Solomon's Obituary

If you've got your Bible, turn me to 1 Kings chapter 11. 1 Kings chapter 11, Solomon's obituary. A ministry that began in great splendor, ended in tremendous sadness and shame because of the sin of Solomon He died with God being angry with him, as we saw last week Never does the Bible record that he ever truly repented of a sin We know that the Lord was angry with David when he numbered his soldiers, and yet David would repent of a sin The scriptures don't record Solomon ever repenting, specifically of a sin of idolatry

Although the book of Ecclesiastes seems to be a book of restoration and reconciliation on Solomon's part, even though the scripture never records anything specifically concerning Solomon's true repentance That doesn't mean he didn't We just don't have a record of that And yet this man who began in such great splendor, such great grandeur of ministry, ended in such tremendous tragedy. I was thinking that 20 years ago last month, we moved into this facility. I don't know if you knew that or not It was 20 years ago last month It would be in May of 2000 that we began our study of Abraham

When we moved into the facility, we were in Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1 And so it was May of the next year that we began our study of Abraham And from Abraham went to Isaac, and then on to Jacob, and then on to Joseph, and then on to Moses in the book of Exodus And that began a long study of Old Testament characters And so in the last 19 years, we have covered 15 different Old Testament characters Just to put it into perspective, when we look at the life of Solomon, it took us 17 weeks to cover his life And he reigned for 40 years

We spent a number of weeks, 52 weeks I believe it is, studying the life of David And when you look at that and think that over the last 19 years of being in this facility, we have studied 15 different Old Testament characters from Moses to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Solomon, to Samuel, to Saul, to Nehemiah, to Gideon, to Elijah, to Elisha For all these different individuals we've studied, never once have we come to an end of one of those characters, and I would say to myself, boy, I'm sure glad I'm done studying this guy In fact, it's quite the opposite

It's always a tinge of sadness when it comes to the end of studying one of those Old Testament characters Never in our study do we exhaust that individual We try to give you all the information we can give you in Scripture There's so much to look at, especially when it comes to a man like Solomon, who wrote two Psalms, and wrote the book of Proverbs, and wrote of course Ecclesiastes, and of course the Song of Solomon, and of course 1 Kings and Chronicles talk about his life There's so much to cover that 17 weeks doesn't necessarily exhaust all there is about Solomon

But when we come to his obituary, when we come to the end of his 40-year reign, he dies And I'm not so certain what took place at his memorial service or his funeral service, but it makes the words of Solomon come a little bit more to life when you read them in Ecclesiastes 7 Because I read them at every memorial service that we have It's that a good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. I wonder what he was thinking when he wrote that He's at the end of his life He's going to die

And is he hoping that, or entrusting that when he dies he's going to go into the presence of the Lord? I believe he understood that, he knew that Realizing that he doesn't remember his birth He can only remember what his parents tell him about his birth But he knows he's going to die He knows that a good name is better than a good ointment He knew a lot about ointments, fragrances, perfumes, spices, because he received so much of them throughout his tenure as king of Israel So he knew a lot about different smells and fragrances and ointments But he knows he never lasts

But a good name does last. A good name lasts, speaking of the character of an individual He would say early on in his ministry, in the book of Proverbs, the 22nd chapter, the first verse, that a good name is better than riches. A good name is better than riches Now at that point in his ministry he probably didn't have all the riches that he had at the end of his ministry So it's easy to say, well, you know, a good name is better than great riches And I got a good name, so it's better than great riches

It's like saying, you know, winning isn't everything. I mean, come on, we don't have to always win That's only spoken by those who've never won anything Right? Because once you win, then it's always winning isn't everything It's the only thing, right? So until you start winning, you don't want to win more And so until he starts getting more and more riches, he doesn't necessarily want more So early on in his ministry, he'll say, hey, yeah, you know what? A good name is better than great riches Until, of course, he received great riches And then his name didn't really mean that much to him

But accumulating more riches did mean a lot to him Then until the end, when he realizes that everything that his eyes saw, Ecclesiastes 2.11, everything that he wanted to buy, he bought Everything that his eyes saw, he obtained He realized all that was vanity It was empty Didn't mean anything So when you read, a good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth, you can begin to understand Solomon a little bit better, having studied his life over the last 16 weeks together

