0:01 Welcome again to Words of Life. We are going to look today in our Bible study at the first book of Kings. We have been going through the Bible, studying the message of each book. 0:22 And the first book of Kings is a description of the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah. In the beginning, there was only one nation, Israel. But about halfway through this book, it splits into two kingdoms. 0:44 And they call themselves Israel and Judah. The first 17 chapters, or rather 22 chapters, the first 11 chapters deal with the reign of Solomon. And the remaining 11 chapters, 1:06 deal with the divided kingdom. So, here we see a struggle for succession after David, when David is about to die. When we come to the closing years of David, 1:30 in this book, in the early chapters of this book, some things that we see are very, very sad. It says here about Adonijah, in verse 5. 1:51 He was one of David's sons. The son of one of his wives. The struggle for succession was between the different wives, different sons of David. But each one's mother was canvassing for their son. 2:14 So, Hagith wanted her son to be the king. You see the terrible consequence of marrying so many wives. And Adonijah prepared chariots and began to proclaim himself as king. 2:38 Why did he turn out to be like this? The Bible says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. That may be a good way or a bad way. 2:58 Whichever way you bring up your children, that's the way they are going to grow later on in life. How did David bring up Adonijah? He gave him a good name. With Jehovah in his name. Yah is a short for Jehovah. 3:21 But, look how he brought him up. His father had never pained him at any time. He never gave him any pain. He never disciplined him. 3:41 Not only that. When he did something wrong, right from childhood, his father never even asked him, why have you done that? And I think I know the reason. He was a very good looking child. 4:02 A very handsome man. And you find very often, parents are very partial towards boys who are very good looking or girls who are very pretty. And not only that. All over in society, people will pat the cheeks 4:23 of good looking boys and girls. And they get used to attention. And David also contributed to that by never correcting him. 4:45 So, you train up a child like that. When he becomes old, he will be rebellious. And what did Adonijah do? He conferred with Joab, the son of Zeruah, and Abiyath the priest, and following Adonijah, they helped him. 5:09 But Zadok the priest and others were not with Adonijah. So, it was like a political battle. He called all the people who he knew would support him. And then you find another wife, Batsheba, 5:31 trying to get her son, Solomon, to be the king. So, Nathan the prophet goes to Batsheba and says, go immediately to King David and remind him that he had promised to make Solomon king. 5:55 Nathan schemes with Batsheba to promote Solomon. Now, even if that was God's will, it reminds me of Jacob trying to get the birthright. 6:16 For God's will to be done in our life, do we have to have practice human scheming? How did David become king? He was not at all interested in fighting for it or scheming for it. God put it into his lap. 6:36 You know, the way you get something often indicates your bent of mind. You may get the right thing, but you must get it in the right way. And so, they went through this scheme. 6:58 And then David says, yes, we want to make Solomon the king. And Solomon was anointed as king. And there comes a conflict there between Solomon and his stepbrother Adonijah. And when Adonijah heard that he was terrified and he tried to get 7:20 and he tried to get mercy. It's a terrible thing when a godly man dies and he has to see his children quarrelling with each other. But it's too late to do anything then. 7:42 So, take a warning from that. If you don't want your children to fight with each other over property and other things when you die, you're not a king. Your children may be fighting over property. But if you don't want them to fight 7:59 over property, train them up in that way not to love money when they are children. Train them to trust God to give them whatever they deserve. God sees his fit for them. 8:20 We can learn from the mistakes of godly men. You can write wonderful songs like David wrote in the Psalms and bless many people. But look at the condition of your children. But remember he was under the old covenant. 8:44 He did not have the wisdom and grace that we have under the new covenant. That's why God even permitted him to have many wives. But that's definitely not right under the new covenant. Just before he dies he calls Solomon 9:03 and look at his closing words. What should he be telling Solomon just before he dies? He should be telling him listen seek God for grace and wisdom. Humble yourself. 