Originally the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. In the original Hebrew Scriptures, I and II Kings were one book. This one book was divided when seventy Hebrew scholars translated the Old Testament Hebrew into Greek. This translation was made before Christ and before the Christian era. It is called the Septuagint, which means “translation of the seventy.”
I and II Kings covers the time of the kingdom of Israel from David’s old age and death until the final ruin and captivity of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah after the nation was divided into the northern and the southern tribes. It covers a period of approximately four hundred years, from about 1000 B.C. to about 600 B.C. In this period there were many outstanding prophets; and it was during this time that all of the Old Testament major and minor prophets appeared, with the exception of the exilic and postexilic prophets—those who prophesied during and at the return from the exile in Babylon.
The first great character in I and II Kings is Solomon. I Chronicles 22:9 records God’s promise to David years before, that he would have a son who would be called “Solomon,” which means “peaceful,” that he would be a man of rest, and that the time of his reign would be a great kingdom of peace and rest.
Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. I Chronicles 22:9, ASV.
David was essentially a man of war, as far as his kingdom was concerned. The men who were with him throughout his life were men who were used to roughing it. They could go out in the wilderness and pitch their tents and survive. At his right hand were very capable men who were rough, who were individualists, who were warriors with great records of valiant actions behind them (II Samuel 23:8–39; I Chronicles 11:10–47). Even Zadok and Abiathar, the priests who stood by him, were men who had gone out to the wilderness with him, men who were faithful under great hardships (I Samuel 22:20–23; 23:6–14; I Chronicles 12:22–28). So when we read the story of the transition from David’s reign to the reign of King Solomon, it is like seeing one day end and another day begin.
For day by day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army like the army of God. I Chronicles 12:22.
Solomon was a king who was given to alliances. That is one reason he got into trouble; he made too many alliances. His marriages were often alliances. If you remember, he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; that makes a thousand problems more than any man should have. And those problems were compounded into a lot of other problems.
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. I Kings 11:3.
His first marriage, for example, was with the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt (I Kings 3:1), so that he might cement the alliance between his kingdom and Egypt and thus prevent war. It was very easy for those kings in the East to maintain order in their far-flung kingdoms. All a king had to do was marry the daughters of the kings of neighboring nations. In that way, a neighboring king would be discouraged from planning an uprising against him, because he knew that if he began to march against that king, his daughter could have her throat slashed the next morning. And so, because he loved his children, he would not initiate an uprising. This practice was followed for years. Down through history it has been very common for the daughters and the sons of kings to intermarry in order to cement alliances between nations.
Solomon was given to a great many things besides just marrying a lot of wives, however. He was known for his great wisdom (I Kings 4:30–31a). In I Kings 3:6–9, we read the great prayer that he made about wisdom.
Give thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this thy great people?
And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom. I Kings 3:9; 4:29–34, ASV.
In a way Solomon was like one contemporary Jewish scientist—Einstein. They both worked to reduce the world down to basic equations. Einstein worked all of his life to try to reduce the world down to a very complex mathematical equation. It is said that even until his later days he never stopped working upon this equation. The trouble is that Einstein forgot God in his equations. Solomon remembered God, and he reduced the whole of the universe into some simple equations. Would you like to know what they are? Read the book of Proverbs. Solomon was able to reduce the great wisdom of both the spiritual and the natural world until he was able to explain the function of almost everything.
Solomon wrote three thousand proverbs; he reduced the wisdom of the world into three thousand proverbs. He wrote a thousand and five songs. He also wrote scientific works on botany and zoology (I Kings 4:32–33). It is a thrill to read the book Pistis Sophia, one of the few writings which remain from the mystical writings of the Gnostics. In this book quotations from the “Odes of Solomon” were used to describe the spiritual plane. The “Odes of Solomon” were used very extensively in the early Church, in Pistis Sophia and other writings.
Three books of the Bible were written under the anointing of the Spirit by the hand of Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon reveals the mystical interpretation of Christ and His Church. Oriental love songs are very descriptive; and because the Song of Solomon is a pure and holy book, its description of love is very lucidly and clearly presented in a way that I suppose the carnal, evil mind could misinterpret and misconstrue. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful, tremendous piece of literature. And it is more than a piece of literature; it is part of the Word of God. It is one of the great parables, one of the great analogies of the Word of God.