Then he says these words, It's better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man And the living take it to heart. I wonder if he said that because he wanted the people of Israel to take to heart life and death And to take to heart that all the riches he accumulated, all the women he accumulated, meant nothing And I wonder if he wrote that so they would understand that the wise in heart will understand that where you are today, in the house of mourning, is more important than the house of feasting, because everybody dies Everybody dies

Then he says, Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be happy The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure. I can't help but think he's reflecting back a little bit on his own life there, about the house of pleasure and how foolish all that is for him But the mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, because they realize the brevity of life They realize the reality of death They realize the inevitability of iniquity They realize the necessity of a walk with the living God

All that to say is that this is what the Bible says concerning Solomon's obituary It says, Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, this is 1 Kings 11, 41, and whatever he did, in his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the Acts of Solomon? Lest the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years Solomon slept with his fathers, was buried in the city of his father David, and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place What I want you to see, very briefly, is the record of Solomon, the reign of Solomon, his rest, his replacement, and our response That's point five

That's not in your notes That's been added Okay? That's the prerogative of the preacher, to be able to add whenever he wants to add Right? So, the record of Solomon is very simple It's recorded in scripture, but the Bible talks about the Acts of Solomon, the rest of the Acts of Solomon Interesting The text makes it very clear, that the rest of the Acts of Solomon, are written in the book of the Acts of Solomon

Chronicles says it this way, over in 2 Chronicles chapter 9, verse number 29, Now the rest of the Acts of Solomon, from first to last, from the beginning to the end, are they not written, in the records of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahiah the Shillonite, and in the visions of Edo? Hmm Where are those? We have no record of them today How do we know they existed? Because the Bible tells us they existed But I want you to think about this for a minute

There are four extra biblical records, of Solomon's life, that record the beginning, to the end. I wonder if anybody here today, would love to have, the beginning of their life, to the end of their life, written down someplace in a book So everybody could read it Now the Spirit of God, did not preserve those for us to read. A little curious about what they say That'd be very interesting What God wants us to know, He's given us Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon He's given us Proverbs, two Psalms, and of course First Kings, and Chronicles, to study the life of Solomon

And that's what God's given to us And I wonder if Solomon ever regretted, having everything about his life recorded The Bible does tell us, that one day, all the unbelievers will stand, at the great white throne of judgment, and the books will be opened And all the record of their deeds, will be shown for all to see Because it will be measured, against God's righteous standard The Lord also says, in Matthew's Gospel, that every idle word, that a man speaks, he will be held accountable for, on the day of judgment So God knows, all that we say, and all that we do He has a record of everything

He never forgets anything He knows about your life, and my life And while our lives, might not be in a book, some place Our lives might not be written down, in some chronicle, some place God knows everything about our lives In the record of Solomon, what we need to know, is written, in the scriptures That we might somehow, as the Bible say, says in Romans 15, verse number 4, these things were written, for your encouragement

That through the perseverance, and in the encouragement of scriptures, or written down for your instruction, that through the perseverance, and encouragement of scripture, you might have hope And God has given us, the record of Solomon's life Even the fact that, God was angry with Solomon And so, what God wants us to know, about his life, is written down in scripture That gives us the opportunity, to study it And the reign of Solomon, that's point number 2, is very simple His reign was 40 years He's the only king to reign, over all of Israel

Say wait a minute, I thought David reigned over all of Israel David reigned over Hebron, over Judah, for 7 years Then he reigned over all of Israel, after that Solomon did it for 40 years, consecutively He was the man of peace That's what his name means, the man of peace He ruled from the city of peace, Jerusalem Jedidiah, which means, beloved of the Lord Was the man of peace He was a type of Christ, to show Israel, the grandeur, and the splendor, of the king of Israel And to set the tone, for the coming one day Messiah, who will reign over, not just all of Israel, but all the world

And all of his majesty, and all of his beauty, and all of his splendor The problem is, is that Solomon sinned, against the Lord God And the Messiah of Israel, son of David, he won't do that So the reign of Solomon, over all of Israel, from Jerusalem, for 40 years, leads us to the rest of Solomon He would sleep with his fathers He would be buried, in the city of kings, the city of Jerusalem, where his father himself is buried, in the city of kings, like all the kings, were buried in Jerusalem, in the city of David And so therefore, it was a place of honor for him

And you got to wonder, what went down when he died How the nation felt, when he died You got to read on, in terms of kings, to look at Rehoboam, and Jeroboam, and see what takes place, in the land of Israel, and what's happening, with the people, in terms of how they saw Solomon But I think that, at the end of his reign, they were ready for him to go That's never a good place to be, is it? People waiting for you to die, so they can move on You know? I think that's where Solomon was He had taken the nation, away from God He had not brought the nation, closer to God