9:25 Don't marry many wives like I made the mistake in my life. Etc. Etc. Good advice. Instead of that he says, what does he say? He says, keep God's charge and ways. He says a little bit to him. 9:45 And then that is just an introduction verse 3 and 4. And for the next six verses before he dies, this is what he's got to say. 5 to 9, 5 verses. You know what the sons of Zariah did. 10:06 The son of Zariah, Joab. And you've got to kill him. Don't let his gray hair go down into Sheol in peace. Verse 6. You can help Barzillai because he helped me. Verse 7. 10:28 Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai. But then there's Shimei verse 8. He cursed me. I told him I will not put him to death. But you didn't make that promise, Solomon. You can kill him. 10:49 See how David said to Shimei I have forgiven you. Years earlier. Many years earlier. But he kept this grudge in his heart. And when he's old and weak, everything in the heart comes out. So he's closing 11:10 words to Solomon are to kill two people. But he tells Solomon. Kill these people. And then the next words are David slept. He died. How terrible. 11:30 Is this how a godly man should die? But again let me say he was under the old covenant. There was no statement in the old covenant that if you don't forgive others, God will not forgive you. if David was under the new covenant 11:50 and he had died like this, I'm sure he'd have gone to hell. No doubt about it. Because the words of Jesus are true. If you don't forgive others from your heart, God will not forgive you. So we see because under the old covenant 12:08 they didn't have the Holy Spirit. God permitted a lot of things. That's why it's very foolish for any of us to go to the old covenant to find comfort for our sin. A thousand years ago, people believed that the earth goes 12:28 round, that the sun goes round the earth. But you don't have any excuse to believe that today. In the same way, in the old covenant, all the things were permitted. They're not permitted today. 12:49 Please remember that. So, David will be judged according to the light he had. You and I will be judged according to the light we have. And so, Solomon goes and kills Joab and Shimei just like God and like David asked him to. 13:12 Solomon started his kingdom, his reign very well. But very quickly, he went astray. He executes Adonijah who is a competitor for the throne. And then he executes Joab. 13:33 Then he executes Shimei. That's how he begins his reign. What a way to begin your reign. This is all like in political parties and dictator kings who eliminate all rivals. 13:54 And he says about himself in chapter 2 verse 45, King Solomon will be blessed. About himself, I will be blessed. But then see what he says, see what he does, the very next thing, the beginning of his reign. 14:16 And what does he do? He makes a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife. And it says, Solomon loved the Lord, verse 3, but he was still sacrificing and burning in the high places. 14:40 What sort of love is that? It's like a man saying, I love my wife, but every now and then I go and sleep with other women. It's all a deception. But God was still gracious to him. Even though he went and married Pharaoh's 15:00 daughter, why did he marry Pharaoh's daughter? What for? To make money, that's all. And then God comes to him and says, what do you want? And Solomon prays his wonderful prayer for wisdom. See, God overlooks many things. 15:21 God certainly was not happy with Solomon with Solomon marrying Pharaoh's daughter. But he still says, what do you want? And Solomon asked for wisdom. Many people think that's the first thing Solomon asked for. That's how 15:36 he began his reign. the first thing he did was marry Pharaoh's daughter. And then he did this. And here is in chapter 3, 16 to 28, you read this famous judgment. 16:02 Well, you know, the two women came and said, both said, this is my baby. Solomon said, okay, cut the baby and divide it into two. And the mother said, no, no, let the other woman have it. Then the king said, yeah, that's the 16:20 mother. This is an application for us today. How do you know who is a true spiritual father or mother in the church? Then there's a conflict. The one who says, don't divide the church. Go your way. I'm not going to fight for 16:39 this. Where elders fight and say, we'll split the church. None of them are fathers or mothers. A real mother will never want to cut the baby. In chapter 4, it's amazing 16:59 word that we read in verse 29. God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breath of mind like the sand is on the seashore. And he had a lot of wisdom, earthly wisdom. 