Let's turn to the first book of Kings.
First Kings, chapter 1.
Here is a book which begins with a
united, powerful nation of Israel under a godly
king, David, a man after God's own heart.
And ends with the kingdom divided and with
a lot of evil kings ruling particularly over
Israel.
Ahab is the last one mentioned in this
book.
Imagine something that begins with David and ends
with Ahab and how the people go astray.
You see, this teaches us one thing.
What we've been seeing consistently in all the
other books as well.
The condition of God's people depends greatly on
the spirituality or lack of it in their
leaders.
You see that everywhere in Revelation 2 and
3, where the elders were spiritual, the church
was spiritual, the elders were carnal, the church
was carnal.
And whenever Israel had a godly leader, they
moved in godly ways.
When they had a carnal leader, they moved
in carnal ways.
A godly father will bring up his children
in godly ways and carnal father will bring
up his children in carnal ways.
So leadership is so important.
It's one of the things that we see
throughout the Old Testament and a good thing
for us to learn.
So you see, God's great need is for
leaders.
We read once that Jesus looked out and
saw the multitude like sheep without a shepherd.
It's the same today as he looks out
over India.
He looks out over Christendom in India.
India's Christian population itself is perhaps 20-25
million.
And as God looks out over the Christian
population of so many millions of people, you
know what he sees a lack of?
Godly leaders.
And that's the challenge that comes to each
of us.
Satisfy the heart of God in this generation.
In every generation, God wants leaders.
It's not enough to depend on the leaders
of another generation.
In your generation, God wants leaders.
David could not rule over Israel forever.
He died.
Somebody else had to take over.
And what type of person that's going to
be?
That's the great thing.
Here is a godly man God raises up.
He gets old and he dies.
What about the next generation?
Have they just got knowledge?
Have they just got the doctrine?
Have they just got the temple rituals?
But no godliness, no personal knowledge of God?
Then the people go astray.
That's the challenge that should come to each
of your hearts.
To be like David, to be like Deborah.
Okay.
As we look at David's end of his
life, we see one or two sad things.
When David was dying, we read that Adonijah,
verse 5, 1 Kings 1.5, said to
himself, he exalted himself and said, I'll be
the next king.
He was one of the sons of David.
So he prepared a chariot.
He was not like his father.
His father waited for God to make him
king.
This man said, I'll make him the king.
And why was he that type of person?
Because, here's the reason, verse 6.
His father had never given him any pain.
That's what the margin of my Bible says.
Had never punished him.
He had never used the rod on him
once.
And never asked him when he did something
wrong, why did you do that?
Can you imagine what's going to happen to
a child if he's never punished by his
father?
And the father never asks him, why did
you do that?
And particularly if he's a nice, good-looking
child.
It says he was a handsome man.
David was a wonderful man, but he failed
totally as a father.
We can take warnings from that.
You can be so busy on the battlefield
that you have no time for your family.
Or you're so taken up with your ministry
and the honor and things coming there that
you don't see how your children are growing
up.
It's a sad thing.
Imagine if a man loses his children saying
he's serving the Lord.
When you have families, those of us who
are married, let's take heed to these warnings
from Scripture.
And this man Adonijah schemed and planned.
But Nathan the prophet went to Bathsheba, verse
11.
And said, have you heard, haven't you heard
that Adonijah wants to be king?
Does David know about it?
You know David is now lying in his
deathbed and people are taking advantage of the
fact that he's a bit helpless now.
So Nathan the prophet brings the mind of
God into that situation.
What a wonderful man Nathan was.
How wonderful it is when a nation has
at least one prophet who can go and
say something to the nation.
And Nathan, how wonderful it is when churches
can have a prophet.
Seek to be one like that yourself in
humility and brokenness, learning from the qualities of
these prophets in the Old Testament.
And he went to Bathsheba and said, go
at once to King David and say, didn't
your Lord swear to your maidservant, didn't my
Lord swear to your maidservant that surely Solomon
shall be the king?
And while you're still there, I will also
come and confirm your words.
So Bathsheba went and then said that.
And David realized, while she was still speaking,
verse 22, Nathan came and Nathan said, yes,
Adonijah is wanting to be king.
Then King David answered and said, call Bathsheba.
And certainly, verse 30, Solomon will be the
next king.
And Bathsheba bowed and went out.
And then King David called a priest, verse
32, and said, take the servants and take
my Solomon, son Solomon, ride on my mule
and bring him down and blow the trumpet
and say, long live King Solomon.
So Sadok did that, verse 38 onwards, and
he anointed Solomon king.
That was his struggle for succession.
Now when we come to chapter 2, I
want you to see here, David charging Solomon
with certain things.
He says, now I'm going to die and
be strong, therefore, verse 2, and show yourself
a man.
Now I want to show you David's last
words.
And they're a bit disappointing.
The word of God is so honest when
it tells us about the failures of its
greatest servants.
He says here, Solomon, I want to tell
you a few things.