And the nation understood that The taxation, that he imposed upon them, was a heavy burden, upon the people And so, he would die, and then you have the replacement, for Solomon And the replacement is his son, his only son, Rehoboam His only son And you would think that, Rehoboam would carry the torch, and realize that, even though there was a, there was going to be a division, of the nation of Israel, that Rehoboam would realize, that this was an important opportunity, for him He was raised, under the direction, of the wisest man, to ever live

How does a wise man, raise a foolish son? We're going to show you that, in a minute How does the wisest man, who ever lived, raise a fool for a son? How is it that the man, of privilege, which Solomon was, and opportunity, not be able to infuse in his son, the beauty of privilege, and opportunity, that he might, thank God, and live, under the direction of God But he doesn't Rehoboam was a, was a replacement He was a partial replacement, because he would only rule over Judah, not rule over, the northern tribes of Israel

But there would come, a perfect replacement, the Messiah himself, the King of Israel And the Lord had mapped everything out, just perfectly, to move the people in a direction, to help them long, for their coming Messiah, their coming King, who would rule, in righteousness Which leads us to point number five Our response, to Solomon's life

What is our response? You know, what is the so what, to 16 weeks of studying, the King of Israel, the third King of Israel? What is our response, now that we have studied it, and are going to move on? What have we learned? What helps us understand, how we are to live, and not to live? Let me give you seven principles Okay? Seven of them And there's probably a lot more They're just seven, that I thought of on, Monday morning at 5 a.m., when I sat in my office, looking through, my scriptures, as to how I would best conclude, our study of Solomon's life First one's this

Principle number one, simply, is to, maintain, your, priority Maintain your priority, for as long as you live Because Solomon did not What's the priority? You know it Solomon said it He said it very clearly, in Ecclesiastes 12, verse number 13, the conclusion, when all has been, heard, is fear God, and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person That's the priority You gotta fear God, and keep His commandments That is a priority for us in life We want to maintain that priority, every single day

Solomon would say, in the book of Proverbs, live in the fear of the Lord, all day long But he didn't do that Because he didn't maintain that priority And fearing God, and keeping His commandments, are one and the same, because if you fear God, you'll keep His commandments If you don't fear Him, you won't keep His commandments And Solomon stopped living in the fear of the Lord, more so in the fear of his wives, by building more and more altars, erecting them so that he might participate in the worship with his wives

He stopped fearing the Lord, therefore, he would continue to disobey the commands of God, even though, even though, the Old Testament is replete with commands about fearing God Solomon would say this, in Ecclesiastes 3, he would say this, I know that everything God does will remain forever Now you think about this, he's writing this at the end of his life. I know that everything God does remains forever And he knows, he knows, that there's going to be a divided kingdom Because, Ahiah prophesied to Jeroboam, about the divided kingdom Talked about that last week

Solomon found that about it, either through Ahiah the prophet, or through Jeroboam, or through word of mouth But he found that about it. I know that whatever God does remains forever God's going to divide the kingdom, can't change it God's going to do that Then he says this, there is nothing to add to it, and there is nothing to take from it In other words, can't change it Can't alter it Can't bend it Can't do anything. I wonder if he thought about the fact that God raised up his adversaries Talked about that last week Remember that? God raised up Hadad God raised up Rezan

God raised up Jeroboam God raised up Solomon's adversaries He did that So at the end of his life, when he writes the book of Ecclesiastes, he says, I know that whatever God does cannot be altered Can't change it It remains forever And then he says this He says, For God has so worked that man should fear him He knows now that God has raised up his adversaries God is going to divide the kingdom. A kingdom that was filled with peace for 40 years under his leadership He knows now God is going to divide that He can't change that And God does what he does so that man will fear him

God wants man to fear him There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psalm 130 verse number 4, right? God forgives you of your sins so that you will live in the fear of God all day long Revelation chapter 14 tells us Revelation 14 verse number 6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people And he said with a loud voice, Fear God Give him glory Because the hour of his judgment has come Worship him

Serve him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs and the waters That's the gospel that the angel who flies in midheaven during the tribulation preaches What's the gospel? It's fear God Give him glory You can't give him glory unless you fear him God forgives you so that you might fear him And so when the Bible speaks about the fear of the Lord, it's tantamount to talking about the salvation of a soul And Solomon would speak so much about the fear of the Lord in the book of Proverbs It becomes the theme of Proverbs