In the first chapter of I Kings we read that when David was an old man, his son Adonijah exalted himself, saying, “I will be king” (verses 1, 5). Adonijah was David’s fourth son. Three other sons were older: Amnon, Chileab, and Absalom (II Samuel 3:2–4). And we know that Amnon and Absalom were dead. You remember that Amnon was murdered by Absalom (II Samuel 13:28–29), and Absalom was killed by Joab at the time of his rebellion and attempt to usurp the kingdom (II Samuel 18:14–15). We would assume that Chileab was dead also, because all Israel looked to Adonijah as being the oldest son of King David and therefore the rightful heir to succeed him on the throne.
One thing we must get straight when we read the Word of God is that God’s way of choosing is not always the way we would choose. Although Esau was older, God said, “Esau have I hated, and Jacob have I loved” (Malachi 1:2–3; Romans 9:13). Even David himself was the youngest son in the family of Jesse (I Samuel 16:11–13). The older sons were stately looking men; they looked like kings, and yet they were rejected. God does not look on the outward appearance or outward qualifications. God does not judge as man judges; God looks upon the heart. And the choosing of God is not always done the way we can understand it.
But Jehovah said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for Jehovah seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart. I Samuel 16:7, ASV.
But in time we come to understand that God has chosen the foolish and the weak of this world to confound the wise and the mighty, that no flesh will glory in His presence.
But God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God. I Corinthians 1:27–29, ASV.
We would not wonder at the works of God if He took a capable leader and accomplished something through him. But when he takes some man like Gideon, who is least in his father’s house, and accomplishes a great miracle through him after whittling down his help to a bare fraction of what he began with, then we understand how God is getting the glory (Judges 6:15; 7:7–8). Then God receives all the honor and praise for what is done. The great way of success is not to exalt yourself and say, “I will be king,” because every man who exalts himself will certainly be brought low (Isaiah 2:12; Matthew 23:12; James 4:6–7).
Humility is often not properly defined in people’s thinking. Many people have the wrong idea about humility. They think that the kind of humility they have is a virtue, when it is actually wickedness. When something is laid before them they say, “Oh, I couldn’t do this. I’m just nothing. I just couldn’t.” That is not humility; it is unbelief. Remember that it is the people who have little ability who must believe God. If you feel that you cannot do anything, then come with your little ability and humble yourself before the Lord and say, “O Lord, I’m not much, but I know that You are everything; and I believe that my limitations do not limit You. You are able to do it even though I’m but a poor channel through which You can work.”
When you have faith that an unlimited God can work through such a miserable means as you can present to Him, that is real humility, and that is faith. Real humility involves faith—you believe that God is able to do a great work through unworthy channels. Pride is the opposite. Pride says, “I can do it without God.” Do you see the difference between pride and humility? Humility says, “God can do it, even through me.” Pride says, “I can do it by myself.” Isn’t that the difference between pride and humility as it is outlined in the Scriptures? That is why the Lord said, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5, KJV. True meekness or true humility involves our saying, “Lord, I believe that You will do this great thing, even through me, as unworthy as I am.” That is real humility.
Adonijah did not have true humility. On the contrary, he had a great deal of pride in his heart. He said, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? I Kings 1:5b–6a, ASV.
This is the key to his character: his father had not displeased him at any time. When the Word of God explains the character of men, it explains the kind of training they had in their youth. When God describes Eli’s children, He says that they made themselves vile and Eli restrained them not (I Samuel 3:13). Believe it or not, I think that a child who is left to his own devices will become a Frankenstein monster right in his own home. I have counseled with many parents who have become quite harassed because their family is slowly driving them out of their minds. They love their children, but they cannot endure them. They just cannot stand being around them. They want to get away from them as much as they can, and I can see why. They have not restrained them, and they have created little monsters which no one wants to live with.