And instead of spending those last few moments
telling Solomon how to be a godly leader,
how to honor God, learn from my mistakes,
and don't have too many wives, and be
careful with women.
Those are the type of instructions he should
have given his son when he's taking over
king and be fair and all those things.
Instead of that, he just gives a little
introduction and then he says, now the thing
that's on my heart is, you know that
Joab, verse 5.
He, you know what he did.
He shed the blood of what he did
to Abner and what he did to Amasai,
killed them.
Act according to your wisdom and don't let
that man's gray hair go down to the
grave in peace.
Kill him.
He doesn't want to kill him himself.
It's like hiring somebody else to kill somebody
you want to kill.
And then, please show kindness to Barzilai, verse
7, because they assisted me.
Be kind to those who were good to
me.
But then there's another fellow, Shimei, verse 8.
He's the one who cursed me.
You remember what he did when Shimei cursed
him?
David said, God has allowed him to curse
me, let me accept it.
And when David came back, we reached Shimei,
I said, please forgive me.
And David said, I will not do anything
to you.
And he says to Solomon, See, I swore
to him that I will not, verse 8,
kill you.
But I did not say that I will
not tell my son to kill you.
See, he's being legalistic here in the court
now.
What I said was, I will not kill
you.
And I will not kill you.
But Solomon, don't let his gray hair go
down, verse 9, to the grave without blood.
Kill him.
What are the next words?
Verse 10, David died.
Sad, no?
That a man, his last word should be
to take revenge on someone whom he had
forgiven once.
And legally scheming to kill him without breaking
his promise.
What does this teach us?
It teaches us that sometimes you think you
have forgiven somebody.
Your mind is strong and you can control
yourself and keep that forgiveness.
But as you get older, and your mind
begins to weaken, what is really in your
heart comes out.
You never really forgave him.
You know, it's quite possible that a lot
of people, you think you have forgiven.
You've never really forgiven.
Think about it.
You've possibly never forgiven those people.
You may think you have, but you haven't.
You know, forgiving those who have harmed us
is a very difficult thing.
And it's got deep roots.
The Bible speaks in Hebrews 12 about a
root of bitterness.
It develops roots very quickly.
Think of the people who have harmed you.
And really radically pull out every root, otherwise
you'll destroy yourself.
A root of bitterness can defile you and
defile many people.
Get it out.
Throw it away.
In the days when you're strong, not when
you're on your deathbed, you'll be too weak
to do anything then.
This is the lesson we can learn from
David's example here.
So I thank God that the word of
God is very honest.
It was very sad that David dies like
that.
And then we read further about Solomon that
very soon, verse chapter 3, one of the
first things written about Solomon.
So Solomon kills Shimei.
You know, it says, first of all, he
obeys David.
In fact, Solomon began his reign by first
of all killing Adonijah, the other man who
wanted to be king, verse 19 to 27.
And next, killing Joab, who was the commander
of David's army.
Verse 28 to 35.
And he was also his own cousin.
Joab was his own first cousin.
He killed him because David told him to
do that.
And then verse 36 onwards to 46, he
kills Shimei.
So he deals with all those things.
He starts his reign with killing these poor
people.
Okay.
And then the next thing, and the king
said to Shimei, verse 44 to 244.
You know all the evil which you did
in your heart.
It will return to your head.
But I, King Solomon will be blessed.
Well, I don't know about that.
Anyway.
Chapter 3, the next thing we read is
Solomon formed a marriage alliance.
If only David had spent his time giving
him some advice on marriage instead of telling
him to take revenge.
The story may have been a little different.
What sort of advice do you give your
children?
What are the things which are most important?
Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, King
of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought
her to the city of David.
And he finished building his own house and
the wall around Jerusalem.
And the people were still sacrificing in the
high places.
But Solomon loved the Lord.
This is a contradiction.
It says here Solomon loved the Lord walking
in the statutes of his father, verse 3.
Except that he sacrificed and burned incense on
the high places.
This is how some people love the Lord.
There is a lot of external love for
the Lord.
But in their private life they are doing
certain things which are not righteous.
Certain things which are wrong.
And those are the things that finally destroy
them.
And that's what finally destroyed Solomon.
He was not transparent through and through.
There are a lot of Christian workers like
that.
Outwardly they are very zealous.
They are doing this, that and the other
for the Lord.
But in their private life somewhere, some little
area, some financial transaction, they are not straightforward,
they are not righteous.
Finally that becomes like a big bomb and
explodes and destroys them.
Learn warnings from all these examples.
But God was good to Solomon.
And God is good to many of us.
Even though He sees these little things, hoping
that we will change.
And the Lord appeared to Solomon one night
in verse 5.
Chapter 3, verse 5.
And the Lord asked him, What do you
want?
Whatever you want, I'll give it to you.
And Solomon said, verse 9, Give me an
understanding heart.
Give me largeness of heart to take in
all of God's people.
That's what God gave him finally.
Give me a heart to judge your people,
to discern between good and evil because it's
so difficult to judge.