But that's written early on in his ministry when he lived in the fear of the Lord all day long He would even say these words in the book of Proverbs He would say, He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded He knows that He writes about it early on in his ministry under the inspiration of the Spirit of God He knows this Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble But at the end, he's going to realize that when he didn't fear the Lord and lived in sin, his life was filled with all kinds of turmoil and trouble

He knows, as the Bible says, in Proverbs chapter 14, 27, In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence and his children will have a place of refuge Proverbs 19, 23, The fear of the Lord leads to life and he who has it will abide in satisfaction He will not be visited with evil You see, he knows a lot about the fear of the Lord because under the direction of the Spirit of God and the wisdom that God has given to him, he has written all this down But that was early on in ministry

But when he began to desire the things of the world and began to disregard the warnings that God gave, he was deceived by wealth and women and thus he fell deeply into sin And God became angry with him because he had written about the fear of the Lord Go back to Deuteronomy 17 Why is the king to write down the Scriptures? Why is the king to read the Scriptures? Why is the king to obey the Scripture? So that he will live in the fear of the Lord Somewhere between the 20th reign of Solomon's career before the end of his career, he stopped writing, reading, and doing what the word of the Lord said

And thus did not fear the Lord any longer The first thing that we learn, the first response about Solomon's life is that we must maintain the one priority That's to fear God and keep his commandments. I know this, when you fear God, you fear nothing else When you don't fear God, you fear everything else Read what Solomon says about the fear of the Lord Because early on in his ministry, that's the way he lived And God blessed him tremendously because of that But Solomon dies My age That's very interesting to me Because you see, I don't think I'm myself old My kids do

But I don't see myself as old In fact, I think I'm still pretty studly, you know. I think I can hang with the best of them still at 61 years of age But remember what the Lord said to Solomon? Sometimes I think that we forget this The Lord said to Solomon these words He says, 1 Kings 3 verse number 14, If you walk in my ways, keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, I will prolong your days But he didn't do that God prolonging his days was dependent upon him walking in the statutes of God, keeping the commands of God as his father David did But he didn't

After 40 years of reigning as king over Israel, probably around the age of 60, maybe 61, we know that he became king early on, no later than 20, maybe in his late teens So maybe he was even in his late 50s when he died We don't know exactly We just know how long he reigned But obviously his days were not prolonged because God became angry with him He died Because he did not fear the Lord It doesn't mean if you fear the Lord you're going to live to be 110 That doesn't mean that necessarily at all And maybe the prolonged days was that amount of days

God knows how long you're going to live, right? Your death's a divine appointment So God's not taken by surprise when you disobey him, nor is he taken by surprise if you die in a car accident Everything has been determined by God in eternity past But the promise of God was dependent, was dependent upon him walking in obedience to God He didn't do that So maintain your priority Live in the fear of God all day long That's how we're going to live our lives Interesting, and I don't want to prolong the point, but his father David would speak about the fear of the Lord quite frequently in the Psalms

So it wasn't like he was raised by a father who didn't fear the Lord No He was raised by a dad who did fear the Lord Right? And so he would hear things like this in Psalm 34 He would hear the words of David who would speak to him as a father would speak to a son because the Proverbs tell us that when he was young and his father was old, his father would speak to him and teach him the word of the Lord He would hear things like this His father David, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them

So he would know that his father would write this He would know about his father's experiences and know about how the angel of the Lord would protect his father. O taste and see that the Lord is good How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you as saints For those who fear him, there is no want The young lions who lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing Children, listen to me So as his father would write, his father would teach Solomon then would learn He then would write the book of Proverbs

So much about the fear of the Lord And yet, his desire for the things of the world, he became so self-indulgent with the things of the world, he disregarded everything that God said, disobeyed the word of the Lord, and died with God's anger toward him How sad is that? Maintain your priority, number two And I must hurry because I have seven of them Number two, manifest your integrity Manifest your integrity Live the life of truth Make sure you live truth

His father would say it this way in Psalm 15. O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell in your holy hill? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness Who may abide in your presence? The man who walks in integrity David would say in Psalm 26, these words Psalm 26, verse number one Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering Examine me, O Lord, and try me, test my mind and my heart, for your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth This is David speaking And he would teach this to his son