Adonijah was a handsome man. He was born after Absalom. Absalom was very beautiful, but David did not know much about being a parent when he started raising children. His children who were born later were raised much better. I suppose he learned by his mistakes. But the first children in his family were rather misfits. Amnon and Absalom, as you remember, had no parental discipline, no restraint (II Samuel chapter 13).
What is the purpose of discipline? As far as the natural world or the spiritual world is concerned, the only people who survive and succeed in life are those who discipline themselves. Paul said, “I bring my body into subjection, lest after having preached to others, I myself become a castaway” (I Corinthians 9:27). The purpose of discipline is not to raise blisters on a child. The only purpose of discipline is that the child be taught to discipline himself. When he goes out in the world he finds that it is not all peaches and cream. He cannot do everything he wants to do, and then there are also certain things that he must do. He has to learn to discipline himself. He has to learn to take responsibility. He has to give and take. He cannot just think only of himself; he must also think of those who are round about him in the family. He must learn to be a contributor. The whole purpose of discipline is to bring us to the place where we can discipline ourselves.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Hebrews 12:5–11.
“ ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.’ ” Revelation 3:19.
Adonijah had never disciplined himself; and as a result, his selfishness was colossal. His ambition knew no bounds. Adonijah fell such a prey to this that ultimately he was slain by the sword (I Kings 2:24–25). Solomon had him slain. If this ambitious older brother had been allowed to, he would have troubled Solomon’s kingdom. Sooner or later he would have challenged him.
Sometimes it seems difficult for us to make decisions, but whenever you find an “ambitious man of God,” it is a good thing to steer clear of him. When I find ministries who are personally ambitious, I stay away from them. I stay away from them because sooner or later they will be a hazard and a trouble to the Kingdom of God. Does this mean that we cannot have fellowship with them? Yes, it does. Put ambition to the sword, because personal ambition and self-seeking will have no place in the Kingdom of God.
Adonijah proved just such a point. His father never displeased him at any time by saying, “Why hast thou done so?” His father never displeased him; he always gave him anything he wanted. That is the quick way to ruin a person.
Are you fathers and mothers concerned about making good husbands out of your sons and good wives out of your daughters? You should be. You should start in when they are about five or six years old; that is the time you should begin to train them. One reason so many homes are broken up at the present time is that people go into marriage unprepared for it. There is none of the mental, spiritual, or physical discipline at any phase of life to prepare them to enter into marriage.
Marriage should be a very wonderful experience, and it can be a wonderful experience when you learn that love is fulfilled by giving.
The people who have never learned discipline have the dea that love is only attained by taking. And because they want to take and not give, they find that love does not long flourish, but is soon killed. It becomes a dead thing. Real love is expressed by mutually giving. It is in the giving of love that its fulfillment is reached. Life then gives us a great fulfillment when all of us have learned how to live unselfishly.
Whenever restraint is not learned and unselfishness is not learned, and when children never learn to share things, they are missing a great deal. Witness this one fact: Is it not true that there are more unsuccessful marriages among those who were an only child than there are among those who had many brothers and sisters? How do you explain it? It is because an only child is not usually restrained as much. He is usually not taught to share. He is not brought into the discipline that he needs. It is wise for us, right from the beginning, to learn that everyone shares together, and to bring ourselves into the discipline.
There can be no great success without a personal discipline. A musician who does not discipline his time to practice will never reach great heights. A student who does not discipline himself to be in his books and to investigate a subject thoroughly will never be a real scholar. A man who does not wait upon his ministry will never amount to very much as a ministry. A ministry is not something that you turn on and off; it is something that you totally give yourself to. Even though God does it all, very few people will spend the time and the effort to be under the personal discipline that is required.
There is another great truth behind this: How can we expect our churches to be successful in propagating the New Testament pattern to the ends of the earth, when many of our people are not thoroughly familiar with even the written Scriptures? What plumb line will you have to weigh the Living Word when it is uttered and comes to your heart, when you do not know the written Word of God which is the plumb line by which everything is measured? There is no shortcut. There is no magic formula by which you can take the Bible and suddenly acquire its truths. There is only one way to know it—discipline yourself to read. Discipline yourself to read it prayerfully.