17:22 And then he started building the temple. And we read that he took seven years to build the temple. And he did a magnificent job. Chapter 6 verse 38. He builds a fantastic temple. 17:44 Seven years he took to build it. And the next verse says, but he took 13 years to build his own house. So you see very clearly what was more important to him. I mean, the temple looked fantastic. There are a lot of 18:04 drawings of it. It's a fantastic building. And if that took seven years, can you imagine what Solomon's house looked like which he built in 13 years? That's how it is with many people. They do God's work. 18:24 They build God's house. But in the back of their mind, their house is more important. And you go that way, where your house is more important than God's house. It's a short time before you destroy your life and destroy your 18:42 family. Yet, when Solomon prayed the prayer of dedication, the glory of God came and filled that place. And people couldn't stand there. The glory of God came in. Because God 19:02 loved his people, not because he was happy with Solomon. It says in chapter 8 and verse 10 that when the priest came in, the cloud filled the house of the Lord. 19:23 This is something like the Old Testament tabernacle. God is very merciful. He was giving chance to Solomon. But he didn't repent still. Again, the Lord spoke to him in chapter 9 and verse 3. 19:44 And promised to bless him. and then in chapter 10 we read of the queen of Sheba coming to see Solomon. Because she had heard that the wisdom of Solomon and she came there and saw the wonderful things there were. It was all 20:03 earthly things. And then we read in chapter 11. He turned away from God. Not only the daughter of Pharaoh, he married Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Saitonian, Hittite women. 20:24 It's an amazing statement. I think he is probably in the Guinness Book of Records with verse 3 at 700 wives and 300 concubines. That's a world record. Who has 700 wives and 300 concubines? 20:46 He must have seen each of them one day in three years I think. And his wives turned his heart away. And this is the man whose father was a man after God's own heart. He worshipped Ashtoreth and verse 11.5 So the 21:10 Lord said I'm going to tear away the kingdom from your descendants. And the Lord raised our adversaries against Solomon. And finally it says Solomon died. Where did he go? 21:31 He wrote three books of scripture in his lifetime. Proverbs which is probably the best book in the Old Testament. Song of Solomon an excellent book about Christ and the church. And Ecclesiastes. And after writing scripture 21:51 where did he go? He went to hell. I don't have any doubt about it. If he had repented it would have been written there. Many Christians are shocked when they hear that. Because they think that if God uses somebody he cannot 22:10 go to hell. Posing Solomon comes and says Lord Lord I have written scripture in your name. And the Lord says depart from me. You lived in sin. We need to understand that. And in Solomon's son's lifetime the kingdom 22:30 was split. Rehoboam was foolish. when the people said give us an easy time don't treat us so hard like your father Solomon did. Rehoboam consulted with the elders. Chapter 12 22:50 verse 6 And they said serve these people be good to them and they will really serve you. But then he consulted the young men. And the young men said no be stricter than your father. 23:12 Tell them I will punish you more strictly. What a foolish person Rehoboam is. And what foolish people all people are who listen to the young people rather than to the godly older people. And the result is the kingdom split. 23:31 Because when Rehoboam spoke like that, some people said, okay, then you can keep your kingdom, we are going off. Ten tribes broke away. With one sentence that he said, how careful we have to be with the words we speak. 23:52 Then in chapter 13, we read the story of a disobedient prophet. A young prophet came and stood before Jeroboam and prophesied. And the Lord had told him, don't eat or drink anything till you come back home. 24:14 But an old retired prophet came there. You got to beware of these old retired prophets who are not in touch with God anymore. Who was jealous that God was using another younger man. He came and told him, hey, God has told 24:33 me to ask you to come home. Don't you believe all these people who were prophets once upon a time. They made me back slidden today. God has told you something else. Especially in his word. Don't listen to anybody in the 24:53 world. And this man listened to the older prophet. He respected the fact he was a senior prophet. who lost he lost his life. How many Christians there are today who respect a man oh this man is a senior servant of God. 25:15 Is he saying what God's word says? I don't care if he's the senior most servant of God in the world. I'll obey God's word. If you don't take that position you will suffer. May God save us all. Amen. 25:36 Welcome again to Words of Life. In our study through the Bible we have now reached one Kings. And we studied the first half of that. we want to look at 25:57 1 Kings chapter 17. From here till the end of the book we read about the ministry of Elijah the prophet. Moses and Elijah were the two greatest prophets in the Old Testament. They were the two who appeared 26:17 with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. representing the law and the prophets. Moses represented the law and Elijah the prophets. 