And so his son, now, would write these words Book of Proverbs, 10th chapter, 9th verse, says, He who walks in integrity walks securely This is Solomon speaking He who walks in integrity walks securely Proverbs 11, verse number three The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them This is Solomon speaking Listen to what he says in Proverbs chapter 19. 19, verse number one Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool Better to be poor and have your integrity than anything else

Then he says this Proverbs 20, verse number seven. A righteous man who walks in his integrity, how blessed are his sons after him How blessed are his sons after him The man who walks in integrity has the promise that is the blessing of his sons But Solomon only had one son That we know of That the scriptures give us Two daughters, one son

And what is it about Rehoboam that turned him away from the Lord? Was it his dad's hypocrisy? His dad's duplicity? His dad's multiplicity of wives? What was it about his father that when his father would teach him, because as you read the book of Proverbs, he says, my son, my son, my son He's exhorting his son to listen to the words of your father Adhere to the words, the counsel of your mother Son, listen to me My son, my son, my son But Rehoboam's not getting the message Why? Because his father is living a different life than what he says his son ought to be living

His father has compromised his integrity His father has compromised his ministry He's compromised his testimony Why? Because he's married a multiple of wives, all of which are foreign, so they don't really love the Lord at all All of which have turned his heart away from the Lord when he says to his son, my son, give me your heart For out of the flow all the issues of life, give me your heart, my son And yet his heart was given to foreign women Everything his father said could not be heard because of what his father did That's a great lesson for all of us as fathers

Right? You want your sons to be able to believe that what you say is true You want your daughters to be able to believe that what you say is true Well, how are they going to know it's absolute truth? Because you're fleshing it out in front of them You live in the fear of the Lord all day long Your heart is wholly devoted to God But as we've read throughout all of 1 Kings, his heart was turned away from the Lord He did not fully follow the Lord as his father David did He didn't do that Because he did not manifest that one area of his life that his son needed to see That there was no compromise

That there was no duplicity of life There was no hypocrisy in life What he said, he lived No matter what it cost him But for Solomon, that wasn't true And that's one of the reasons. I don't know if it's the reason, but it is a big reason why Rehoboam did not follow the Lord And turned his back on the Lord You would think he would say to himself, well, you know, my grandfather David, boy, he was a man of repentance And my grandfather David, boy, he was the guy And my grandfather David, boy, he was given the covenant, the divinity covenant

My grandfather David, he was the man. I need to follow my grandfather because my grandfather was a man of integrity Yeah, he sinned, but he repented of his sin My grandfather was a man who loved the Lord And he followed the Lord with all of his heart Maybe I should follow my grandfather's example because he was a man of integrity That's why the Lord would say to Solomon So interesting

In 1 Kings chapter 9, when the Lord appeared a second time to Solomon, He said these words in verse number 4, As for you, if you will walk before me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart, in uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded, and you will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel

But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, I will cut off Israel from the land for which I have given them If you sin, if you go away from me, I'm not going to just affect your life, I'm going to affect all of Israel So in Ecclesiastes 9.18, what does Solomon say? One sinner destroys what? Much good Because he knows Solomon now knows that his sin destroyed much good So much good it destroyed a nation He led the nation into idolatry and into immorality

He knows that one sinner, one, just happens to be the king of Israel One sinner destroys much good How powerful an example is that? So Rehoboam hears the words of his father but watches the life of his father go down the tubes because he just can't get enough of wealth and women So much so that God becomes angry with him because he turned his heart away from the Lord and that which he tolerated, he participated in and lived and led the nation into a life of sin You know, this is a wake-up call for every father Every father

Every man in the room needs to be saying to himself, Does my wife believe everything I say because my life lives out what I say I believe? Do my children believe me? When they watch me, do they hear me and say, It goes in one ear and out the other because I live a different kind of life This is a wake-up call for all of us If you maintain your priority by fearing God and keep his commandments, then you can truly manifest your integrity so all can see it and follow your example The next thing I want you to see is this Master your ministry Master your ministry Solomon had a great ministry

He built the house in the name of the Lord It's called the house of prayer for Gentiles Right? Solomon had this opportunity for all these nations who came to him He didn't have to go to them They came to him The world came to Solomon He has this great ministry to be a light of revelation to the Gentile world He has this great ministry to portray the true and living God, the great God of Israel He has built this splendid temple where the glory of the Lord has come down in a great dark cloud There it is The people, in his prayer, when he dedicated the temple, they just look to the temple