When you read the Word of God, you must read it over and over again—not just a few verses, but read long chapters at a time, at one sitting. Read five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five chapters, if you can. And when you come to a place where the Holy Spirit quickens it, and you feel the inspiring glow of the Spirit, and the attention of your spirit is focused particularly on one point, then stay with that until you have extracted the last bit of honey from that fragrant flower, because at that place will be something special that the Spirit will quicken to your heart. Will you remember this? Read, and read, and read much; but when you come to that point where a passage is quickened and alive, then stop and spend time on that one passage until you get the meat and the sweetness that the Lord wants you to receive.
What happened when Adonijah wanted to make himself king? And he (Adonijah) conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Ablathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him. But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men that belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. I Kings 1:7–8, ASV.
Remember that Zadok and Abiathar were two priests who had been very faithful to David, especially at the time of David’s exile. But now one of them, Abiathar, turned aside, while Zadok remained faithful.
Benaiah was the man who had slain two of the lion-like heroes of Moab. And he had gone down into a pit on a snowy day and had slain a lion with his bare hands (II Samuel 23:20; I Chronicles 11:22). He was also the one reputed to have slain a giant who was five cubits tall. A cubit is about a foot and a half; that would make this man seven and one-half feet tall. This giant had a large spear, and Benaiah went down against him with only a staff in his hands. He snatched the spear from the giant and killed him (I Chronicles 11:23). Benaiah was a mighty man of valor who stood close to Solomon.
Nathan was a prophet. According to I Chronicles 29:29, Nathan and Gad wrote the history of David. So it may be possible that at least part of I and II Samuel was written by this prophet Nathan and by the prophet Gad, men who were excellent prophets. It is good to see that here were a priest, and a warrior, and a prophet; and out of all the great armies and all the great ministries that had stood by David, these three men were notable among those who were omitted by Adonijah. Adonijah was a rash young man, and he forgot that David was king because he had many men who could fulfill various aspects of his kingdom.
In trying to understand authority and understand how a kingdom can work—the Kingdom of God in particular—you must understand that authority is centralized. Authority in the Kingdom of God is never at its beginnings apportioned. The various denominational forms of Congregational church government are strictly unscriptural. It is not for the congregation to “elect” an elder or to “elect” a pastor. The choice does not originate with the congregation; it originates with God. In every case where there is to be anything that is scriptural, there should be a direct revelation from God as to the individual who is to fill a certain place. Then that individual who has authority focused upon him will find that he will retain it until such a time as the people under his ministry or under his oversight have reached a place of responsibility; and then comes the dispersing of authority. Then comes the delegation and the decentralization of authority.
Probably Benaiah was a greater warrior than David, yet David was the general to start with. Probably Nathan was a greater prophet than David, yet was not David the prophet it started with? Probably Zadok the priest was a far greater man to receive revelations from God with the Urim and the Thummin than was David (Exodus 28:30); but David also inquired of God as a prophet and made sacrifices to the Lord, and God revealed things to him (I Samuel 23:2, 9–12; II Samuel 5:19–25; 6:17–18). Do you understand this? David was excelled by any one of the specialists who came up under him, yet he himself was king. He was king from the beginning, but from then the authority was dispersed down.
This man Adonijah, who wanted to be king, forgot something. He forgot that the kingdom involved more than a crown sitting on his head. The kingdom involved many aspects of service and ministry to the people, and he could not overlook these various men whom God had brought into the kingdom. If he overlooked them, he would not be king. You can see why God was not in his being king.
Joab, whom Adonijah consulted, was a sly opportunist from way back. He was the one who had slain Abner and Amasa, the two greatest generals that David had ever seen come up. This was something that was not to be (II Samuel 3:27, 37–38; 19:13; 20:9–10). Abiathar the priest was misguided. He did not have the real Word from the Lord on this issue, because both Nathan the prophet and David himself had the Word from God that Solomon was to be the one to succeed David. But ambition does some strange things; and Adonijah was personally ambitious, so he set about to build the kingdom.