And the Lord was so happy when He
asked for that.
And He said, Because you didn't ask, verse
11, for long life or for riches or
for the life of your enemies, I have
given you a wise and a discerning heart
so that, verse 12, no one will be
like you before you and no one will
arise after you like you.
I've also given you riches and honor.
And there will be no king like you.
Now that teaches us one thing.
You know the great need for us today
in leadership is, as I said the other
day, discernment.
And only God can give it to us.
Lord, give me discernment.
What is the true state of these brothers
in my church?
What is the true state of the people
in my church?
Is this man whom I'm appointing as a
deputy leader in the church, is he a
godly person?
Give me discernment.
It's because of lack of discernment that a
lot of Christian leaders appoint wrong people as
their assistants.
The great need is for discernment.
And here we read that only God can
give it.
And God does give it.
A wise and a discerning heart is the
great need of our time.
And Solomon got it for asking, for the
asking.
Why can't you and I get it for
the asking?
Doesn't God love us in the New Covenant?
And see, doesn't He have a burden for
us, our building the church, more than He
had for Solomon ruling Israel?
He certainly does.
And we see this wonderful example of His
judgment in verses 16 to 28.
There was these two women who were prostitutes
standing before Him for judgment one day.
And this one woman says, You know, both
of us were in the same house and
we both had children born.
And the third day after I gave birth,
this woman also gave birth, verse 18.
Only two of us were there.
And at night, this woman rolled over her
child and it died.
And she arose in the middle of the
night, verse 20, and took my child and
put it there and put her child there
in front of me.
And when I arose in the morning, I
found my child was dead.
And the other woman said, No, my son
is living.
Yours is the dead one.
You're telling a lie.
Now, how do you decide in a situation
like this?
And there's where God gave Solomon wisdom.
He said, What do you say?
You're both laying claim to the child.
Okay, the king said, Get me a big
sword.
We will divide the child into two, this
living child.
Each of you can have half.
And the woman whose child it really was,
She loved that child.
She said, No, please, don't kill it.
Give it to her.
But the other woman said, No, kill it.
You'll have half, I'll have half.
And immediately, you know who is the true
mother, right?
What wisdom!
The king said, Give the child to the
first woman.
And all Israel heard of that judgment, verse
28.
And they feared the king because they saw
God had given him wisdom.
Now, how do we apply this today to
a situation?
Maybe you're working in a church.
And somebody wants to split it.
Into two.
And you say, Yes, split it.
You have half, I'll have half.
Are you the true mother?
You're not.
The true mother will say, No, please, don't
divide the church.
Let me pull out.
You have the church to yourself.
That's the one God sees.
Don't go into a church to split it.
Pull out.
Even if it's your child.
People are blessed through your ministry.
It's your child.
Somebody lays claim to it.
No, don't fight.
If God wants you to have it, He
will kill the other woman and give you
the child.
Don't worry.
God can do that.
But don't divide the child and cut it
into two and say, You have half, I
have half.
Go somewhere else.
That's what I've done.
I've disagreed sometimes with different churches.
I don't sit there and split it.
I go somewhere else and I say, Lord,
let me start from the beginning.
Let me have another child.
Instead of fighting over that one.
That's the application of that story for us
today.
And we read in chapter 4 and verse
29.
That God gave Solomon wisdom and very great
discernment.
Oh, I wish that could be said about
all of us.
And remember Solomon was a very young man.
And you young people can ask God to
give you wisdom and discernment.
Not just knowledge.
Wisdom.
And breadth of mind or largeness of heart.
Like the sand on the seashore.
Which means a large heart.
That could take in all of God's people.
I believe that's the great need in our
time.
Here is a brother who belongs to another
denomination.
Who disagrees with me on the form of
baptism.
Or disagrees with me on speaking in tongues.
Never mind.
God has accepted him.
Lord, give me the largeness of heart.
To accept that brother as my brother.
Even though he doesn't work with me.
Even though he doesn't agree with me in
certain doctrines.
I want largeness of heart.
To accept all of God's people.
In other words, I want to accept those
whom God accepts.
Sometimes you can reject a person.
Because they have a certain conviction on something
which is different from yours.
Can you accept that person?
I remember once.
When a sister came to me for baptism.
And she was wearing ornaments.
I have a conviction that ornaments should not
be worn.
That's God's teaching in 1 Timothy 2 and
1 Peter 3.
But here was this sister with ornaments.
And the Lord said one word to my
heart.
Have I accepted her?
And I said, yes Lord, you have accepted
her.
I know that she is really born again.
Because I had spoken to her.
And the Lord said to me, how can
you reject one whom I accepted?
I will not reject her.
I baptized her.
With ornaments and everything.
And she still wears it today.
And I said that's not my business to
judge.
I will accept people whom God has accepted.
Even if their convictions are different from mine
on small things or big things.
Are they born again?
Has God accepted them?
If God has not accepted them, it's different.
Then I still love them as a neighbor,
as a friend.
But I cannot accept them into the fellowship
of the church.