26:38 Elijah is a very important prophet in the Old Testament. God sent him at a time when Israel was in a very terrible state. with the worst king and queen ruling over them. 27:02 That was Ahab and Jezebel. We read of a lot of bad kings. But here was a bad king and a bad queen. At that time God sent Elijah. A fearless man a man whose ministry 27:22 was the pattern for John the Baptist. And the type of ministry which the last verse in Malachi says God is going to send before the second coming of the Lord. And that will not be 27:42 a person in the last days. But the church will have a prophetic ministry like Elijah in the last days. And therefore Elijah's ministry is very important for us to study as a church. Because this is the ministry 28:02 we are supposed to have in the last days. The primary thing we read about him is he lived before the Lord's face. He couldn't care less for any human being. He describes himself as one who stands before the 28:22 Lord. 1 Kings 17.1. And he speaks whatever God says. God told him there will be no dew or rain till you say so. So he went and told people that. That wasn't his own 28:43 word. He stood before God and said what God told him to say. And then because it was a time of famine God told him to go down by the brook Kerith where he could get water to drink. 29:03 And the Ravens verse 6 brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. Amazingly amazing how God provided for him. 29:23 God cares for his servants. But then God is not always dependent on Ravens. And God's servants should not look to Ravens. After a while the brook dried up and the raven stopped coming. 29:44 Then God's word came and said go to Zarephath. And in Zarephath God how do you think God was going to support his servant? We would think through some rich businessman. It was 30:05 going to be through a poor helpless widow who had nothing in her house. Today many preachers would like to be supported by rich businessmen. That's because they are lovers of money and comfort. But Elijah was not 30:25 like that. He was a servant of God. He was quite happy with simple food and a simple lifestyle. If John the Baptist was like Elijah then you can imagine what type of simple lifestyle Elijah lived by. 30:46 And he went just like God commanded him to Zarephath. And when he goes there he sees this widow gathering sticks with her little son. And he asked her can you give me a little water? 31:07 And as she was going to get it he said bring me a little piece of bread as well. And she says I don't have any bread. I got to leave a handful of flour in my bowl and a little oil in the jar. just 31:29 enough to eat one more meal and then I and my son are going to die. Now she was not even an Israelite. She was an outsider. Zarephath was outside Israel. This is the example that Jesus took in Luke chapter 4 to show that 31:49 God cared for non Israeli people. He said there are many widows in Israel. Why didn't God send Elijah to one of them? Why did he send this great prophet to a widow outside Israel? 32:10 And bless that widow and make her live till the end of the famine. And many widows in Israel die of the famine. Implication was God cares for non Jewish people also. That's what made the people in the 32:30 synagogue so mad at Jesus that they wanted to kill him. And so he told her don't be afraid you do what I say you make a bread cake for me first afterward you make one 32:50 for yourself and your son but thus says the Lord verse 14 that bowl of flour will never be exhausted the jar of oil will never be empty until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth so she went 33:10 and did according to the word of Elijah and she and he and her household ate for many days the bowl of flour was never exhausted jar of oil never became empty not according to Elijah's word but according to the word of the 33:28 Lord which God spoke through Elijah now there are many preachers today who take this example covetous money loving preachers we love to exploit poor people and especially poor widows they 33:48 say let's see what Elijah did and said Elijah said if you have very little give it to me first and