I am fascinated with this, because all of it has a great bearing on the New Testament church. In the New Testament church, I see something else coming forth. I see that God is not raising up people just so that we will again have the old-order pastor. In the future days, as the will of the Lord unfolds, suppose that God were in my leaving the churches that I have been associated with? Suppose I moved into another area of ministry? Then what should be the future course of this church? If you tried to find some strong ministry to take over, you would destroy all the ministries that are coming up. Every one of the ministries that I am nurturing are being brought forth to fulfill a special purpose. In their particular emphasis of a certain ministry that God wants of them, I am believing that they will rise far higher than I have in a ministry in that specific area. Finally we will have many men moving in God, each one covering his special phase of ministry.
In the days of David, when some exploit was to be done, they called on Benaiah; he could do it. When they wanted someone to seek the face of the Lord, they went to Zadok, the priest. When they wanted to get another Word of a prophet, they went to Nathan. Each one—warrior, priest, and prophet—was very specialized in his way. They were wonderful men. I think the day will come in which we will recognize specialized ministries as commissions from God. The Body is going to require it.
Many denominational churches now have a business administrator. The pastors say that they have so many business details to take care of in the average church that they cannot give any attention to pastoring. So they get a business manager, and he runs the church. Are you thinking, “Oh, how terrible; how commercial”? I don’t think so. Both in the New Testament church and in the Old Testament kingdom, they followed a similar pattern; when they needed a job done, they picked a man to do it. Didn’t the apostles say, “Pick out seven men who can take care of waiting on tables, and we will give ourselves to the Word of God and prayer. Let these men who are anointed to wait on the tables wait on tables. We will wait on the Word of God and minister the Word of God” (Acts 6:1–6). The overall result was very successful. Great companies of priests and believers were added to the Church because the disciples could give themselves to the ministry of the Word.
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Acts 6:7, ASV.
I think that we have held ourselves back in the past by not having a far more extensive distribution of the duties and the ministries of the churches. I believe that we would be farther ahead if I could have devoted more of my time to waiting on the messages and the teaching. From the beginning we realized that the churches could not progress without apostolic revelation and teaching. It has to come in order to lead you on, and to see the ministries develop. It has always been more important that I take care of that than anything else.
It is also important that we see the right people raised up, that each one can go ahead in the area where God wants him to function. This is not easy to do. You cannot just lightly say, “I’ll do it.” You have to find the mind of the Lord in every matter. As we fast and pray, let us believe that this will be the time of seeing more and more ministries commissioned and launched. That has been the trend: more and more there is a dispersal of authority and responsibility.
The day will come when we will have contact with so many missionaries and ministers who have gone out from this place that it will be a tremendous task just to keep in touch with them. Prayer groups will have to be raised up that will pray day and night. People will have to be raised up to take care of other departments and other duties. There will have to be the schooling and the training of elders and ministries. When elders and ministries come from afar and want help, there will have to be a systematic way in which we bring them in, take care of them, teach them, train them and minister to them, and then send them forth again—all of it done without the idea of building a denomination or a Babylonian organization in any way. It will be done to establish a capable New Testament church that can minister and meet every need and every demand that is laid upon it. Do you believe that God has a great place like this for us to fulfill? Let us be much in prayer about it.
And Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside Enrogel, and he called all his brethren, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servants: but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not. Then Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not? Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son Solomon. I Kings 1:9–12, ASV.
Why was Nathan saying this—“that you may save your life, and the life of your son Solomon”? When Bathsheba took the request to King David, she said, Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders (the margin reads, “sinners”). Verse 21.
Why would they be counted sinners? You remember that while Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, she and David committed adultery. One night David could not sleep, and while he was walking on the roof, he saw Bathsheba taking a bath. He lusted after her and committed adultery with her. When he realized that she was pregnant with his child, David plotted to have Uriah the Hittite killed. Then he married Bathsheba. But the thing displeased God; and so when the child was born, God brought judgment upon it and the child died (II Samuel 11; 12:15–18).
Most people are very unforgiving and unforgetting, and people were probably still throwing David’s sin up to him. However, God had not only forgiven him, but He had also cleansed their marriage; and the rest of the issue of that marriage came forth under His blessing. Solomon was the next son born to Bathsheba (II Samuel 12:24). The marriage, then, was a thing that God had purified.