But once God has accepted them, I cannot
cut them off.
Just because in some area they don't have
light.
Where I may have light.
I remember once in one matter the Lord
said to me.
How long did you take to come to
this understanding?
So many years.
Why can't you be patient with that person?
That give him also little time to come
to that understanding.
We all need largeness of heart.
When we are young, we are narrow minded,
narrow hearted.
We accept only people who agree with us
in every little detail.
I was like that when I was young.
I'm ashamed to say that.
But I was like that.
It's one of the many foolish things I
did.
But as I've grown older and gone to
know the Lord better.
I've discovered that I need to have largeness
of heart to accept everyone.
And I want you to see here in
chapter 6 and chapter 7.
How he built the temple.
I don't want to go into all the
details of that.
A lot of details given there.
About how he built the temple.
I just want to point out one thing.
Chapter 6 verse 38.
The last part.
It says he took 7 years to build
the temple.
Chapter 6 verse 38.
The last sentence.
And the next sentence.
Chapter 7 verse 1 says.
He took 13 years to build his own
house.
So you know which direction he's going.
7 years to build the temple and 13
years to build his own house.
But that's a pretty good description.
Of how it is with a lot of
people who serve the Lord today.
7 years for the Lord to build his
house and 13 years to build my house.
In other words their primary.
It's not that they don't do the Lord's
work.
They do the Lord's work.
But their primary interest is their own house.
And their own work.
And God is secondary.
13 to 7.
That's about the proportion.
2 thirds for myself and 1 third for
the Lord.
In terms of my interest.
And these are little indications.
How he quickly joined up with Pharaoh's daughter.
And started his ministry by killing people.
And he could have disagreed with his father.
He could have said.
Well my father told me to kill Shimei
and Joab.
But I don't feel free about doing that.
And I don't do it.
It would have been alright.
But he did it.
He went and married Pharaoh's daughter.
He spent 13 years building his house.
Even though God had given him wisdom.
The drifting had already started.
Very right at the beginning.
Sometimes I have seen in a servant of
God.
The drift towards the world is there almost
at the beginning.
They are seeking their own.
Right from the time they start serving the
Lord.
And then you see them years later.
It's all developed in that way.
But once the temple was built.
We read that the glory of the Lord
filled that house.
In chapter 8 verse 10.
It was like the old days of the
tabernacle.
When Moses built the tabernacle.
Exactly according to the pattern.
It says the glory of the Lord filled
the house.
Now the temple which is built in the
same pattern as the tabernacle.
With the altar and the laver.
And the holy place and the most holy
place.
Much bigger.
Much more grand.
And the glory of the Lord filled it
again.
And Solomon prayed a wonderful prayer there.
In chapter 8 verse 22 onwards.
Yeah there were a lot of good things
in Solomon.
But it was mixed.
Yeah he was a very spiritual man out
in front.
And in private he had many wives.
And so on.
I think it says somewhere that he had
300 wives and 700 concubines.
I don't know how he managed with all
of those.
But those are the things.
They led his heart away from the Lord.
And finally he finished building his house.
And his fame spread all over.
And the Lord spoke to him again.
We read in chapter 9 verse 3.
And the Lord said to him.
Appeared to him a second time in chapter
9 verse 2.
And said to him I have heard your
prayer.
And I have consecrated this house.
And verse 4.
Again the Lord speaks to him after seeing
all this.
If you will walk before me as your
father David walked.
In integrity of heart and uprightness.
I will establish your throne and your kingdom
forever.
But if you, verse 6, or your sons
turn away.
I will cut off Israel, verse 7.
From the land I have given them.
And this house which you have built will
be ruins, verse 8.
And everyone who passes by will hiss, verse
8.
And say why has the Lord done this?
And they will say because they forsook the
Lord their God.
And that's what happened in the days of
Jeremiah.
When Babylon, king of Babylon came and destroyed
that house.
But God warned him.
Don't think that you can live as you
like.
And I will just keep on blessing you.
And the Lord warns us when he sees
us going astray.
We have already started going astray.
He warns us, he warns us, he warns
us.
He warns us through his servants.
He warns us through a message.
Take heed to the warnings of the Lord.
But Solomon did not.
In chapter 10 we read of the queen
of Sheba.
Coming and meeting Solomon.
Because she heard of his wonderful wisdom.
In chapter 11 we read in verse 1.
Solomon loved many foreign women.
Daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite
women.
And he had, here it is.
Sorry I got it wrong.
Verse 3.
He had not 300 wives, 700 wives.
Verse 3.
And 300 concubines.
It was the other way around.
And his wife turned his heart away from
the Lord.
His heart was turned away after other gods.
And his heart was not wholly devoted to
the Lord.
And Solomon went after the goddess, verse 5,
of the Sidonians.
And Milcom did detestable idol.
And Solomon did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord.
And Solomon built a high place for this
idol, verse 7.
And he did for his foreign wives.
He burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods.
How a woman can lead a man completely
astray from God.