they say we are like God we are God's servants today have you got a little bit of money in your house give it to me first 34:06 and God will honor you but is that what Elijah did what did he do when he took this little from this widow he gave her back enough to last until the end of the famine he 34:29 gave her back a hundred fold see that is the mark of a true servant of God that he gives back a hundred times what other people give him he is not a debtor to anybody whereas today's preachers who take money from poor people 34:49 they just make empty promises to them they themselves don't go and give anything back like Elijah did here they just take that poor widow's money and live in great luxury and exploit these poor people misquoting 35:09 God's word so don't be deceived by such preachers who are after your money and there's something else as Elijah did which his preachers won't do for you because she cared for Elijah and looked after him 35:29 till the famine was over one day when her son died Elijah raised him up what a reward she got for looking after Elijah which of these preachers will do that for you so don't you 35:52 believe all these deceivers who claim to be like Elijah they are the exact opposite of Elijah Elijah was a man of God he wasn't interested in anybody's money or anybody's food if he went to a house he blessed 36:12 that house giving them more food than they gave him and giving them a bonus of raising a dead child this is a mark of a man of God Jesus was like that he always blessed people wherever he went he wasn't 36:33 taking money from people and we read here when this child died look what this woman says to Elijah why why has this child died has it got something to do with you man of God having come here have you 36:54 come here to remind me of my sin what to put my son to death maybe there was some sin in her past life related to the son I don't know whatever 37:16 it is it's true God sends his servants to remind people of their sin but he sends his servants to bless people and then we read in chapter 18 about another man called Obadiah he was the exact opposite 37:36 of Elijah it says he also feared the Lord greatly verse 3 he cared for God's servants he gave them food and water chapter 18 verse 4 but he was the palace manager of Ahab's 37:57 palace how in the world can you be a palace manager in Ahab's palace and fear God Elijah and Obadiah are two types of believers one who are seeking their own and one who are seeking God's glory 38:17 Obadiah says yeah I'm a child of God I fear God but he wants to get good salary and please all the worldly people and compromise all types of situations but at the same time they'll invite God's servants to their home and give them 38:35 food just like this man did but when God wanted to bring fire down on Mount Carmel he couldn't choose Obadiah he couldn't even use the other 7,000 in Israel who were not bowing the knees to Baal could choose 38:59 only Elijah one Elijah is worth hundreds of thousands of these compromising Obadiah thousands of Obadiah could not equal one Elijah it's the same thing today one prophet 39:20 one prophet like Elijah is worth a million compromising people like Obadiah so when people say there are 10,000 people in their church they say how many of them are like Obadiah and how many of them are like Elijah I'd rather have 39:39 a small church with one Elijah there that's what we see here Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and said let's see who's the true God let's see who can answer by fire 39:59 verse 24 of chapter 18 the God who answers by fire he is God this is true even today the God who answers by the fire of the Holy Spirit that's God the God who brings the fire 40:19 of holiness into your life that's the true God a God who cannot deliver you from your sin that's not the true God a wishy-washy God who allows you to live in sin that's not the true God the true God brings the fire of holiness 40:38 and you know the story how the prophets of Baal cried out and cried out and cried out made a lot of noise jumped and danced yeah there are a lot of meetings like that today like Christians jump and dance and shout and say 40:58 the Holy Spirit is here but it's all a false fire and then Elijah prays a very simple prayer and the fire of God falls God proves himself and then we see something else in Elijah now he went 41:19 to the top of the mountain to pray that God would send rain the people have now seen that God is Jehovah is the true God then he said now Lord send the rain and he prays and nothing happens he tells his servant 41:40 to go and have a look are there any clouds in the sky verse 43 he comes back and says no clouds let's pray again he says seven times finally a cloud comes very small cloud 42:00 and he says okay the rain