God forgives, and the grace of God that forgives and cleanses is beyond what human beings can understand. Our “forgetters” are not as good as God’s. God has a forgetter, but we do not have a good forgetter. God forgets our trespasses. He remembers them against us no more forever (Jeremiah 31:34). He buries them in the sea of forgetfulness (Micah 7:19). God has a capacity to blot out from His mind what He chooses to be blotted out.
It is very interesting to notice that under the discernment of the Holy Spirit I have never yet seen the Holy Spirit bring up one sin that was under the blood of Christ.
Sometimes people are fearful. They say, “I’m afraid. I repented of the sin, but I’m afraid that when I stand up before the brethren they will discern that I have done such and so.” They will never discern it if you have repented of it.
If you repented of your sin and God forgave you, it is blotted out. It may be in your mind, but it is blocked from the mind of the Spirit, and it is blocked from God’s records because it has ceased to exist. It is blotted out forever (Isaiah 43:25). God had forgiven David, and God had forgiven the sin; He had cleansed Bathsheba and David. Yet she said, “We will be counted offenders. We will be counted sinners in the eyes of the people.”
It is true, people do not forget. They will never forget. They will keep throwing up to you every last mistake you have ever made.
It is always a sign of a lack of love between a husband and wife when they keep throwing up past mistakes to one another. Have you ever been around a married couple when they begin to squabble? Always stay out of it if you want to survive; never take part. When they begin to fuss, you can tell the depth of their love by the way they bring up offenses to one another out of the past.
For when a thing is forgiven, it should be forgotten.
One of the greatest problems a Christian has is this perfect forgiveness. You should look to God that it be a real operation of the grace of God in your heart. When someone transgresses against you and you forgive him, really forgive him. Forgive him until it is a complete and a perfect forgiveness, and go on from there. God will help you.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14–15, ASV.
You must forgive as God forgives. God does not forgive and leave you in your guilt; He forgives only by removing the sin from you. So when He removes transgression, He forgives. When somebody comes to you and says, “I’m sorry,” and you see that he is not sorry, ask him, “Well now, do you want me to forgive you?”
“Yes, I want you to forgive me.”
“Then you must really repent. We’ll get down and pray together that this thing be gone.”
Forgiveness must see restoration. Real forgiveness must see the restoration of the believer to the Lord as well as to yourself.
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. I John 1:7a, ASV.
If your brother has sinned against you, there can be no fellowship restored between you and him until he is restored to the Lord. If that brother is not restored to the Lord, his fellowship with you will not be restored either.
David called for some of the great leaders who had been with him, and told them to call for his mule and have Solomon ride upon it (I Kings 1:33, 38). If you remember, this was similar to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when people cried praises to the King (Matthew 21:1–9). Why a king rode upon a mule, I do not know. It seemed to be the mark or sign of his royalty, of the fact that he had been anointed. So Solomon rode on the mule, and then they blew the trumpet and anointed him to be king in David’s place.
So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the Tent, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, Long live king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them. I Kings 1:38–40, ASV.
The chapter continues, telling that the city was filled with the uproar of all the joy. Meanwhile Adonijah and his company were having a feast, celebrating because he was going to be king. When they heard the commotion, they went to see what was taking place and learned that Solomon had been made king. They all dispersed quickly, because they did not want to be caught in that dining hall if Solomon was really the king. They thought he would kill them all. Then Adonijah pleaded with Solomon to spare his life. Solomon said that until something worthy of death was found in him, he would be allowed to live (I Kings 1:40–53). Later Adonijah used another subtle trick by which he tried to obtain position in the kingdom. When Solomon heard of it, he had Adonijah killed (I Kings 2:13–25).
Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I am going the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man; and keep the charge of Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself; that Jehovah may establish his word which he spake concerning me. I Kings 2:1–4a, ASV.