It's not only Samson and Delilah.
It is Solomon and all his foreign wives.
That's why when you get married, don't just
look for a pretty face and marry her.
See whether she's got a godly heart.
It's far more important in the long run.
That pretty face can run your life and
destroy it.
A godly heart, a godly woman will do
you good all the days of your life.
Warnings in scripture.
I don't know whether you will take heed
to them.
There are a lot of people who listen
to such messages.
And when it comes to the time of
their marriage, they still go and plump for
some worldly type of girl.
Don't ever do that.
And sisters, look for a godly man to
be your husband.
Don't just yield to your parents when they
suggest some unconverted person.
Your husband can lead you astray.
You worship idols.
Maybe not physical idols, but the idols of
money and power and pleasure in this world.
And when he went away like that, God
warned, told him, well, the Lord was angry
with Solomon, verse 9.
And he said to Solomon, because you have
done this, I'm going to split your kingdom.
But because of your father, David, he was
a godly man.
Verse 12, I will not do it in
your lifetime.
You see, because of the godliness of the
father, how much the children are blessed.
And God raised up enemies against Solomon, verse
14, to trouble him.
But Solomon did not repent.
When Jeroboam was, he feared that Jeroboam was
going to rebel against the king, verse 26
of chapter 11.
Solomon tried to put Jeroboam to death, verse
40.
And Jeroboam ran away.
He later on became the king of the
divided kingdom.
And Solomon died, verse 43.
But before he died, he wrote three books.
Scripture, Proverbs, one of the finest books in
the Old Testament.
It's a new covenant book in the Old
Covenant.
Amazing book.
I would advise all young people to read
Proverbs regularly, frequently.
It's got 31 chapters.
You read one chapter a day, it will
preserve you every month.
Try and read it.
It's a very, very good book.
Written by Solomon.
Ecclesiastes, warns us of the dangers of worldly
wisdom.
Song of Solomon, a wonderful picture of our
devotion to Jesus Christ.
A man who wrote three books of the
Bible finally went to hell.
Isn't that amazing?
Do you think that every preacher who stands
up and preaches wonderful anointed messages is going
to heaven?
A man who wrote scripture went to hell.
I've said that in many places and people
have come and asked me, how do you
know Solomon went to hell?
I say, let me take a biography of
any godly man in the world.
And if there are two biographies written of
that man, like of Solomon, in Kings and
in Chronicles, and it tells about how that
man started off well and he backslid terribly
in his life, and if both those biographies,
I'm talking about a secular biography in the
world, concludes without mentioning anything about his repentance,
I would conclude that that man died unrepentant.
If Solomon had repented, the Holy Spirit would
have written it, that towards the end of
his life he repented and he turned to
the Lord.
It's not mentioned there at all.
Manasseh was a worse king than Solomon.
He did terrible evil in the sight of
the Lord for many, many years.
I think he reigned even longer than Solomon.
But in the end of his life he
repented and the Holy Spirit records it.
But towards the end of his life he
repented.
Why is it we are so keen on
sending Solomon to heaven?
It's because we think that if we serve
the Lord, he will definitely take us to
heaven.
Many will come to Jesus in the last
day and say, Lord, we cast out demons
in your name, we prophesy in your name,
we heal the sick.
Jesus will say, depart from me.
Solomon will say, I wrote scripture in your
name.
The Lord will say, depart from me.
See, I preached in your name, so what?
I prophesied in your name.
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
Let that be a warning to you that,
like Paul said, I can preach to others
and be disqualified myself.
1 Corinthians 9, 28.
Solomon wrote books and he went to hell.
Let that be a warning to you.
And then we read in chapter 12 onwards,
to the end of 1 Kings, about the
divided kingdom.
I just want to show you one thing
about Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
Who, after Solomon died, he became the king.
And some of the people came to Rehoboam
in 1 Kings 12.
And said in 12.4, your father has
made our yoke very hard.
Now please lighten our yoke.
That means Solomon was a very hard king.
He was not like David.
He was a hard king.
And the king said, ok, come back after
three days and I'll tell you what to
do.
And after three days, during those three days,
verse 6, King Rehoboam consulted with the elders
in the church, in the kingdom.
And the elders said, be kind to them.
And they will serve you happily forever.
And then he consulted with the young people.
You know, we have two options.
We consult with the older people and we
consult with the younger people.
And he consulted with the younger people.
And the younger people said, tell them, did
my father, was he heavy on you?
I'm going to be heavier.
My little finger is going to be thicker
than my father's loins, verse 10.
If my father disciplined you, verse 11, with
whips, I will discipline you with scorpions.
And who do you think he listened to?
Like all stupid young people, they listen to
the young people instead of the older people.
They don't listen to the wisdom of elders.
They listen to the younger people with their
zeal.
And so when the people came back on
the third day, the king answered according to
the advice of the younger people.
We read in verse 13 and 14.
What was the result?
When all Israel saw, verse 16, the king
didn't listen to them.
They said, we've got nothing to do with
you, Solomon.