If they look to the presence of God and confess their sins, he will forgive their sins and heal them He will do that And yet, when the peoples came, they were confused Which God does Solomon serve? The God in the glorious temple on the Temple Mount? Or these altars over here on the Mount of Olives? And the multiplicity of them? And which God does he serve? Or maybe it's okay to serve whatever God you want Just worship God by any name you want to name him And that's okay You have your God over here. I have my God over there We can all coexist together It's okay We're one big happy family

Every wife under the same roof It's okay And that's what they would come to the conclusion with because after the Queen of Sheba left and realized that God had put him on the throne and that his God was the God of Israel, after she left, everything went to pot And everybody who came to him would not understand the truth because the truth was so muddled before the people Because he'd compromised He'd compromised his integrity because he did not master his ministry that God had given to him

The King of Israel, the opportunity to portray to the world the great God of Israel in his beautiful splendor, in his majesty, in the coming King that will one day rule over the entire world had the opportunity to do it Master your ministry The ministry of the opportunity that God has given you to be his ambassador, to preach the gospel to a lost world We need to be masters of evangelism, masters of outreach, masters as lights to a world in darkness, masters of giving people hope because we know the God of hope We need to master that ministry

On the other side of that, we need to master the ministry not just of being a light of revelation to the Gentiles, but master our ministry at home with our wives Because Solomon, when he wrote the Song of Solomon, had one wife. I believe it was Abishag. I believe that's the Shunammite woman from 1st Kings chapter 1. I believe that's the woman And he would say in there, in the Song of Solomon, Ani lededi vededi li. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. I had that written in Hebrew around my neck as a commitment to my wife Ani lededi vededi li. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine

That's the way Abishag saw Solomon That's the way Solomon saw Abishag And then he would say, as is written on my wedding band, is that I have found him whom my soul has loved That's what Abishag would say. I found him whom my soul has loved And if you read over in the Song of Solomon, you know one day I'm going to preach on the Song of Solomon, probably do it at a couples retreat, but it's going to be pretty good

But he says this, The Song of Solomon, the 8th chapter, he says, let me find it here, sorry, Song of Solomon, the 8th chapter, Abishag is written, a Shunammite woman, I assume she's Abishag, says, Put me like a seal over your heart Heart is a place of affection, right? Like a seal on your arm Your arm is a source of strength So the source of affection and the source of strength She is laying claim to the heart and strength of her man Now, she wouldn't be doing that if he had a thousand other wives someplace in the palace That's early on For love is as strong as death

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it Love, my love for my man, it is invincible, it is unquenchable, it is indestructible, it is invaluable That's what she's saying How does she get that? Because Solomon loves her so But he didn't master his ministry with that one woman that God had given him Instead, he went the direct opposite of what he told his son in Proverbs chapter 5, 6, and 7 He went after other women and married other women and took them in

How sad is that? We, as people, if we learn anything at all from Solomon's life, we learn, maintain your priority Fear God, keep his commandments Make sure you master your ministry as a light to an unbelieving world and love for the wife that God's given you Manifest your integrity so all can see that what you say, you live Let me go through the rest of them rather quickly Mind your destiny Pay close attention to your destiny Do you know for certain if you die today, you spend eternity with the Lord God of Israel? Solomon said there's a time to be born, a time to die

He said in Ecclesiastes 7, the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth, so a good name is better than a good ointment Do you have a good name? Is your name one that honors the Lord? What will others say about you when you're gone? What is the lasting impression you make with those you work with, you play with, you live with? Better yet, what will God say when you stand before him? That's the most important thing, right? Others could get it wrong God never gets it wrong God's always right Mind your destiny Solomon was told, keep my commandments, I'll prolong your life

Obey my word, you'll live long But he didn't live very long And so, did he pay attention to the future of his life? We always think in the here and now We don't necessarily think about five years down the road or ten years down the road or twenty years down the road The decision you make today is going to affect your tomorrow Make a wise choice today Don't make an unwise choice Don't make a foolish choice The person you date today could be your mate tomorrow So make sure you date the right one today, not the wrong one Right? The decisions you make today will affect your future

Make wise choices Mind your destiny Oh, I got so much more to say about that, but time is slipping Maximize your legacy This should be number five Maximize your legacy Because your children will carry on your name But the most important name you want your children to carry on is the name of God himself Christ's name The Lord's name

