he is destined to become king of the northern ten tribes when Solomon dies and Solomon’s son becomes the successor of Solomon, the kingdom is going to be torn in two. Verse 26; then Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also rebelled against the king.

They have gone to tell you why he rebelled. Verse 29; we are told it came about the time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that Jeroboam previously was a warrior under Solomon. He is a valiant warrior, and Solomon had him over the forced labor, the slave labor because he saw the potential in Jeroboam. Well one day when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the Prophet Ahijah came and met him and Ahijah had a new cloak; the outer garment, he took it off and he tore it into 12 pieces, and he told Jeroboam take 10 pieces for yourself, for thus says the Lord, God of Israel; behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes but he will have one tribe, Solomon’s line.

For the sake of my servant David, for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all of these tribes of Israel because they have forsaken me, they have worshipped the God of the Sidonians, the God of the Moabites, the God of the sons of Ammon, they have not walked in my ways. Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hands, I will bring him to rule for all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David and I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and will give you ten tribes, to his son I will give one tribe.

So here you see in the plan of God the consequences that Solomon’s rebellion and unfaithfulness will have, the kingdom is going to be torn in two. The ten tribes of the north going with Jeroboam, one tribe Judah will go with Solomon’s son. Levites are spread throughout the land as the priestly tribe. Then the promises and the warnings again to Jeroboam, if you are faithful you can establish a line that I will bless, if you are unfaithful then I will bring judgment, then you are my hand of judgment upon the line of David through Solomon because of unfaithfulness.

When Solomon gets word of this, now he wants to kill Jeroboam but Jeroboam flees and goes to Egypt interestingly and Shishak is king of Egypt and so he stays in Egypt and is there until the death of Solomon. The rest of the acts of Solomon, they are recorded in another book, thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years and he dies, and is buried in the city of David, Jerusalem with his father David. That is the united kingdom of Israel, Saul reigned for 40 years, there is no successor to Saul because the line moves from the line of Saul who was of the tribe of Benjamin to the tribe of Judah in the line of David because of Saul’s sin.

God has promised David that his line will never end that is why the gospels like Mathew; going to establish the kingly line of Jesus Christ, established the royal line to show that Jesus Christ is a descendant of David and has a right to the throne of David and he was born to be the king of the Jews. Not yet happened but it will happen and so we are ready for the break. Chapter 12, Solomon’s son Rehoboam becomes the successor. We are not going into Chapter 12 don’t get nervous but you know what is going to happen, he will just assume the throne and immediately there is going to be a division, a break a shattering of the kingdom and Jeroboam will become the king of the north and Rehoboam, Solomon’s son will be left to rule over Judah in Jerusalem.

That kingdom will remain divided like that until the Assyrians carry the northern ten tribes away into captivity and then later the Babylonians carry Judah away into captivity. They never do exist again as an independent kingdom with the 12 tribes united and a king on the throne of David. When the New Testament opens up, we have Herod sitting on the throne ruling over the Jews. He is Herod, king of Jews but you know why, Herod is not even a Jew, he is an Idumean, so he is not on the throne of David. He is not of the tribe of Judah.

He is appointed by the Romans to rule over the Jews, so the Jews await to this day the restoration of the kingdom in Israel. And in Acts Chapter 1; the disciples ask Christ after his resurrection from the dead and not knowing that he is going to ascend the heaven, and they say if you are going at this time restore the kingdom to Israel, not yet, nor do they know for the next 2000 years the gospel of Jesus Christ would be preached to the world, so men, women and young people would have opportunity to hear the God who offers blessing and curses.

Judgment for disobedience, forgiveness, and cleansing for responding in faith, that’s where we are today. That God would be so gracious and so kind, to offer his salvation as a free gift to all people. It’s easy to read and say why would Solomon would be so ungrateful to turn against the Lord and God has to bring judgment, it will be a severe judgment, a painful judgment. Yet the same thing happens, he sends his son to be King of the Jews ,they rejected him, he came to his home but his home would not receive him John 1 tells us but as many have received him, to them he gave the authority to become the sons of God even to those who believed in his name.

And so God has given this time of grace before Jesus Christ returns to earth, he will bring judgment on unbelievers, you can be sure of it God always keeps his word. There is a heaven, there is a hell, there is blessing from God, there is judgment from God, there is no middle ground. Jesus said you are either with me or against me. We are all sinners, nobody is any better than anyone else in that sense all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no, not one, the wages of sin is death, just the way it is.

I didn’t set the rules, you didn’t set the rules, God who rules over all set how it is. He is a God of grace and love and mercy and kindness, people are correct when they say that but you understand that it has to be because why? I’m a sinner how can I be forgiven, I go to church, I have my church, I have my beliefs, that is fine, so did all these people, the Ammonites, the Moabites didn’t count. So Jesus said; I’m the way, the truth and the light, no one comes to the Father but by me.

So we come back to the same kind of issue, I will give you blessing, I will give you forgiveness, I will give you the gift of life, I will cause you to be born into my family, become a son of the living God, become my child, become part of the Kingdom, my son will rule over on the earth but we must never sin, you must recognize Christ died for your sin. Turn from your best efforts, put your trust in him, you will be forgiven, what is the alternative?

Pay for your sin yourself, sin will be paid for, that means you will come under my judgment and spend eternity in the fires of hell. So the message of Jesus Christ, very pertinent, he will rule and reign someday, he is the ultimate successor to the throne of David, some day he will rule and reign over all the earth, we will be part of that kingdom. Have you responded to the grace and mercy and kindness of God, I want to give you life at no charge, come, I take no cost, no charge, God says, it is free, I paid the price.

You must come, turn from your sin, and believe in my son, I will cleanse you, I will forgive you, I will make you live, my child, so that you can become part of the kingdom that someday my son will rule over. Who will chose the other alternative, what was Solomon thinking when he turned to other God, what are people thinking today when they say no to the gift of life, where is God, we have a wonderful savior; children presented the message which the scripture emphasizes again and again.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your grace, thank you for the savior who has come to this earth, that savior is the king of the Jews, but first he had to die to be the savior of the world, how sad that men, women, young people think today that by their goodness, by their best efforts, by their baptism, by their good works they can become acceptable in your sight. Lord we agree to see a man like Solomon one to whom you clearly set forth the way of blessing and the way of judgment, turned from obedience to your word. How much greater is the tragedy today for men and women who hear the message of your son, who came to this earth and suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, and yet are unwilling to receive from you, your great gift of love, gift of forgiveness provided with the cost of the death of your son. Or the only alternative is judgment.

Thank you for your grace, thank you for your patience, thank you for the beauty of the message even as it was sung by these precious children this evening, may each of us as adult take to heart the truth that we have heard, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.