You can go and run your kingdom as
you like.
And 10 tribes broke away.
What a fool Rehoboam was.
He split the kingdom by his own folly.
And Jeroboam became the king.
And he moved to the northern.
And the kingdom got divided with 10 tribes
in the north, and 2 tribes, Judah and
Benjamin, in the south.
And Jeroboam, he realized that these people will
now go to Jerusalem for their feast.
So he made Bill Sheehan, verse 25, so
that people could go there.
And he put up an idol there and
led people to worship idols.
There's one more thing I want to show
you here in chapter 13.
And that's the story of a young prophet,
whom the Lord gave a message saying, go
to Jeroboam and give this message.
I don't want to go into the details
there.
But don't eat or drink anything anywhere on
the way.
Go like that and come back.
Now, in the same area, there was an
older retired prophet, who was a bit disturbed
that God was now picking up this younger
fellow to prophesy.
And he was a bit jealous.
Sometimes older prophets can be a bit jealous
of the younger prophets.
And they can destroy the younger prophets.
This is a warning for younger prophets.
And the older prophet went to this younger
prophet and said, come with me.
Now, first of all, the king told him,
come with me, I'll give you food.
And the man of God said, no.
Verse 8, 13-8.
Even if you give me half your kingdom,
I won't come, because the Lord told me
not to drink any bread or water.
But this old prophet came along, and he
said to him in verse 15, you come
with me and eat bread.
He said, I can't come with you, because
the Lord told me not to come.
But the older prophet told a lie.
He said, I'm also a prophet like you.
Verse 18.
And the Lord told me, be careful of
all these prophets who say the Lord told
me, you can go astray.
That's the warning in this chapter.
Some old prophet comes to you and says,
this is what the Lord has told me
about you.
Don't believe it.
God has given you the Holy Spirit.
He can tell you directly.
He says, the Lord told me, come to
bring him back and eat bread and drink,
as if God changed his mind.
And so this young man, like a fool,
instead of listening to the Lord, listened to
the older prophet and went back with him.
And the result of that story is that
young prophet was killed.
Please learn a lesson that not everybody who
comes and says thus said the Lord in
a meeting or in a private consultation room
is necessarily speaking from the Lord.
Even if he was once upon a time
a prophet, he's lost touch with God now.
That's a warning.
Now we don't have time to go into
all the details of the other little stories
that are here in the book of Kings.
Let's move on to chapter 17, where we
read about Elijah.
He was the great prophet there.
And there are a number of things we
can learn from Elijah's life which can be
an encouragement for us.
Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the settlers
of Gilead, he stands before this wicked king
Ahab of the northern kingdom Israel and says,
as the Lord, the God of Israel lives,
before whom I stand.
That's the first thing I want you to
notice.
These true prophets, they did not fear kings.
Because of one reason.
They stood before the Lord.
They said, as the Lord lives before whom
I stand, I'm not bothered whether you're king,
you're just a speck of dust before God.
I live before God.
You know, the great need in India, I
tell you with all my heart, this has
been my burden for years, is for young
men who can be prophets like this.
Not just those who have a lot of
Bible knowledge, which is very good.
Your study of the Bible is very important.
But more than that, in addition to that,
you must live before God's face.
You must keep your conscience 100% clear,
not 99%.
You must humble yourself totally before God.
Your face must be in the dust, all
the time, if you want to live before
God's face.
That's how Elijah lived.
Brothers and sisters, if God can't find men,
I hope He'll find some of you sisters,
who live before God's face, and be a
voice.
You may not stand in the pulpit, but
you can influence people from your homes.
A voice for God, in this day and
age in India.
That's what God needs.
I stand before the Lord, and I'm going
to tell you what the Lord says.
And the Lord, He was a man who
was obedient to what God said as well.
The Lord told him, verse 3, Go away
from here.
Turn eastward, and go and hide yourself by
the brook Kirith, and drink of that brook.
Because it was a time of famine, there
was not going to be any rain.
And he went and did that.
And there it says, the ravens brought him
bread and meat, verse 6.
And he would drink from the brook.
So what happened was, every morning, maybe at
8 o'clock in the morning, a crow
would come with food.
And 5 o'clock in the evening, again
another crow would come with food.
Amazing.
The crow would bring food, meat, non-vegetarian
stuff.
I mean, if a crow gave vegetables, that
would be a miracle itself.
But for a crow to give meat, is
really a miracle.
That's how God provided for Elijah.
And what was happening was, gradually, after a
few days, Elijah is not waiting for the
Lord, he is waiting for the crow.
It's like some servants of the Lord, who
start out trusting the Lord, for their financial
needs.
After some time, in the first week of
the month, they are not looking to the
Lord, they are looking for the postman, who
comes with the money order.
The postman will come in the first week,
with the money order.
This is exactly what is happening to Elijah.
So, you know what God does?
One day, the postman gets sick.
The crow doesn't come.
And Elijah, because God wants to shake, Elijah's
dependence on crows, and wants him to depend
on the Lord.