David gave Solomon a charge to be a man. In many ways, Solomon was as different from David as anyone could possibly be. Solomon never tried to emulate his father. He was a different personality, a different character. While David attained a kingdom through violence, through being a warrior and battling his way into it, Solomon approached it through wisdom, through alliances, and many other ways. Both men were anointed of God. Both men functioned according to the gift that God gave them and in the way that He anointed them to do it.
One man moves in one way, the next man moves in another. The operations of the Spirit are diverse in different individuals according to the different ministries that God gives (I Corinthians 12:4–7). It was a good thing that Solomon did not try to be a David. It was also a good thing that David did not try to be a Saul. Saul had slain his thousands, but when he tried to hang his armor on David, it weighed him down. Little David peeked out from under the big helmet and said, “I can’t use these; I haven’t proved them. I don’t know how to use them.” Then he took his slingshot and went out and felled Goliath (I Samuel 17:38–40, 50). David was wise enough not to try to imitate his predecessor. But one thing was common to all of them: each had the courage to be a man.
The Word says: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. I Corinthians 16:13, KJV.
The longer I live, the more persuaded I am that real men are scarce. I am not speaking of the type of humanity that runs around in pants and calls themselves men; I mean real men with courage to be men. We are living in a time of frustration until people seem to be falling apart.
We need to do something to counteract this. Be men! Stand up. Have the courage to be different. Have the courage to be a New Testament church. Have the courage to walk with God without being an obnoxious religious fanatic. A person who stands on a street corner screaming at everyone that they are going to hell is only turning people away from the call of the Gospel. A lot of those people with broken hearts are just waiting for the tender mercies of the Gospel to win them; but instead, many of them are being turned away from the Lord. Can’t there be a way of wisdom whereby we should be ready to give an answer to any man that asks? (I Peter 3:15.) Can’t we have a holiness that is wholesome and winsome?
Don’t you think that there is even more reason for us to obey the charge of King David when he told Solomon, “Be a man! Be courageous. Be strong. Walk right. Walk according to the integrity and the commandments that the Lord has given you. Don’t fail.” Anyone can whine and quit and die. When God starts putting us through a wilderness, through a test, through a trial, it would be much easier to leave the dealings of God and go to some church where little more is required than to attend service on Sunday. That does not involve too much—no true spiritual goals are set before you. No work of the cross is set before you. No great ministry and a dying out to self is set before you. Consequently, not too many people will want to stay in this church. This is a place where people want to be courageous. They want to be strong, to be real men and women that serve God.
Whatever you do, show long-suffering and love to one another. I know what the Lord is doing. He gives you a Word; and after He gives you a Word, He deals with you severely to see if you will stand on that Word. And if you do not cling to that Word, He throws you into the middle of a lake and you will have to cling to the Word or drown.
God will put you through the dealings that will make His men and women out of you. That is what He is doing. The reason that you grow is because God brings a lot of adversities to your life. A man who has never had adversity, who has never met resistance, is a man who has never grown and developed.
A simple principle involved in the training of the greatest athletes is the principle of weight resistance. In order to strengthen a muscle they use weights and exercise the muscle until they can hardly move it anymore. Then when the muscle gets accustomed to that weight, they add a little more: thus they keep their body moving to its fullest capacity. God is applying the same principle. He is going to bring you to a place where you will say, “I just can’t get anything more done. I can’t get all of this work done that God wants me to do.” Fine; and about the time you have waded through that pile of work, there will be a bigger pile of work; because the Lord is creating a people who will be zealous of good works (Titus 2:11–14). He is going to create a people who will be ready to do the will of God (Ephesians 2:10).
It is not an easy way that is set before us, but it is certainly a spiritually healthy way—a way to be strong, to be men, to be courageous, to minister to one another in love and faith. Stay with the battle. Don’t desert. Under no consideration back off from it, because these dealings of God will bring you into the strength of God (Psalm 28:7–9; 84:5–7). You will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18). Be encouraged to press on!
For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works. Titus 2:11–14, ASV.
God evaluates a man by his heart, not his personality.
True humility must embrace faith to believe that our humble person will not limit God in what He can accomplish through us.
Pride says, “I can”; humble faith says, “God can through me.
True disciples have always experienced the Master’s discipline.