We've already read Proverbs 20, verse number seven, that a man who walks in his integrity, how blessed are his children after him. I wonder if you've ever thought about your legacy and how to maximize it to make sure that your children, when you are dead and gone, will be able to carry the name of Jesus Christ to the next generation There is so much about, in the Old Testament, about remember this and remember that and remember this and remember that Why? Because you can't allow to forget You must pass it down to your children They can't afford to forget

If they forget, they're going to flounder and fail Don't let them forget Keep telling them where you've been Keep telling them about the God you serve Keep telling them about what God has done in the past, how God has brought you to where you are now Just keep feeding them that information Let them know what God has done, because you're passing that on, because they have to then pass it on to their children and to the children yet to be born, as Psalm 78 says They need to know what God has done and the power of God, the promises of God, and how He has protected you all along the way

Make sure you don't forget, but remember all that God has done You've got to maximize your legacy by making sure you live in the fear of God all day long, by living a life of integrity before your children, before your wife, before your church, before those closest to you, before those you don't even know, so they will understand that Jesus Christ rules supreme in your life Number six, magnifies glory Magnify His glory Remember 1 Kings 6? 1 Kings 6, Solomon is right in the middle of building the temple How many years did it take to build the temple? Remember? Seven

How many years did it take to build his own house? Thirteen That's some house Okay So you're right in the midst of building the temple This is what God says Listen very carefully The word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, 1 Kings 6, 12, concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and execute my ordinances and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out my word with you which I spoke to David your father. I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel

Remember Solomon, there's something more important than the work of God It is your walk with God You can have a great work, but if you got a bad walk, you're in trouble And right in the middle of building this great monstrosity of a temple, in all of its glory, in all of its splendor, God says, as fine as it is, the work is great, but your walk must be greater than your work because your walk is what matters to me Your life with me is what matters Do you follow my commandments? Do you obey me? Do you serve me? That's what I want, Solomon Don't miss out on the point here, Solomon

Don't get so wrapped up in this work that you forget about how you live your life every single day Don't forget about that Why? Because our lives are to live to the glory of God, right? Our lives are to manifest his glory so others will see Christ in us That's why we guard our hearts That's why Solomon said, buy truth and do not sell it He said that early on, Proverbs 23, verse number 23, buy truth, do not sell it But as time went on, he sold truth He sold it for women He sold it for wealth

There was something that hindered him from using all of his energies to obtain that one aspect he needed to have, the truth of the living God, to walk in his ordinances and to keep his statutes We are to magnify his glory We are to live for his honor, not our honor We are to live for his glory, not our glory We are to live for him Number seven, model your purity Model your purity We serve a holy God who is holy, holy, holy He has always demanded his people be pure and holy, always

Because if you're going to represent a holy God, you can't do it living in unholiness, right? You can only do it living in a pure and holy manner Book of Leviticus, be holy for I am holy Peter would echo that in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 15 and 16 Be holy in all your conduct That's the way our lives are to be And that's why he would say early on that he didn't do later on In Proverbs chapter 5, when he said these words First of all, Proverbs 1, verse number 10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not If sinners entice thee, do not consent Do not bow to them Stand strong against them

But when he married foreign wives, when they enticed him, what did he do? He consented See, he didn't manifest his integrity to Rehoboam But in Proverbs chapter 5, he says this Drink water from your own cistern, fresh water from your own well Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets, let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. I imagine that when he was writing this, he was already married to the Shunammite woman, Abishek He wants his son to rejoice with the wife of his youth

He would say, as a loving hind and graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times Be exhilarated always with her love Be exhilarated, be ecstatic, be overwhelmed with the wife of your youth, with her love Of course, you read earlier, Song of Solomon chapter 8, where the Shunammite would talk about her husband's heart, her husband's arm, his strength, his affection for her And they says this And why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? That's exactly what he did He didn't model to his son purity You got to do that It's a must

It has to happen These are just some of our responses to the life of Solomon Now that it's over, what will be your response? Let's pray Father, we thank you for our time The last 17 weeks that we've had to study Solomon's life, that you have put in the pages of Scripture, we are grateful May we learn May we live in light of what we learn May we learn to love you all the more for who you are as our Lord and our God, our Savior May we fear God and keep his commandments May we live a life that is true to what we say May we live for your glory, not ours

May we be ever mindful of our destiny, not just in this life, but in the life to come May we model a pure and holy life, at home first, everywhere else second, because we love Christ, our Savior and Lord In Jesus' name, amen.