And you are a blessed man, if one
week or one month, no money order comes,
and you have to trust the Lord, for
your needs.
I've been through experiences like that, and I
thank God, for the time when God took
away my eyes from crows, to him, who
owns the cattle on a thousand hills, who
has said, he will supply all my need,
according to his riches and glory in Christ
Jesus.
And the Lord says, okay, you are depending
too much on crows now Elijah, I'll send
you somewhere else.
I'll still take care of you, but my
method changes now.
Go to Zarephath.
And Zarephath is outside Israel.
And he thought, maybe in Zarephath, there's some
rich businessman, who will be kind to me,
and support me.
And when he goes to Zarephath, he finds
no rich businessman.
He finds a widow, who is just about
to have her last meal, before she dies.
And the Lord says, she'll support you.
It's amazing God's ways.
God does it, because he's a jealous God.
He wants you to trust him.
Not rich businessman, not postman, not crows.
He will take a weak person, whom you
don't expect to support you, and he will
support you.
And in that house, she said, well, we
were just about to, have our last meal
and die.
And Elijah said, don't be afraid.
Verse 13, make me a little bread, cake
from this first.
And the Lord says, verse 14, the bowl
of flour, shall not be exhausted.
Nor shall the jar of oil, be empty.
Until the day, the Lord sends rain on
the face of the earth.
And it was exactly like that.
The bowl of flour, was not exhausted.
And the jar of oil, did not become
empty.
It pays, to honor God's servants.
That widow recognized it that day.
I'm talking about a true servant of God.
There are multitudes of false prophets.
But if you honor a true prophet of
God, you will never lose out.
That you can be sure.
Many of God's people, first of all, don't
know how to distinguish between true prophets and
false prophets.
And when they do come across one, they
don't know how to honor him.
Who is the loser?
They themselves.
Elijah would have survived anywhere.
But because she learned to honor Elijah, she
and her son also survived.
That's God's way.
In chapter 18, we read about a man
called Obadiah.
It says here that Obadiah was a man
who feared the Lord greatly.
Verse 3 of chapter 18.
But he was the manager of Ahab's house.
I don't understand how you can fear the
Lord greatly, and live as a manager of
Ahab's palace.
See, there are a lot of people like
that.
They don't want to pay the price.
Like Joseph of Arimathea.
He didn't want to leave the Jewish Sanhedrin
and become a disciple of Jesus.
He wanted to secretly follow Jesus, like Nicodemus,
and also sit and have honor in the
Sanhedrin.
Okay, they served some purpose because when Jesus'
body had to be taken down, he was
a help.
So Obadiah also served some purpose.
But these are not the wholehearted ones.
He took care of some of the prophets.
And this chapter speaks about the challenge that
Elijah gave to Israel and said, he said,
call everybody to Mount Carmel.
And Elijah told Ahab that in verse 19.
And Ahab sent a message, verse 20, and
called all the sons of Israel to Mount
Carmel.
And on Mount Carmel, you know the story,
Elijah, he put 12 stones together.
Before that, he told the prophets of Baal,
there were 450.
And he told them, okay, let's choose two
oxen, verse 23.
You choose one, I choose the other.
Make an altar, but don't put any fire
under it.
And you call on your God and ask
him to send fire, and I'll call on
my God.
And the one who answers by fire, let
him be the true God.
And all the people said, that's a good
idea.
Let's do that.
And then, we read the prophets of Baal
began to jump and shout and scream.
Nothing happened.
You know, a lot of people who jump
and shout and scream are not necessarily spiritual.
I hope you know that.
And Elijah, verse 27, mocked at them.
He mocked at them.
He knew this is an idol.
What are you screaming to?
Call out with a loud voice.
Perhaps he is asleep, or he's gone to
the toilet, or he's got to waken him
up.
That's what he told them.
He made fun of them.
He said, what's this?
And they cried out with a still louder
voice and cut themselves and did all types
of things.
And it says they raved until from when
midday was passed, they raved until about six
o'clock in the evening.
Nothing happened.
How many hours they prayed.
You know, I sometimes think of this when
I think of a lot of Christian meetings.
People who don't have a good conscience, shouting
hallelujahs.
Brothers who can't get along with each other
standing in the same church and praising God
with loud voices.
Husbands and wives who have a fight and
come to the Sunday morning service and praising
God in unknown tongues and all that.
A lot of noise.
Nothing happens.
You can shout for six hours.
You can have all night prayer meeting.
Nothing happens because God looks for a good
conscience.
I always tell people, make sure God has
picked up the phone before you continue speaking.
If you regard iniquity in your heart, the
Lord will not even hear you.
Then Elijah came and he took 12 stones.
Now remember Israel was divided into 10 and
2.
But Elijah took 12 stones.
He believed in the unity of the body.
Verse 31, he took 12 stones according to
all the tribes of Israel.
And some people may have got angry with
that.
This fellow is including those two tribes.
Judah and Benjamin.
