Two Houses Eternal and Temporal

Introduction

Open your Bible this evening to 1 Kings Chapter 9. We are going to be in verse 1-9 this evening. Kings 9:1-9

Last time God proclaimed though David the light and grace through the good king.

This time we will see God’s promises of destruction on the evil King and once again get a change to see how all of God promises are in Christ.

Lets Read 1 Kings 9:1-9

1 Kings 9:1–9 ESV

1 As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’ ”

May God Bless the reading of His Holy and Infallible Word

Lets Pray

Transition

We heard to pronunciations in this text we read. First, God said, this is my house and my name will be there forever, and than God’ said, if you do not walk in my status I will destroy his house. Both statements are true. One is the eternal house, the house that is God’s alone and filled with God’s redeemed, with Christ the superior ruler. It is the house the Abraham was looking for when he left UR, house that Jesus is the cornerstone of, the Jerusalem that is above as Paul put it. The other house is earthly and is only a shadow of the eternal house it has passed away.

Body

Main Body Division 1

Text

1 Kings 9:1–3 ESV

1 As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

Exposition

"As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.”

Exposition

What happened at Gibeon

“1 Kings 3:1–15”

Solomon asked for wisdom

Verse 3 and 4 “Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. (1 Ki 3:3–4, ESV)

A little bit off at the start is a lot off at the end.

The angles of the cornerstone.

The house is finished

Application

The 1689 Chapter 22, article 1. “The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all; is just, good and does good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart and all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.”[1]

"I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me.”

Exposition

Solomon’s plea was to have God’s name reverenced in the house

The prayer is 1 Kings 8:22–53

No place can contain you

Everyone sins

When we repent please be ready to forgive us.

Application

The right view of God and the right view of man.

The problem Ecclesiastes presents

The idea that believe and repentance is what God desires is not a new idea.

Transition

What does God do in response to the prayer?

“I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time”

Exposition

consecrated, made holy.

Set apart

Putting name forever, for all time.

Emphatically stated

Application

God’s has chosen for his glory

Transition

The Lord says he name is in Jerusalem for ever, yet, in the next 6 verse there is a condition. Lets look at verse 4 and 5.

Main Body Division 2

Text

1 Kings 9:4–5 ESV

4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

Exposition

"And as for you, If you will… ”

Exposition

If you will walk is a conditional convenient. So the first part, God say, I will put my name in there forever, no condition. Now there is a condition.

Covenant of works/Covenant of grace.

Application

If we are not under the covenant of work how do we apply this to ourselves. Notice the condition here is “all I have commanded you”

Like the 1698 said, “the acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped […] any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.”

We don’t do this to receive blessings, as we are members of the Covenant of grace. We do this because we are bless.

Solomon was worshiping God in chapter 3 but he was not doing as God had proscribed.

If you worshiping God where they are worship Baal how long before you stop worshiping God and start worshiping Baal.

We see an example of this, Church membership and attendance.

Transition

If you will

“I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel”

Exposition

If you will keep, your royal throne over Israel forever

As i promised David, Gd promise to David was not dependent on Solomon.

God promise to Solomon to “My eyes and my heart will be there for all time”

All of God’s promises find their yes and Amen in Jesus.

Application

All the unconditional promises in the old testament are contingent on, Christ and abut Christ.

So God can say on one hand, I will do this to David, because in Christ he will, and on the other hand, if you will to Solomon.

Transition

The cutting off of physically Israel is promised and does happen but God Israel, is never cut off nor is their king a failure. Lets take a look at verses 6-9.

Main Body Division 3

Text

1 Kings 9:6–9 ESV

6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’ ”

Exposition

" if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all

Exposition

The promises here are conditional and Solomon does not meet the criterion.

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. (1 Ki 11:1–8, ESV)

God will keep his promises to David and his statement the house will be forever in his sight, but it his house that he will keep and his king Jesus the son of David that will .

Application

The same application for us here as before,

If you worshiping God how they are worship Baal how long before you stop worshiping God and start worshiping Baal.

Be not quality yoked with unbelievers

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Co 6:14–18, ESV)

Applies to marriage

Business

Friendships

Don’t worship God how they worship Baal.

This is the house God is building

We are not living stones being built up as Peter told us, we are the house of the living God and he has come to us though Jesus Christ,

So go out of the world, be a holy Priesthood, be set apart, rendering holy familial fear in scripture regulated worship to our Lord.

Transition/Conclusion

Make no mistake Brothers and sisters, there is no half way here. There are no half way Christians. The Christian will grow in love for Christ and in hatred for sin. They will not be be saved but because they are saved. They are members of the vine and are trimmed and pruned by the great vine dresser. They will grow because he has destined them to do so.

No fruit no salvation.

The fruit will not be always as fast or as easy as we would like it to be, some time the only fruit we can see is the bitter sorrow over sin. But that is fruit and it will grow.

To paraphrase John Newton “I think God that though I am not who I should be, and I am not who I want to be, I am not who used to be”

Benediction

2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV

16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

References

[1] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2489.

Bibliography

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.