has started go and tell Ehab there's going to be a shower and it's an amazing thing here we read in verse 46 that Elijah I don't know why he did it but Ahab rode in his chariot 42:21 and Elijah ran faster than those horses in verse 46 and reached Jezreel six miles before Ahab reached there imagine winning a race against horses in a six mile race that was perhaps 42:48 to demonstrate the supernatural power of God by which he was living and now see what happens this mighty prophet in the next chapter Ahab's wife Jezreel when she hears 43:10 that all her false prophets have been killed sends a message to Elijah I'll take off your head by tomorrow this time and this mighty man of God who was not afraid of 850 prophets 43:30 runs when he hears the threat of one woman that's the most amazing thing it says he was afraid verse 3 of chapter 19 and ran for his life 43:50 and he sat under a juniper tree and he said Lord take away my life I've had enough how foolish he was God wanted to take him up with a chariot of fire one day and here he's saying 44:11 Lord take away my life how is it this mighty man could be afraid of a woman that shows how weak we are but we don't have to do that in our life remember again Elijah was under the old covenant that's why he got discouraged 44:35 he was a wonderful man but he didn't have the Holy Spirit inside him like we have so he's not the author and finisher of our faith Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith and he never sat under any tree discouraged 44:54 and see how God comes and encourages Elijah and he sends an angel and the angel doesn't preach a message to him he gives him some food and a lot of discouraged people that's what they need some good food 45:17 some encouragement he's so exhausted and the angel says okay sleep some more and he wakes up again he gives him some more food and then God speaks to him in a gentle voice it says here in verse 11 45:38 not through the strong wind and not through an earthquake verse 12 not through a fire but through a gentle voice see how good God is how gently he speaks to someone who's discouraged he had wonderful plans for Elijah 46:00 and he tells Elijah I've already selected somebody to be the prophet after you go and anoint Elijah and then we read in chapter 21 about a man of God called Naboth 46:21 who refused to give up his vineyard even when the king asked him for it because there was an old testament law which said you should not give up your family property here was a man who feared God so much that even when the king promised him 46:45 something very good I'll give you a better vineyard he said he said no I'll obey God so there were some God fearing people in Israel in those days Naboth was one of them and we see another story in chapter 22 47:07 where we read about Ahab joining up with Jehoshaphat the king of Judah and going to battle and before he goes to battle he says in verse 8 he first of all asks in verse 7 47:28 is there a prophet we can inquire from Jehoshaphat said that in verse 5 let's inquire from the word of the Lord and there were these 400 false prophets these false prophets come up all the time to kill 400, 400 more come 47:49 and the king asked shall I go and fight against the enemy and like a lot of false prophets today they say thus said the Lord go and the Lord will give them to your hand they'll always say something good to you if they threaten you it's just to say we'll fast and pray for you 48:12 give us some money the same methods prophets used then and false prophets used then and now but Jehoshaphat said this doesn't sound like real prophets here see is there another real prophet yeah he said the king Ahab said there's one but he never says anything good about it 48:38 he said bring him here and Micaiah comes and the messenger went to Micaiah and said please say the same thing that others say verse 13 he'll say I'll say what God says and he told Ahab the truth 48:59 and Ahab got so angry and said take him and lock him up verse 27 and don't put him in a prison but what Micaiah the prophet said came true Ahab was killed a lot of Ahab's wickedness came because of his wicked wife 49:24 one king started with a wonderful situation where the man after God's own heart had just led Israel to a wonderful place ends with the kingdom split 49:45 one of the most wicked king and queen that ever existed ruling over Israel but in the midst of it we have the shining light of Elijah today also we may find a lot of wickedness in Christendom 50:10 in the world going in the same direction of wickedness that Ahab and Jezebel took Israel what is the need of the hour men like Elijah with the spirit of Elijah 50:30 who stand up for God men like Micaiah who speak the truth fearlessly fearlessly may God make you and me like that Amen Amen.