Elijah couldn't care less for that.
He made it and he said just to
prove to you there's no secret fire underneath.
He said pour water on it.
Four pitchers.
Do it a second time.
Do it a third time.
12 pitchers of water.
And then he prayed.
He didn't have to pray long.
Less than a minute.
Oh Lord God, answer me.
Let people know that I'm your servant.
Turn the hearts of these people back again.
And fire came.
That's the true servant of God.
And then Elijah told Ahab, okay, now there's
going to be rain.
There wasn't rain for all these years.
And he said go.
And Elijah went up to the mountaintop and
he began to pray.
And he crouched on the earth and put
his face between his knees.
Verse 42.
And he prayed.
And he sent his servant.
See if there's any rain.
No rain.
And he again sent his servant.
Seven times.
Then he said there's a cloud.
It speaks of persistence in prayer.
That's what we read in James.
Elijah was a man of like passions.
Like us.
But he prayed and prayed and prayed and
prayed.
And the rain came.
He prayed and the heavens were closed.
And he prayed and prayed and prayed.
He didn't give up.
Until the rain came.
Tremendous example for us of persistence in prayer.
A man of like passions.
And then we read that he got up
after that and with all that exhaustion he
ran six miles in front of the chariot.
In verse 46.
And he ran faster than the horses of
Ahab.
And reached Israel before Ahab did.
Supernatural power.
Now one would think that he should be
so excited at this time.
But he wasn't.
We read here that Jezebel when she heard
what happened.
And by the way he killed all the
other false prophets.
450 of them.
Just killed all of them over there.
850.
Killed them.
Made Israel worship God.
Did such a tremendous work.
And when Jezebel heard that all these agents
of hers, the false prophets were killed.
She got very angry and she said I'm
going to chop off Elijah's head.
And sent the message to him.
And this mighty prophet gets scared.
He didn't get scared of 850 prophets.
He got scared of one woman.
See isn't it good that the Bible tells
us honestly the weaknesses of its greatest men.
I praise God for that.
God did not pick up super men.
He picked up ordinary men.
He was exhausted.
He had lived through famine for three and
a half years.
He was exhausted there in Mount Carmel.
And sometimes that can happen.
We can be discouraged.
He was discouraged.
He ran once again.
And he was exhausted and he laid down
under a juniper tree.
Chapter 19 verse 5.
And an angel came.
And the angel did not give him a
message.
The angel gave him food.
Sometimes what a servant of God needs is
food and sleep.
And he slept again.
And he woke up a second time again.
The angel did not give him a message.
He gave him food.
God is very down to earth and practical
in the way he deals with us.
Sometimes we become super spiritual.
We think what people need is an exhortation.
Perhaps what they need is a little encouragement,
a little food, a little gift.
And that may encourage them more than any
amount of sermons.
We need wisdom.
And he goes before God and says, Lord
verse 10, I've been zealous for you and
now I alone am left.
He was concerned that God's name is not
being glorified.
And the Lord says, okay.
You don't realize I've already prepared somebody to
take over the next prophet after you and
that's Elisha.
On your way you must anoint him.
Verse 16, Elisha to be prophet after you.
And there are still 7,000 people in
verse 18 in Israel who have not bowed
to Baal.
But there was a difference between those 7
,000 and Elisha.
Those 7,000 were people who did not
bow to Baal, correct, but they could not
bring down fire from heaven.
That's one man who brought fire from heaven.
This to me pictures two types of believers.
7,000 people who don't bow to idols,
don't smoke, don't drink, don't do bad things.
But they can't bring the fire down.
One prophet is worth more than all these
7,000 believers.
Please remember that.
God wants prophets in our land.
And then we read about Naboth's vineyard in
verse 21.
Ahab was coveting Naboth's vineyard and Naboth said
no.
And Jezebel, the prophet, goes to Ahab and
says you are the man.
God's going to judge you for killing Naboth.
He was a fearless prophet.
The dogs will lick your blood, he says.
And Ahab gets scared and he tears his
clothes.
Verse 27.
And God says to Elijah, verse 29.
Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself?
Okay.
It will not happen in his days.
See, even a man like Ahab, when he
humbled himself, God took notice of it.
Which teaches us one thing.
God values humility greatly.
The last chapter, 1 Kings 22, is about
the foolish way in which Jehoshaphat joined up
with Ahab in a battle and almost lost
his life.
Even though a prophet called Micaiah came there
and said all these false prophets are saying
something wrong, the Lord says you should not
go into this battle.
They locked him up in a prison and
Ahab was killed.
And just like it says, the dogs licked
his blood.
So we see the book of Kings begins
with David ruling a united Israel and ends
with a divided kingdom and Ahab and a
compromising Jehoshaphat no longer listening to the prophets.
That's been the story in many, many churches.
But if God can find prophets, that trend
can be changed.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, help us to learn the truths
you want us to learn from your wonderful
word.
Every chapter has got something to teach us.
Help us to remember it in the days
to come when we have come to the
times of need ourselves.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.